Agency Based Discussion > General - Top Sites
Age Old Question
Cider Apple:
Ok, Ok I know this has been asked a million times, but I've really been thinking seriously about it lately and wouldn't mind some thoughts.
This is from a video background (think storyblocks)
So why don't the top 10/20 people on here (including me obviously) with portfolios over 5000 clips start their own site offering it as a membership site so people can download as many clips for a pre-payed amount each month?
If 20 people with 5000 clips join then that's a library of 100,000 clips (storyblocks size)
Not sure what everyone would need to put in to start something like this off? $2000? thats $40,000 to make a simple membership site.
We could start off slow and try to build it up to advertise etc.
Am i naive? I'm just not sure why this hasn't happened already?
I know people on here will be saying we couldn't compete against the likes of shutterstock etc, but word of mouth is the best method surly? We could start off with 10/20 people and then open it up for all and then really compete against the big boys?
What do you guys think?
cthoman:
Running an agency is a pain in the behind, so most contributors don't want to bother unless it is just their own stuff. It's also difficult to get 20 people to agree on anything.
Cider Apple:
But it will be our stuff. I get the think about getting people to agree. But keep it simple and I'm sure everyone will want whatever is best as it could be huge?
I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but what is? (I'm surer that's a song lyric?)
Jo Ann Snover:
Not sure that anyone's tried a co-op with video, but it has been tried with images and so far, nothing has taken off.
You could certainly argue that video is different and that the monthly all-you-can-eat model is different, but I think that many of the same issues would come up.
Beyond the internals of running this co-op, why would buyers come to you versus any of the established agencies?
When you consider the momentum and marketing budget of the big agencies, having amazing unique content or some radically different approach (such as how Canva differs from Shutterstock, although SS is clearly trying to eliminate as much of that gap as it can) are the only ways to draw buyers away - I'm assuming you won't try to undercut on price as no major contributors would be interested.
How do you persuade major, successful contributors to forego the known income from an established site to give you exclusive content? Stocksy was able to get off the ground with that request because (IMO) they had Bruce Livingstone as a founder and agencies were behaving very badly at that particular time.
I'm leaving out a lot of other issues (such as the unlimited clips business model or the size of market for video vs. images (and I know everyone's currently breathless about the future of video, but the market is inherently smaller)). But even with just the above, you'd need to answer a lot of business questions - not how to build the site questions.
Cider Apple:
Thanks for your input Jo Ann.
Yes it's the business side of things that collaterally within the group we would need to discuss and get right. I've got loads of ideas and I'm sure other people have too - so it would be tricky but not impossible? I'm open to see the bigger picture and open new ways of thinking too so it would have to be a collective collaboration.
I wansn't thinking of exclusivity BTW. A place where we could market our own material. As a buyer when I buy clips I hate the thought that the stock agencies get most of the money. I would prefer to buy from a contributor owned site any day of the week. I know I have more knowledge than an ordinary buyer as I'm also a contributor but I'm sure most people would agree.
I think something big and (fair) needs to be done in our industry and maybe this could be a way to do it?
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