In an effort to better understand how the global pandemic and cultural movements have impacted the stock imagery industry, Adobe surveyed 600 global creatives in July 2020. Creators feel challenged in today’s creative environment, and 82% of respondents believe 2020 has forever changed the way they will create.
- 49% used more stock assets (and/or a hybrid model) instead of custom shots.
- 93% agree stock content can serve a bigger variety of creative projects
- 84% rely on stock content providers to do their job
But:
- 74% of creatives say finding stock content that resonates with the audiences of today is a challenge
- 89% show interest in more diverse and inclusive stock collections
Adobe did not release any information about how this increasing need of stock has affected their sales, but indications from
Shutterstock’s quarterly report and reports from individual photographers are that, at best, sales are static and may be declining. (See Shutterstock's download figures since Q4 2019.)
If creatives are using more stock it may be images they find on the Free sites that are exploding. Prices also seem to
continue to decline. In some cases, images are being sold by Getty for as little as $0.11. In a sales report I examined today, the photographer received a royalty of less than $2.00 each for 57% of several hundred sales.
- 87% of image users agree it’s necessary to reevaluate the subject matter of stock imagery in 2020 campaigns
- 88% agreed 2020 has made it challenging to plan for 20/21 campaigns
For more on the Adobe report check out
this link.