Yes, SS is a disaster.  I suspect they probably gave up on their business. 

Interesting post I found here.

GettyImages/iStock & Canva, sinking boats in Microstock sea
https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/gettyimagesistock-canva-sinking-boats-in-microstock-sea/

Investors appear to think Sora is a threat to Adobe's business (I think in general, not specific to Adobe Stock). Market hasn't closed yet, but ADBE is down over $35 a share today

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/adbe-stock-falls-as-openai-invades-its-turf/

Shutterstock is down 5.44% too.  It's definitely because of this AI video generator news.  Many subscribers may just use the Sora to generate on their own.  And that's bad for us too.

Quality is amazing.  We are doomed as stock video creators.

I think I may have an explanation for why we're seeing lower royalties on custom licenses this month versus during January. In another thread about royalties, Mat Hayward said:

"The royalty rate remains at 33% of the price paid by the customer. The rate paid by the customer varies based on the plan. The Pro plans have rates that fluctuate daily based on the usage of all subscribers."

I searched to find a page describing the "Pro" plans and they have unlimited downloads:

"Unlimited downloads
Choose from millions of standard photos, vectors, illustrations, templates, and 3D assets. Create without worrying about asset quotas and use watermark-free, full-res assets even for comps and layouts."

I had forgotten that there was a plan with unlimited downloads. That's our friend when not much downloading is going on - when things are quiet in January and things haven't yet picked up after the holidays. It's not our friend when Pro users download lots and lots of images.

Here's the discussion from 2021

https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/adobe-stock-announcing-pro-edition-for-creative-cloud-for-teams-and-enterprises/msg563172/#msg563172

I don't feel any better about these kinds of royalty setups now than I did then - safe stable income for the agency and variable income for contributors. And the more successful the plan becomes the less we earn per download...

The lowest royalty I've seen to date for a custom download is 33� even though there is apparently no floor amount - no minimum royalty.

Wow.  So, I am contributing to an unlimited download stock site.  That sucks!!!

Quote from: blvdone on February 15, 2024, 08:40

Adobe Stock photo RPD falling now.  I rarely see $1+ commission this week.  Mostly capped at $0.99 and many are $0.38.  I got 43 photo sales on Adobe Stock yesterday, but none was $1 and above.  Me not likey.  Anybody see the same thing?

Comparing Jan 1-15 to Feb 1-15 (and the day's not done, so it could have some miraculous turnaround later...)

Overall RPD: $0.88 Jan, $0.71 Feb
Sales in the $1-$2 bracket: Jan 40% of the total and RPD $1.31; Feb 35% of the total and RPD $1.03
Sales for exactly 38� were 13% of Jan but 22% of Feb

The last $1.4x royalty I had was Jan 23rd. There have been higher royalties - $2.97 and $3.30 but those are much less frequent.

Customers are getting more discounts, or doing whatever it is that fluctuates numbers on the "Pro" plans Mat referred to. Jan 1-15 the "custom" royalties RPD was $1.01; Feb 1-15 it's $$0.74. Subscription RPD is down too, but not as much.

Great.  I think January was a good month before buyers getting bigger subscription plan that pays less per photo to us.

Same here, no longer get anything more than $1.01 My last $1.42 was on 1/14/2024
Now overwhelming majority are 0.32 cents. My downloads are growing, but % of $ that I get are getting lower and lower.

Plus my bestseller sales disappeared in January.

Mat, I will sent you email with my files as well. Thank you in advance for your time.

We get 200% more on Adobe Stock than Shutterstock at lowest payment.  Look at the bright side!!!

Is it a violation of Shutterstock contributor agreement to buy your own work?  I thought it was. 

Quote from: blvdone on February 11, 2024, 12:34

That's a huge scandal if it's true!!!

I have almost 10k videos at Pond5 and sell 1 YES just one in 14th days. Last month I have two sales! If Shutterstock does that than Pond5 do taht to. At Adobe I sell around 20 videos a day. On Shutterstock maybe 1 or 2/day. Pond5 2/month.

At Shutterstock and Adobe I have 10k videos too..

Try deleting all your videos on Adobe Stock and un-publish all your videos on Shutterstock.  Your buyers may know you sell the same clips much cheaper on Shutterstock and Adobe Stock.  And price your videos at reasonable price on Pond5, $49-89/HD and $99-199.4k.

You can't opt out of video subs.  You got to make a decision to just delete your videos one by one.  I deleted like 7,000 videos last May when I got fed up with seeing most video sales going for $2.80 subs.  You should definitely delete your 4k videos and re-upload HD version, or just delete video clips for good and also un-publish videos from Shutterstock.  Customers aren't stupid.  All they have to do is to google your contributor name with "Adobe Stock", "Shutterstock" or "Storyblocks" to find if you offer your clips dirt cheap rather than paying decent price you set on Pond5.

With the new 4k inclusion on their plans, 4k video is given for $23.39 or less as low as $9.99/4k or HD on their $249.99/month to month plan or $7.99 on their $199/month annual commitment plan.  Do you still want to give away your videos at such a garbage price???  I don't.  I deleted all my videos on Adobe Stock last May and went 100% Pond5 Exclusive getting 60% royalty on reasonable competitive price I set by myself.  Who would pay for your same clip on Pond5 if they can get them dirt cheap on Adobe Stock?  All they gotta do is to google your contributor name to find out if you sell much cheaper on Adobe Stock, Shutterstock or Storyblocks.  Customers aren't stupid.  I strongly recommend only upload HD videos on Adobe Stock from now on and delete all 4k clips and re-upload HD version only.  Yes, they still offer on-demand single clips sale price of $79.99/HD and $199.99/4k, but who would pay that when you can get the cheapest month to month plan at $69.99 and get 3x 4k clips.  Only some very not smart people would pay that. 

Between 200-300 a day to have a decent amount of earnings by the end of the month

I agree.

I re-uploaded about 20 videos recently, but I just deleted all 4k videos.  I'll re-upload them in HD only to avoid my 4k videos getting snatched for a few dollars.  I make $120 per 4k video sale on Pond5 Exclusive.  Got to protect my price.

I just deleted all my re-uploaded videos.  It's not fun seeing only getting $2.80 for a video sale.  I'll stick with Pond5 Exclusive only.