I’ve decided to make this post to hear about experience of other authors and gather some info (if possible) on the latest events. I’ll appreciate any thoughts you may have to share.
So, is AJ dead? Or did something happen that now has great impact on AJ?
From the start of 2020 I’ve noticed that average income on AJ decreased about 25%, comparing to 2019.
I noticed the same 25% drop during the start of 2021.
But now, during May, it’s like any activity on AJ just disappeared all together. It happened so suddenly so I really don’t know what to think.
In 10 days I earned only $50. Last time I saw similar results back in 2017, when I just started to work as an Envato Author and I had about 10-20 items in my portfolio.
So I’m asking you - Do you have any idea what may be the cause of this? Maybe we’ll be able to figure out what to expect in the future.
Right now and watching everything, i am praying to reach thresold this month, the last time this happened to me was the first month i was here, six years ago…
This is a “perfect storm”: lockdowns, price dumping, subscriptions. And each one of these causing a few minor factors, like temporary market oversaturation; “hobbyists” producers who don’t count on this income for a living, but are just doing it “to see what’s gonna happen”; audience is moving from Youtube to other platforms, where CID-like mechanism is not established yet, so they don’t care much about licenses (i’m not sure about it though); the age of the audience, the way they percieve information and video format are changing too (like TikTok and other platforms with short forms of videos). Some of these things will vanish in some short time, some will stay for a while. So, maybe authors should invest more time and efforts in exploring new ways of making income with music.
My sales dropped 57% in 2020 comparing to 2019 and this year i am struggling to make my earnings at least as it was in 2020. Envato did not invited me to Elements, sadly, and loss of sales due flow of buyers from Market to Elements did not compensated, as for others who were invited to this close club. Count all other factors, already described above and you’ll get the whole picture.
Hi everyone,
For me it’s not dead, but my income decreased about 35-40% compared to 2019, 2020 wasn’t too bad for me despite all the things that happened that year, but 2021 is really slow. To be honest I uploaded only 5 tracks this year, so may be it could be the reason.
Hello Wolf!
It’s sad that you only made $ 50 in 10 days.
I think you can guess what this is connected with endlessly, probably as well as listening to your favorite music.
Last month I had enough money to buy a new drum practice pad. Training has become more productive and interesting!
Let’s try to shout together Woooooooohooooooooooohooooooo
Yeah, pretty much dead to me, or at least in ER. Objective numbers like the sales a new featured item collects these days, the graphs that long term authors share in the forums, the site’s pricing policies and categories, etc., speak for themselves. Personally I’m making way below 50% than I was on 2019 (before Elements) and it just gets worse every month. Also some cold facts like the closing of the gates both in Elements and soon in AJ can give you a picture of where things are heading.
I often mention I work with a couple of small production houses I do sound post for and that used to be AJ customers (they were buying literally dozens of tracks monthly). Well, in time they switched to Elements and recently (wait for it…) they cancelled their subscriptions and joined a different platform I obviously can’t name here. I was quite shocked when I saw the music folder with non Envato tracks in it. I’m not making this up, believe me.
They’re not allowing to even apply to Elements so I guess things are not going as great as expected there either, but that I can only guess.
Anyway, it is what it is and it has been one hell of a ride since 2016 so nothing but thanks to Envato for that. Prost!
At the moment, for me pretty much dead. Until AudioJungle really sorts out the current goings on, namely pricing, promotion, subscription and rinsing the marketplace of copied and template tracks nothing will change until closure. I guess the first step in temporarily closing the door to new authors will allow the marketplace to breathe a little bit but this is a first step, good but IMHO there needs to be more changes to sort out. Time will tell.
I am a new author (March 2020) - I have little experience, but I can see that it is getting worse. I don’t even have the motivation to upload new files
I haven’t sold anything in 27 days, the worst record ever since I signed up here in 2017.
It’s frustrating and for me it’s really demotivating.
As I’ve written elsewhere, seeing 5$ tracks being on the top list with great numbers of sales makes me think and discourages me. I hope that with the new decisions something will change but honestly, in my humble opinion, we will have to review the minimum threshold on items price. One standard audio track license cannot cost as much as a logo or even less. I mean, there are beautiful songs at too low price, which makes it difficult for other authors to sell. But this is my idea and I’m not going to devalue my works by putting them at such low price.
Yep, dead month sadly and also dead for my carrier as well as for many Elite who were not allowed to participate on Elements. We were left dying. Sad truth. Worst week ever.
It’s been a long time coming, but March '21 was the first month I didn’t reach the payment threshold since '17. At its best I was averaging 90 tracks sold per month. Now it’s about a handful, mostly the top sellers.
The age of subscription just finally killed the value of music for good. One just has to adapt and get with the times I guess.
Can’t hold any hard feelings though. This platform allowed me to switch my life around some 5 years ago. For that I’ll always be grateful.
Hello everyone!
It is a sad fact that successful people in this area are suffering so much because of the changes in the market, the crisis that has begun, which will not end as soon as we would like.
In my case, the portfolio that I tried to create for so long turned out to be dead, like many who started uploading music in early 2020. Initially, I thought that the problem was in my music (maybe it is), but as it turned out, there are people who do not have music causes doubts and they suffered. Maybe, by the will of fate, everything will change and return to normal, but there will still be nothing.
Let’s try to shout together Woooooooohooooooooooohooooooo 
