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Messages - cobalt
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26
« on: May 28, 2025, 01:34 »
You cannot delete your files from istock, or did I miss something?
I will keep uploading until I reach 6k clips and then I will see if I get more of these higher priced sales.
People keep telling me with around 12k clips you make 600-1200 on istock a month.
I might be selective though, there might be some content that only goes to agencies with better sales.
But I lots of simple daily life moments and food shots that can go anywhere.
Also hoping the merger brings more sales to istock.
27
« on: May 27, 2025, 12:21 »
Mat was very good at his job. I like people that are good at their job.
He is also a good person, not a company robot.
Adobe should have implemented upload limits as soon as the grift became visible. Thousands of people employing extended and fake family, churning out ai 24/7, even selling the surplus.
The biggest problem IMO
- they are not regular creators and don't use Adobe software.
Most of us have some kind of Adobe subscription, or registered Adobe software all our working lives.
These guys don't.
So personally, if this was my agency I would add a new rule - you need to be an adobe subscriber to become a contributor.
Maybe introduce a new 5 dollar firefly subscription as a base suggestion that also allows you to upload to the stock market.
I am usually against getting people to pay, but an up front 5 dollar payment, plus immediate ID verification could have made the grift a lot harder.
The Adobe business is renting software.
Most ai only uploaders don't use Adobe products or services.
So giving them preferrential treatment with 10k upload limits and pissing of the loyal creator community with crazy reviews is simply not a wise business decision.
28
« on: May 27, 2025, 01:47 »
Thank you for the stats.
For me it is around 63 cents for photos and something around 1.30 for video.
Perhaps the video average will go up if I have more videos and thus more chances for the occasional higher priced sale.
istock is by far the lowest seller for video. Don't understand why they make them so cheap.
29
« on: May 27, 2025, 01:45 »
How can I see what is my upload limit?
We can't. Which means we cannot plan our production in a professional way.
30
« on: May 27, 2025, 01:11 »
Where does it say that for 2024 we need 7k downloads for the full creative suite?
31
« on: May 27, 2025, 01:11 »
Mat Hayward was great. I dont think anything of the recent drama would have happened under his watch.
Perhaps that is the real reason he left. He saw changes coming that would hurt the creator community and he would not be able to defend that, so he moved on.
If that is what happened, I would expect a lot more pain to come.
It is very clear that whoever now makes such radical changes against the creative community has no understanding of the relationship between creative community and buyers.
Driving us away to istock, is not a clever business strategy.
Especially not if the merger happens, it will make istock/getty very attractive, for both creators and clients.
eta
According to linkedin he still works for Adobe
32
« on: May 26, 2025, 05:52 »
I am stuck at below 100 files a week.
I got an ai illustration accepted quickly, hope this works for a few more. Otherwise camera video it is.
I think you said 4 dollars was your rpd for video on istock?
While it is low for video it is much better than for photos.
eta
another ai video accepted after 21 days. I use kling 1.6 and only upsize to full hd, usually just 5 seconds that I extend to 5.5 or 6 sec.
i sometimes overlay it with real video of lights, sparkles, snow or rain effects.
not a video pro, still using final cut pro.
otherwise I am processing camera videos from the last 3 years.
33
« on: May 25, 2025, 17:13 »
They are actively driving creators to istock getty.
This is the Shutterstock strategy - look down on the creative community and turn away from them and somehow make yourself believe pissing off creators is good for business.
But they did FINALLY see the light and implemented upload limits.
Let us hope they also discard the roulette algo and go back to quality reviews from 9 weeks ago.
Otherwise, this is a make getty great again plan.
They have normal reviews, with the merger they will have a lot more sales and they do take up suggestions on their forums and have a nice community.
9 weeks ago I was happy at Adobe. It is amazing how fast things can change.
What else is drastically going wrong inside the company?
34
« on: May 21, 2025, 13:23 »
The ignore button, so useful
Where do I find that button? I can see it could come in handy.
Lower right of a post. next to report to moderator. You can reverse it anytime. Sometimes I do, then I usually put trolls back on ignore. Makes life a lot easier.
35
« on: May 21, 2025, 09:58 »
The ignore button, so useful
Please Adobe,
treat us like professionell business partners.
On the upload page a simple
Welcome Jasmin,
you have another 637 upload slots left this week.
Happy creating, lets make money together!
Here is the link to the latest trends and client requests
etc
Adobe is a software giant fortune 500 company.
Make it shine!
36
« on: May 20, 2025, 01:52 »
I only have 28 nominated files and I opted most of them for the 4 dollar plan and a small amount for the perpetual. Basically things I dont expect to sell anyway.
But renting for a year is a better option. Some files have been rented for 3 years now, so if it keeps getting nominated then 4 dollars a year is better than a one time payment of 10.
I see these files as a way to advertise my presence in the free collection and since my other files are featured below, I hope it leads to some add on sales.
37
« on: May 20, 2025, 01:42 »
50 dollars, no payout, but better than last month.
38
« on: May 19, 2025, 22:47 »
I am happy to see this.
I have been shouting why upload limits are like a magic trick to solve a lot of issues for two months now in all their channels.
They should hire us allor at least ask the community on a regular basis for suggestions.
We are not useless little creator ants. We are media designers who are running a business
They still need to go back to the quality reviews they had 8 weeks ago and get rid of the useless similar decline. That is anyway not capable of detecting similars and simply creates random rejections.
If uploads are limited to 1000 a week, I would still consider that to be extremely high.
The best would be dynamic reviews with the goal that all files get inspected in 3-7 days.
Ideally 48 hours.
Then you can create content for current trends or sudden jokes or memes or also political crisis, where demand abruptly goes up.
Reviews that take months have no value, we need predictable review times and we need reliable, logical quality reviews.
Fire the algo software and bring back the human reviewers. They were doing a great job.
39
« on: May 19, 2025, 04:58 »
Interesting. I think a lot of people are trying to mass upload ai video now.
But video overall is still tiny compared to images.
There is a first mover advantage for those doing ai video now, but for me there is enough to do with camera video.
40
« on: May 19, 2025, 02:09 »
I get 43 million videos overall.
We did some comparisons on discord and had different numbers. Then someone said there are variations depending on location and if you use a vpn the numbers change.
Of the 43 million 1.8 million were ai video in my serach. Other believe adobe already has 5 million ai video.
The rejectiongate algorithm roulette is not benefitting buyers and it certainly is not able to detect or include similars.
Someone who accidentally uploaded similars in his batch got both files accepted and I also found identifal similars in the newest uploads.
The biggest problem imo is that there is very bad kw adherence in a search by newest.
Especially if you search by newest, the results for the kw people are unbelievable, All kinds of things show up, isolated watermelons, perfume flask, animals, nature backgrounds and sometimes also people.
It gets better if you add the model released filter, but the original results are horrid.
If I worked on the getty sales team, I would use thatbtest search to convince people to buy from getty.
I am not worried by the lower getty results. I think all their energy is on getting the merger approved and how to structure the new entity.
Once that is completed, I am sure they will make a big push in marketing.
They will have a lot to offer, in editorial they will have a near monopoly.
Adobe is behaving, very very strange. Not just the weird algo, also the ghosting of the creative community who is also their clients by using Adobe software.
How is stressing out the creative world good for their business?
Ai software will never become subscribers to photoshop, only humans do that.
Having a lively creative community was always a big strength.
The only real solution for the massive scam that is coming in is upload limits.
The community has asked for that for two years.
But instead they raised the limit to 10k, have the queue managed by a random algo roulette and probably let go of the excellent review team they had before.
The lack of clear communication hints at a huge turmoil behind the scenes. And also a lack of oversight.
Who knows what else is currently going wrong at Adobe?
I have shifted my focus to video and will try to activate my istock port.
While the percentages are much lower, the rpd is around 63 cents, which is not that far from the 83 cents on Adobe.
Camera video also seems to be accepted normally on Adobe, while with camera photos many are reporting random declines as well.
41
« on: May 18, 2025, 05:28 »
Uploading is very easy, sales are slow. In 2024 I made exactly 100 dollars while adding 2700 files and reaching around 4600 uploads.
Now I have around 5k files and this year so far 10 dollars.
My goal is to reach 100 dollars a quarter one day. And perhaps in 10 years 50 dollars a month.
Probably needs 30k files for 30 dollars a month or something.
42
« on: May 18, 2025, 01:53 »
Their submission torture chamber has not really changed in 20 years.
If the merger allows content from pond5 to be mirrored on istock/getty and has the same sales success as submitting via istock, then I will upload from pond5.
On the other hand in the current climate, the torture chamber helps to repel spammers.
Still, they should have improved their system a longtime ago. And being partnered with nvidia should give them enough software power to not just codevelop ai but also improve their system.
43
« on: May 17, 2025, 00:54 »
Good luck!
I am still new to editorial. I do cover the local carnival and some political protests.
But illustrative editorial on adobe will take time to understand.
44
« on: May 16, 2025, 23:46 »
@zeljok
the second image has people in it. they might also not like the visible artwork above the door.
illustrative editorial is a weird thing.
@wendy
again, thank you. the whole upload process is on istock is very painful compared to other places. but with the coming merger they should be able to increase sales, so habing content there should help my monthly income.
45
« on: May 16, 2025, 07:19 »
I obviously mean content that is missing and needed by buyers.
Based on experience in selling stock and also having been a buyer myself.
Usually my stuff sells and my sales are growing so what I am doing can't be wrong.
There are many creators a lot more successful than me and with still growing income.
However, they cannot have sales if an agency goes downhill by no longer advertising or being marketed like pond5 or if a company does not understand that breaking with the creative producer community is bad for business like SS. Bad karma is bad for business. Customers prefer giving money to companies that treat them well, who knew?
That is the part you cannot control.
But with a sensible platform if you offer what is missing and needed, you will have growing sales and the millions of duplicates uploaded the same week don't matter.
46
« on: May 16, 2025, 07:14 »
Btw my reviews on IS are really lagging; over a month now, and some new files reviewed sooner than older. This could be related with my upload method: I don't upload much (5-8 files / week on average) and I don't open new batch every time I upload - simply keep filling same batch until artificial 100 limit is reached.
Yes, it is related to your upload method - if you add anything to a batch that is waiting for review, you send the whole batch to the end of the review queue 
Oh...that explains it. I use "monthly" batches and just keep adding content.
As has been said if you add to a batch it goes back to the end of the queue. Only add to a batch after the current uploaded assets have been reviewed. It does not matter how many batches you have open. The other thing you can do is add assets to a batch and then when you have enough then finish the upload.
The main use of batches is that a "series" is uploaded together and then they will show up in the carousel for "more images from this series" (or whatever they say) ...
Again thanks. I understand the use of a batch if I want to upload a complete series from a shooting. But there should be a simple way to upload mixed files daily. Maybe I should open more batches by genre instead of monthly - food, travel, easter, xmas, people...
47
« on: May 16, 2025, 00:13 »
The only supply that increases are the endless amount of duplicates.
Actual fresh content going into needed genres is a tiny amount.
Just look at Adobe
- kw people / all assets - 66 million files
- people, Germany - 263k
- people india - 574k
- people china - 472k
If you think of all the different professions, food, business needs for many countries of the world there is hardly any content. Just duplicates and more duplicates.
Even 66 million files with kw people is very little
Once you drill down into more specifics you see that "everything" is missing.
There is a huge supply of content. But it is an endless stream of duplicate content, not carefully researched needed content for buyers.
Or food
- food/all assets - 89 million
- food, china - 744k
- food, india - 480k
- food germany - 208k files
My favorite search: recipe and documentation of a baking a black forest cake , ideally with the happy family gathered around a table and eating it too.
- black forest cake recipe - 8k cakes, but not a single systematic recipe that you can put in your blog or food magazine or cut into your youtube channels. Forget about the happy family and grandma having a Sunday afternoon black forest cake...
I have been using the black forest cake example for over 10 years. One day I will have to do that recipe and document it.
As soon as you start looking for a systematically documented progress of anything, the myth of 1 billion images in agencies just collapses.
Also stock agencies need fresh material every year with the latest visual styles, the latest electronics, the latest meme trends, the latest news and editorial.
Ai could be used to fill the missing content.
But - what do the ai providers do - they sort any kw by downloads or popular and copy the first 3 pages down to the last detail...so even more copies of copies.
Which does not mean I agree with using a random reject algo to "cull it down" without any logic. The Rejectiongate on Adobe is crazy.
Adobe should simply implement upload limits, then the upload slot becomes valuable and producers will automatically be more selective and look for missing content instead of duplicating.
So, yes, business is supply and demand.
But the supply in stock is not targeting the demands.
I also disagree that agencies don't need us.
Crowd sourcing always just means that a platform is an open entry point and allows talent that works hard to move to the top.
The majority of producers try stock, then drop out after 2 years when they realize it is hard work.
And where the uploads go, the clients follow.
Shutterstock broke up with the creative community and closed all forums to stop interacting with the producer community.
But no matter how many agencies they bought, the creators, the content and the buyers kept running away from them.
Obviously everybody has to make their own decisions, but as long as I see gigantic gaps in the colections and noone producing needed content, i will be happy to do that for the rest of my life.
48
« on: May 15, 2025, 16:57 »
Btw my reviews on IS are really lagging; over a month now, and some new files reviewed sooner than older. This could be related with my upload method: I don't upload much (5-8 files / week on average) and I don't open new batch every time I upload - simply keep filling same batch until artificial 100 limit is reached.
Yes, it is related to your upload method - if you add anything to a batch that is waiting for review, you send the whole batch to the end of the review queue
Oh...that explains it. I use "monthly" batches and just keep adding content.
49
« on: May 15, 2025, 06:03 »
Adobe is an under 1 dollar agency.
The difference between rpd 64 cents and rpd 83 cents is..bearable...it is not 2 cents versus 2 dollars.
I am not saying it couldn't be higher, but Adobeis not midstock. You are not getting 10 dollars average on Adobe.
And at the moment Adobe frustrates me deeply with random review roulette.
At least istock still wants my files.
On paper it is 15/20% for istock and 33/35% royalty from Adobe. But in absolut numbers the difference is less than what percentages suggest.
Adobe has the advantage of free creative suit software for a year with enough sales. And a much better upload system.
But if I cannot grow my port and my sales this year...
...so make istock great again is the result of the random review algo. That is what they wanted, wasn't it?
Why else deeply frustrate your own creator community, if not to make them go away?
Useless little creator ants, who needs them? Ai industrial production will soon replace them all...somebody is certainly thinking that way....
50
« on: May 15, 2025, 05:58 »
The power of video. Well done!
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