So what do I see? I see that the video review and acceptance on Shutterstock has become very long. I have been waiting for a video review for over a week. This has never happened before! It is obvious that the reviewer has been fired or transferred to work at Getty. This is the beginning of the end for Shutterstock.

Or maybe there is a backlog because reviewers were on holiday, while producers used the holidays to upload more?

Review times at istock for video are also much longer...

I have another theory about what�s happening, especially on Adobe. I won�t go too deep into it for now since my numbers on Adobe are still growing, but something has caught my attention.

Lately, I�ve seen new accounts appearing on Adobe, filled exclusively with AI-generated content�images and videos that look suspiciously similar to the top-selling ones on the platform.

Of course, last year, we got paid quite a bit because they "trained" their AI using our images. But what really worries me is the possibility that these accounts aren't real people, but rather fake company-run accounts, designed to grab all the earnings from contributors who actually put in the work and figured out what sells.

there is no conspiracy, alongside what feels like 1 million ai only new accounts are what again feels like one million new producers in all stock groups everywhere and huge followings on certain youtubers.

It is simply real people, sorting agency content by bestsellers and then copying to the tiniest detail with the help of ai.

And they are here to stay.

And all the other agencies currently not taking ai, will take ai at some point, meaning they will all show up there as well.

On some places like shutterstock there is already a massive influx of undeclared ai.

This is the new world of competition we are all living with.

And this is how the old school producers felt when we pierced their sacred bubble and ruined their wonderful life of penthouse party shootings with beautiful models, when we offered great content for 50 cents and debated endlessly if it ethical to raise the price to 1 dollar�

pos 3050 down again ..

Question: now that the new minimum number of accepted assets is 150, where on my account can I see how many were accepted this year?

You take a pen and write down how many files you have now, then check back in 3 months how many more files were accepted...

maybe strive to upload at least 500...just in case...

Why would you think he is smarter than us?

Our income depends on stock, his doesn't.

And he is missing the important point: customers want ready made ai content, just like they want preshot images.

The agencies need a great ai media collection.

And they need a midjourney killer app.

This is what I mean, when I said that ai laws are not clear and there are legal ideas to make scraping visual media for training purposes of ai free to use.

Obviously also then text, music, software etc...

Ai is a new industry with a lot of potential and there is a huge lobby and investors working to remove any pesky "obstacles" like copyright law.

Different countries will have different solutions and it can take years to get a streamlined framework across the planet.

pos 2870, 7600 files

fwiw yesterday I had 29 sales on Adobe

13 ai, 16 camera photo/video

It would be really helpful if the requirements could be posted at the beginning of the year, not as an afterthought.

Would also motivate a lot more people.

I qualify easily for the full suite this year, so thank you very much from me!!!

But please consider �playing� more fairly next time.

Why not announce what is needed in Dec 2025 for 2026?

Many good people upload slow and steady, no need to punish them or prefer the ai spammers.

I will upload a lot and hopefully never be without cc until I retire. If I ever retire.

They moved most of my files down to 35 dollars and I still have no sales.

Now, my files probably deserve a lower price because they are not high quality model released material, but the lower price made no difference.

I think the marketing for p5 has gone down.

Could they have reduced their marketing activities with regards to the coming merger?

That fresh licensing contracts are sold more on getty/istock than SS already?

That is what many have suspected is happening with pond5. Sales crashed since the takeover.

ai must be clearly labelled, then the customers can decide what they want to do.

And ai cannot be described or claimed to be of a specific location or editorial event.

It is forbidden under adobe rules and usually will not accepted.

People who disobey the rules are at risk of having their ports closed for fraud, because that is what it is.

ai creation for stock is not designed to replace editorial photography.

Just like any photoshop art is not designed to replace editorial photography of a specific location.

---

Getty will take ai content when they are ready.

There is no question about that.

SS already has it, but made by their own team or customers. And it looks horrible so far. Then they have the ai from uploads that is not declared as ai and they don't seem to care...


I think Getty first needs to come up with an ai creator that can produce content on the same level as midjourney. Adobe is trying to do that as well, but firefly still cannot compete. Adobe is also more keen to integrate this tool into photoshop, which makes perfect sense.

Once Getty has that, an ai tool as good as midjourney, they can start offering that app not just to commercial clients but also the general public that enjoys ai as a hobby.

That is a gigantic market, millions of people paying midjourney or other ai companies every month just to have fun with ai.

Then they can offer a commercial version to create stock, that probably can only be sold on istock/getty.

This way, they control the legal path and...everytime such an ai image is sold, the original creators of the camera training content can also be paid a tiny amount of money.

At the moment they are testing this with the ai tool they offer. Customers can amend files with the getty ai tool and origianl creators get tiny amounts for how their work got included.

But once ai content "made by getty" can be sold as stock on istock, it will become a very different thing.

Also they will make money from the huge group of ai producers who must then pay for the getty app to produce content.

And they can also forbid selling their ai on other platforms. So the Getty ai content will be exclusive to their platform.

Legally also much safer than content on Adobe which is made by all kind of platforms that did not license content properly.

Perhaps adobe or getty will also buy companies like midjourney, or sora or flux.

But ready made ai content will be avaialable on all platforms just like preshot camera content.

first 13 days of January:
- AS: 272,58 USD Download: 40
- SS: 53.81 USD Download: 30

Only videos .. no AI ...

That is really interesting, I didn't think that Adobe was already doing this well with video.

On pond5 I see a lot of creators blaming increased competition for their lack of sales, whereas for me it is obvious that since the takeover p5 was no longer being marketed properly.

But my sales volume didn�t change, neither did the ratio of camera to ai.

Ok, I am just one example, but if there was a gigantic drop or problem I would have seen that.

Adobe just played around with their UI on a quiet week-end with low sales time.

Then it snowballs into Adobe hates ai and weird dramatic articles are posted.

It does show a deep insecurity towards modern technology by all those who are not ready to adapt to changes.

Even though nobody is forced to use ai, if your sales are fine with camera content, that is ok.

All other agencies are planning to have their own ai Kollektion.

It is inevitable.

Customers buy from agencies because they don�t have time to take their own pictures.

They also don�t have time to do their own prompting and very happily buy ready made ai.


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ai is mostly a threat to people that don�t really know how to use a camera, because their amateur images cannot compete with much better looking ai content.

Otherwise, as long as you do your research and offer content clients actually need you will always make money.