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!