MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: MarcvsTvllivs on August 13, 2015, 16:50
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https://support.500px.com/hc/en-us/sections/201205657-New-collections-within-Prime-Coming-Soon
TL;DR: they will introduce two different collections, the upper tier priced at current levels and the lower tier priced at "competitive" levels.
*sigh*
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At least they are curating their library which will hopefully resonate with buyers.
The damaging mistake is to flatten the price of all images. Supermarkets don't even do this, they have some brand differentiation on their product lines. Micro stock agencies are tech driven not marketing driven which is the root problem for everyone, including the share holders.
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"Pricing for the Core Collection will continue to be above industry norms for royalty-free stock photos and will never be priced at microstock levels."
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The damaging mistake is to flatten the price of all images. Supermarkets don't even do this, they have some brand differentiation on their product lines. Micro stock agencies are tech driven not marketing driven which is the root problem for everyone, including the share holders.
I agree. They're all wedded to a brain-dead "one size fits all" pricing model which is a huge limitation. And the reasons for this model are mainly technical. Buyers of images are like buyers of anything else, they don't start out demanding that every product on the shelves have the same price - unless it's a Dollar Store, which is what microstock has made itself.
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Sounds like a good idea. All files are not created equal.
Also we have to remember how cheap the prices on stocksy are, compared to all the macros and that the high prices on the getty website are just "list prices" and they might easily sell your file for a dollar. And eyeem is pricing all rf at 20 dollars.
The actual prices paid in macro are much, much lower than most people think.
I see this as an important step in commiting themselves to becoming a strong agency.
If they now solve the watermark issue, i would love to try 500pix.
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I think the biggest issue is all about watermark for me!!!
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I think the biggest issue is all about watermark for me!!!
I agree ! I don't know why they don't resolve this problem. :-\
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I think the biggest issue is all about watermark for me!!!
I agree ! I don't know why they don't resolve this problem. :-\
I think they would like to keep the image look good, but they still can't find the balance between Image protection and visual, Im still wait and see!!!
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Does 500px say when, in which date, we can see this two collections. If process of curating of our images is finished or just starts? By the way at this moment we have two collections at 500px. Better images go to 500prime, worse arent approved there. My doubts are that prime collection will be with higher prices, the same as present. Worse images, which aren't approved to prime will be moved there as Core collection in low prices.
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Does 500px say when, in which date, we can see this two collections. If process of curating of our images is finished or just starts? By the way at this moment we have two collections at 500px. Better images go to 500prime, worse arent approved there. My doubts are that prime collection will be with higher prices, the same as present. Worse images, which aren't approved to prime will be moved there as Core collection in low prices.
500px is not a collection, as it is not up for sale. As for "better images" -- I have literally never had an image not approved at 500px Prime.
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As for "better images" -- I have literally never had an image not approved at 500px Prime.
Thatīs encouraging to hear, it means as an artist you can create your own "flow" and have full control over your portfolio.
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There are many artists, who have some images, which aren't approved to 500px prime. This is the reason to think that these images will be moved to 500px prime as Core collection.
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And eyeem is pricing all rf at 20 dollars.
FYI: Just found one of my best sellers in someone else's EyeEm port. I wrote support to have it removed. You all may want to check for your images.
Also isn't eyeem a cell phone photo only site?
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I wonder how are the sales on 500px Prime. Just signed up but upload seems very time consuming.
I'm afraid of the likes and all the sharing without watermark.
Is anybody making any sales with 300 images for example?
They also sell lower resolution $ 50 for web use, do people actually buy these?
It's better than most EL in the micro world.
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I wonder how are the sales on 500px Prime. Just signed up but upload seems very time consuming.
I'm afraid of the likes and all the sharing without watermark.
Is anybody making any sales with 300 images for example?
They also sell lower resolution $ 50 for web use, do people actually buy these?
It's better than most EL in the micro world.
I've had sales, though very few, with less than 200 images. My best sale there netted me $275, which beats out every other site (although my images at Getty, for example, are priced higher -- I just end up with very little of it).
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And eyeem is pricing all rf at 20 dollars.
Also isn't eyeem a cell phone photo only site?
No, the App is on tablets and smartphone, but you can use any camera, the same like fotolia or all the other mobile stock apps.
You "deliver" via smartphone, which supposedly means you can react much faster. Of course you can also shoot with your phone, many people do.
If you want to eyeem can give you ftp upload.
Many mobile stock apps have assignments that they want to fill quickly, the interaction can be nearreal time. Most important for the editorial photo assignment apps.
Mobile stock is a huge world and its own genre. I am still learning about it and haven't tried all the different marketplaces. The fotolia look is completly different to eyeem and then there are many others.
Eta: thank you for sharing sales data, that is very encouraging.
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FYI: Just found one of my best sellers in someone else's EyeEm port. I wrote support to have it removed. You all may want to check for your images.
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Update: EyeEm support replied quickly and fixed the problem. Like that in a agency.
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Too bad they will be lowering prices... not sure I want to get into this.
If they lower to $ 20 = 14 for the contributor. If sales are rare, may not be worth my time unfortunately.
I guess I'll give it a try with a few hundred images.
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New prices:
Core Collection $35 / $150 / $300
Prime Collection $50 / $250 / $750
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Only 40-50 images, one sale (26,60)
No much time to upload.
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New prices:
Core Collection $35 / $150 / $300
Prime Collection $50 / $250 / $750
Okay, that isn't too bad.
EDIT: Something else: While checking my port to see which image went in which collection, I realized that several of my images are listed as exclusive even though I never marked a single image as such. Has anybody else noticed that problem?
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EDIT: Something else: While checking my port to see which image went in which collection, I realized that several of my images are listed as exclusive even though I never marked a single image as such. Has anybody else noticed that problem?
Hey Marc, send us an email to [email protected] and we can fix that for you (or you can bulk edit using the photo organizer). By default the checkbox is unchecked so not sure what happened here and if we can figure out what happened I'd love to address it.
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Nuno, the curation seems a bit off.
Not the image quality which is very good but the collections themselves.
US Favourites has locations from all over the world, this image is also in UK Favourites.
https://prime.500px.com/photos/30725501/one-day-in-bagan-by-puchong-pannoi
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EDIT: Something else: While checking my port to see which image went in which collection, I realized that several of my images are listed as exclusive even though I never marked a single image as such. Has anybody else noticed that problem?
Hey Marc, send us an email to [email protected] and we can fix that for you (or you can bulk edit using the photo organizer). By default the checkbox is unchecked so not sure what happened here and if we can figure out what happened I'd love to address it.
Thanks, I'll play around with the editor and if I can't figure it out I'll contact support!
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Thumbs up to 500px for jumping in with proactive contributor support. Makes me want to join. But please fix the watermarks! Maybe add a move to center watermark option for contributors who worry about such things.
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Thumbs up to 500px for jumping in with proactive contributor support. Makes me want to join. But please fix the watermarks! Maybe add a move to center watermark option for contributors who worry about such things.
Ideed! Great support. I personally don't mind the watermark issue, either.
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I think the biggest issue is all about watermark for me!!!
Joining. Still don't want to upload more images there just because of this problem.
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Nuno, the curation seems a bit off.
Not the image quality which is very good but the collections themselves.
US Favourites has locations from all over the world, this image is also in UK Favourites.
https://prime.500px.com/photos/30725501/one-day-in-bagan-by-puchong-pannoi
Those galleries were based on "favorites" data from our community. So it is totally possible that people in both the UK and the US favorited the same photo.
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I think the biggest issue is all about watermark for me!!!
Joining. Still don't want to upload more images there just because of this problem.
It's still high on our list of things to do. While we focus on trying to get our contributors more sales by building features infront and behind the scenes, we're also working on things that our photographers are asking for. It's a balancing act no doubt wehn you have limited developer resources (we're hiring btw). Having said that, there is currently work being done on watermarking including reaching out to photographers on 500px and even in communities like this one to figure out what our next iterations will be.
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After going through the all my images to see what collection they're in and doing some more tests I must say that I am pretty unhappy with the way this was done. Or rather: I just don't understand what 500px is going for here.
(1) The only one of my images which ever sold for a large amount on 500px (as I said before, $275 for me, so my calculator tells me it must have been a pretty impressive $392.8571428571429 gross sale price) is one of the relatively few of my images that are now in Core. It is somewhere on page four of the search for all main keywords. Really? A customer willing to pay almost $400 bucks for an RF image is no vote of confidence to you? I don't get it.
(2) The collections make absolutely no sense in general. Prime images don't look better. Prime images aren't better fits to what people look for.
In fact, I have a little pet test that I just happened to find while searching for an image one day: I search for "Harvard". This search is a great test because it reveals the weaknesses most sites' search engines have with strong, distinctive single keyword searches. I would wager that like me, 99.9% of people searching that single keyword want a nice representative image of Harvard University campus. Now, on sites that are absolutely terrible with single word searches (I am looking at you, Alamy), what will come up is tons of images of vials in a lab or whatever, and of a vintage airplane that is apparently called Harvard. The effect is that people have to wade through tons of things (or bother to improve their search) to find what they want. Try the same thing on Shutterstock, and the relevance of images is awesome.
The effect with 500px Prime's new system is absolutely ridiculous. Search for this one keyword only in Prime collection images, and instead of the many great Harvard campus images on 500px being drowned out by the wrong stuff, they don't show up at all, and there is no trace of their existence. There are only four results. These: https://prime.500px.com/search/keywords=harvard&availability=prime_collection So instead of thinking "there is just too much stuff here and the system doesn't get what I want" one is left thinking "this site has very few images and apparently none of them relate to my needs".
TL;DR: What are you even trying to do here, 500px?
The site hasn't become more searchable, and the new lower price tier still isn't cheap enough to be anywhere near competitive with normal (micro)stock. So what are you doing, 500px? I don't get it.
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I think the biggest issue is all about watermark for me!!!
Joining. Still don't want to upload more images there just because of this problem.
It's still high on our list of things to do. While we focus on trying to get our contributors more sales by building features infront and behind the scenes, we're also working on things that our photographers are asking for. It's a balancing act no doubt wehn you have limited developer resources (we're hiring btw). Having said that, there is currently work being done on watermarking including reaching out to photographers on 500px and even in communities like this one to figure out what our next iterations will be.
I would think protecting copyrighted assets would be highest on the list before you even launched the site.
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If you want Harvard University campus why don't you search Harvard University campus. https://prime.500px.com/search/keywords=Harvard+University+campus Buyers are smart enough to figure that out, why can't you? A one word search is not a good test of a search. Many word search is much better. The search fails the most on IS. If it's not an exact match to all the words it returns, no results.
How does 500px have 50 million images?
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If you want Harvard University campus why don't you search Harvard University campus. https://prime.500px.com/search/keywords=Harvard+University+campus Buyers are smart enough to figure that out, why can't you? A one word search is not a good test of a search. Many word search is much better. The search fails the most on IS. If it's not an exact match to all the words it returns, no results.
One word searches, especially for big names, are super common. Just check your dreamstime sales history (they tell you the search term). Or try Alamy measures, lots of one word searches (which, considering how terrible Alamy is with one word searches, is surprising). And as I said, they can work very well, as they do on Shutterstock.
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The price difference between the two categories doesn't seem that great until you get to the largest size, but it does seem to make some midstock and some premium which isn't a bad idea - however, closing the collections based on "likes" by photographers active on the site doesn't seem like a great way to curate a collection IMHO.
I felt 500px had a lot of potential but only have a handful of photos on there since they seem to want us to buy into the system and I don't think the sales level justifies paying them to license my work, and honestly I was concerned I'd spend time uploading and find they had changed it to pay to play - and uploading was so cumbersome if you wanted your own watermark - now 500px prime has a tiny watermark but allows right click downloads which makes it way too easy to steal images. I feel like their commitment to protecting my work just isn't there. I really want them to succeed because I like their prices and it seems like in many ways they are really committed to photographers but their lax attitude toward image protection leaves me leery. I feel torn because I want to support a place that is working toward fair prices for photographers.
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Let me just correct some misinformation:
The price difference between the two categories doesn't seem that great until you get to the largest size, but it does seem to make some midstock and some premium which isn't a bad idea - however, closing the collections based on "likes" by photographers active on the site doesn't seem like a great way to curate a collection IMHO.
The collections aren't curated by likes, there are actual editors (humans) who review photos and handpick photos for the Prime Collection.
I felt 500px had a lot of potential but only have a handful of photos on there since they seem to want us to buy into the system and I don't think the sales level justifies paying them to license my work, and honestly I was concerned I'd spend time uploading and find they had changed it to pay to play
You never have had to have a paid membership to contribute to the marketplace. If the concern was the limited number of uploads you get after your first 3 months (free premium membership) I'll gladly upgrade your account if you're interested in contributing to the marketplace and need to get your first batch up.
I feel like their commitment to protecting my work just isn't there. I really want them to succeed because I like their prices and it seems like in many ways they are really committed to photographers but their lax attitude toward image protection leaves me leery. I feel torn because I want to support a place that is working toward fair prices for photographers.
Watermarks are a small enforcement measure which is gradually becoming obsolete - but we will address ours and are currently in testing of new watermarks to ease concerns. The reality is watermarks are not the end-all solution - after a photo is licensed, your work is out there unwatermarked - possibly in higher resolutions with minimal protections. Try searching torrents by stock photo agency name. Not sure the savvy internet thief is wasting their time right-clicking on stock site photo pages but rather using Google Image search or just finding torrents of collections. /rant
We have a very active license compliance service that scours the internet and fines infringers on content marked as exclusive to 500px (money we pay back to our contributors - not sure how many other agencies do that). We're also very active with DMCAs and have some rudimentary technology to prevent easy "right-clicking" of unwatermarked images. TLDR; Watermarking is not the only way we're protecting our contributor's work, but it is something we're looking to improve.
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If you want Harvard University campus why don't you search Harvard University campus. https://prime.500px.com/search/keywords=Harvard+University+campus Buyers are smart enough to figure that out, why can't you? A one word search is not a good test of a search. Many word search is much better. The search fails the most on IS. If it's not an exact match to all the words it returns, no results.
How does 500px have 50 million images?
not a good question to ask Havard graduates. real story here next...
1995 or around that, my family visited Boston to see Cheers and then went in to visit Harvard. we asked several of the geniuses there where Cambridge , not the University but the part of Boston area (Cambridge Street) where they had brazilian restaurants , Brazilian record shops,etc.. We got a blank stare from each of the brains.
We later ask the guy cleaning trash and he told us it's not far, ...
and we found it, not very far from Harvard.
now, that (asking for direction to a place not far ) is a lot simpler than expecting a Harvard grad to use "search" 8)
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Let me just correct some misinformation:
The price difference between the two categories doesn't seem that great until you get to the largest size, but it does seem to make some midstock and some premium which isn't a bad idea - however, closing the collections based on "likes" by photographers active on the site doesn't seem like a great way to curate a collection IMHO.
The collections aren't curated by likes, there are actual editors (humans) who review photos and handpick photos for the Prime Collection.
I felt 500px had a lot of potential but only have a handful of photos on there since they seem to want us to buy into the system and I don't think the sales level justifies paying them to license my work, and honestly I was concerned I'd spend time uploading and find they had changed it to pay to play
You never have had to have a paid membership to contribute to the marketplace. If the concern was the limited number of uploads you get after your first 3 months (free premium membership) I'll gladly upgrade your account if you're interested in contributing to the marketplace and need to get your first batch up.
I feel like their commitment to protecting my work just isn't there. I really want them to succeed because I like their prices and it seems like in many ways they are really committed to photographers but their lax attitude toward image protection leaves me leery. I feel torn because I want to support a place that is working toward fair prices for photographers.
Watermarks are a small enforcement measure which is gradually becoming obsolete - but we will address ours and are currently in testing of new watermarks to ease concerns. The reality is watermarks are not the end-all solution - after a photo is licensed, your work is out there unwatermarked - possibly in higher resolutions with minimal protections. Try searching torrents by stock photo agency name. Not sure the savvy internet thief is wasting their time right-clicking on stock site photo pages but rather using Google Image search or just finding torrents of collections. /rant
We have a very active license compliance service that scours the internet and fines infringers on content marked as exclusive to 500px (money we pay back to our contributors - not sure how many other agencies do that). We're also very active with DMCAs and have some rudimentary technology to prevent easy "right-clicking" of unwatermarked images. TLDR; Watermarking is not the only way we're protecting our contributor's work, but it is something we're looking to improve.
It's only becoming obsolete because the agencies get greedier by the day and are willing to risk OUR assets (not their assets) for a more appealing look so as to hook buyers. In the meantime, once the word is out that people can snag large displayed images freely we are left with less legal remedy options than that of a licensed asset. By not putting a large watermark on the image you offer up that smorgasbord.
Once an image is licensed by any agency there is a risk of abuse. That's not new to 500PX. Image misuse post purchase has been a risk since the invention of RM, it was just harder to do and a less frequent occurrence. We have a lot more legal leverage after an image is properly licensed, but when you offer up a way to nab freebies you degrade copyright.
NONE of your excuses above justify not watermarking our work. I am just laughing at your silly statements.
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So, does anybody knows what is the difference between prime and core collection?
I mean, which files are sold as prime and which as core?
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Ok, I just read a whole thread. Apparently prime has "best" photos, which is odd, because I found there some photos that looked like a "snapshot".
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Nuno, I appreciate your offer but I'm still not sure that I'm comfortable with the site. I went on to prime and was able to right click and download a 560 x 373 pixel image which is large enough for a blogger to use, no watermarks, all the ITPC info other than the RAW data stripped out. I deleted it immediately but if I was looking to find gorgeous images for a blog and was unscrupulous, it would be so easy.
I recognize that anyone can steal images once they've been licensed and are on the web or via a google images search which gives you one that's often 800 pixels wide, and I'm still considering making more of an effort with 500px because I like your concept.
My concern wasn't that I had to pay to upload photos, but rather that over time you would change that and become a stock agency where everyone had to pay for the privilege of having their images available on your site. I guess I'm still on the fence about 500px but I appreciate your coming in here and responding to my concerns as well as your effort to get fair prices for photographers, though $300 for prints for resale seems very cheap and gives me pause, especially since that seems to be a big focus of your business. Stocky photos for mugs is one thing but fine travel and nature images that can be reproduced to compete with those same images on POD sites is a concern. I recognize other sites sell those licenses as well, but it seems to be a big focus on 500px.
I'll send you a PM if I decide to take you up on your offer to let me upload more images. The site is beautiful and I am committed to supporting sites that aim for fair pricing. I appreciate your efforts in that direction and your taking the time to come on here and respond to my concerns.
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They're rejecting all my SS best sellers. Waste of time.