MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: cliffordthebigreddog on September 10, 2020, 02:10
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Hi everyone, I hope you are well!
I have posted here a couple of times regarding making a new stock video platform. Things have been really pacing up and we are almost ready to launch our website. Before the official launch, we have organized a pre-launch event for you stock video creators. I’ve shared the event poster from our facebook page and more details are in the link below. I really hope that you guys would participate -- this is a project we’ve been preparing for a long time in hopes that it would be a step closer to making a better stock video experience for everyone. So please check out our website, and participate in our Upload Bonus event!
Visit our landing page for more details: www.playstock.net/pre-registration (http://www.playstock.net/pre-registration)
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Upload BEFORE knowing the commission rates and prices? in the worst case the site will offer unlimited-downloads for USD 9.99 .. Who knows.
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Why would I upload for a meager 50ct bonus if I don't know anything about pricing, commissions or your USPs?
You really expect us to be that gullible?
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
"Any user who fails to provide accurate and sufficient information required for the Company to deliver royalties from their Content may not be compensated even if their Content has been sold, and the amount that has not been issued will be returned to the Company during year-end adjustments."
Yea, NO!!
"Playstock shall have the right to retain any unissued royalties and/or other compensation when you terminate your account." I would rethink this. It's a bad, unfair message sent to contributors.
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
Mainly true. Motion Elements is two Years. I just completed my two years post account closing and was finally able to delete my already sold vids that were locked for that two years.
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
Mainly true. Motion Elements is two Years. I just completed my two years post account closing and was finally able to delete my already sold vids that were locked for that two years.
Doesn't it mean that buyers who bought a license, will keep that license even if you remove your videos from the platform? Cause that's pretty obvious and fair. You cannot revoke a license a customer paid for.
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
Mainly true. Motion Elements is two Years. I just completed my two years post account closing and was finally able to delete my already sold vids that were locked for that two years.
You're muddling a hold on your work - to continue licensing it after you want to leave - with the validity of licenses sold while you're active (every RF site does this). However, look at this language in the contributor TOS:
"Any Content uploaded through the pre-launch (Upload Bonus) event cannot be removed, and in cases where you suspend your account for personal reasons the Company has the right to retrieve the previously issued Upload Bonus payment."
I'd echo the comments above: uploading to a site that hasn't said anything about pricing is insane. Don't do it!
Looking at the contributor TOS and the TOS, it looks as though many details have yet to be worked out (such as which payment services will be supported - "Online payment processing services, such as Paypal and Payoneer will be used.").
https://www.playstock.net/contributor-terms-of-service (https://www.playstock.net/contributor-terms-of-service)
https://www.playstock.net/terms-of-service (https://www.playstock.net/terms-of-service)
Odd sections from the Contributor TOS include things like this at the end of the list of things you may not upload:
"Other insignificant, personal Content that the Company deems is misfit for the Site"
I have no clue what that would be referring to
There's also some VAT related wording that says if VAT is owed, the contributor is on the hook to pay it, not the agency.
In the TOS, it says you can't change your account email!
"You maintain sole access and control over all details in your personal profile and may alter these information at any point of use. However, you may NOT modify your email address and username required for Service management.:
They will not register "Accounts that reflect discrimination and hate, racism, abomination and pornography, violence of any sort"
I would stay far away...
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
Mainly true. Motion Elements is two Years. I just completed my two years post account closing and was finally able to delete my already sold vids that were locked for that two years.
Doesn't it mean that buyers who bought a license, will keep that license even if you remove your videos from the platform? Cause that's pretty obvious and fair. You cannot revoke a license a customer paid for.
I am merely relaying you the terms set forth by ME. Those were the terms. I deleted my content in compliance with the terms.
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Hi everyone, I hope you are well!
I have posted here a couple of times regarding making a new stock video platform. Things have been really pacing up and we are almost ready to launch our website. Before the official launch, we have organized a pre-launch event for you stock video creators. I’ve shared the event poster from our facebook page and more details are in the link below. I really hope that you guys would participate -- this is a project we’ve been preparing for a long time in hopes that it would be a step closer to making a better stock video experience for everyone. So please check out our website, and participate in our Upload Bonus event!
Visit our landing page for more details: [url=http://www.playstock.net/pre-registration]www.playstock.net/pre-registration[/url] ([url]http://www.playstock.net/pre-registration[/url])
In your dreams……
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We've seen other characters like this pop up with their Great New Thing, over and over and over. When nobody (or almost nobody) bites on their wonderful, irresistible offer, they disappear into cyberspace, never to be seen again.
Speaking of "nobody"… Nobody says it better than this true champion, Jo Ann:
I would stay far away...
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Hi everyone, I hope you are well!
I have posted here a couple of times regarding making a new stock video platform. Things have been really pacing up and we are almost ready to launch our website. Before the official launch, we have organized a pre-launch event for you stock video creators. I’ve shared the event poster from our facebook page and more details are in the link below. I really hope that you guys would participate -- this is a project we’ve been preparing for a long time in hopes that it would be a step closer to making a better stock video experience for everyone. So please check out our website, and participate in our Upload Bonus event!
Visit our landing page for more details: [url=http://www.playstock.net/pre-registration]www.playstock.net/pre-registration[/url] ([url]http://www.playstock.net/pre-registration[/url])
You can not be serious? No one in their right mind will upload anything before you publish your royalty rates and pricing model. Why not do it here and now??
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You keep making threads about your new stock site here and people keep asking you what are the royalities and what have you to offer to attrackt customers that other small and new sites don't, because most of us have wasted enough time uploading content to sites that don't have enough customers to make it worth our time, but you fail to answer these questions and now you want people to start uploading and still can't answer these questions....? Why is it so hard to just say it? Why the big secret?
Your stock site is getting more and more unappealing by the day (or thread) and you haven't even really started yet. :-\
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$9 given away so far :)
If you assume $1 per clip bonus (it's 50 cents to $1.50), that's 9 clips...
STAY AWAY
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$9 given away so far :)
If you assume $1 per clip bonus (it's 50 cents to $1.50), that's 9 clips...
STAY AWAY
Jo-Ann I am not sure banner is working in real time.
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
Mainly true. Motion Elements is two Years. I just completed my two years post account closing and was finally able to delete my already sold vids that were locked for that two years.
Doesn't it mean that buyers who bought a license, will keep that license even if you remove your videos from the platform? Cause that's pretty obvious and fair. You cannot revoke a license a customer paid for.
I am merely relaying you the terms set forth by ME. Those were the terms. I deleted my content in compliance with the terms.
Sorry for the confusion, I was talking about the PlayStock term you mentioned; my point is, if PlayStock issues a license to a customer for your video, and you later remove your video, then the purchased license should still remain valid for the customer.
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The red dog must be muzzled, all I can hear are crickets replying.
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The red dog must be muzzled, all I can hear are crickets replying.
Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
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"Licenses issued by Playstock for any of your Content that is later removed by yourself will remain in full force and effect in perpetuity."
Yea, NO!!
Well, to be fair, that’s true of all agencies.
Mainly true. Motion Elements is two Years. I just completed my two years post account closing and was finally able to delete my already sold vids that were locked for that two years.
Doesn't it mean that buyers who bought a license, will keep that license even if you remove your videos from the platform? Cause that's pretty obvious and fair. You cannot revoke a license a customer paid for.
I am merely relaying you the terms set forth by ME. Those were the terms. I deleted my content in compliance with the terms.
Sorry for the confusion, I was talking about the PlayStock term you mentioned; my point is, if PlayStock issues a license to a customer for your video, and you later remove your video, then the purchased license should still remain valid for the customer.
Based on their terms, you are spot on.
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I hope they are ready to pay the whole amount to one or two people (maybe through several fake accounts) who will upload a shed load of stolen images just to pocket the money. No legitimate contributor would consider this.
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The only thing Cliffordthebigreddog has posted about is his new site.
Sadly, he'll probably get submissions, even without posting anything about pricing.
I regularly see posts in various forums from newbie photographers who didn't read the details before submitting their work somewhere.
You've seen them: "I had a sale but I only got fifty cents!"
He'll get those people.
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$9 given away so far :)
If you assume $1 per clip bonus (it's 50 cents to $1.50), that's 9 clips...
STAY AWAY
Jo-Ann I am not sure banner is working in real time.
Perhaps not real time, but it has adjusted this morning - it's down to $19,990 :)
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Based on their terms, you are spot on.
Everyone's terms are the same in this respect. As I said.
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The only thing Cliffordthebigreddog has posted about is his new site.
Sadly, he'll probably get submissions, even without posting anything about pricing.
I regularly see posts in various forums from newbie photographers who didn't read the details before submitting their work somewhere.
You've seen them: "I had a sale but I only got fifty cents!"
He'll get those people.
And like the person from another forum who was extremely unhappy because they had asked Shutterstock to close their account "last night, and the files are still up this morning".
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thanks once more for your detailed analyses
just one comment:
In the TOS,...
However, you may NOT modify your email address and username required for Service management.:
this is common - it usually means they're using the email address as the key to your account, rather than generating a unique key. sloppy design. i've seen it in several MS agencies and even my bank!
seattle public utilities is keyed on the NAME of the person who opened the account and it can't be changed
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Perhaps it is all very hasty, give an opinion, but the sensation is the video, for being stronger turnover, making money and disappearing. It points to South Korea.
It's very sad, spending time not doing things right. It is hasty, but the feeling is not pleasant. And less at this time, since alternatives are needed. But real.
We'll be alert.
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Weird how on the Stock Coalition Facebook page under his Calling for Entries post the option to comment is turned off.
And there is no reaction from the OP.
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Weird how on the Stock Coalition Facebook page under his Calling for Entries post the option to comment is turned off.
And there is no reaction from the OP.
If you read all the comments, you'll see one from me - I turned off comments. The Coalition group isn't a place to advertise your business.
I posted a link in that comment to this thread so anyone who was interested could read the discussion here.
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Weird how on the Stock Coalition Facebook page under his Calling for Entries post the option to comment is turned off.
And there is no reaction from the OP.
If you read all the comments, you'll see one from me - I turned off comments. The Coalition group isn't a place to advertise your business.
I posted a link in that comment to this thread so anyone who was interested could read the discussion here.
Alright, now I get it :) I agree that it's no place to advertise. Hopefully your comment there discourages people from uploading (at least until we know more!)
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Thank you for the concerns and criticism.
I think I owe you guys an explanation of how this project came to be.
I believe that the market that deals with the entirety of stock content can be separated into two parts: one that sells extreme high-quality videos for a couple hundreds per clip, and the more commonplace one selling footage of decent quality at decent prices.
Playstock I am envisioning is directed towards amateur stock footage users, YouTubers, filmmakers, and content creators who need footage more affordable, accessible than the existing ones. And the footages we are looking for are widely and commonly-used and can be used for daily contexts, while still qualifying as ‘stock’.
We haven’t revealed the pricing plan and the royalty on the event page (and in my previous threads) because it is yet to be decided. It will be finalized by the results of the survey, which I have posted repeatedly on this website, asking for your help. We thought that it would be best to reflect your opinions as much as possible, and wanted to use the survey as a chance to connect with the contributors.
As of now we are leaning towards a $100 annual subscription plan of limited downloads (up to 1TB or 20 clips daily).
We are planning to take only 0-5% commission for the sales (excluding service maintenance fee) for the first year, and slowly increase it up to 20% depending on the website’s performance.
To clarify, we are not undermining your abilities as a stock creator or disregarding the quality and efforts put into your stock clips because we have opted for such pricing plans. We are simply attempting to broaden the range of stock content users by giving people a chance to experience utilizing stock at an affordable price and hence lowering the threshold of stock content. At the same time, we aim to increase accessibility and promote your previously unsold clips, especially those whose sales were stagnant due to their prices.
For more explanation and details about our service, please refer to the magazine section of our website: https://www.playstock.net/board_detail/5 (https://www.playstock.net/board_detail/5)
Otherwise we are always open for enquiries, and can be contacted through [email protected].
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Just a second
So for $100/ year subscription plan, a customer could theoretically dl over 7000 clips for the year ( assuming 20 dl/ day)
That’s $0.015 a clip
Even if a subscriber were to dl a fraction of the allowed limit, the royalties would still be a pittance
Am I missing something here?
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Not many takers so far...
I honestly think that asking for uploads when you haven't decided on pricing is a huge mistake. How would anyone know what sort of content to give you when you won't say much more than "cheap-ish" vs "expensive-ish" regarding pricing?
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I feel all slimy just reading the “explanation” of how the site came to be. Blech.
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We are planning to take only 0-5% commission for the sales (excluding service maintenance fee) for the first year, and slowly increase it up to 20% depending on the website’s performance.
What is the service maintenance fee? This does not look like a viable business plan.
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You have opened a business, with a possible commission margin. In beta phase. Interesting.
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What is the service maintenance fee? This does not look like a viable business plan.
To me, it looks DOA.
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1) You set it up Playstock because "...we could never be 100% satisfied with what’s out there. We wanted to discover new, more varied sets of themes, subjects, types. We were constantly in need of a previously undiscovered, perspective-changing stock footage hidden somewhere deep in someone’s hard drive."
...which is great and all, but how does Playstock solve that issue? Just opening a new stock agency doesn't automatically mean you're going to get new and more varied themes, subjects and types of footage. Unless you have something up your sleeve that you've not yet disclosed, then there's no reason to assume your content selection won't be exactly the same as all the other agencies.
2) I'd rather you start with a higher percentage and put it down in the future.
3) 0 to 5% is worrying. I think most people are quite happy to get 50% or more as they have a vague understand of the cost involved in marketing and running a successful stock agency. If you insist on starting the commission low and putting it higher later, I think 20% to start and 40% when you're fully up and running would be better.
4) You need to stop with the TB nonsense! Go for number of downloads only. Seems like the TB allowance for downloads (and the portfolio size in TB on your survey) is purely as a way to figure out costs when it comes to hosting and transfers. That's fine from a planning standpoint, as it's an important cost to factor in to your business plan, but I can't see any benefit to using it as a download limit. Confusing for buyers... especially if they're hunting around or clips when they have 100MB left, for example. If you were taking more than 0 to 5% then you'd probably be able to worry a lot less about bandwidth charges.
5) The subscription fee is low. Even Envato Elements is around twice that for a year. So while your 'bumf' seems to indicate you're looking to market yourself on unique and diverse content, your prices indicate you're looking to purely compete on price.
6) I'd be happy to upload a chunk of my portfolio to give it a try. What's the worst that can happen... I don't make any sales, lose a bit of time, and I can stop uploading or remove my content. But I can't... as due to your incentive the terms state that whatever I upload is on your site forever. There's no way I'm doing that if you haven't yet fully decided on royalty rates and subscription fees. I probably wouldn't do it even if you had.
7) As a result... you should give the option to take the incentive and keep your content on forever (which people are unlikely to go for... unless they have a bunch of stolen content!), or not take the incentive and remove your content whenever you want.
I wish you well, but it's just not very appealing right now.
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I wish you well, but it's just not very appealing right now.
As I said: DOA.
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as due to your incentive the terms state that whatever I upload is on your site forever. There's no way I'm doing that if you haven't yet fully decided on royalty rates and subscription fees. I probably wouldn't do it even if you had.
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I wish you well, but it's just not very appealing right now.
WHAT? FOREVER?
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as due to your incentive the terms state that whatever I upload is on your site forever. There's no way I'm doing that if you haven't yet fully decided on royalty rates and subscription fees. I probably wouldn't do it even if you had.
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I wish you well, but it's just not very appealing right now.
WHAT? FOREVER?
Yep, apparently so.
DOA.
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As of now we are leaning towards a $100 annual subscription plan of limited downloads (up to 1TB or 20 clips daily).
We are planning to take only 0-5% commission for the sales (excluding service maintenance fee) for the first year, and slowly increase it up to 20% depending on the website’s performance.
Are you nuts? How about $100 per video sale instead?
I'd go for 50% commission though. I don't think you have any idea how much hosting will cost. My clips are a few GB each, because of 4k HQ ProRes.
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"Any user who fails to provide accurate and sufficient information required for the Company to deliver royalties from their Content may not be compensated even if their Content has been sold, and the amount that has not been issued will be returned to the Company during year-end adjustments."
Yea, NO!!
"Playstock shall have the right to retain any unissued royalties and/or other compensation when you terminate your account." I would rethink this. It's a bad, unfair message sent to contributors.
Well, the first part is fair. If you don't give them your Paypal or other payment information how can you expect to get paid? It's the year-end part that is shady, there should be a grace period of say... 3-12 months from the last sale. If you lose your payment address (i.e. change email accounts) you should have a reasonable amount of time to update your payment details.
But the next statement on unissued royalties... boy this gets under my skin. I do believe this clause started in the beginning because the payouts could be small amounts that were greater than the amount occurred to send the final payment (Paypal/Skrill fees). If you have a balance in your account that is below a minimum threshold, an ETHICAL agency would charge an amount of $5 or less to administer this instead of crapping on someone who helped build their company in a small way.
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I checked the giveaway a few minutes ago - $19,408 left in the upload bonus pool
I think it's good that few people took them up on this offer as it was all too vague and handing over our valuable assets to folks with a half-baked story isn't a good plan...