Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on February 15, 2024, 16:24

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:

It should make sense JoAnn but there is still something I don't understand:
For what I can see the "custom license" earning for contributors is not really "fluctuating": at the contrary it decreases regularly from january 1st
It started with about 1,47$, then started decreasing and it had never went back to that price

I can't see a single sale with a higher amount than the previous ones.
It quite difficult to understand that the increase of use of this pro plan is so regular in 45 days from the beginning of year.

If I look at Jan 2023 vs Feb 2023, the royalties for the $1-$2 bracket had RPDs of $1.30 in Jan and $1.05 in Feb

In Jan 2024 I didn't see the $1.4x start with $1.47; I saw $1.40, then $1.43, $1.45, etc. I think the high was $1.48 on Jan 19th.

In Jan 2024 my last $1.4x sale was Jan 23 ($1.44); in Jan 2023 it was Jan 19th (and it was $1.41)

It's hard to know anything with certainty because we have next-to-no data to work with. All "custom" sales are marked alike, but it's the Pro plans for enterprise that have these royalties fluctuating based on use of the unlimited plan.

It's just my best guess looking at what data we do have

Got 3 of 0.37� "custom" royalties yesterday.. 

..."The royalty rate remains at 33% of the price paid by the customer. The rate paid by the customer varies based on the plan."...Much less complicated than being concerned if I just got a 36� sub or a 37, 38 or 39� custom. ... It's a mix.

It's true that the 33% is uncomplicated, but contributors need to watch changes in agency pricing as well as what their royalty rate is. My primary reason for watching the mix of prices (as opposed to just the monthly total compared to last year) is that when agencies start competing on price with other agencies, unless there's a huge influx of new business - not just a shift from one agency to another - contributors lose out.

Remember that Adobe Stock is a tiny pimple in Adobe's large business. I'm guessing that they want to show growth in their subscriber numbers (along with new sources of revenue derived from AI wonderfulness) to keep investors happy. Various plans include stock assets in the monthly price - including those "Pro" plans where there are unlimited downloads where our royalty fluctuates daily based on usage by subscribers to those plans.

Cheap stock content could be, effectively, a marketing lure and/or discount plan for building up or retaining subscribers to the Creative Cloud plans. Erosion of the price the customer pays even as our 33% remains unchanged is not good for contributors.

33% from Adobe Stock is a lot better than 15% from Getty/iStock, but some months a handful of very high price sales can bring the Getty RPD close to that of Adobe Stock.

I want to take the temperature of the water in the pot in which we're all slowly cooking

Quote from: Uncle Pete on February 27, 2024, 12:20

..."The royalty rate remains at 33% of the price paid by the customer. The rate paid by the customer varies based on the plan."...Much less complicated than being concerned if I just got a 36� sub or a 37, 38 or 39� custom. ... It's a mix.

It's true that the 33% is uncomplicated, but contributors need to watch changes in agency pricing as well as what their royalty rate is. My primary reason for watching the mix of prices (as opposed to just the monthly total compared to last year) is that when agencies start competing on price with other agencies, unless there's a huge influx of new business - not just a shift from one agency to another - contributors lose out.

Correct and we've seen that over and over. Buyers moved from IS to SS, as SS cut prices and we made less. Adobe has set a more reasonable rate and stayed with that, as IS has cut prices and our commissions. We make less. So SS cut the commissions and instituted the reset, with lower prices in some areas, so we earn less.

I just looked at Oct-Dec 2023, one custom for $1 and then all the high ones are 97 to 99�. We got better than usual Custom sales in January, and now they are back to the usual. The unusual part was a raise and more income, not the negative view, that something just went down.

Same for July-Sept. not one custom over $.99 for the three months.

How is getting paid more, in January 2024, seen as some kind of a concern? Take a look back and see if your numbers are similar. And what I mean is, the numbers now are the same as usual, for the past, except the positive boost in January.

...Did this happen last year too or just January 2024?

Read a few posts above.

Back on the topic of "custom" royalties getting lower in 2024, this morning I had one for 36�. (Reminder that I had been tracking "custom" royalties lower than 38�, my minimum subscription royalty. I am in the US, thus no tax-related deductions apply)

Taking a wild guess, there's a new "Pro" subscription including unlimited AdobeStock downloads where the rate is set daily based on usage. Earlier this week I had seven 37� "custom" royalties in total.

Edited to add that I found a page describing the Creative Cloud "Pro Plus" plan - it's an enterprise subscription that includes unlimited access to the entire Adobe Stock library - including videos & music. In listing the benefits of this plan it says:

"Lower your organization�s total stock spend"

I can see the appeal of that pitch - to the buyers. But to contributors, encouraging the biggest spenders to spend less on stock, means we're just the bait on the hook for CC subscriptions that we don't see any share of.

I know we all know this, but 33% of eff all is eff all...

@MatHayward

this person copied the title and ideas from another original creator please action on this account. this is the original title. newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/images/sound-waveform-pattern-for-radio-podcasts-music-player-video-editor-voise-message-in-social-media-chats-voice-assistant-recorder-vector-illustration/646450878?asset_id=646450878 [nonactive]

theft who copies the title with the idea. assets link

newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/ng/images/sound-waveform-pattern-for-radio-podcasts-music-players-video-editors-voice-messages-in-social-media-chats-voice-assistants-and-recorders-frequency/740672701 [nonactive]

why is this type of account not banned? action on this account

Lots of .37 and now even .36 here. (That�s how my days been looking. More downloads, but less $)

Most of my best sellers mostly got sold for .37 cents, I assumed those are from external links and that re-sale website gets a cut?

An update on the prevalence of the $0.36 "custom" royalties. In Feb 2024 there were two of those. In the first week of March, there have been 11. They were non-existent before Feb 2024

I assume that one of the plans with unlimited stock assets has seen a growth in the number of items downloaded and that's why the royalties are going down. Sort-of takes the fun out of seeing more downloads...

...3 out of 52 photo/image sales today were $0.36.  But I'm not worried.  It's only 2 cents less than $0.38 and still more than 3x the $0.10 you get on Shutterstock on 80% of photo sales there.  Also, 33 of 52 sales today so far are either $1.02 or $0.99.  That's impossible on Shutterstock.

Today's "custom" numbers are $0.35 and $1.01; I guess yesterday's download total was large

I do appreciate the $0.99 and $0.66 subscription royalties that help keep the overall RPD up, but the concern is watching new lows for "custom" royalties in 2024

For what I can see the "custom license" earning for contributors is not really "fluctuating": at the contrary it decreases regularly from january 1st
It started with about 1,47$, then started decreasing and it had never went back to that price

I can't see a single sale with a higher amount than the previous ones.

I think that summarized the situation pretty well. We start at a higher number each year in January and then it adjusts down by March to a stable value, that continues for the rest of the year.