What happened to Pond5?
Since Pond5 was acquired by Shutterstock, my sales have been steadily declining—until they virtually stopped. I used to make 2 or 3 video sales per day, and now it's been over 17 days without a single sale.
Has anyone else experienced a dramatic drop in sales lately?

I think Pond5 is completely dead. I don't know if anyone is still selling. I was only getting funded payments, but now even that's gone.

I've made $50 so far this year. I typically make $700-$1,000 a year.  So I am on a trajectory to make $100 for the entire year.  It is dead for me and it happened literally after SS took them over. 

Quote from: Mantis on July 23, 2025, 14:15
I've made $50 so far this year. I typically make $700-$1,000 a year.  So I am on a trajectory to make $100 for the entire year.  It is dead for me and it happened literally after SS took them over.

Almost similar experience... I earned around 100-150$ a month before Shutterstock acquiring Pond5, when I have around 3500-4000 videos...
But earnings decreased all of sudden... with more than 6000 videos now..
earnings almost decreased by more than 50% last year...
this year made only $104.13 till now, which is almost decreased by 80-85%... comparing with sales and earnings that I made before Shutterstock purchasing Pond5.

At my peak, I was making between $6K and $8K per month on Pond5 alone.  So far this month, I'll be lucky to break $1K.

And if I don't break $1K this month, it will be the first time in over 10 years where I didn't earn over $1K in a month on Pond5.

Probably several things coming together to trash Pond5 sales.

Pond5 sold to SS, internal personnel turmoil, entertainment/movie industry decline, AI, and now the pending swallowing of P5/SS by Getty,

Quote from: PCDMedia on July 23, 2025, 16:25
Probably several things coming together to trash Pond5 sales.

Pond5 sold to SS, internal personnel turmoil, entertainment/movie industry decline, AI, and now the pending swallowing of P5/SS by Getty,

This happens when amateur driver is sitting in formula 1 cockpit Same bad for me, far behind AS, SS, MA, IS...

I would say SS happened to P5. Not that they were doing great before that, but in the last 6 years or so SS has severely damaged or killed everything they have touched.

Agree, SS laid their death finger on it.

They probably also stopped marketing p5, so it cannot have growth.

I sold 5 files this year, which is lower than before but I also barely upload.

Curious what will happen after the merger.

There are still less than 60 million videos on agencies, so compared to photos there is no oversupply, ai is not a workable threat, most who try to do ai for Adobe have given up, because sales are too low to pay for ai creation.

There is an endless amount of content missing.

Quote from: pancaketom on July 23, 2025, 22:42
I would say SS happened to P5. Not that they were doing great before that, but in the last 6 years or so SS has severely damaged or killed everything they have touched.

One thought that occurred to me - what if that is actually a deliberate tactic - in order to promote "AI" services like midjourney/runway/etc? Behind the scenes - Blackrock/Vanguard owns/has significant ownership shares in ALL of those companies, either directly, or via hidden shell companies (if you trace it 2-3 layers deep). And since (one of their goals) is to make everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich - it makes sense that they would be deliberately trashing any contributor based sites in order to steer/move customers to their midjourney/runway/etc owned assets - which are subscription-based services were they pocket basically 100% of the revenue with 0% contributor payout, for the assets they stole via "training" to make those same services...?

Quote from: SuperPhoto on July 24, 2025, 11:06
Behind the scenes - Blackrock/Vanguard owns/has significant ownership shares in ALL of those companies, either directly, or via hidden shell companies (if you trace it 2-3 layers deep). And since (one of their goals) is to make everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich - it makes sense that they would be deliberately trashing any contributor based sites in order to steer/move customers to their midjourney/runway/etc owned assets

Blackrock and Vanguard are huge financial asset managers.  They offer investments such as mutual funds, exchange-traded-funds, financial advisory services and other investment products that are available to the public. They are fiduciaries to their clients.

It's not clear that they directly own any kind of companies - AI or otherwise - directly or hidden.  As huge financial asset managers they are subject to intense government and public scrutiny.

It's for sure their investment funds, etc. own equity shares in AI companies as well as thousands of other companies.  And they may exercise shareholder voting rights for those companies.

But I'd have serious doubts that any trashing of stock contributor sites is a result of direct meddling on their part.   They have much much bigger fish to fry.
 
As for making "everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich" - investing in their products and participating in getting "rich" is available to anyone with a little $$ to invest.  Try it. 

Disclaimer - I'm a long time investor with Vanguard and have been very pleased. 

Quote from: PCDMedia on July 24, 2025, 15:57

Quote from: SuperPhoto on July 24, 2025, 11:06
Behind the scenes - Blackrock/Vanguard owns/has significant ownership shares in ALL of those companies, either directly, or via hidden shell companies (if you trace it 2-3 layers deep). And since (one of their goals) is to make everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich - it makes sense that they would be deliberately trashing any contributor based sites in order to steer/move customers to their midjourney/runway/etc owned assets

Blackrock and Vanguard are huge financial asset managers.  They offer investments such as mutual funds, exchange-traded-funds, financial advisory services and other investment products that are available to the public. They are fiduciaries to their clients.

It's not clear that they directly own any kind of companies - AI or otherwise - directly or hidden.  As huge financial asset managers they are subject to intense government and public scrutiny.

It's for sure their investment funds, etc. own equity shares in AI companies as well as thousands of other companies.  And they may exercise shareholder voting rights for those companies.

But I'd have serious doubts that any trashing of stock contributor sites is a result of direct meddling on their part.   They have much much bigger fish to fry.
 
As for making "everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich" - investing in their products and participating in getting "rich" is available to anyone with a little $$ to invest.  Try it. 

Disclaimer - I'm a long time investor with Vanguard and have been very pleased.

excellent and rational analysis - compared to repetitious silly conspiracies constantly spammed -- including constant off topic claims of 'theft'


and As for making "everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich" isn't that a definition of laissez faire capitalism? that's the real theft eg, trumps trillions in deficit giving billions to the already richest .01% while gutting science research, education, weather forecasting & social welfare

Quote from: PCDMedia on July 24, 2025, 15:57

Quote from: SuperPhoto on July 24, 2025, 11:06
Behind the scenes - Blackrock/Vanguard owns/has significant ownership shares in ALL of those companies, either directly, or via hidden shell companies (if you trace it 2-3 layers deep). And since (one of their goals) is to make everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich - it makes sense that they would be deliberately trashing any contributor based sites in order to steer/move customers to their midjourney/runway/etc owned assets

Blackrock and Vanguard are huge financial asset managers.  They offer investments such as mutual funds, exchange-traded-funds, financial advisory services and other investment products that are available to the public. They are fiduciaries to their clients.

It's not clear that they directly own any kind of companies - AI or otherwise - directly or hidden.  As huge financial asset managers they are subject to intense government and public scrutiny.

It's for sure their investment funds, etc. own equity shares in AI companies as well as thousands of other companies.  And they may exercise shareholder voting rights for those companies.

But I'd have serious doubts that any trashing of stock contributor sites is a result of direct meddling on their part.   They have much much bigger fish to fry.
 
As for making "everyone else "poor" while making themselves rich" - investing in their products and participating in getting "rich" is available to anyone with a little $$ to invest.  Try it. 

Disclaimer - I'm a long time investor with Vanguard and have been very pleased.

1. Re: scrunity, things don't quite work the way you think they do if you believe there were some misgivings that the 'govt' would fix it. Not quite how it works (although the movies & mainstream news may try to convince you otherwise). One of the goals of what's going on is to try and make 'everyone else poor' and consolidate services into "ai" stuff. (The 'longer' game).

2. The wealth I am talking about is not the same as the proportionately small dividends you may have seen from whatever you've invested in Vanguard. But - obviously if they've been doing quite well for you - there is a reason for that - and it doesn't really have much to do with how they can see how they can be fairer/payout more to contributors/etc.

Hello guys, new here to the forum. I want to ask something, did you experienced a significant drop views after 2024 on Pond5? Literally after 2024 until now i uploaded a lot of videos and they don't get no views at all. I am aware that i don't have the super wow footage but anyway neither i had before 2024. I am looking forward to hear your thoughts!

I've only had two sales in 2025 and I've had new videos pending approval for over a month now.

Time to give up? Anyone still getting good results at p5 now?

Quote from: click.baty on December 21, 2025, 12:34
I've only had two sales in 2025 and I've had new videos pending approval for over a month now.

Time to give up? Anyone still getting good results at p5 now?

Not me.  Whatever they did is permanent. 

Despite uploading 300 new clips this year my results are hugely down from last year (roughly 50%)

SS earnings are down about 40% from last year also despite new uploads.

Their clients left and went to other agencies. I have 0 sales on Pond5 for a solid month. This never happened before.

Quote from: Bobcast78 on December 21, 2025, 14:55
Their clients left and went to other agencies. I have 0 sales on Pond5 for a solid month. This never happened before.

just dribbles from pond, except for the dataset bump

with dataset earning SS & AS have been steady, w SS almost twice AS (in large part due to AS not taking editorial)

Zero sales on Pond5 in November 2025. Have to go all the way back to November 2021 the last time I had a zero-sale month, with a way smaller port. The way things are going, this month could end up being yet another zero-sale month making it two-in-a-row.

I was uploading to Pond5 until early November but am now changing direction and no longer uploading to either Shutterstock or Pond5 as they are just not worth my time and effort anymore. Shutterstock have really screwed the agencies they own and manage. If something changes I would reconsider but as it is now things are just getting worse.     

Quote from: Pacesetter on December 22, 2025, 02:46...
no longer uploading to either Shutterstock or Pond5 as they are just not worth my time and effort anymore.
....   

i continue w SS as it's my top earner, esp'ly with dataset $

pond is low earner, but only takes about 5' to upload  & submit 100 images, 'worth' the effort

5 sales on pond5 so far this month.

So, it's not completely dead.

I'll continue uploading for now.

It doesnt look like an isolated case. After the acquisition, changes in algorithms, marketing and platform priorities seem to have hit sales hard for many contributors. Pond isnt completely dead, but for most authors its clearly no longer the stable income source it used to be. That said the recent Pond5 AI training bonuses have been really nice.

Quote from: videostock.system on December 23, 2025, 08:30
It doesnt look like an isolated case. After the acquisition, changes in algorithms, marketing and platform priorities seem to have hit sales hard for many contributors. Pond isnt completely dead, but for most authors its clearly no longer the stable income source it used to be. That said the recent Pond5 AI training bonuses have been really nice.

Yep, except that those AI payments were not really bonuses, but rather close to you selling your selling rights forever to a competitor, who is now cashing in on your work, instead of you.

Quote from: Zero Talent on December 23, 2025, 20:37

Quote from: videostock.system on December 23, 2025, 08:30
It doesnt look like an isolated case. After the acquisition, changes in algorithms, marketing and platform priorities seem to have hit sales hard for many contributors. Pond isnt completely dead, but for most authors its clearly no longer the stable income source it used to be. That said the recent Pond5 AI training bonuses have been really nice.

Yep, except that those AI payments were not really bonuses, but rather close to you selling your selling rights forever to a competitor, who is now cashing in on your work, instead of you.

nonsense - do some research  about how training works (plenty o,f info in the ai section)
-- you're not giving any 'selling' rights -
-- your images are used (among millions of others) for dataset training
-- the resulting dataset has no reference or links to the original images so no one ever sees your images
-- you're getting $ for images that likely have never have, or ever will, sell (esp'ly on pond)

those complaining about sales on pond and not opting-in for training are conducting self-inflicted monopod destruction. fine by me