Sudden Drop in Adobe Stock Downloads — Anyone Else Experiencing This?

Hi Nancy, you shifted completely away from the topic of drop in sales, and the fact that the big drop is reserved to AI work. I also think you need to seriously reconsider your take that only companies that make and sell AI have benefited. And if you’re not interested in that, just forget about selling your work online, trash your smart phone, stop watching Netflix, and absolutely don’t look at any possible way AI can help you not be a slave to the system.

Look, the problems you raise are real but believing in catastrophic scenarios all the time makes for a not very happy life. And don’t get me wrong, I understand your concerns fully.

To the point that the last 15 years I have consciously unplugging myself from our predatory capitalist system, and that empowers me and is helping me prepare to plan to make the next 20+ years the best years of my life.

Happy Sunday 

Hi Nancy, as you probably remember, I am not an AI doom and gloomer. I believe that if we understand it thoroughly, and maintain a desire for finding truth, we as humans will learn how to use it and conquer it. 

AI generated imaging was the AI introduction to the world. And logically a gold rush ensued with people seeking a quick and easy way to riches. Right in the forum we read of contributors creating 100’s of images per week wondering why they aren’t making any sales.

Corporations are all in the AI race. For Adobe the challenge is particularly unique. 

They are managing to integrate unbelievable AI capabilities to their biggest creative products. Yet their stock price has suffered because of the same AI convergence by the competition. I am impressed by what some of this competitors are doing, but they are all  trying to beat Adobe by giving cheaper products, and that they will not be able to sustain.

The initial AI gold rush" is slowing down significantly, and that’s not an opinion. The primary factors driving this decline involve severe market saturation, and in my opinion a lot of garbage driven by the lack of originality and creativity. Most of AI work is giving  “fake creepy perfect look” that I believe most serious brands will choose to stay away from, at least for marketing their products and businesses. 

Getty/iStock is staying far away from it as possible from AI content. Adobe is their only serious competitor, and while they will keep AI gen work, I believe they will do so as a way to sell more of their AI portfolio, not so much AI stock.

I mostly agree with your advice on how to succeed in stock, but fundamentally disagree with your belief that the existence of millions of assets in categories (as you usually share) is or should be concern for any creator who has the passion to create their own work. Anyone is capable of taking one great picture, but only a few master the craft and discipline to consistently create great work.

I don’t think one has to be a visionary to predict Adobe’s AI stock approvals and sales will continue to decline.  Something that all of us creating the real thing should celebrate.

Enjoy the weekend!

Buyers now see non-AI content by default,

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Untrue. The AI filter must be activated first, after which it sticks until it’s removed. 

Competition is stiff because Stock contains close to 1 billion assets. With so much inventory to choose from, customers can be more selective about what they buy.

Economic factors like wars & inflation can have an impact on consumer spending habits. When consumer confidence drops, people buy fewer products to save money. 

To succeed at Stock:

• Don’t worry about things you can’t control.
• Focus on quality over quantity.
• Give customers what they need, when they need it.
• Use good search keywords & titles to help them find what you’re selling.

Hope that helps. 

What are most of the assets you contribute photos, videos or AI ?

From what I read, this is a problem happening due to the Massive increase in competition from AI-generated assets. Buyers now see non-AI content by default, which is hurting visibility and sales of AI-generated images significantly. Now buyers are learning they can create AI content themselves, and they aren't seeing or don’t care about imperfections. And lets face it, this is only going to get worse for contributors that only produce AI content.

You left out key percentage data to understand your situation. Sales down to almost zero is terrible. In my opinion, AI creators need to adapt and understand this trend will continue, and that quality will prevail over quantity, and will need setting realistic goals based on that.

In my experience... I started contributing photos and videos 17 months ago, I have religiously uploaded 100 assets per month, and I am experiencing exciting growth. In fact the last 6 months, despite seasonal fluctuations, May is my last month yet.

Good Luck to you!

I am experiencing exactly the same issue, and my sales have been completely frozen for a month now.

My portfolio is large, established, and has always shown stable and predictable sales. Suddenly, my downloads dropped down to almost zero for no apparent reason. To rule out "seasonal changes" or "market trends," I checked with a colleague of mine who also manages a high-quality portfolio — they are experiencing the exact same abnormal sales drop that started at the same time. Meanwhile, my sales on other major stock platforms remain completely normal and steady.

This is clearly not a matter of "content quality" or "economic inflation," as the forum moderators usually suggest. This has all the signs of a severe technical bug, such as a broken search index, an account visibility glitch, or a major lag in the earnings reporting system.

This is not my first attempt to contact support regarding this issue. For an entire month, I have been sending multiple inquiries, and all of them have been completely useless, ignored, and left without a real solution. My current open ticket is Case 00513753.

Adobe team, please stop giving us generic automated replies and finally escalate this to your technical department. Independent creators are losing their business revenue due to this platform malfunction.

Sales drops are most likely caused by fluctuations in consumer spending due to the war, the economy, inflation, seasonal demand for what you’re selling or other factors which you have no control over. Welcome to sales!  😉