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Question

Question about (Annual and Perpetual ) Free Collection Nomination

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
October 19, 2025
4 replies
543 views

My 2685 eligible assets nominated them for the Annual Free Collection, but I noticed some contributors have turned on both Annual and Perpetual (Lifetime).

My question is:
Can I safely nominate my assets for both options at the same time?

I have placed my content on multiple microstock sites like Adobe stock, ShutterStock, istock. Those who have experience with this, What’s better: nominating for both, or only one collection?

I’d really appreciate your feedback.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Read the Free Collection FAQ.

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/free-collection-contributor-information.html

Be careful what you wish for.

A 12-month - 24-month term in the Free Collection is usually sufficient exposure. You can opt out at the end, if you wish.

A perpetual term is forever. If accepted, you'll never earn any future royalties from those assets. You're giving them to Stock to freely use forever. Think about where you might be in 3-5 years. Forever is a really long time.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

jacquelingphoto2017

Community Expert

Hi @Mobarok Hsn ,

It's up to you. You have to decide.

If you choose to select both and Adobe selects assets from among them for the perpetual collection, you will need to remove those from all other platforms. Therefore, whatever one-time payment Adobe gives you now is the total value you will get for each of those files. Since the files Adobe select are files that customers are licensing, you have to be comfortable selling your files for the amount Adobe offer while otherwise the value limitlessly increases with each licensing across platforms. We cannot help you with that decision.

Best wishes

Jacquelin

Z

ZALEZPHOTO

Inspiring

Where did you get that information?

That's not what it says :

Francisco ZALEZPHOTO

jacquelingphoto2017

Community Expert

Hi @ZALEZPHOTO ,

Thank you for ultimately highlighting the change. Initially, In the contributor help, under the question,

❝What is the difference between the Annual and Perpetual Free Collection nomination options?❞

was the answer below "Perpetual":

“If your asset is selected for the Perpetual Free Collection, it must remain exclusive to Adobe Stock. You cannot license it on other platforms or sites.”

This information seem to have been removed and replaced with

"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."

This amendment would have been in line with having us retaining the rights to all our assets.

However, I was just advised that the old clause might still be on the non-public agreement, so be sure to read it before finalizing your nomination.

Thanks again.

Best wishes

Jacquelin

Z

ZALEZPHOTO

Inspiring

suspect Adobe is more interested in investing on one time fees for lifetime usage on assets.
What kind are the majority of your assets, photos videos or ai? I find interesting that you got all your assets nominated, enticing you with a large paycheck for lifetime usage, yet others in 🇺🇸 only got one asset nominated... Can you also share what kind of monthly volume of sales are you experiencing? That would be a huge consideration on how you decide to nominate.
I got 132 nominations, that have not sold once, and selected the 12 month period, seeing the lifetime sale as an absurd proposition. Frankly, I'm disappointed this is the route Adobe is choosing, and it's apparent they have decided to continue doing this... I don't see how this ends well for contributors...
But, if I was interested on the lifetime sale, I would just pick that option, Its really your personal choice
Let us know how many ended up chosen!

cheers!

Francisco ZALEZPHOTO

daniellei4510

Community Expert

It's up to you. If you select both, only 1 will be selected in any case. Of course, if you select perpetual for 2685 assets, you will never again be paid for those assets. If you select one year, you'll be able to sell them again after a year. Also, keep in mind that only about 10% give or take are actually accepted into the free collection.

Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.

M

Mobarok HsnAuthor

Inspiring

I want to give my files (Annual and Perpetual) the opportunity to be considered, so that more of my files are approved.

I want to turn on both options, is this correct? Is there a change to approve more files?

daniellei4510

Community Expert

"Is there a change to approve more files?"

Dunno. I only had a whopping one video file nominated. 🙂 You're welcome to turn on both options or only one. Or none at all. Or you can pick and choose which ones you want to have considered.

Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.

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