stock royalty payments

Hi @MatHayward -

Awesome explanation, thank you. A friend of mine got me going on Adobe Stock because he was finding success with photo sales sometimes making $100-$400 on some of his photos. Could you explain further for me? I realize he's probably a higher ranking but what scenarios does one make much on a photo? And what is the process for getting to this point faster?

Initially I started on Fotolia as it's payout was better. But after its acquisition by Adobe, they have ruined Fotolia  as well. I have stopped contributing new photos to Adobe stock altogether. They neither have volume sales like Shutterstock, nor do they pay enough to compensate it. Waste of time, effort and skills to contribute to Adobe stock now. Hope they realise it soon else their investment in Fotolia is going to be a financial misadventure.

I don't even know where to start on how horrible I think adobe is treating its customers here.  And am blown away at people sticking up for the adobe staffer (who may not be a bad guy and is just doing his job - I get it - nothing personal Mat). But come on people.  There's a reason you don't see this info. on the 'getting started with adobe stock 'help pages etc..  If they said hey sign up and give us your images that you've spent hours and years creating and we'll give you $0.20 ?!! LOL  OMG.  I'm glad I found this post. And, on top of it, if you're new here and we haven't already underpaid you for 1000 images or so we'll pay you even less lol.  I kept thinking I was misunderstanding as I read it, but then I realized, sadly, my only mistake was forgetting that adobe doesn't care about anything or anyone other than their bottom line. Like all businesses, so again, nothing personal adobe - I get it - someone up there at the top making millions is answerable to a group of people in a boardroom.  But let's not pretend that you were trying to be 'clear' and 'upfront' about your payment policies.  There's a reason it's not explained clearly - don't try and say it is - it's intentionally misleading, and the if not intentionally, someone should lose their job for not realizing that it is misleading, and I don't have such little faith in your employees to assume it was a mistake.  It's misleading because your model is insulting to its creative customers - not it's corporate ones who buy the images for pennies.  I'm sure they all love you.

Agree. The ratio should be 70/30 wherin the photographer is paid 70% of the sale. Photographers worldwide should do a crowd funding and start an agency which is beneficial to the community. These Microstock companies treat photographers like a traffic signal beggar. This is not sustainable for long. Neither for the photographers, nor for the agencies.

When I saw Adobe was starting a stock company I thought: "This is great!" so I did some (heavy) research. I thoroughly read their TOS, had a good laugh and dismissed Adobe Stock altogether. Period.

As a professional photographer of 25 years my only question to other professionals is WHY? Why on earth would you contribute to a company that is basically stealing from you. I mean how were you sold such a bill of goods?  Anyone who can provide a reasonably intelligent explanation as to why they are willing to give this, or any, company 65% of the profit for something they created should post it (and not Adobe's well paid spinnners) because I can't think of a single one. You all are living in backwards land because the creator should be getting at least 65% of the gross sale and the marketer 35%.

Are you forgetting you are an art director, location scout, set designer, booking agent, lighting specialist, retouching expert, asset management... plus a (seemingly) highly skilled photographer all rolled up into one. Additionally you're heavily invested in gear and training, pay for your own car, equipment and health insurance (Is Adobe providing insurance for you because they are for their employees). You spend hours and sometimes days creating a "perfect" image and you're willing to accept pennies on the dollar? Ask any one of those aforementioned "specialists" (especially art director) if they will work for pennies

You are the sole creator. 90-95% of the work is done by you and you're settling for 33%? OK fine, let's be "fair" and account for the infrastructure/storage/maintenance Adobe accounts for. At the very minimum the creator (photographer/artist) should see a return of 70 cents on the dollar (70/30).

If you're willing to settle for .33 on the dollar then heck, just give it away and sell your renewable bodily fluids because you'll get much more. Better still, come work for me. I'll even pay you 40 cents on the dollar!

Adobe stock is based on YOUR work and DOES NOT EXIST WITHOUT IT! They should be ashamed of themselves.

DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT EVER!

I'm feeling pretty much the same way.  Nowhere is there a way to see who is buying my images and how they are being used.  Can you imagine seeing your image on a multi-million dollar corporation's billboard only to find out that they bought it for $0.27!!  I would have to sell 10 images just to put a gallon of gas in my car, Really?!! 

This is what is killing the industry for all of us pro photographers.  You can buy any image for pennies instead of hiring a pro and paying us for what we've all worked so hard to perfect.  It's truly disheartening that another big company has found a way to squeeze out the little guys while making millions of dollars off of their hard work.  Looks like I'll be pulling my images as well.  In a year I've had 151 sales and made less that $100!!  I can't even fill my car up with gas twice for that!!  I would  have thought that Adobe, considering that they depend on all of us creatives, would be advocating for all of us to make money and support their company, but I'm loosing faith in the industry as a whole by the minute.... Ugh....Maybe I should have been a garbage man instead.  Just my frustrated $0.02....

Not sure of where to ask this, but here seemed like a good spot. What are purchasers allowed to do with the images they purchase? For example - how many prints, brochures, t-shirts, etc? Let's say a contributor was paid 99 cents for his image-what is the most a purchaser could do with that image as far as use goes? Thanks

Thanks for your question. Your commission rate on Adobe Stock image sales is 33% of the price paid for the image. This cost varies based on the number of images and the license the customer commits to purchase. There is a minimum payment amount that is determined by your rank to ensure that for very large subscription packages, the royalty rates don't drop too low.

There are additional price options at Fotolia where your images are available for sale. You can find information about the royalty structure at this link: Royalty-Free Stock Photos, Vector Art & Video - Fotolia

Kind regards,

Mat Hayward