Our relatively small and cosmically insignificant rock in space has completed yet another cycle around its sun. That means that it’s time to publish a super comprehensive review of 2024, including quite detailed stats on a record-breaking blog post with over 7,000 words. Read on towards the end as I’ll also give a glimpse ahead to 2025.
Thanks Master Steve heap from Backyard Silver for the mention on your December 2024 report and happy to see that you’re doing well with your fine art print sales!
Without further a do, let’s get started on this journey!
Supporting the Blog!
As you can appreciate, I spend countless hours compiling information for this blog. In return, I kindly ask you to consider some of the high-quality products that I promote which can help further your own stock business. I don’t choose just any products to promote on here like some Chinese flea market!
- Topaz AI sharpening and noise reduction for both videos and photos
Now let’s get started on the year-end report.
Check out my earlier yearly-earnings reports
I’ve been publishing these comprehensive year-end reports since 2018.
See my respective 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 year-end reviews. Here’s also my historical net earnings going back to February 2019 when I first published my earnings report. The spikes were book covers and (more recently) AI payments.
I really enjoy putting them together. It’s always nice to look back at how I’ve done. I find ways that I can somehow improve, while not leaving my business to chance.
Let’s Sum up 2024!
You may recall that 2021 was the Year of Frustration as I wasn’t able to travel, 2022 was the Year of the Drone and 2023 was the Year of Friendship.
As for 2024, it has been a year of reckoning, a time to confront the harsh reality of what I now recognise as a less-than-ideal business model for the future. While I wouldn’t label it outright terrible, there are undoubtedly simpler and more rewarding ways to earn a living with far less effort – more on this later.
This challenging outlook is particularly evident in the microstock industry, where contributors like myself are facing significant obstacles – AI, oversaturation and lower royalty rates come to mind.
That said, there are a few glimmers of hope, which I’ll touch on later, though they remain scarce. In truth, many alternative opportunities for generating income today offer a much easier and more promising path forward.
Warning: Further Doom & Gloom talk
Although I hate the doom and gloom that is prevalent in many stock photography forums, I can’t sugar coat it here as my results speak for themselves. I’m simply not earning enough to make this a worthwhile business. I saw the writing on the wall for a few years and wrote about it in last year’s report:
“Therefore, I beg to ask if stock is still worth it as a side-hustle? The short answer is that financially NO WAY and I would not recommend anybody in 2024 start doing stock purely to earn money!! I’ve made this quite clear with the above with my own hourly rate but you’re free to proceed yourself if you wish, perhaps you have some untapped magical niche that you may wish to exploit.”
The primary source of my pessimism is the unsustainable decline in average earnings per file year after year. The only silver lining comes from Adobe Stock, where my average return per download for images grew by an impressive 60% year-on-year, increasing from $0.67 to $1.07 per download. However, this is overshadowed by the steep decline in earnings from Shutterstock, where both photo and video returns are in free fall – down 15% for images and a staggering 37% for videos year-on-year. Further details on these results can be found later in this report.
Overall, the outlook isn’t promising. Covering the cost of trips with stock income is now a distant dream, no matter how budget-friendly the travel. Scandinavia purely for stock? Forget it. Gear upgrades have also become a luxury I can’t afford to fund regularly through stock income. For now, I’ll have to make do with what I have and maybe just keep up the illusion of having all the fancy gear!
AI can sense something is off
Even Chat GPT can sense something is wrong. I’ve asked it to analyse my earnings reports and blog posts going back to 2016. It spots an obvious downward trend in terms of optimism as you can read below:
Next, I asked it to track my optimism for this business model over the years in a line chart. It has also given a gloomy prediction for the next few years:
WordPress has this new cool where it can generate an AI image for a blog post. I duly asked it to create one for this post. This is what it has dished out. It is quite impressive and precise!
What’s next for microstock?
Over the past two years, I’ve been gradually winding down my microstock business. Across the major agencies, my portfolio growth has slowed significantly, with only a 4% increase in photos, down from 11% in 2023 and 12% in 2024.
For now, I plan to let my existing images and footage continue generating passive income as they go through their natural life cycles. Deleting portfolios feels like a drastic, “nuclear” option that offers little benefit unless dealing with a particularly problematic agency, such as YAY Images.
When it comes to new content, I intend to be far more selective. Moving forward, I want to avoid wasting time and energy on content with limited potential and instead focus on creating work with a strong likelihood of selling well on multiple stock agencies. Panoramas of cityscapes or beautiful landscapes come to mind as these can also lend themselves to fine art prints.
Recap on paying off trips
One reason for my pessimism is that I’m really struggling to reach my modest financial goals for some of my major trips from 2023 onward. I did quite well with earlier trips before Covid (see below “Israel”).
I know I’m supposed to wait for at least two years but just for fun here are the results so far for the recent trips:
| Trip | Goal after two years | Amount earned so far (December 2024) | Percentage so far earned to reach goal | Estimated Chance of reaching goal |
| Israel (2017) | None set | $1453 | N/A | N/A |
| Spanish Adventure (April 2023) | $870 | $130 | 15% | 5% |
| Transatlantic Cruise (November/Dec 2023) | $1,700 | $43 | 2% | 5% |
| South Africa (April 2024) | $860 | $109 | 14% | 30% |
| Dmitry’s Trip to Madeira (June 2024) | $1,600 | $200 | 13% | 60% |
I have a long way to go to reach the goals. This highlights the difficulty of trying to earn back the costs with sales in 2024. The Spanish adventures are especially worrying as they are only some 5 months away from the two year deadline. The content is selling but prices are quite depressed and need a miracle to reach the goal.
The South African trip is perhaps the most promising to reach my modest goal, so fingers crossed.
Glimmers of hope (aerial drone stock footage)
A few glimmers of hope. I’ve been closely watching Netherlands-based Hugo’s journey – link to his YouTube channel. He’s now earning over $4k/month by selling pretty much only stock footage, which is both inspirational and educational. He focuses mainly on infrastructure like power plants, data centres, railroads, highways, wind turbines. etc. If he could shoot airports, he would! Nevertheless, congrats on a strong 2024 – here is his yearly recap.
Careful if you’re trying to shoot like him
On one hand I’m quite pleased to see his success and have focused on shooting more of what he shoots, including critical infrastructure such as these fuel depots in Aveiro, Portugal.
Naughty Hugo!
On the other hand, I’ve reached out to him a few times. I tried to clarify about the legality of his flights and have received no response. Honestly, I don’t care so much what he does as his actions have no impact on me.
But he does has a certain responsibility / duty of care for his followers to come clean. After all, he has become an Influencer when it comes to capturing aerial stock footage. Who knows that some contributors who want to earn north of $4k/month may want to replicate some of his flights without the proper clearance and face a negative experience, at the very least steep fines. At worst, criminal proceedings.
Who am I to judge though – for the record, I’m no saint when flying out there. I do try to obtain authorization as often as I can especially when shooting in trickier urban settings. It’s not always possible though particularly in short notice when out traveling. There are other situations that I won’t go into here to avoid incriminating myself, obviously!
Why do I keep going despite constant disappointments?
Enough about others, let’s talk about my own business.
Why do I keep going is an awkward and quite philosophical question which requires me to think deeply about my motives. One reason is obviously monetary, living relatively comfortably these days requires a regular income. Earning at least $4k a month on a regular basis, as some of the Stock Wizards I’ve interviewed on here, would be nice. But, as you know, I’m struggling to break past $1k a month on most months. When I do is because of book covers and/or AI payments and those aren’t coming often enough, unfortunately.
But it’s deeper than that. I do this side-hustle because, for the most part, I enjoy it and brings me considerable satisfaction. When I’m in a bad mood, I reach for my camera or take off with my drone. Although posing once in a while is also fun!
The negativity almost magically slips away. I’m then stuck living in that moment. I’m sure you feel the same way when shooting. Then afterwards, as I post-process the content, it’s like I’m reliving those moments, like my recent trip to Porto.
Then there’s also the fact that with stock photography I get to travel on a more regular basis. I’d travel anyway but shooting at these places gives my trips more of a purpose and focus. As well as the hope that I may somehow be able to pay off some of the costs from the trip with stock earnings as mentioned earlier.
Last but not least, I get to meet some great people who have also taken this unconventional career path. The obvious ones in no particular order are Steve Heap, Elijah Lovkoff (where are you, Gentle Giant!?), Dmitry Rukhlenko and soon Theo and Tono!
Let’s now recap on my 2024 goals.
Recap on Goals for 2024
Around this time one year ago I brainstormed 10 quite achievable goals for 2024. I’ll take this opportunity to recap on them. I will give a summary on whether I achieved them or not.
Additionally, I’ll think about what I could done better. I encourage you to read towards the end of the report where I’ll also make 10 fresh goals for 2025.
How did I do on my ten 2024 goals?
Why realistic goal-setting is fundamental
Before diving in, I want to emphasise the importance of setting clear, realistic goals to maintain focus and direction. The stock marketplace is inherently unpredictable, so your goals need to align with that reality. Setting an ambitious target like uploading 50,000 images to microstock agencies, or even 5,000 images to Arcangel or 10,000 clips in 2025, is a fast track to burnout, mediocrity at best, and inevitable disappointment.
Instead, your goals should be something genuinely meaningful to you, something that motivates you to put in consistent effort. Without that personal drive, it’s unlikely you’ll stay committed or achieve the results you desire.
Goal 1 – Quality book covers at Arcangel
SUCCESS: You may recall that I pretty much stopped putting number-based goals in terms of book covers, instead opting for quality. The quality is certainly there (leading to numerous “showcases” to clients) and there were sales, but not as many as I hoped. Nevertheless, I managed to increase my portfolio by 1,326 images or 37% year-on-year.
Let me highlight my top 12 most “high-quality” images from 2024 with one for every month of the year.
Goal 2 – Keep publishing those monthly YouTube Earnings Reports
HALF PASS: Honestly, I wasn’t up for it on most months as my results were quite mediocre for the most part. I must applaud the following contributors who posted regular YouTube videos disclosing their monthly earnings:
- Andrew Balcome;
- Hugo;
- Jeff Whyte; and
- Miro Vrlik
Nevertheless, I did publish a few monthly reports when I was in a better mood – see below the videos. I should have been more consistent though as it’s normal that the few dozen YouTube videos will not get much engagement.
In any case, I feel like I’m at least 10 years too late to start a YouTube business and almost zero chance for it to become monetised without a hell of a lot of time/effort that I can be used elsewhere.
I feel that next year I won’t publish any YouTube earnings report since when written as I have traditionally done is a much better way to show the results. Instead, I’ll discuss a certain topic or go through one of my workflows – still need to think about it.
Anyway, here are some of the videos that I put together in 2024.
Goal 4 – Devote more time to promote my prints
FAIL: In May I finally set up an Etsy account and have contacted two printing companies to supply printing/delivery services. Although very few sales at Fine Art America and Photo4me and no sales at Etsy as I’m doing zero promoting. Master Steve Heap has provided plenty of advice on this department which is available on his blog.
I’m not so thrilled about Etsy though. They seem to have a huge scamming problem as I get almost on a daily basis messages in my inbox with fake links – see below. For this reason alone I’m thinking of dropping them particularly since I need to pay every month.
Master Steve is doing well selling his fine art prints…here’s a link to one of his latest articles.
Goal 5a – Upgrade my drone qualifications
Not possible yet but regularly looking for updates when the Portuguese Aviation Authorities finally get their act together.
Goal 5b – Upgrade my DJI Air 2s drone!
YES! In April, I invested in the Mini 3 Pro and in June, I finally upgraded to the Air 3. I have been flying both regularly since. Love those drones, especially the Air3! Here’s a reel I put together after shooting in Troia.
Goal 5c – Learn about drone mapping
FAIL. I feel that I need to meet someone doing it full-time so that he/she can show me the ropes. I’m still quite ignorant about this type of business and how to get started. Anybody reading this can offer me some tips/guidance? Thanks in advance.
Goal 6 – Upload my dad’s 70s/80s/early 90s travel footage
SUCCESS: Finally managed to convert some of the old Cassettes into editable digital files. Here’s a shaky video captured at Maracana Stadium in 1980.
Tracked down the original VHS tapes
As advised by Daniele Carrer, the quality isn’t there and he has advised me to find the original Super8 tapes.
“Those are VHS tapes. Your Super 8 films, back in the 1980s or early 1990s, were transferred onto these tapes. I can confirm this because, while watching the footage, I noticed black spots that could only come from Super 8 films.
There are two problems: The transfer from the 1980s or 1990s caused a 70% loss in quality. I don’t have the equipment to transfer tapes, only films.So, my question is: is there any chance you can find the original reels? With those reels, I can create a state-of-the-art transfer.”
Once I find the original Super8 tapes, Daniele has kindly offered to improve them using his business – thetelecinema.
In the meantime, I’ve only managed to have two vintage clips accepted by Pond5 with the rest rejected. Here are the two accepted.
Goal 7 – Reduce regular commercial Microstock Photos!
PASS! I certainly shot much fewer microstock photos this year than 2023 while at the same time, in my opinion, increasing the quality on offer.
Within the major agencies I only managed to increase my microstock photos by an average of 4% compared to 11% in 2023. I deem this as a success as I’m really struggling to sell new content on micros so it’s correct to devote less effort to this segment of the industry.
On the other hand, I focused more on shooting aerial drone footage and increased my offering by a whopping 1,350 assets.
Goal 8 – Publish a monthly “newsletter” related to Artificial Intelligence regulations and how they relate to licensing stock photography & footage
PASS: I’ve written extensively this year about the advance of AI in the stock photography and videography industry.
This topic fascinates me and is super relevant, so will continue putting together these blog posts and updates.
Goal 9 – Go on another cruise!
FAIL: I really enjoyed the transatlantic cruise which has proved both good value for money and a great stock opportunity. It was also an opportunity to spend some time with my grandfather. I was fortunate to record his insight in a detailed interview. Here’s a snippet of him speaking about how he has reached 97 years of age in good health and spirits:
Goal 10 – Don’t go back to a corporate day job!
HUGE PASS: So, yeah, with the current situation, my earnings have remained stagnant despite new content. I have hesitantly started to look at opportunities in the corporate world. This is also one reason why I was recently in Madrid. Without trying to brag, in a day, I can easily earn more than my average monthly earnings at micros.
Speaking of income, let’s compare now 2024 and 2023 for the major agencies.
2024 v 2023 Earnings Detailed Breakdown (US$)
Starting off with images
| Agency | 2024 net earnings | 2023 net earnings | $Delta | Port size Dec 2024 | Port size Dec 2023 | Growth in assets | Growth % |
| Arcangel | 2,250* | 750* | +1,500 | 4,952 | 3,626 | 1,326 | 37% |
| Alamy | 1,040 | 988 | + 52 | 16,464 | 15,863 | 601 | 4% |
| Adobe Stock | 1,061 | 889 | +172 | 4,775 | 4,509 | 266 | 6% |
| Shutterstock | 1,141 | 1,779 | – 638 | 12,561 | 12,127 | 434 | 4% |
| iStock (up to Nov) | 785 | 939 | – 154 | 9,158 | 8,808 | 350 | 4% |
| Total | 6,272 | 5,345 | +927 | 47,910 | 44,933 | 2,977 | 6% |
Note: Does not include results from Robert Harding, Shutterstock Editorial and the minnows, which in any case don’t amount to much.
Clips
| Agency | 2024 net earnings | 2023 net earnings | $Delta | Port size Dec 2024 | Port size Dec 2023 | Growth in assets | Growth % |
| Adobe Stock | 224 | 164 | + 60 | 1,351 | 1,043 | 308 | 30% |
| Shutterstock | 322 | 519 | – 197 | 2,363 | 1,944 | 419 | 22% |
| Pond5 | 596 | 444 | + 152 | 3,006 | 2,590 | 416 | 16% |
| IstockPhoto (up to Nov) | 249 | 82 | + 167 | 1,029 | 822 | 207 | 25% |
| Total | 1,391 | 1,209 | + 182 | 7,749 | 6,399 | 1,350 | 21% |
Let’s compare Average Return per Download
Starting again with stills
| Agency | 2024 Avg RPD (US$) | 2023 Avg RPD (US$) | Variation |
| Alamy | 6.35 | 5.99 | +6% |
| Adobe Stock | 1.07 | 0.67 | +60% |
| Shutterstock | 0.44 | 0.52 | -15% |
| iStock | 0.39 | 0.45 | -13% |
| Total Avg. | 2.06 | 0.66 | +212% |
This is positive as we’ve seen some improvements particularly at Adobe Stock.
Now let’s take a look at clips
| Agency | 2024 Avg RPD (US$) | 2023 Avg RPD (US$) | Variation |
| Adobe Stock | 5.90 | 5.68 | +4% |
| Shutterstock | 4.81 | 7.69 | -37% |
| Pond5 | 27.30 | 24.66 | +11% |
| IstockPhoto | 2.00 | 1.46 | +37% |
| Total Avg. | 10.0 | 9.87 | +1% |
Year-on-year, a considerable drop in average clip earnings at Shutterstock with the remainder quite steady. I won’t discuss iStock which is already extremely low to begin with as contributors earn only 15% royalties on non-exclusive sales.
Let’s compare now Return per Image
This is a popular metric in microstock as it measures, on average, how each individual image or video earns per year for a specific agency.
Starting with images at the micros:
| Agency | 2024 net earnings in $ | Port size as of Dec 2024 | RPI |
| Alamy | 1,015 | 16,458 | $0.06 |
| Adobe Stock | 1,051 | 4,790 | $0.22 |
| Shutterstock | 1,121 | 12,563 | $0.09 |
| iStock (up to Nov) | 785 | 9,170 | $0.09 |
| Total | 3,972 | 42,981 | $0.09 |
Quite a huge variation in terms of average earned per image. You can see that I have the most assets on Alamy. This includes many RM-exclusive assets. Due to relatively low priced sales, it’s 50% less than the average of 9cents per image for the major agencies.
Moving onto return per clips (RPC)…
| Agency | 2024 net earnings | Port size as of Dec 2024 | RPC |
| Adobe Stock | 224 | 1,351 | $0.17 |
| Shutterstock | 322 | 2,363 | $0.14 |
| Pond5 | 546 | 3,006 | $0.18 |
| IstockPhoto (up to Nov) | 249 | 1,029 | $0.24 |
| Total | 1,209 | 6,399 | $0.19 |
Huge drop in RPC at Shutterstock, nearly halving year-on-year.
AI Machine Training Payments
2024 was quite unique in that I/we received quite a few payments for machine training of the databases. Here they were broken down by agencies.
| Agency | Amount earned (USD) |
| Adobe Stock – AI training, including Firefly | 418 |
| Pond5 (Dataset) | 251 |
| Shutterstock (Contributor Fund) | 116 |
| Wirestock (Dataset) | 66 |
| Total | $804 |
Interesting that in 2023 I earned only $125 from AI payments. It’s logical to fully expect these types of payments to increase in 2025 especially now that Getty / iStock has decided to get its act together and payout from December 2024.
Perhaps these payments will lead to drops in the actual licensing until the agencies don’t need my/our ports anymore and can generate AI content themselves. By that stage perhaps my commercial port will be all but redundant and I’ll only be earning from the vintage usages of existing editorials.
Grand Total Results 2024
| Category | Amount earned (USD) |
| Images sold (all image agencies, excluding Arcangel) | 4,232 |
| Arcangel (average of $250 net/download) | 2,250 |
| Clips (all agencies) | 1,391 |
| Adobe Stock upfront payments for free usage for one year ($5 for images and $8 for clips) | 248 |
| AI Training Payments for all agencies | 804 |
| Alamy Novel Use Payments + DACS | 199 |
| Wirestock Paid Projects (sequential story-telling in April) | 144 |
| Print on Demand (Fine Art America + Photo4me + Etsy) | 56 |
| Grand Total | $9,324 |
Best month: November at $1,377
Worst month: December at $477
Monthly average, including AI and other payments: $777
Historical data
Thoughts on my yearly earnings
Mixed results, as always.
Arcangel was where I put in the most effort and the returns were quite mediocre, but at least it was a vast improvement from 2023 when I only had 3 sales for a total average of $750.
There was also a new category that wasn’t as prevalent in 2023 which were payments for AI training, earning me $804 throughout various agencies. These AI payments should go up from next year and will be interesting to see by how much and whether sales will go down as a result.
Plus, a small increase in clip earnings at all agencies (definitely not average returns), but the average RPD has dropped by almost half at Shutterstock. This is worrying and I suspect that next year we’ll see some huge drops in average earnings at Pond5 after their Orwellian announcement in December 2024 – more on this later.
Feels like 2020
In conclusion, I’m back earning similar amounts to 2020 earning levels with a considerably larger and higher quality portfolio, including drone content. Quite frustrating but it is what it is as the market has changed for the worse and agencies are squeezing contributors.
A note on inflation, as always:
The total cumulative inflation in Europe between 2020 and 2024 is approximately 21%. Therefore, if I earned $9,324 in 2024, it is equivalent to earning approximately $7,365 in 2020 in terms of purchasing power.
Long-term Passive Income predictions
What gives me at least some comfort is that even if i stop uploading TODAY I know that I’ll keep earning for years to come, perhaps even as much as $6,000 in 2025 without lifting a finger. In this way I have actually succeeded in the goals I set myself back in 2013, oh so long ago.
A lot of things can change in the next 5 years but I’m almost guaranteed to earn at least $20,000 from my existing portfolio even if I put in no extra effort.
Diversifying my income by playing cash poker
I often remind myself that relying solely on stock income is no longer sustainable given the declining payouts. To make a viable living, we need to diversify, exploring opportunities like working directly with clients on shoots or branching into other income streams. There are many types of work that only require a laptop and good internet connection.
In my case, I love games and I’ve found success with an unconventional yet effective side hustle: playing live cash poker at my local Casino Estoril, focusing on low-limit games of €1/3. As well as low-buy in tournaments on some occasions (as well as shooting them).
Like my work in photography and videography, I carefully track my results. In 2024, I played a total of 416 hours, earning €7,560 ($7,858), which averages to approximately $20 per hour.
This hourly rate far surpasses my earnings from stock, and while it’s possible to earn more by playing at higher limits, the nature of poker involves putting my own money at risk. I approach the game strategically, treating it as a skill-based endeavor rather than gambling recklessly (even if others do), always aiming to play smart and minimise losses.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
My point of bringing up my cash poker side-hustle is that there are so many different ways to earn these days and we can’t become fixated on just one type of income (especially a 9-5 job that “appears” secure). I try my best to diversify my income streams as to suffer less from shocks…in the stock world being those “Exciting News”.
Perhaps it’s time for me to put photography aside and become a true poker grinder by opening up a Brutally Honest Blog on Poker, similar to Damiano’s TheRounderdotNet. Would you follow my poker adventures?
Anyway, on this somewhat positive note let’s get back on track by focusing on the stock industry, starting with the Good news.
Yearly Recap – The Good
Drone opportunities
After some 130 hours of total drone flight I’m encouraged with the results I’ve been capable of achieving. This year has been no exception as the quality I’m capturing is on the up and up. My upgrade to the Air3 has greatly aided this improvement.
Arcangel Book Covers
I initially placed Arcangel results in the “Bad” category when I was drafting this report. A few weeks later I have since moved them to the “Good” and will explain why.
Starting with the bad – I invested so many hours in trying to increase my portfolio. I focused on both quantity and quality. As a result, I achieved close to a dizzying 5,000 accepted images, increasing my portfolio by 1,326 (37% year-on-year).
As you can appreciate, they are super picky on their weekly curation process. Nash would always say to me, “Only the best please, Alex.” I have tried my best to oblige! However, I admit that I’ve been too liberal in my submissions as I often send in “good yet not excellent work”. I need to do a quick search on some of the contributors who sell regularly, including Abigail Miles and Leonardo Baldini. These Elite Contributors are sending in small and highly commercial batches with results that speak for themselves.
9 sales this year (with many more to come)
I’ve had 9 sales this year, which is 3x more than 2023. However, it has fallen short of my yearly goal of 12. If you’re curious, here they are (one of the covers I was not able to spot which was an Italian languages textbook).
New metric released by Arcangel
Here’s some good news: late in 2024, Arcangel launched a new tool for contributors, accessible through its portal. This tool offers detailed insights into views and downloads, complete with thumbnails for each. While I tend to prioritize downloads over views, both metrics are valuable. Downloads, in particular, are an essential part of the process, often representing designers testing high-resolution images for use in copy or composites. Although downloads don’t guarantee a sale, they’re an encouraging step forward.
Below is a screenshot of some of my recent downloads, hopefully, they’ll turn into book covers in the new year. So, how did 2024 look in terms of downloads? The tool recorded 269 downloads, resulting in 9 sales. This suggests a rough conversion rate of 1 sale for every 30 downloads. However, it’s worth noting that not all downloads are from potential buyers. Arcangel’s team often downloads files for monthly showcases and promotional materials, which can influence these numbers so perhaps it’s more like 1 sale for every 20 downloads.
I’m sure this new metric will help me to focus more on creating content that appears to be receiving more attention from potential buyers.
Great expectations for next year
Perhaps I’m cutting Arcangel some slack as they’ve been good to me as I must not have been easy to teach coming from a microstock background which is world’s away from book covers. So I’m eternally grateful.
But I’ve progressed quite a bit and my portfolio is now finally becoming a powerhouse. I don’t want to get ahead of myself but perhaps in 2026 I can be invited to be an Elite Contributor.
Brutally Honest Expectations for 2025
I have great expectations for next year and will work hard to achieve them. Hopefully at least 10 sales but who knows for sure. At the end of the day, it all depends on me and the quality of work that I can produce that matches market needs.
Interview series is going strong
In 2024 I published three interviews with the following Stock Wizards:
Yearly Recap – The Bad
Pond5 goes full Orwellian
In December, Pond5 released a memo to its contributors. It seemed straight out of George Orwell’s 1984. This memo was heavily ridiculed over at the MicrostockGroup Forum.
“Dear Artists,
As the global market for creative content continues to grow and diversify, Pond5 is also evolving. We’re exploring new ways to expand licensing activity and maximize the earning potential for our contributors as one of several strategic moves to ensure Pond5’s future and enhance our competitive offering. By adapting our pricing and embracing new opportunities, we’re positioning the marketplace for sustained growth in an ever-changing landscape.
Starting on January 15, 2025, we will introduce new contributor royalty rates. Artists will now earn a 30% royalty from licensing activity on Pond5, while Exclusive video artists will earn an increased royalty of 40%. The new rates will also apply to the Pond5 Subscription, Global Market Earnings, and Partner Earnings programs. Given their restricted use rights and narrow license scope, Dataset Earnings will now earn 20%.
We will update our Contributor Agreement effective January 15, 2025, to account for these changes. We encourage you to review the new Pond5 Contributor Agreement carefully.
While the industry has evolved dramatically since our founding in 2006, our commitment to supporting our artists remains at the heart of everything we do. We deeply value you as a member of our talented and diverse contributor community and understand this change may feel significant. Our ultimate goal is to build a sustainable marketplace where you can continue to grow and succeed over the long term.
Please visit our Contributor portal for further information about the Pond5 contributor experience, and contact our Support team at support@pond5.com with any questions.
Thank you, as always, for being a valued part of our community.
Warm Regards,
Your Friends at Pond5″
The real numbers
Behind the overly optimistic tones, there was considerable gaslighting. In fact, exclusive contributors would be losing out by the following:
- Drop of 20% for non-exclusive and 40% for Exclusive. Ouch.
- P5/SSTK would be earning 80% of all accounts for dataset earnings starting 15th January, 2025.
Another insult to the contributor. This happens especially in a time when we’re already being squeezed with higher living costs. Another reason to think again about putting our efforts elsewhere…
Shockingly bad drop in average earnings for footage
Looking not just as Pond5 but at all the agencies where I license clips, the drop has been quite shocking. Note: I started uploading drone footage in April 2022.
In summary:
– Quadrupled the number of clips sold from 2020 until 2024
– 64% drop in earnings 2020 vs 2024 (note: inflation during those 4 years was around 21% in the Eurozone)
Looking more at the individual agencies, let’s start with Shutterstock which continues to lead the race to the bottom (those nasty sub $2 for 4K footage becoming commonplace, hence the huge drops):
While iStock is holding steady at stupidly low average prices – if you think it can’t go any lower you’re fooling yourself:
At least at Pond5, for the time being, the floodgates haven’t been opened, although will be interesting to see how the 20% drop in royalties for non-exclusive content will impact the chart below in the coming months.
Lastly, Adobe Stock has been holding steady since 2022.
Robert Harding goes hard-ing towards micros
In the November 2024 Earnings Report, I wrote about Robert Harding, an exclusive travel agency that I have been uploading since 2017. After a series of disastrous earnings reports, with the latest below, I called quits on them and wrote them a letter with thoughts.
Reply from Bob
I’ve received a reply from Robert Harding himself. I won’t share the details here but suffice to say that Bob didn’t change my mind one bit. In fact, I learned a surprising fact about Robert Harding (the agency) – they are testing some of their images over at Shutterstock micros which are shockingly available under subscriptions.
This situation makes my blood boil for obvious reasons. Why would I upload my images to a non-microstock (“Midstock”) agency when they can upload them also as micros? I was paying them a hefty commission for premium access at Tier1 libraries, duh!
Finally received Getty / iStock AI payments
I wrote the following article in November about the delay in receiving AI Compensation by Getty / iStock.
They finally delivered but part of me wish they wouldn’t as for the whole month I only received a whopping $4. Ugh!
If you thought the above were Bad, are you now ready for the “Ugly News” of the year?
Yearly Recap – The Ugly
Copytrack’s Dubious Business Model
You may recall that a few months ago I received some threatening emails from nasty Copytrack. Here’s the full story and conclusion.
Since publishing the article, I’ve received numerous emails from bloggers seeking advice after being “harassed” by Copytrack for legitimate uses of their content. In some cases, these individuals were so intimidated by the potential consequences that they paid up almost immediately.
Let me be clear: I firmly believe that legitimate copyright infringements should be addressed, and those who misuse content should rightfully pay for their actions. However, Copytrack’s aggressive and scattershot “spray and pray” approach is deeply unprofessional. If you believe you’ve been wrongly targeted by Copytrack, don’t hesitate to reach out—I’ll do my best to assist you.
On a related note, I’m still embroiled in a lawsuit through Alamy over some editorial images of a newsstand featuring the German newspaper Bild. There’s no update yet on the outcome, which is both frustrating and indicative of how increasingly litigious this industry has become over what often feels like trivial matters.
Jade the Airhead scammer
I first mentioned Jade, the Airhead scammer back in the July report.
Well, she is still going at it and fooling more people with her lies – see her latest TikToks and Instagrams as her lies just get bigger and keeps selling those expensive ebooks at $60.
Sucker born every minute
Like Copytrack victims, I’ve also had Jade victims reach out to me after paying for her stupid e-book. I’ve also been trying to help them out. In fact, I’m trying to get a hold of her ebook to publish on here and flood the market. In the meantime, let’s shame her into oblivion.
Lots of scams out there, do your due diligence before committing to a purchase!
On more positive news, let’s move onto 10 fresh goals for 2025.
Fresh 10 Goals for 2025
With the above pessimistic report in mind, let’s try to find some optimism for next year.
1. Publish at least 10 YouTube videos on any given photography/videography related topic
As mentioned earlier, I sort of slacked off in 2024 on creating YouTube videos discussing my earnings.
For next year, I’ll devote the space to creating more dedicated videos on specific topics, such as my workflow, drone regulation, AI and specific earnings-related discussions. Will be more interesting than what I did before which was sort of regurgitating my earnings report.
2. Shoot more with my iPhone 15 + gimbal stabilizer
I’ve recently upgraded to the iPhone 15 and keen to test some shots and videos to upload as stock. These will be especially welcome in more sensitive places where security won’t bother me. I recently had an issue shooting with my Nikon at the Fatima sanctuary where security asked me to stop…meanwhile dozens of people on their smartphones with no issues. Discrimination!
Good luck stopping me here, clowns!
3. Upgrade my Nikon to the Z mirrorless series
Perhaps it’s time that I start preserving my DSLR Nikons towards being displaced in museums.
4. Work more with clients
This is a goal that I set myself every year and 2024 was an OK year when it came to working with clients, having picked up a few gigs. I want to ride this momentum and pick up much more regular client work…and of course using some of the leftover content to upload as stock.
5. 60% acceptance rate for Arcangel batches
I admit that I haven’t really be tracking acceptance rates so accurately. I would estimate that for the year my acceptance rates on all batches was somewhere around between 30-35%. This is quite poor and on the low side.
For next year, I want to reduce my batch sides to avoid uploading speculative images. In turn, I will try to improve the quality of uploads and reach an average of 60%. This means I’ll of course need to start tracking the acceptance rates of batches on a weekly basis. Easily done using excel.
As for the number of sales, I fell short this year with only 9 as my prediction was 12. I’m going all out for 2025 and predicting 15 sales.
6. Learn to fly First-Person-View Drone (FPV)
The next logical step in my drone journey is to learn how to pilot and capture footage using a First-Person-View Drone.
I don’t think FPV is very useful for microstock as the look is unique (correct me if I’m wrong). I’m thinking along the lines of offering commercial clients the option, namely real estate when doing a home walk-through.
On a side note, I also want to experiment more with VR and perhaps even find business opportunities within this pioneering field.
7a. Start planning a trip to East Asia & Japan (perhaps this trip will only be in 2026 though)
I’ve always wanted to visit this part of the world and the trip will be almost exclusively for personal reasons. I will put almost zero pressure on me to earn back part of the trip with stock income.
8b. Island hopping – visit either Madeira (Inspired by Dmitry) or the Azores
Could be fun!
9. Shame more agencies and scammers
In the spirit of a Brutally Honest blog, I feel that in 2024 I could have been tougher on some agencies. This changed towards the end of the year with Robert Harding but only after a series of shockingly car-wreck type earnings reports.
Next year I must do better and even if some of my darling agencies, including Arcangel, don’t produce the goods they must be called out. I’m trying to run a business after all and pay for my time/expenses and grow.
I’ll also fight to expose scammers who promise the world and deliver nothing. Will also look to protect the interests of genuine photographers/bloggers who get caught up in the aggressive nonsense of Copytrack.
10. Learn some survival skills to be prepared
This one isn’t directly related to the stock industry. There are many geopolitical threats in the world. I’m not confident relying on public authorities to help when the situation becomes critical.
Therefore, I’ve been researching some courses I can take to learn some key survival skills. I never waste an opportunity. If the instructors allow, these situations may turn into excellent stock opportunities. They can help capture these trending types of content.
Let’s see how things will pan out in 2025 and hopefully the small fires everywhere don’t turn into one huge fire.
On that melancholic note, Happy New Year!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this special extremely detailed year-end report.
How did you do this year? What are your thoughts on the current state of the stock photography / videography industry? Did you reach your goals and what would be some of your goals for next year? Please share below!
About Alex
I’m a bit of an eccentric, based in Lisbon, Portugal, and on a mission to explore every corner of the globe. Along the way, I’ve been capturing stock images and footage, dedicating the last ten years to building a career as a travel photographer, videographer, and freelance writer. My goal? To inspire others by sharing unique insights into this fascinating industry—while calling out scammers when necessary.
I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. I was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly until it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE a year ago – here is the story. I’ve since upgraded the drone to a Mini 3 Pro and the Air3.
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
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
Thank you Alex for that fascinating analysis.
I really enjoyed reading it.
I’m very pleased with Arc’s new tools for viewing downloads etc.
All the very best to you and yours for the coming year.
Take care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the great annual review!
Looking at my own numbers, this year has been pivotal for my (rather small) microstock enterprise. While my portfolio is about a fifteenth the size of yours, I saw a sharp increase in sales after summer, mainly attributable to one drone image of Stockholm old town (being the first image on Shutterstock when users search for “Stockholm”) and a set of interior design sample boards I shot this summer.
My return-per-image ratios for my top three agencies (Shutterstock, iStock and Adobe Stock) was $0.55 this year, which I am rather pleased with.
Remains to be seen if this kind of success continues into 2025, though, or if it was only temporary. I’m far from the best photographer, but a happy enthusiast. 🙂
Happy new year! I’ll look forward to follow your posts in the next year also.
-Nicholas (@StockphotoNick on IG)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Alex, thank you for great realistic reading in New Year morning. Really very interesting. I also appreciate You mention me. I am following your blog for long time and also Your YT. Always great place to stop and read or watch it. Good luck on new not just microstock voyage in 2025
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your informative blog Alex! Interesting final goal of learning Survival Skills! Hopefully you’ll keep us all updated on that along with the poker! Happy New Year Alex!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks as always for a great post, and it’s great to read honest opinions after having myself embarked in stock photos 2 years ago. I am still in the learning/growing my income stage thanks to better quality photos, but yeah, selling the same in my opinion great photo on shutterstock 115 time for a total of less than 35 dollars is just sad.
And thanks for calling out Hugo, being myself part of the drone community and working in aviation I am amused but also worried about the carelessness he has while flying in regulated areas or over forbidden places, especially in France and Benelux. I did also mention that to him but got only a generic response back
/John (the pragmatic swede on IG)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading!
Yeah, it’s super frustrating that Hugo is ignoring the elephant in the room. He talks proudly about his sales, as he should, but ignores the steep fines that he can receive.
It’s one thing to fly close to an old castle but another to be close to a power station, shipping ports and crucial infrastructure without authorization. Anyway, I believe hat everybody is free to do what they want in a democratic and free society but with those freedoms / rights come obligations.
LikeLike
To be honest, I don’t understand how you could be sued for the pictures of the kiosk with the German newspaper, if you clearly uploaded them and classified them as editorials. The truth is that this industry is going to hell…
LikeLike
Me neither but Alamy is defending the claim on my behalf
LikeLike