Author Topic: Dissolve: "We’re optimizing the collection" (Read 12349 times)

Holmes · « **on:** July 10, 2015, 13:36 »

Below is from an email from Dissolve today. Good to see a video agency culling the herd and keeping the strongest clips. Most agencies are bloated with junk images and clips. I think the industry would be better if there was more quality control measures like this.

We’re optimizing the collection

Thank you for all your submissions — more content than ever is getting submitted! Because we want to make sure your footage collections are as successful as possible, we’re revising our acquisition and curation process to optimize the collection.

Through our ongoing performance analysis, we know that the best-performing content shares similar qualities: commercially relevant, high production values, and contemporary styling. To make it easy for customers to find the content that’s most relevant to their projects, we’ll be fine-tuning the collection, selecting clips with the greatest potential based on these qualities.

What does this mean to you? Some content will be filtered out from the site and from incoming submissions. As a result, the saleability of your collection will be enhanced — we’re confident you’ll soon see the benefits.

gcrook · « **Reply #1 on:** July 10, 2015, 14:01 »

The full announcement:

Quote

We’re optimizing the collection

Thank you for all your submissions — more content than ever is getting submitted! Because we want to make sure your footage collections are as successful as possible, we’re revising our acquisition and curation process to optimize the collection.

Through our ongoing performance analysis, we know that the best-performing content shares similar qualities: commercially relevant, high production values, and contemporary styling. To make it easy for customers to find the content that’s most relevant to their projects, we’ll be fine-tuning the collection, selecting clips with the greatest potential based on these qualities.

What does this mean to you? Some content will be filtered out from the site and from incoming submissions. As a result, the saleability of your collection will be enhanced — we’re confident you’ll soon see the benefits.

Please keep on submitting your incredible footage as we work to make Dissolve’s the best footage collection out there! And if you have any questions or concerns, please contact [email protected].

Pricing changes

Based on recent marketplace changes to 4K royalty-free pricing and our own internal performance analysis, we’re decreasing the price of 4K from $300 to $199. This price point should generate greater sales volume and revenue. We’re also decreasing our base HD and SD prices by $1. These changes will take effect in the next two to three weeks.

Revised pricing structure

4K — $199
HD — $79
SD — $49

(Prices for higher tiers and extended licenses also revised accordingly.)

Looks like they will not only curate stricter but remove some clips from the site (if i understand correctly) .
Remains to be seen which clips will these be.Would be nice to inform contributors beforehand (i.e differently graded same clips,editorials,"ducks in a pond" etc etc)
Also 4K price changes and sd resolution introduction.

Mantis · « **Reply #2 on:** July 10, 2015, 14:33 »

What happens if one does not accept those terms? I see there was no "accept new terms" on the site. Uploaded files were based on 4k of $300. This is the bullsh!t response to SS and probably VB. Dissolve has us locked in to 5 years, but if i dont agree i am asking them to close my account. They will continue to try to match pricing and at 30% commission we will end up with very little.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2015, 14:41 »

"Some content will be filtered out from the site and from incoming submissions."

"filtered out" - very business-speak

trek · « **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2015, 21:10 »

The five year lock in is the main reason I passed on this site. The low 30% commission is the other reason.

generic · « **Reply #5 on:** July 11, 2015, 14:54 »

Receiving this email finally convinced me that Dissolve just is nothing to waste time with. How laughable is that, to just do exactly what ShutterStock does. Also this crappy wording of their communication. Horrible. Do they really think contributors are monkeys?
And as if anyone knows what will sell (given quality is appropriate). And 30% and all their hype talk, it is just repellent altogether.

Quote from: Mantis on July 10, 2015, 14:33

What happens if one does not accept those terms? I see there was no "accept new terms" on the site. Uploaded files were based on 4k of $300. This is the bullsh!t response to SS and probably VB. Dissolve has us locked in to 5 years, but if i dont agree i am asking them to close my account. They will continue to try to match pricing and at 30% commission we will end up with very little.

Open_ · « **Reply #6 on:** July 12, 2015, 09:44 »

Self defining what is good quality video, their better have a good cash reserve to keep going or we'll witness another Stockeon

gcrook · « **Reply #7 on:** July 12, 2015, 18:27 »

I'll just mention this from my latest royalties report (June) at dissolve.
I had a big month,i couldnt literally believe my eyes in number of sales after only 6 months there but im not quite thrilled:

30% of my hd sales were discouinted sales with 19.88usd royalties (that's a 25% royalty) .
I was told that these bulk discounts have a meaning (big client offer,massive bulk purchases etc) and i can definitely relate to that,
but this is what shutterstock does more or less.Yes they bring sales (for me at least) but for how long and for how much?

And a day after comes as a coincidence this latest newsletter.
I truly believe that it is becoming very difficult for new agencies to not follow the ss path.
Why is that?I have my theories but it doesnt make me feel any better,and certainly i wont be cheering for another ss model agency even if it makes me big sales.
And of course i wont be uploading "everything" from now on.There are still ways where someone can receive a decent (financially but more importantly ethically) commission from his hd clips.
For the time being.

gcrook · « **Reply #8 on:** July 12, 2015, 18:39 »

(tip:use modify button next time)

Mantis · « **Reply #9 on:** July 12, 2015, 20:08 »

I've sent them an email asking if contributors can "not accept" the new terms and close their accounts. It's a fair option for them to offer. I think I have about 450 videos there but if their "culling" guidelines kill half of my port that makes it even more difficult. They are either targeting a very specific market for which they have intimate knowledge of buyer needs, or they are claiming to know, holistically, what all video buyers need.

I hope they they also put out submission guidelines that align with their new culling practice.

gcrook · « **Reply #10 on:** July 12, 2015, 20:57 »

It's not the killing of the portfolio or the rejections that bother me.
I can only speculate at this point but these are my thoughts.

No agency (that i know of) has so far decided to impose strict aesthetic criteria in moving images.Yes agencies have a bit of an agenda,some dont accept editorials for example,and some dont sell even if they accept,but deciding on a certain aesthetic is something else.
As i've said i have good sales there,and im buffled really.My images dont correspond to their "post" aesthetics in general,if one should look at their front page he will
get a certain feel for what kinds of images resonate with them.

Are they going towards that direction?Then theoretically my footage is irrelevant or they dont know what they want
and that will create imbalance and/or disturbance in both their clients and contributors alike.
This will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Is there an agency that has adopted this model in the stock photography world?(im footage only so i dont know really about some photo-only sites)
Is canva like this for example?If yes does it work out?

cobalt · « **Reply #11 on:** July 13, 2015, 00:03 »

Quote from: gcrook on July 12, 2015, 20:57

Is there an agency that has adopted this model in the stock photography world?(im footage only so i dont know really about some photo-only sites)
Is canva like this for example?If yes does it work out?

It is very common to do this in the photo world, lots of higher priced agencies build collections around a certain "Look"

Check out tetra images, blend, stocksy,offset, or the variously themed collections on getty or corbis.

The advantage for the customer is that they can easily mix and match all the files, because the whole collection looks like it was done by a single studio with one art director.

In a world of maybe 100 million images, themed collections save the customer a lot of time.

The video Stock market is still in a very early stage, very little content overall, but it looks like they want to position themselves as a themed niche agency.

If it brings ins the money, why not, as a contributor you will learn what they want, so you just send them part of your production.

The 5 year commitment is the reason I haven't looked at them. 5 years is total lifetime on the internet.

But their concept can work if they market it well.

gcrook · « **Reply #12 on:** July 13, 2015, 00:22 »

Quote

The video Stock market is still in a very early stage, very little content overall, but it looks like they want to position themselves as a themed niche agency.

Let's hope this is not what they want to do, because i think that "themed" or "niche" video as opposed to a similar still image has very little chance to sell as part of a bigger puzzle, (which is what video is used for in most cases,in video projects).

Again we're speculating here,unless we see what this is all about we can only riff-raff.

ruchos · « **Reply #13 on:** July 13, 2015, 01:16 »

Quote from: cobalt on July 13, 2015, 00:03

The 5 year commitment is the reason I haven't looked at them. 5 years is total lifetime on the internet.

Can someone help me understand this 5 year commitment thing? I hear people say it a lot about their contract, but when I read the contract it says the contract is valid for 5 years (with year on year extension after that) but can be terminated at any time that the contributor wishes to, and you can remove your clips at any time that you wish to by notifying them. Which to my understanding isn't locking you in for 5 years.

ccbcc · « **Reply #14 on:** July 13, 2015, 03:27 »

You know that contracts are negotiable? Anyway, I like what they are doing with the filtering. SS and P5 have so much crappy footage, I hope they'll do the same thing. Raise the bar and remove the cruft.

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Author Topic: Dissolve: "We’re optimizing the collection" (Read 12349 times)

Holmes

gcrook

Mantis

Sean Locke Photography

trek

generic

Open_

gcrook

gcrook

Mantis

gcrook

cobalt

gcrook

ruchos

ccbcc

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