Author Topic: Continuing their downgrading of contributor earnings, only $4 for each freebie (Read 3506 times)

Jo Ann Snover · « **on:** May 19, 2025, 08:50 »

Just received email about nominations for the free collection - $4 for one year or $10 in perpetuity

"How much do I get paid for each image? 
You have the opportunity to renew your files for a 1-year term or for perpetual use.

One-year term: For each selected file included in the free collection, you’ll receive an upfront payment of USD 4, for the one-year term.
Perpetual Use: For each selected file included in the free collection, you’ll receive an upfront payment of USD 10, for perpetual use."

I don't and won't participate in the free collection, but for those who do, cutting the annual payment seems like a low blow to me

stoker2014 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 19, 2025, 08:56 »

Will they pay $10 per image every year?
And what about video?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #2 on:** May 19, 2025, 08:59 »

Quote from: stoker2014 on May 19, 2025, 08:56

Will they pay $10 per image every year?
And what about video?

Perpetual = forever. One payment and that's it.

"Perpetual term: If any of your opted-in assets get selected, they will be added to the free collection for perpetual use. Once in the free collection, those assets won’t earn any additional royalties (since you will already have received the one-time payment per asset). The perpetual term and one-time payment will grant Adobe Stock the ability to keep the asset in the Free Collection indefinitely without subsequent payments."

Illustrations and videos are on a different schedule

mike123 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 19, 2025, 09:00 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on May 19, 2025, 08:50

I don't and won't participate in the free collection, but for those who do, cutting the annual payment seems like a low blow to me

Well, maybe people who give their content away for free, deserve this.
Adobe pre-selects content that already sold in the past, so I never got the point of contributors giving it away for free.

yuriy · « **Reply #4 on:** May 19, 2025, 09:23 »

Quote from: mike123 on May 19, 2025, 09:00

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on May 19, 2025, 08:50
I don't and won't participate in the free collection, but for those who do, cutting the annual payment seems like a low blow to me

Well, maybe people who give their content away for free, deserve this.
Adobe pre-selects content that already sold in the past, so I never got the point of contributors giving it away for free.

the majority of the images selected have sold very few times (i think the criteria is 4 or fewer sales in the last year). with current trends, at least for me, most of the images have little to no chance of earning $10 total ever. i'm fine "giving away" a few images for $10 while i can still earn something for them. they will only accept 10% or less of the nominated images so it won't be a huge loss and in many cases i have other similar images that will still be in my port available for sale. i won't nominate images i think have better earning potential or are better earners on other sites.

mike123 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 19, 2025, 09:55 »

Quote from: yuriy on May 19, 2025, 09:23

the majority of the images selected have sold very few times (i think the criteria is 4 or fewer sales in the last year). with current trends, at least for me, most of the images have little to no chance of earning $10 total ever. i'm fine "giving away" a few images for $10 while i can still earn something for them. they will only accept 10% or less of the nominated images so it won't be a huge loss and in many cases i have other similar images that will still be in my port available for sale. i won't nominate images i think have better earning potential or are better earners on other sites.

If you got similar images to the one you give away for free, why would anybody pay for your similars instead of taking the free one?

yuriy · « **Reply #6 on:** May 19, 2025, 10:02 »

fair point, i guess it depends on whether the free one fits their needs. the way i see it, it won't be a lot of images and it won't be much of what i consider my best so i don't mind participating.

tuanbik · « **Reply #7 on:** May 19, 2025, 10:09 »

it seems the program is only for pictures not videos. i got an email with 31 contents

MadPhotos · « **Reply #8 on:** May 19, 2025, 10:23 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on May 19, 2025, 08:50

Just received email about nominations for the free collection - $4 for one year or $10 in perpetuity

"How much do I get paid for each image? 
You have the opportunity to renew your files for a 1-year term or for perpetual use.

One-year term: For each selected file included in the free collection, you’ll receive an upfront payment of USD 4, for the one-year term.
Perpetual Use: For each selected file included in the free collection, you’ll receive an upfront payment of USD 10, for perpetual use."

I don't and won't participate in the free collection, but for those who do, cutting the annual payment seems like a low blow to me

Quantity lowers demand and Ai helped to speed it up. Microstock won't exist in few years. Ppl flood servers with AI generations and cost of infrastructure growing inflation etc. Adobe is here to make money for them not to make money for us. Personaly I will opt in as I will take as much money I can now, as it's posible that next year I won't have portfolio here anymore. Look at Shutterstock Stock market, market decided that there is no need or demand for microstock already. Adobe stock price is held by their software Subscription and matter of time microstock infrastructure cost will be too high to keep around. I realy don't care at this point about photos that made money for me since 2017 time to replace them with new and better anyway. I'm happier seeing my photos on bilbords in local stores, newspapers or on TV used as background... Given away for free or paid it's better than keep them forgotten because economy and industry isn't as used to be. But that's me... Sorry for my broken engilish it have to hurt to read 😂

MadPhotos · « **Reply #9 on:** May 19, 2025, 10:26 »

Quote from: tuanbik on May 19, 2025, 10:09

it seems the program is only for pictures not videos. i got an email with 31 contents

They usually y take from me few hundereds from couple thousends of nominated... 31 nomination I would not expect they take much if any. Not even sure if those picks are done by Hume or Ai at this point.

apervec · « **Reply #10 on:** May 19, 2025, 11:05 »

Is there any way to see the files they have selected for inclusion?

PigsInSpace · « **Reply #11 on:** May 19, 2025, 11:25 »

Was it $4 for the year last time around? I honestly don’t remember.

pancaketom · « **Reply #12 on:** May 19, 2025, 11:30 »

Quote from: apervec on May 19, 2025, 11:05

Is there any way to see the files they have selected for inclusion?

click the box "eligible for free collection" on the portfolio page

https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/portfolio?eligible_for_free_state=only&limit=100&page=1&sort_by=download_desc

I see we get 20% less for nominated files, but I don't see Adobe software prices dropping 20%.

yuriy · « **Reply #13 on:** May 19, 2025, 11:58 »

Quote from: PigsInSpace on May 19, 2025, 11:25

Was it $4 for the year last time around? I honestly don’t remember.

used to be $5 and there wasn't a "perpetual" option

stocky · « **Reply #14 on:** May 19, 2025, 11:59 »

I'll just click $4 Annual. $10 Perpetual would be crazy to opt into.

f8 · « **Reply #15 on:** May 19, 2025, 12:08 »

I wouldn't even accept $4 rate for the annual freebie on all the "quality issue" rejections I get. Who in their right mind would give their work away for $4. Seriously, who is that desperate to give their work away? And we wonder why the industry is in such decline.

stocky · « **Reply #16 on:** May 19, 2025, 12:39 »

Quote from: f8 on May 19, 2025, 12:08

I wouldn't even accept $4 rate for the annual freebie on all the "quality issue" rejections I get. Who in their right mind would give their work away for $4. Seriously, who is that desperate to give their work away? And we wonder why the industry is in such decline.

Not giving away, getting $4 per image. Drives customers to the site. The images selected are not best sellers. And does increase sales overall.

MPfoto71 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 19, 2025, 12:53 »

This year the FreeCollection provision has been reduced by 20% - I'm really looking forward to the offer for videos

But all in all it doesn't matter anyway - last year I had 990 nominations (only photos, I guess they don't want AI images) of which 24 were accepted, so a 2.4% acceptance rate.
This year 968 are nominated so I can probably count on 23 or 24 theoretical acceptances - so it almost doesn't matter that it should be 20% less $ per picture.

If we now combine this with the current catastrophic reviews, we can probably expect that this will not develop positively

zeljkok · « **Reply #18 on:** May 19, 2025, 12:57 »

Everybody will make their own decision on this one. For me, I won't nominate anything perpetually
Last yr I did a test; took couple of images out of 12 month free period and monitored progress - none made more than offered $5 since then

There should be an easy way to track earnings per asset for any given period of time, incl. lifetime. Something like SS has. So if you have photo uploaded very long time ago that made less than $10, it could be candidate for perpetual freebie.

f8 · « **Reply #19 on:** May 19, 2025, 13:08 »

Quote from: stocky on May 19, 2025, 12:39

Quote from: f8 on May 19, 2025, 12:08
I wouldn't even accept $4 rate for the annual freebie on all the "quality issue" rejections I get. Who in their right mind would give their work away for $4. Seriously, who is that desperate to give their work away? And we wonder why the industry is in such decline.

Not giving away, getting $4 per image. Drives customers to the site. The images selected are not best sellers. And does increase sales overall.

$4 is giving it away. Ask yourself how much money you have invested in equipment, programs, bills, electricity, internet, then add on the time to go and shoot anything, then add the time for post production. For a pathetic $4 dollars you are driving the customers to their site, not yours. A lot of my content sells on other sites and I see absolutely no reason I should subsidize Adobe to my financial detriment. $4 dollars is a total kick in the noids.

Shuttershock · « **Reply #20 on:** May 19, 2025, 13:21 »

If I knew they would accept all 2000 nominated for perpetual then I’d jump at it. Can restock the images no problem, easy work…..in reality though they usually only accept 10% ish from my experience so probably stick to annual only……though food for thought, if you do the annual option every year, isn’t this the same as choosing perpetual…….in a way!

MadPhotos · « **Reply #21 on:** May 19, 2025, 13:27 »

Quote from: Shuttershock on May 19, 2025, 13:21

If I knew they would accept all 2000 nominated for perpetual then I’d jump at it. Can restock the images no problem, easy work…..in reality though they usually only accept 10% ish from my experience so probably stick to annual only……though food for thought, if you do the annual option every year, isn’t this the same as choosing perpetual…….in a way!

Restock all that they take is no problem but 10% you won't take a deal? Why don't take money and ones that they take don't sell anyway plus you still sell them on other sites. Ppl here realy confused with money...

Shuttershock · « **Reply #22 on:** May 19, 2025, 13:43 »

Dam it, just put all 2000 for annual and perpetual, life’s too short! I’m more interested in how many they choose rather than the money. I deselected any with over 4 sales though……they sure nominated images with more than 4 sales, a few of mine had nearly 100 sales so best check before accepting

Lev · « **Reply #23 on:** May 19, 2025, 13:49 »

From FAQ:

1. Assets in the free collection may also be used by Adobe in templates and other design assets within Adobe applications, allowing Adobe’s customers to discover and use the features of our applications. For example, Adobe could combine an asset from the free collection with text and additional design elements to create a template for use in one of the Adobe apps.

2. Content in the free collection can be offered by Adobe to customers for free or for a fee (e.g., as part of a subscription or enterprise contract).

So it's not a perpetual license to distribute for free, it's a perpetual license to distribute any way Adobe wants. Not exactly "Perpetual Free Collection" TBH.

Injustice for all · « **Reply #24 on:** May 19, 2025, 14:22 »

Quote from: stoker2014 on May 19, 2025, 08:56

Will they pay $10 per image every year?
And what about video?

video October probably with payment in November,and September Firefly bonus...always probably!

for this round i think i will select almost all the content with less than 5 sales for a year,and i will also make a small selection of perpetuals.

I won't select again the content that's coming out of the free collection now,because at least as far as I'm concerned,the point of the free collection is also to get interactions for old content that otherwise stagnates.

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Author Topic: Continuing their downgrading of contributor earnings, only $4 for each freebie (Read 3506 times)

Jo Ann Snover

stoker2014

Jo Ann Snover

mike123

yuriy

mike123

yuriy

tuanbik

MadPhotos

MadPhotos

apervec

PigsInSpace

pancaketom

yuriy

stocky

f8

stocky

MPfoto71

zeljkok

f8

Shuttershock

MadPhotos

Shuttershock

Lev

Injustice for all

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