Story: Why does it free?
I believe that a lot of designers are using Adobe CC (Creative Cloud) included Adobe Stock. Before CC, it was called Adobe CS (Creative Suite) and the software was sold. It was not affordable, but just a one-time payment. I still don’t get used to a subscription business. As a freelance, we don’t want to increase any expense.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Individuals (Annual plans, monthly payment)
US$20.99 (CDN$27.90) for Creative Cloud Single App
US$39.99 (CDN$53.16) for Creative Cloud All Apps
US$69.98 (CDN$93.01) for Creative Cloud All Apps + Adobe Stock
All Apps plan, plus 10 images a month.
Business (Annual plans, monthly payment)
US$33.99 (CDN$45.19) for Creative Cloud Single App
US$79.99 (CDN$106.35) for Creative Cloud All Apps
US$109.98 (CDN$146.15) for Creative Cloud All Apps + Adobe Stock
All Apps plan, plus 10 images a month.
I asked local creators. Some of them are still using Creative CS. I met a web designer who is using only Photoshop CC. “Latest illustrator is not nessesally, but Photoshop is a quite useful especially web designing,” he said. At any circumstances, designers need great photos. Unsplash, Pixabay and Burst are free stock photos site. You can send money to a photographer for appreciation.
Unsplash
Make something awesome.
Over 550,000 free (do-whatever-you-want) high-resolution photos brought to you by the world’s most generous community of photographers.
Unsplash: Beautiful Free Images & Pictures
Pixabay
Free images and videos you can use anywhere
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist – even for commercial purposes.
Pixaboy: Stunning Free Images
Burst
Thousands of open source images
Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. Our photographers are constantly shooting and uploading high-resolution images to help our users find the perfect free stock photo for their next project. Our goal is to build the best free image library for entrepreneurs, so we’re constantly uploading new photos and adding new categories to reflect current trends in e-commerce and retail.
Opinion: Why are these free?
I search the reason why these are free. How they make a business? I found a story on YouTube.
As my understand, Crew created Unsplash and they had 2 business, cafe and co-working space. For focusing business, Crew and Unsplash were spread. Then, Crew was sold to Dribbble which has the same business model, generate, connect job designer and market. I found a blog of a co-founder of Crew.
Mikael Cho: We just sold Crew to Dribbble.
Monetize, cash flow is important for business. It drives employee happiness. If a business creates value to a user, a company can charge to them. The fee is thank of a user. I am using photos site above for blog images. Thanks.
Scott Webb: Monetization on Unsplash
Recap: What did I learn?
1. Free has behind a story, BtoB, API
2. Free may generate unexpected user
3. Premier, subscription, monetize somehow.
Reference:
StockSnap.io: Beautiful free stock photos
Pexels: The best free stock photos shared by talented photographers
Adobe Stock: Find the perfect asset for your next creative project
iStock by Getty Images: Explore the official iStock website for millions of exclusive, royalty-free, stock files
Dribbble: a community of designers sharing screenshots of their work, process, and projects
