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Author Topic: Pond5 "Good News"!  (Read 28470 times)

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swisschocolate

« Reply #150 on: March 25, 2019, 13:02 »
0
Obviously you can trade in Adobe or whatever, nonexclusive content is all over the place.  I would imagine yes, the strategy is to get people going over there from other sites.  If they can find the nonexclusive stuff at the same price or lower and other things they can't find elsewhere that makes it easier.

There is no "unique stuff" that sells :) If it really sells it will appear in a week "all over the place".


« Reply #151 on: March 25, 2019, 13:27 »
+1
Obviously you can trade in Adobe or whatever, nonexclusive content is all over the place.  I would imagine yes, the strategy is to get people going over there from other sites.  If they can find the nonexclusive stuff at the same price or lower and other things they can't find elsewhere that makes it easier.

There is no "unique stuff" that sells :) If it really sells it will appear in a week "all over the place".
What facts are you using to back that up?

swisschocolate

« Reply #152 on: March 25, 2019, 13:33 »
0
What facts are you using to back that up?

None, except of living and breathing microstock industry for the past decade.
But as I said before, I've never considered myself a super unique talent and couldn't try this strategy.

So if you know examples and know how to make it happen, go for it :)

« Reply #153 on: March 25, 2019, 13:59 »
+1
What facts are you using to back that up?

None, except of living and breathing microstock industry for the past decade.
But as I said before, I've never considered myself a super unique talent and couldn't try this strategy.

So if you know examples and know how to make it happen, go for it :)
There are thousands of ways to create unique content of almost any subject.

« Reply #154 on: March 25, 2019, 14:18 »
+1
Go ahead and feel free to try and walk into the hospital I create content at and see how it goes :-)

« Reply #155 on: March 25, 2019, 14:21 »
+1
Let me narrow this down a bit in relation to the upcoming conversation with Jason Teichman. My specific grievance is the 20% rate cut for non-exclusive contributors. I hope that exclusivity helps maintain value and pricing in the market overall (as Pond5 expects), and certainly it warrants a higher royalty percentage than non-exclusive clips. But that does not have to coincide with lowering the commission on non-exclusive clips, which is unjustified and grossly unfair to content creators. Since going the exclusive route would be a net loss for many contributors and therefore a non-starter, all Pond5 is really doing is taking money from our pockets and lowering the incentive for people to create quality content.

I contend that if Pond5 thinks exclusivity is going to be fantastic, they should do it without penalizing non-exclusive contributors with a rate cut.

I also contend that their concerns about stock footage pricing collapsing the way stock photo pricing collapsed is not a wholly accurate comparison. The markets are different, the uses and buyers in many cases are different, and I would simply point out that the HD single clip price at Shutterstock has been $79 since at least 2012. That has become the market norm adopted as well by Adobe, Storyblocks, and many users on Pond5. To maintain that, the big agencies need to go to war on bargain sellers like Bigstock, and also make it unprofitable for the irresponsible people who contribute to sites like that. It's already in Pond5's user agreement that we cannot sell the same content for a substantially lower amount on other sites. I'm all for enforcing that for the good of the industry. If someone is selling an HD single clip for a few dollars, Pond5 should match and lock the clip price on their site, hopefully encouraging that user to abandon those bargain basement sites that hurt the whole industry.

Any thoughts specifically about the 20% rate cut for non-exclusive contributors?

swisschocolate

« Reply #156 on: March 25, 2019, 14:22 »
+1
Go ahead and feel free to try and walk into the hospital I create content at and see how it goes :-)

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/hospital
142,023 hospital royalty-free stock videos

They've figured it out somehow...

And after going through 142K footages on SS, I won't find what I'm looking for and will definitely go to Pond5 to search for exclusive stuff :'( Really?
« Last Edit: March 25, 2019, 14:26 by swisschocolate »

georgep7

« Reply #157 on: March 25, 2019, 14:30 »
0
Well, adding "refuges" next to hospital leads to 23 results in the link above.
Among those, some chickens and goats. No kidding of course.

Everything is relevant I guess.

:)


Edit: answered not in defence of Pond5 but while thinking that anyone with a smartphone if have clearance to a refuges hospital can have some unique shots.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2019, 14:33 by georgep7 »

swisschocolate

« Reply #158 on: March 25, 2019, 14:33 »
+1
Well, adding "refuges" next to hospital leads to 23 results in the link above.
Among those, some chickens and goats. No kidding of course.

Everything is relevant I guess.

:)

I agree 100% everything is relevant and there is unique stuff that someone wants once in a while. But how many buyers will be looking for "hospital refugees" in your lifetime? And will you make a living from this "uniqueness"?

georgep7

« Reply #159 on: March 25, 2019, 14:34 »
0
No. No. Of course not!

It was just a thought speaked loud.

swisschocolate

« Reply #160 on: March 25, 2019, 14:39 »
+1
No. No. Of course not!

It was just a thought speaked loud.

I don't mean you, it was a rhetorical question :)

« Reply #161 on: March 25, 2019, 14:46 »
+4
Well, adding "refuges" next to hospital leads to 23 results in the link above.
Among those, some chickens and goats. No kidding of course.

Everything is relevant I guess.

:)


Edit: answered not in defence of Pond5 but while thinking that anyone with a smartphone if have clearance to a refuges hospital can have some unique shots.

That just means 23 people can't spell "refugees", just like you. ;)

« Reply #162 on: March 25, 2019, 14:59 »
0
Go ahead and feel free to try and walk into the hospital I create content at and see how it goes :-)

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/hospital
142,023 hospital royalty-free stock videos

They've figured it out somehow...

And after going through 142K footages on SS, I won't find what I'm looking for and will definitely go to Pond5 to search for exclusive stuff :'( Really?
Even with all those videos there are huge gaps in content that would sell very well.

georgep7

« Reply #163 on: March 25, 2019, 15:03 »
+1
Quote

That just means 23 people can't spell "refugees", just like you. ;)



Hahaha! Didn't notice that, thanks! :)

« Reply #164 on: March 25, 2019, 15:22 »
+1
LOL yes of course but the subject matter is harder to get and it is a big seller for me as the collection is smaller for those in demand clips. You have to shoot a lot of subjects to survive. I have military footage from around the world as well and it sells well, jumped through a lot of hoops to get it!

« Reply #165 on: March 25, 2019, 16:01 »
+4
Finally it was not so bad news.
They were very reactive and listened to us. The  possibility to have two accounts is nice.
I will keep my old account untouched and create new one, exclusive. All my new videos will be exclusives to Pond5.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #166 on: March 25, 2019, 16:03 »
0
Let me narrow this down a bit in relation to the upcoming conversation with Jason Teichman. My specific grievance is the 20% rate cut for non-exclusive contributors. I hope that exclusivity helps maintain value and pricing in the market overall (as Pond5 expects), and certainly it warrants a higher royalty percentage than non-exclusive clips. But that does not have to coincide with lowering the commission on non-exclusive clips, which is unjustified and grossly unfair to content creators. Since going the exclusive route would be a net loss for many contributors and therefore a non-starter, all Pond5 is really doing is taking money from our pockets and lowering the incentive for people to create quality content.

I contend that if Pond5 thinks exclusivity is going to be fantastic, they should do it without penalizing non-exclusive contributors with a rate cut.

I also contend that their concerns about stock footage pricing collapsing the way stock photo pricing collapsed is not a wholly accurate comparison. The markets are different, the uses and buyers in many cases are different, and I would simply point out that the HD single clip price at Shutterstock has been $79 since at least 2012. That has become the market norm adopted as well by Adobe, Storyblocks, and many users on Pond5. To maintain that, the big agencies need to go to war on bargain sellers like Bigstock, and also make it unprofitable for the irresponsible people who contribute to sites like that. It's already in Pond5's user agreement that we cannot sell the same content for a substantially lower amount on other sites. I'm all for enforcing that for the good of the industry. If someone is selling an HD single clip for a few dollars, Pond5 should match and lock the clip price on their site, hopefully encouraging that user to abandon those bargain basement sites that hurt the whole industry.

Any thoughts specifically about the 20% rate cut for non-exclusive contributors?

It's a 10% rate cut right? Or are you referring to the usual argument that 10% commission cut from 50% means a 20% cut in earnings?

What then of a 15% level that some sites pay to start with? Is that a voluntary 25% discount over what we have on Pond5 or does that get ignored, when someone uploads to some cheap site, intentionally, that pays 35% less than Pond5 did until now?
 
Then people need to be warned that the 10% increase in commissions is only a 8.3% increase in earnings.

We have a choice, same as we do if supplying cheap race to the bottom sites. You can upload exclusive to P5 for 60% or not for 40%. You can upload to places that pay 15% and cut your own commission also.


« Reply #167 on: March 25, 2019, 16:22 »
+3
This 10% cut in commissions means a 20% cut in the amount of money we take home. If you formerly made $50 on a $100 sale and now only make $40, that's a 20% drop in earnings.

I'm very much against uploading footage to bargain basement agencies. It's bad for the whole industry and should not be ignored. I mentioned I'm in favor of Pond5 enforcing their rule about not letting contributors sell the same clips for peanuts on Envato, Bigstock, etc. And right along with that, Pond5 needs to realize that by cutting commissions they're pushing people to upload to other sites to make up for lost income. So they're feeding the price war they say they're against. Just one more point I plan to share with Jason Teichman in trying to get him to see that lowering commissions is not only unfair but also detrimental in the long term for several reasons.

What other thoughts do people have about the commission cut? Please keep 'em coming.

« Reply #168 on: March 25, 2019, 18:03 »
+3
Just so you guys know, just raise your prices to offset your revenue loss. I upped mine by 20% and almost immediately received a sale (prior to the commission cut, so hey, that's a bonus).

« Reply #169 on: March 25, 2019, 18:06 »
+3
Time will tell, but I doubt that's a working long-term strategy. I think buyers are pretty conditioned to pay around $80 for an HD clip ($40 commission at 50%). Jacking that up to $100 for an HD clip ($40 commission at 40%) could very well bring a drop in sales.

gillian vann

  • *Gillian*
« Reply #170 on: March 25, 2019, 20:21 »
+1
I'm not understanding this "open another account" concept. Isn't the whole point of this exclusivity to be artist+video exclusive at P5? Except now they are suggesting we open another account, Gillian 2.0 and she is exclusive, and Gillian 1.0 isn't. So i can still upload other video elsewhere as before, and exclusive stuff to a new account at P5? I don't understand the point of this, just let us chose which videos are exclusive to P5 from within our existing ports.

Or, do they mean they'll let us keep our old stuff live with them, and live elsewhere but moving forward we can be exclusive only with the new account? What we all really want is to add another layer of work and complication, amiright.

Just let us choose which files are exclusive.

 

« Reply #171 on: March 25, 2019, 20:26 »
+2
From what I understand there is a technical limitation to the platform to be able to do that! This is the only and best option they have now.

« Reply #172 on: March 25, 2019, 20:27 »
+1
I'm not understanding this "open another account" concept. Isn't the whole point of this exclusivity to be artist+video exclusive at P5? Except now they are suggesting we open another account, Gillian 2.0 and she is exclusive, and Gillian 1.0 isn't. So i can still upload other video elsewhere as before, and exclusive stuff to a new account at P5? I don't understand the point of this, just let us chose which videos are exclusive to P5 from within our existing ports.

Or, do they mean they'll let us keep our old stuff live with them, and live elsewhere but moving forward we can be exclusive only with the new account? What we all really want is to add another layer of work and complication, amiright.

Just let us choose which files are exclusive.

that would make sense, but they probably already coded something for artist exclusivity so it is easier for them to just have you open another account that only has exclusive content in it. That doesn't work well if half the stuff you already uploaded can be exclusive and the other half can't but...

« Reply #173 on: March 25, 2019, 20:39 »
+2
In some ways it is a pain but I am willing to work with it, just happy I have a decent path forward!

« Reply #174 on: March 25, 2019, 22:35 »
+1
Finally it was not so bad news.
They were very reactive and listened to us. The  possibility to have two accounts is nice.
I will keep my old account untouched and create new one, exclusive. All my new videos will be exclusives to Pond5.

All my new videos that are worth the higher price and higher commission will go to Pond5 the usual microstock will go anyplace. I'll take the 10% raise for my good works.


 

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