Adobe has supplied creative professionals and non-professionals with tools such as Photoshop. To make things even easier, it is now supplying pictures and illustrations through a new service – Adobe Stock. Launched last Tuesday, Adobe Stock is based on Fotolia. Adobe acquired the online stock-art marketplace in January for $800 million. Now, they are both working together to compete with ShutterStock, Dreamstime, iStockPhoto and many other stock-art sites in connecting buyers and creators of images, videos and illustrations.

The stock-art market is crowded, but Adobe hopes to get ahead by integrating Adobe Stock into Photoshop and other products it offers. How is this possible? Adobe offers a Creative Cloud subscription program which provides users with a deep pool of photos, illustrations and videos easily connected to their most-favored photo-editing software. For every sale, Adobe keeps 67% of the revenue with a single photo costing $10 to license. Furthermore, it can sell its software to those who contribute their works to Adobe Stock.

Why Will Adobe Stock be a Success?
If you are wondering whether the stock-art site will come out victorious above other photo agencies, clearly, it will. Here are some of the reasons why it is probable.

• Many use Adobe tools as their main photo-editing software. Scott Morris, senior marketing director of Creative Cloud for Adobe, estimates that 85% of customers buying stock images are users of Adobe tools and 90% of available content online were created through these tools. The company hopes Adobe Stock will enhance the existing relationship between their customers and their flagship design tools.
• Adobe wants customers to pay continuously for its services. In the past years, Adobe tried to persuade its customers to pay for a new version of its software. But with the Creative Cloud subscription plan, it offers continuous updates on the rights to use electronic publishing services and Adobe fonts, access to Adobe Behance social network, and sync and share files in online storage. Now, Adobe also offers a price break for Fotolia images for Creative Cloud clients who add on annual subscription.

What can Adobe get from its own stock photo website?
Adobe has now over 4 million subscribers, contrasting the vocal opposition of many people when it announced that only Creative Cloud versions would be updated with new features. With that many of subscribers, the real question is “what can’t Adobe get from Adobe Stock”.
The stock photo market is projected to grow at 7% in 2019. With both Adobe Stock and Fotolia, Adobe has a big challenge ahead as buyers prefer big marketplaces with abundant inventory for sale and sellers prefer big marketplaces with lots of buyers. Fotolia, being fourth in the industry, claims only a slice of the market with 3 to 5 percent. That’s not a loss though because there is always room for consolidation. In a word, it becomes Adobe’s new source of revenue.

The Adobe Stock accompanies a lot of upgrades to be announced on Tuesday. These upgrades involve Creative Cloud products, including InDesign, Premier Pro, Muse, Photoshop, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and many more.

What will happen to Fotolia?
Now that Adobe has acquired Fotolia, you may wonder what will happen to it. Well, Fotolia will stay as a standalone website. Adobe recognizes the importance of Fotolia in Continental Europe and it does not want to disrupt that. While Fotolia has its competitors, it also has a great shot at growth. All thanks to the new Adobe Stock sales channel and the over 40 million photos and illustrations of the website.

How much do Adobe Stock services cost?
Adobe Stock services are available for individual photo purchases and subscription plans. Individual photos cost $10 each while monthly subscription costs $50 for 10 images. However, the price is discounted for those who are already paying for a Creative Cloud subscription. If you have more heavy-duty needs, you can opt for a bigger plan, which includes 750 images per month for $200. The best part about Adobe Stock is that unused downloads are rolled over to the next month. Also, Adobe does not require exclusive rights to the images sold by contributors to Adobe Stock and Fotolia. It also returns 33% of the revenues to them.

How can you access Adobe Stock?
For now, you can pick photos you like and need from stock.adobe.com site. Later on, Adobe will synchronize the photos with the library function of its Creative Cloud application. Low-resolution watermarked comp images will be used in the portfolio and the full-resolution final images will be available upon purchase of the image rights.

However, Adobe has already planned a tighter integration. It planned to integrate the images directly within the apps so customers do not need to browse from the Adobe Stock website. Contributors will also benefit as Adobe provides them with the opportunity to submit their photos to the marketplace directly from the apps as well. In a word, they will submit on Behance and the images will also be available on Adobe Stock.

The stock-art market is interesting now more than ever. There is a growing appetite for stock photos. In 2014, there were 496 million purchased images. It is projected to reach up to 630 million in 2019. As digital tools rewrite its rules, the number of participant has also grown. Digital photography and Internet sales have revolutionized the industry, making it possible for both amateurs and professionals to contribute and sell their work.