With the release of Adobe Stock, the tech and creative mega-company is making some big claims. Notably, they are arguing that Adobe Stock Photography is doing something entirely new, and offering a revolutionary approach to stock photography never before seen. Adobe’s total app integration is a very interesting feature, but is it truly unprecedented? While digging through old press releases and researching the development of Adobe Stock Photos, we found some evidence from Adobe themselves that would suggest otherwise.
The FIRST Adobe Stock Photo Experiment
“Adobe’s unique approach brings royalty-free image libraries into the heart of the creative process, with tight integration in the products creative professionals rely on,” the press release reads. All sounds familiar: we’ve heard this kind of language about Adobe Stock since the beginning. But as you keep reading, it gets obvious quickly that something odd is going on. The press release mentions full integration with CS2, a now very dated software package. Oh, and if you look to the top of the release, you will notice the date of the big announcement: April 4, 2005. What exactly is going on here?
As it turns out, Adobe developed a very similar product to their current Adobe Stock Photo offerings a full decade ago, with similiar selling points and similar claims of revolutionary features. The original Adobe Stock Photo experiment was a much smaller product release and differed in some significant ways, most notably offering images through other vendors rather than maintaining a stand-alone independent stock photo library. But the big selling points, like app integration which offers “streamlined approach to image management,” all look and sound exactly like the latest iteration of Adobe Stock. So what should we make of Adobe’s original foray into stock photography?
Stock Photo Customers Want Quality Images
First, we could obviously note that Adobe’s claims to be doing something entirely revolutionary with their current Adobe Stock product release seem to be somewhat misleading: Adobe themselves offered a similar product a decade ago! More importantly though, there is a lesson to be learned from the original Adobe Stock Photo experiment. And that lesson is that stock photo users want high quality imagery and consistency from their stock photo vendors. All of the cutting edge features in the world won’t keep customers loyal if the core product isn’t there.
This time, Adobe is taking a new approach by offering their own stand alone, professionally curated library, and we’re guessing that will help make this Adobe Stock experiment more successful. But only time will tell whether or not this latest jump into the world of stock photography will last, or whether we will be seeing new press releases from Adobe touting “revolutionary” products in another decade or so.
Imagine how much time and money one needs to have the skills to become a successful video creator. Do you really want to take that away from your fellow creative? Cheap stock video footage, unlike conducting your own shoot, is much cheaper. It does not require much of your time either. You can just easily purchase and download it from your preferred stock media site. It is the best way for you to complete your video production without breaking the bank and stepping on another’s toes.
Adobe’s new library is unique among stock photo agencies. You see, most of Adobe’s customers fall into the realm of creative professionals. Many marketers may know Photoshop, but not quite like graphic designers. In fact, marketing agencies often hire graphic designers to help them with their advertising campaigns. Who better to know the ins and outs of Photoshop with a passion than a graphic designer?
