I’m pleased to welcome back Victor Torres, CEO & Founder of Addictive Stock for an exclusive interview here at the Brutally Honest Stock Blog to continue our extensive Stock Wizards interview series.

Victor will discuss news at Addictive Stock, including benefits for new contributors. He will also highlight sellable stock trends and conclude with a discussion on the new Artificial Intelligence disruption/revolution. Let’s get started!

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Hi Victor, welcome back! It’s been a while since we’ve chatted, great to have you back and hopefully we can do more of these exchanges. Since we last chatted in early 2018 what have you been up to and what news do you bring from Addictive Stock?

Hi Alexandre,

It’s a pleasure to be able to participate in your blog again, so we appreciate your interest. A lot has happened since 2018… it has been quite an adventure 🙂

To sum it all up, the main change is that after a long time, we finally managed to launch our own website with a powerful contributor portal and a public-facing website where we sell our collection directly to clients. Currently, we’re on the first version of the website, and there are still many improvements needed to achieve the product we want. We require an enhanced and more effective search engine, among many other technical enhancements outlined in our roadmap.

Additionally, we’ve expanded our distribution options to both Premium and Microstock (Exclusive and Non-Exclusive). Now, our authors have a complete range of choices for distributing their content through their preferred channels.

And of course, we’re also exploring the world of AI. We took a gamble on it when Adobe offered the opportunity, and so far, it has been a massive success in our Premium collection.

Congratulations on the launch of your own website and the expansion of your distribution offerings. Can you tell us more about the motivation behind these changes and how they have impacted your business?

Well, the stock market is highly dynamic, and there’s room for everyone, as well as demand for all. At Addictive, we’ve had authors who have thrived in the premium/macrostock market, and others who haven’t. We’ve been in the stock market for 8 years now and have gathered a lot of information that helps us make decisions. The feedback we receive from our authors is invaluable, and over this time, we’ve spoken to many of them.

Some suggested that we should offer our services for the microstock market, so after careful consideration, we decided to venture into it. We’re still in the early stages of exploring this path, so it’s too soon to provide a definitive evaluation, but we believe it will also be a success.

Addictive Stock is now offering Premium, Exclusive Microstock, and Non-Exclusive Microstock content. What benefits do these different distribution options offer to both content creators and customers?

We offer Microstock Exclusive distribution where we handle keywording and content distribution just like we do for Premium, but specifically targeting micro/midstock agencies. Additionally, we have the option of Microstock Non-Exclusive, where authors can upload content they already have published independently on other agencies. We then publish it on our website and other partner agencies that the author isn’t directly collaborating with. In this regard, we’re seeking authors who are already in the microstock market and have high-quality content, especially in lifestyle photography, to work with us. If there are blog readers interested in trying out Addictive, they can simply send us an application at https://addictivestock.com/join-us

With these three distribution options, we believe our authors have everything they need to publish their content through their preferred channels. Often, our editors assist them in deciding where to distribute their sessions.

Many content creators and artists reading this interview may be interested in working with Addictive Stock. What advice do you have for aspiring contributors looking to succeed in the stock content business?

The advice I can offer is to strive for professionalism. At Addictive, even though we distribute to both Premium and Microstock, our level of expectations remains the same, whether it’s accepting new contributors or their content. Today, the stock market is saturated with content and artists, so if you want to make a living from this, you have to be excellent, invest, and take risks with your productions. Those who treat stock as a casual pursuit may earn only a few extra dollars each month, but it won’t be enough to make a living.

What other benefits can Addictive Stock offer over and above submitting to the traditional top-3 of Getty/iStock, Adobe Stock and Shutterstock?

The benefits of Addictive are numerous, not only in terms of distribution but also because, in addition to the three agencies you mentioned, we collaborate with numerous other agencies, greatly expanding the possibilities for sales. We handle keywording tasks, allowing authors to focus on creativity and content creation, however, the real value lies in the fact that we have a team of highly qualified and experienced editors who provide feedback to our authors in every shooting. We want artists to feel supported and not think that they’re uploading their photos or videos to a robot that judges their content based on unknown criteria. We’re a small team of individuals striving to help our authors improve day by day, ensuring their productions have more success. I believe this is the aspect our photographers value most.

In your experience, how has the demand for different types of content evolved over the past few years, and how do you see it evolving in the future?

I believe that there is now a clear demand for much more real and authentic content, leaving behind the “fake” and staged stock content. Fortunately, every year, more companies/brands are choosing to acquire stock content for their advertising projects, and each of them seeks a specific type of image. This is fantastic because we now see an abundance of styles in photography, illustration, etc., from outstanding artists, allowing clients to license genuine gems at truly affordable prices. On the other hand, we’ve noticed a significant increase in video sales, something we want to promote at Addictive. It’s challenging to find authors who produce high-quality video content since most of us are photographers (I include myself in this group) and lack the knowledge and tools to create top-notch video content. In this regard, for example, we’re ingesting video on our website (and distributing it through other agencies), but it’s not yet publicly visible on the platform.

It’s intriguing to hear that your agency is accepting AI-generated content. How has this decision affected the content landscape, and what potential do you see for AI-generated content in the future?

It’s been a complete revolution. At Addictive, we have a complex love-hate relationship with it. We are strong advocates of real photography, and it’s what we want to promote. However, we can’t ignore this tool, and we work to ensure that the curated AI content Addictive sells is of the highest quality and diversity. Unfortunately, we’ve seen that many authors have practically shelved their cameras and focused their efforts on producing AI content, which is a mistake. It’s evident that AI content sells, and it sells a lot, but there are many factors that can render such content short-lived.

On one hand, there are legal issues, and on the other, the continuous improvements in AI models like MidJourney, etc., which make earlier images lower in quality compared to what can be produced currently. For example, the new version of Dall-E looks spectacular, and it seems very faithful to the prompt used. Addictive primarily sells AI content in Adobe’s Premium collection, so we already apply strict criteria to the content we distribute.

How do you perceive the potential legal/copyright risks associated with licensing AI-generated contents? As you know, most agencies are not accepting AI-generated content while Adobe Stock is embracing this new trend.  

We’re keeping a close eye on market trends, especially Adobe’s direction. We’re seeing more and more AI content in advertising campaigns of all kinds, so it seems like an unstoppable force. Personally, as a photographer, I’m somewhat concerned because, no matter what we’re told, clients will hire photography services much less or reduce their budgets for stock as long as they can create professional images with AI tools. There’s also a feeling that anything can happen, and it wouldn’t be surprising if a law were introduced to restrict certain uses of AI-generated content, forcing us to remove it from our collections. That’s why we try to motivate our authors to continue producing real photo/video content.

The stock content market is constantly evolving. What trends and developments do you anticipate shaping the industry in the coming years, and how is your agency preparing for them?

This field is highly dynamic. I’ve been working in it since 2006, so I’ve seen a lot. I believe AI will change everything. And I don’t just mean stock images or videos that are put up for sale; I mean internal tools that automate processes. From a contributor’s perspective, I’m certain that this industry will become much more professional than it is now. More and more authors are producing advertising content that is virtually indistinguishable from what they would create for a final client, and they do it with smaller teams and budgets. This increased professionalism will likely lead to the development of new tools and options to serve this situation. Addictive is a small agency, and for now, we’re taking cautious steps and trying not to rush things, but we have many interesting topics in our roadmap that we’ll gradually implement into our service.

Personally, do you have any plans that you would like to share?

Personally, I don’t have many updates. I will continue to balance my role as CEO at Addictive with my photography/video productions, as I have been doing for these years. It can be challenging at times, but I make an effort not to let go of the camera and to always stay on that side rather than behind a desk in an office 😉

Thanks Victor and wish you continued success!

Many thanks to Brutally Honest! It’s a pleasure to collaborate with you 🙂

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About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal, on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted eight years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.

I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images and flying my DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly.

I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography