I just wish the compensation for this work would be fair again.

It isn't anymore. 

I have nothing else to add.

You should read Byung Chul Han ... companies (and also microstock platforms) make us compete against each other and we think that failure or success is only our fault.

And so they achieved their success. Platforms like Getty take 85% and we are left with 15% with which we have to pay taxes, equipment, models and travel ... and then I read contributors who are very happy about all this.

Positive thinking is a perfect rip-off of neocapitalism, says the Korean philosopher.

"Divide et impera" the Romans used to say and the platforms are doing it perfectly.

The forum is full of protests and incontrovertible data, and not complaints.

Quote from: Bauman on March 04, 2025, 08:31

Adobe Stock is the only one growing for me too, but it is not enough to compensate for the losses I have on all the others.

Adobe's performance is not enough to cover all the other agencies in sharp decline

But according to what you write you also did not upload much to Adobe, so it is impossible for them to cover the losses on SS.

But you can control what you do and certainly uploading more than 400 files a year if you want to seriously grow your income, should not be a problem for someone doing stock full time.

Cobalt, maybe you missed part of my message #1535

I'll write it again for you here:


Since spring 2024, I started uploading 100 photos a month, 1200 a year. I think that's my limit. I don't think I can do better in my niche while maintaining good quality. I don't think I can physically do better than that.

With the new content I'm increasing my earnings by $30 every month. That's not bad. After 10 months and 1000 new photos, these last ones brought me 300$ in February. Unfortunately, the old ones (about 5,000 images) are losing more than 300$ a month, and this is making me realize that this business is becoming unsustainable.

Probably now, my break-even point is even higher than 1200 images a year.

We'll see what happens after 2 years of 100 uploads per month.

Remember: travel and landscape photography are different from other genres.

It takes money and time (to travel) much more than in lifestyle or food.

I don't know many portfolios with 50k of landscapes. If there are, they have a lot of duplicates and this doesn't raise the earnings much because each similar photograph competes with the others.


I'm not interested in doing other genres. I don't like them, I would have to buy more equipment, set up a studio that I don't have... In my life I don't just think about money, but also about doing a job I like.

I'm highly specialized in one genre. Maybe I'll start doing workshops, even if I don't like it very much. 

I know many people who do stock as a full time job. With still increasing income. So yes, it is absolutely possible.

From what you are writing it sounds like you are absolutely refusing to move beyond what has worked for you in the past.

If you are doing stock full time, you can easily do something else instead of nature and landscape.

Show me someone who has been "doing microstock" for more than 8/10 years and has never lost any income.

Give me their business name and show me their earnings over time.

Maybe 5% is improving, but 95% is losing. If you analyze a trend you should not take 5%, but the majority.

I occasionally follow many who publish their earnings, and none of them have improved their condition in recent years.

Your vision is distorted for me because you started now, but you are still very far from my earnings and you still don't know how it will end.

I can still do stock full-time. My complaint is for the negative trend that this business is taking and for a job that is becoming a sort of slavery.

I don't do food, lifestyle or anything else because I don't like it and because my skills are in travel. My images are also used for other jobs parallel to stock (prints, premium content licenses ...).

Today if you don't specialize, you don't get very far ... those who do everything do nothing.

My old camera images created in 2008-2012 have increasing sales on Adobe.

Because you are uploading images again (after years), clients are discovering your portfolio, and maybe the algorithm is bringing your content a little higher in search.

But if you have always uploaded consistently like me and have updated statistics of over 15 years of work, you will see that the earnings after the second year are a curve that slowly goes down ...

Some photos can go up, but it is an exception. The important thing to look at is the general trend.

Your 2024 images will have their "best earnings year" in 2025, and from 2026, they will start a slow and constant decline.

And if it takes 500 good useful videos uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income then it will take 5000 good useful images uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income. It's even worse for images with more competition from ai, easy of copycats, much more saturation. So with that in mind, I'd say within the next year or two, you're going to need upwards of 10000 good useful images uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income. Keep rowing men!       

It is very likely that 5000 per month will be needed, especially AI images, since today their production rate is 10 times that of photographic images (look for Jo Ann's post) because they are infinitely easier to make and copy. No need to travel, look for models, set up photo sets.

Adobe's servers will explode ... 

I wrote the comment above because many contributors focus on how much they earn with new images, but they forget how much they lose every year with the old ones.

Usually the earnings of an image or video grow until the second year and then start to decrease.

It is essential to understand the shelf life of your content.

After almost 20 years of analyzing my statistics I can say that the second year is ALWAYS the best. 25% of the total earnings of a content is made in the second year, then a slow decline begins.

For example, in 2014 I created 370 images that have earned me about $42,000 so far, in 2015 (the second year) with these images I earned $10,800 (their best year), in 2024, after 10 years, $600 ... a constant decline every year.

Today, 400 images in the second year earn about $2,000 ... 5 times less than in 2014. And my retouching skills have improved significantly.

For my quality and variety of images, I would need 2,000 a year, 5 times as many as in 2014. But keeping up that pace with the same quality and variety today is impossible. I can certainly make 2,000 or 5,000 images a year as Cobalt says, but to achieve this goal I have to send less attractive and more repetitive photos and this negatively affects earnings.

Actually just re-reading this and note 500 clips a month? Who in their right mind would bother just to see an increase in income? If this is indeed the situation today where 500 fresh clips a month is needed then it proves how sick this market has become now.

I agree with you.

If the norm is to make 500 videos a month, this is a sick business.

And in any case, they must be 500 good quality videos, they must be useful for customers and they must have different subjects. And you must do a bit of retouching and cropping, put good titles, descriptions and keywords.

I think a single producer can't create 500 videos a month following all these conditions.

I struggle to make 100 saleable, varied, and quality photos a month. Sure, taking 100 snapshots without retouching and uploading is very easy, but I think no one or almost no one will buy them from you.

I have known this business for many years, and unfortunately, it has changed a lot due to some factors:

- Increased competition
- Agencies pay lower percentages on earnings
- Open to all amateurs, with 90% of low-quality production, I would say "junk images" that are in huge quantity and limit visibility even to the best content.
- Free image archives (Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels ...) and websites with unlimited downloads (Envato Elements)
- The arrival of AI and the possibility for customers to make their own content.

In 2010, in just two years, I had reached a level of earnings good for living in a European country at that time (>30000$), uploading 400 images per year of very high quality.

I maintained this production pace for 10 years, and my earnings were always constant. Some years I even uploaded less than 400 images.

From 2020 onwards, things started to change for the reasons mentioned above.

To continue this job, we need a break-even point.

This break-even point is the number of contents produced in a year that generates enough earnings to compensate for what the old contents lose every year. (I hope I explained myself and that the translation did a good job).

For many years, mine was 400 images.

For those with lower quality or less saleable images, it could have been 1000 or 2000 images a year.

Since spring 2024, I started uploading 100 photos a month, 1200 a year. I think that's my limit. I don't think I can do better in my niche while maintaining good quality. I don't think I can physically do better than that.

With the new contents I'm increasing my earnings by $30 every month. That's not bad. After 10 months and 1000 new photos, these last ones brought me 300$ in February. Unfortunately, the old ones (about 5,000 images) are losing more than 300$ a month, and this is making me realize that this business is becoming unsustainable.

Probably now my break-even point is even higher than 1200 images a year

I will see in a year how it goes, but the feeling is that it has become a game for amateurs, to buy some equipment every year and have some dinners. Or for contributors from poor countries.

It is no longer a place for professionals.

(Sorry for any errors in the automatic translation  )

February horrible. 

Worst earnings since 2013 on SS.

Downloads decreased only 5% from Feb 2024 and increased from Jan 2025 (+3%), but RPD is a disgrace: $0.42. My worst ever.

No sales over $15 ... never happened.

The only good news is Adobe Stock. I have always stayed between 2500 and 3000 in the ranking ... and made one of my best earnings ever.

Unfortunately, this does not compensate for my losses on SS (which has always been by far my best agency and still is despite heavy losses) and other agencies.

After 15 years, I am very close to ending my experience as a full-time. 

It is becoming an unsustainable business.

There is no room for professionals in this industry anymore. It is becoming exclusively an amateur activity to buy some equipment and take a few trips.

I should increase uploads even more, but I can't. I have reached my physical limit. I am too tired and I get to the evening with little energy.

The slice of the cake that the agencies take is too big, we contributors are left with only the crumbs, * them! 

But are these removed files already present now in the "uploaded files not accepted" list, or will we find them starting from March 4th?

@Uncle Pete

I believe that all these numbers are useful to guide strategies.

Profit is a consequence of strategies.

I'll give you some examples.

I have always sold a lot on Shutterstock.

From my numbers I saw that Shutterstock's algorithm rewarded my very high quality photos. My best. With 10% of my photos (usually my best) I made 90% of my earnings.

So my strategy was: few photos, but they must be the very best.

I then made comparisons with the numbers of other contributors (these are similar numbers, useful for the example).

Me: 5,000 images $2000 on SS and $500 on AS
Others: 20,000 images $1000 on SS and $700 on AS

From here I see that Adobe Stock rewards quantity more and quality less. (Please note: this is for my portfolio compared to others in my niche)

Then I see that Shutterstock loses customers and Adobe gains them and I lose positions in the ranking.

So a year ago I changed my strategy, I increased the photos and worked a little less on retouching. My images have to be "good enough". And after a few months I'm getting my first results and my ranking (and my earnings on AS) has improved by 1500 positions.

The RPD can then be used to establish how many images you have to send per month to achieve your goal.

If my goal is $3000 per month I try to produce a set number of images each month based on the RPD. Every month I check how much the RPD of the images sent was in the last year or in the last 6 months.

Maybe you see me get angry if the RPD is not what I hoped for, because I had set the goal with a higher number. And this forces me to shoot more and work harder.

And this helps me to verify if a subject I photographed is better than another, to continue photographing it again or stop photographing it.

The more accurate the data analysis, the fewer mistakes you risk making.

Sorry for any mistakes, but it's Google Translate's fault 

Have to agree with the above.
My January SS wasn't too bad even with the levels reset (not as good as before but better than any Jan under the "new" system.

Feb im seeing the same download numbers but despite having levelled up, ALL the sales are tiny.  Im under half the RPD for last month.

Absolutely everything is a low value SOD or Sub.  I have "sold" 2 videos though.... at $0.25 each.

Only SS (photo, no video)

Jan 2025 RPD $0.57
Feb 2025 RPD $0.41 (up to today)

RPD 2024 $0.75
Best month Jun 2024 RPD $1.25
Worst month Feb 2024 RPD $0.45

February is going terribly for me too. But it happened last year too. It was the worst month of 2024.

Thank you very much Cobalt, very comprehensive information (but I will have to choose another software because I have a Windows PC).

Very kind

you don't need fancy gear and lenses, also not really complex software.

Just take 30-60 seconds per scene, ater choose around 20-30 seconds, remember to leave 2-5 seconds for entry or exit, or in case the customers wants to blend several clips together and needs some starting seconds.

remove audio, export in your favorite codec, I use h264, works for me.

Many thanks Cobalt, if I learn how to clean the sensor from dust without destroying it I will try. 

Or I will test with my iPhone 15 Plus or my old Sony A7RII ...

What software do you use to cut, remove audio, and export the file?