Author Topic: Where to submit audio in 2019? (Read 16096 times)

Atomazul · « **on:** August 20, 2019, 14:10 »

Pond5 has decided to reposition themselves from the most contributor friendly stock agency, to just another company whose one and only goal is to increase their short-term bottom line no matter how much damage to their integrity and long-term prospects it causes. After over 10 years of building a highly respectable reputation, they have thrown it all away with a series of backstabbing moves.

I've personally been unofficially audio exclusive to Pond5 for many years, since a 50/50 split was about as good a deal as I'd found, and they really were worthy of such loyalty. Of course, times change, Pond5 crapped all over it's suppliers, and now it's time to find alternatives for selling audio. I realize the audio forums here are quiet, but I'm hoping to gather some suggestions for stock audio agencies. Googles searches haven't yielded any solid finds. Audiojungle looks like a joke with it's pricing, and being part of the Envato family isn't exactly a positive.

Thanks in advance.

txking · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2019, 20:11 »

Sorry, I know this isn't an answer to your question but I'm curious. Is there a market in audio even and how expensive is it to break into it?

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2019, 20:26 »

Quote from: Atomazul on August 20, 2019, 14:10

Audiojungle looks like a joke with it's pricing, and being part of the Envato family isn't exactly a positive.

You can set your own prices.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2019, 21:11 »

Quote from: txking on August 22, 2019, 20:11

Sorry, I know this isn't an answer to your question but I'm curious. Is there a market in audio even and how expensive is it to break into it?

Yes, there is a market if you have high fidelity audio, and unique settings. Matching buyers to sellers can be a challenge.

Breaking into it - depends what you consider "profitable". There is an abundant supply of files though (I think last time I checked pond5 had over 1 million files). So I think you'd have to produce a considerable amount to break in, and/or have something uniquely interesting.

Atomazul · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2019, 22:14 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on August 22, 2019, 20:26

Quote from: Atomazul on August 20, 2019, 14:10
Audiojungle looks like a joke with it's pricing, and being part of the Envato family isn't exactly a positive.

You can set your own prices.

Thanks for that info, must admit I did not look that far into them before my post. I just saw the big "Royalty free music and audio tracks from $1" header on the landing page and the Envato name. My knee-jerk reaction was to run the other way. Seem to remember them pulling some shady moves on photo contributors in the past, and I did have several direct discussions with staff that resulted in my deciding not to work with them with video, although they were friendly, that was years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

I'm trying to figure out what the prices can be set to at Audiojungle. The link through the terms to an article titled "Author Driven Pricing" is broken. I see that the Non-Exclusive Author Fee is 55%, so from that alone it seems to suggest the contributor gets 45% of a sale, which isn't as bad as other places. However I recollect there was more to it than that, and see in the terms mention of "buyer fees, handling fees" etc., and I'm not seeing what those are exactly, it doesn't appear to laid out clearly anywhere in their terms (unless I'm missing it). These honestly seem like red flags to me so far, but I'm still curious.

Any clue to how to get some more detailed information?

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #5 on:** August 23, 2019, 12:44 »

Quote from: Atomazul on August 22, 2019, 22:14

Any clue to how to get some more detailed information?

I'm feeling at peace with the world today so I'll just go ahead and give the details to you.

They have a fixed fee of $4, and if you are non-exclusive, 55% will be deducted after that fee.

That means that the maximum cut is just under 45%, getting closer with higher prices. If you choose $49, you will get 41.3%. If you choose $99, you will get 43.2%. If you go for the minimum price of $5, things start getting a lot worse, leaving you with just below 9%.

If you go exclusive, the maximum cut is just under 87.5%. I don't think any other site beats that. I have an exclusive elite account with decent prices, and I get around 80%.

People talking down AJ are quite frankly just people who are disappointed they didn't become millionaires... The sales volume of AJ is many times higher than Pond5, we're talking 1,000s of %. Of course, the competition is ENORMOUS, and it's very hard to be seen. Tracks are lost in the search, and people cheat, upload duplicates, come up with ridiculous titles, buy their own tracks, etc.

That is something you have to live with.

Make great music, promote it OUTSIDE AJ, price it right ($5 will make you very, very little money...), and I believe the earnings potential is hard to beat by any other site where anyone can join.

It absolutely used to be MUCH easier, but it's 2019, and it's crowded everywhere. You just have to be 10 times as good as before, and get the SEO, promotion, and pricing 100% perfect.

Atomazul · « **Reply #6 on:** August 23, 2019, 19:05 »

Thank you for that, much appreciated. Weird they don't make it super clear since it really isn't that bad of a deal. But it also doesn't sound like they're starving for new contributors either, so maybe that's not unintentional. Will give her a chance and see how she goes.

Any other companies out there offering anything close to 50% for audio? Several posters on the Pond5 forums have mentioned their existence, but didn't drop any names. What I have compiled so far is:

Pond5: 35%
Shutterstock: Buyouts only
Audioblocks: Buyouts only
Audiojungle: 9%-40+% non-exclusive, up to 87.5% exclusive
Dreamstime: 25%-45% non-exclusive, up to 60% exclusive