Adobe recently unveiled Adobe Stock – a stock imagery service with deep integration into Creative Cloud. This marks the company’s first foray into the stock content business and the new product is the result of Adobe’s acquisition of the Fotolia stock content marketplace, fewer than six months ago.
Adobe Stock currently features about 40 million images (it shares its catalog with Fotolia, which will also remain online for the foreseeable future). For the time being, Stock will only feature images, but Adobe is looking to expand this service to video and other formats in the near future. Support for Adobe Stock is integrated into the 2015 release of Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC. The service is also available in 13 languages and 36 countries – including South Africa.
What makes Adobe Stock so unique?
- Firstly, Adobe Stock includes 40 million beautiful, high-impact photos, illustrations and graphics covering virtually every subject, so you can jump-start any print, web or mobile app project.
- Next, there’s the deep integration of Adobe Stock with Creative Cloud and the CC desktop apps that you rely on. You can launch Adobe Stock directly within CC desktop apps, add watermarked images to Creative Cloud Libraries and then access and work with images across multiple desktop tools such as Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, After Effects CC and Premiere Pro CC.
- Finally, when you’re ready to license an image for finished work, you can do it directly within the desktop application you’re working in. Any edits you made to the watermarked image are magically applied to the purchased full‐resolution image (thank you CreativeSync) saving you loads of time going between your comp and finished design.
The workflow for creatives who want to bring their own content to Adobe Stock isn’t integrated into the Creative Cloud apps. Adobe says that’s definitely in the works, though. For now, contributors have to go through a more typical web-based workflow when they want to submit images.
Overall, the process is very much like that at iStock or Shutterstock, in that potential contributors have to apply to the program by submitting sample images of their work. Once they have been approved, they will receive 33% of the royalties every time one of their image is sold.
The launch of Adobe Stock shakes up the $3 billion global stock image market, as Adobe customers are active contributors to stock image services and regular purchasers of stock content. An estimated 85% of creatives who buy stock content use Adobe tools – and more than 90% of stock content sellers use Adobe software in the preparation of their photos and images.
Flexible purchase options enable creatives and marketers to buy single images, as they need them or purchase a monthly plan. Saving up to 40% – Creative Cloud members get the best value when they add an Adobe Stock annual plan option to their Creative Cloud membership. A first for the stock image industry, creatives who sign up for a 10-images-per-month plan can “rollover” unused images for up to a year (most month-to-month stock subscription plans require creatives to use all images each month or lose them). For customers who are not Creative Cloud members, a standalone Adobe Stock service offers single-image pricing, as well as month-to-month and annual membership plans.
Adobe is definitely broadening their position within the marketplace, as the company also recently purchased Mixamo ( a San Francisco based company that enables designers to create and customise a broad range of high quality 3D characters and animations.)
