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Poll

Pond5 Contributor Poll - I'd like to see _____ at Pond5

No Changes at all
34 (35.8%)
Exclusive - Artist (just announced)
3 (3.2%)
Exclusive - Per Clip (contributor decides which clip)
48 (50.5%)
Stick a fork in 'em... I'm done
10 (10.5%)

Total Members Voted: 91

Voting closed: March 31, 2019, 12:14

Author Topic: Letter to pond5 and quick Poll for contributors  (Read 33934 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« Reply #50 on: March 22, 2019, 23:38 »
0
Definitely stop uploading till they clear out this mess. The idea with instagram/twitter/facebook is that they are public enough to tell the buyers also that there is something wrong. Plus a lot of us are buyers as well as contributors so us stopping purchases also puts some pressure. Similarly a petition on change.org shows them a scale of the issue, it's better for all of us to see that there are a thousand people actively resisting the new change rather than reading the few replies on this group. It's worked before for the storyblocks fiasco

some requests
- Can someone with good understanding set up the petition and post the link here
- Can we stop uploading till Pond5 responds to our suggested changes
- Can we stop buying from pond5 till they respond
- During this time can we ensure we message them on email/instagram/twitter/facebook to ensure they don't miss the petition or our requests


« Reply #51 on: March 23, 2019, 04:12 »
+1
I have just increased prices of all my videos accordingly. So it is still cheaper compared to site with 30% royalties but it is pricier then before when we had 50%.

I am not selling my clips on any of those cheap sites, only ss, as, vb i pond5.


« Reply #52 on: March 23, 2019, 12:42 »
+2
Exclusivity benefits Pond5 while a contributor is sure to have an overall income loss. Its an insulting smokescreen to offer such a lame deal while at the same time lowering our cut to 40% - a whopping 20% earnings cut. Its a profit-grabbing betrayal by a company that has always marketing itself as artist-friendly, and it should to be called out as such.

Some asked, why call them out for cutting commissions when others pay even less? Because all of it is unfairly low 30% is too low and 40% is too low. Pond5 says they dont want a race to the bottom, but by cutting artist pay theyre participating in a race to the bottom in how much artists are compensated for their own work. Is the CEO getting a pay cut? Is any employee there getting a pay cut? So why . should the creators be OK with a 20% earnings cut?

The only good option here is to push back strongly against the commission cut. If Pond5 wants to go 60/40 for exclusive footage, fine, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what everyone else is paid. Stock companies can look to other areas of their business model for profit or accept the profit they're making, but they need to stop thinking they can take more money from contributors just because they want it.

Pushing back against Storyblocks worked because tons of people wrote emails and posted online. I wrote the petition against them and just created this petition against Pond5. Please sign this petition and share with everyone you know! https://www.change.org/p/jason-teichman-pond5-don-t-cut-the-already-low-compensation-for-stock-artists

And please contact Pond5 to let them know its not OK for them or any other site to cut our earnings for the work we create. Email is [email protected], and cc CEO Jason Teichman at [email protected].

« Reply #53 on: March 23, 2019, 16:37 »
+3
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

« Reply #54 on: March 23, 2019, 16:55 »
0
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

Just because 30% royalty is terrible, that doesn't mean 40% isn't bad as well. ANY lowering of our cut is bad, it's all part of a race to the bottom in what we get paid for our work. So I agree that pressure should be directed to the lowest paying sites as well, but that doesn't excuse Pond5 from cutting our rate. The petition encourages buyers to buy from Storyblocks, which still has a 50/50 split.

« Reply #55 on: March 23, 2019, 17:08 »
0
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

Just because 30% royalty is terrible, that doesn't mean 40% isn't bad as well. ANY lowering of our cut is bad, it's all part of a race to the bottom in what we get paid for our work. So I agree that pressure should be directed to the lowest paying sites as well, but that doesn't excuse Pond5 from cutting our rate. The petition encourages buyers to buy from Storyblocks, which still has a 50/50 split.
It kind of does, doesn't it?  If contributors are willing to put the same exact clips on sites with 30% why should any site pay more?

« Reply #56 on: March 23, 2019, 17:33 »
0
Letting contributos keep their old accounts open and non-exclusive and letting them create a second, all-exclusive account while keeping all their old content on all other agencies is counter-intuitive and defeats their original desire to have artist be exclusive to P5 and deleting all their content elsewhere.

Customers will still be able to "shop around" since the bulk of the P5 portfolio (for now) is still on other agencies.

Maybe in 5-10 years when P5 has a nice chunk of exclusive content this will work out, but in the short term, this solves nothing.

« Reply #57 on: March 23, 2019, 18:11 »
0
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

Just because 30% royalty is terrible, that doesn't mean 40% isn't bad as well. ANY lowering of our cut is bad, it's all part of a race to the bottom in what we get paid for our work. So I agree that pressure should be directed to the lowest paying sites as well, but that doesn't excuse Pond5 from cutting our rate. The petition encourages buyers to buy from Storyblocks, which still has a 50/50 split.
It kind of does, doesn't it?  If contributors are willing to put the same exact clips on sites with 30% why should any site pay more?

When I sign with a company the deal is for a certain rate. Whatever that rate is, if the company lowers it, I push back. Both because they're taking earnings from me and because rate drops anywhere can feed an industry-wide race to the bottom. You seem to only want to empathize with the agency side, so tell you what, why don't you contact Pond5 and invite them to lower your commission to 30% because that's what other companies pay? Then if any other agency drops commissions further, be sure to update Pond5 about it so they can match it. If that sounds inane because it's lacking in rational self-interest, well then now you know how your posts sound.

« Reply #58 on: March 23, 2019, 18:28 »
+4
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

Just because 30% royalty is terrible, that doesn't mean 40% isn't bad as well. ANY lowering of our cut is bad, it's all part of a race to the bottom in what we get paid for our work. So I agree that pressure should be directed to the lowest paying sites as well, but that doesn't excuse Pond5 from cutting our rate. The petition encourages buyers to buy from Storyblocks, which still has a 50/50 split.
It kind of does, doesn't it?  If contributors are willing to put the same exact clips on sites with 30% why should any site pay more?

When I sign with a company the deal is for a certain rate. Whatever that rate is, if the company lowers it, I push back. Both because they're taking earnings from me and because rate drops anywhere can feed an industry-wide race to the bottom. You seem to only want to empathize with the agency side, so tell you what, why don't you contact Pond5 and invite them to lower your commission to 30% because that's what other companies pay? Then if any other agency drops commissions further, be sure to update Pond5 about it so they can match it. If that sounds inane because it's lacking in rational self-interest, well then now you know how your posts sound.
For me, I'll stop uploading to other sites and put everything up exclusively with Pond5.  I was leaning towards doing that before this change.  It's not that I want royalty rates lower it's that it seems inevitable if people put the same work on different sites.  The value will move towards the worst place.  Sites that pay lower royalties can use that money to market more or make the site nicer and in turn sell more content.  From the agencies' side if contributors are happy accepting less then why should they pay more, what's the benefit for them?

« Reply #59 on: March 23, 2019, 19:06 »
0
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

Just because 30% royalty is terrible, that doesn't mean 40% isn't bad as well. ANY lowering of our cut is bad, it's all part of a race to the bottom in what we get paid for our work. So I agree that pressure should be directed to the lowest paying sites as well, but that doesn't excuse Pond5 from cutting our rate. The petition encourages buyers to buy from Storyblocks, which still has a 50/50 split.
It kind of does, doesn't it?  If contributors are willing to put the same exact clips on sites with 30% why should any site pay more?

When I sign with a company the deal is for a certain rate. Whatever that rate is, if the company lowers it, I push back. Both because they're taking earnings from me and because rate drops anywhere can feed an industry-wide race to the bottom. You seem to only want to empathize with the agency side, so tell you what, why don't you contact Pond5 and invite them to lower your commission to 30% because that's what other companies pay? Then if any other agency drops commissions further, be sure to update Pond5 about it so they can match it. If that sounds inane because it's lacking in rational self-interest, well then now you know how your posts sound.
For me, I'll stop uploading to other sites and put everything up exclusively with Pond5.  I was leaning towards doing that before this change.  It's not that I want royalty rates lower it's that it seems inevitable if people put the same work on different sites.  The value will move towards the worst place.  Sites that pay lower royalties can use that money to market more or make the site nicer and in turn sell more content.  From the agencies' side if contributors are happy accepting less then why should they pay more, what's the benefit for them?

To your point, the responsibility is on contributors to let agencies know they're NOT happy accepting less, unless perhaps it comes with higher volume and overall more money. For example, Shutterstock pays me a lower commission but I make more money with them than with Pond5 (so exclusivity with Pond5 would not work for me). I do not upload to sites that have poor commissions and poor sales, or low prices. Part of the problem is there's no true transparency in regard to agency marketing costs - a cut in our earnings could be going to marketing or simply to their pockets. They're not trustworthy enough to assume the former, despite what they say. I agree that value can move to the worst place, and no matter what way we come at this, the only balance against agency profit greed is a strong response from contributors. I wish we were organized enough to have a powerful influence, but unfortunately we're all incredibly scattered and disjointed in our voices. 

« Reply #60 on: March 23, 2019, 20:05 »
+1
I am happily going as a Pond5 Exclusive now! Yep all my choice and I know the risk.....Here we go.....

« Reply #61 on: March 25, 2019, 10:34 »
0
Just emailed this to Pond5 support and cc'd CEO Jason Teichman at [email protected]

Pond5 decision-makers,

As a long-time contributor to Pond5, I am writing in anger that you are cutting our profit share of non-exclusive sales by a massive 20%. Pond5 attracted artists in large part because it offered a fair 50/50 split, and now youre lightly dropping that as not competitive. Let me ask, is management also taking a pay cut to stay competitive? Do you hire employees and tell them, Work hard, do great, and maybe in a few years well cut your pay by 20%? You chose to take a huge amount of earnings away from the content creators in an effort to squeeze them into working for you exclusively. That is an incredible betrayal. On a basic human level you should be ashamed of your actions and greed.

Pond5 has repeatedly spoken against a race to the bottom in pricing. But by cutting artist pay, youre pushing a race to the bottom in how much artists are compensated for their own work. Did you really think it would be more acceptable because you simultaneously launched the 60/40 exclusivity offer? We see the earnings cut for what it is - a profit-grab out of the pockets of artists and an attempt to push contributors into exclusivity by making non-exclusivity less profitable. But for most contributors exclusivity would not cover the loss from leaving other sites, and so your greed is just part of a slow, inevitable disincentive for artists to create good work. Why would I sign exclusively with a company that betrays its contributors on the very day it launches the exclusivity program? You've just proven that contributors can't trust you to maintain commissions.

« Reply #62 on: March 25, 2019, 11:40 »
+1
I received a personal response from CEO Jason Teichman, and we will have a phone conversation soon to discuss the matter. If contributors would like me to ask certain questions to him or make a certain point beyond what I've expressed above, please let me know.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #63 on: March 25, 2019, 11:51 »
+1
I received a personal response from CEO Jason Teichman, and we will have a phone conversation soon to discuss the matter. If contributors would like me to ask certain questions to him or make a certain point beyond what I've expressed above, please let me know.

Just for the thread and the other thread.

"...if you wish to have only selected content (especially new content) listed exclusively with Pond5, you can do so by creating a new, separate account."

Which must be invisible to everyone except me?

Translation, you can have exclusive video on Pond5, based on which account you put it into.


« Reply #64 on: March 25, 2019, 22:44 »
+1
Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

I can't and I'm going exclusive with Pond5 for almost everything from now on. I won't upload to the 20% sites.

« Reply #65 on: March 26, 2019, 05:25 »
0
Exclusivity benefits Pond5 while a contributor is sure to have an overall income loss. Its an insulting smokescreen to offer such a lame deal while at the same time lowering our cut to 40% - a whopping 20% earnings cut. Its a profit-grabbing betrayal by a company that has always marketing itself as artist-friendly, and it should to be called out as such.

Some asked, why call them out for cutting commissions when others pay even less? Because all of it is unfairly low 30% is too low and 40% is too low. Pond5 says they dont want a race to the bottom, but by cutting artist pay theyre participating in a race to the bottom in how much artists are compensated for their own work. Is the CEO getting a pay cut? Is any employee there getting a pay cut? So why . should the creators be OK with a 20% earnings cut?

The only good option here is to push back strongly against the commission cut. If Pond5 wants to go 60/40 for exclusive footage, fine, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what everyone else is paid. Stock companies can look to other areas of their business model for profit or accept the profit they're making, but they need to stop thinking they can take more money from contributors just because they want it.

Pushing back against Storyblocks worked because tons of people wrote emails and posted online. I wrote the petition against them and just created this petition against Pond5. Please sign this petition and share with everyone you know! newbielink:https://www.change.org/p/jason-teichman-pond5-don-t-cut-the-already-low-compensation-for-stock-artists [nonactive]

And please contact Pond5 to let them know its not OK for them or any other site to cut our earnings for the work we create. Email is newbielink:mailto:[email protected] [nonactive], and cc CEO Jason Teichman at newbielink:mailto:[email protected] [nonactive].

You are calling 20% reduction masive. But you write 40% is just as bad as 30%.

40% is about 31% more than 30%!

So 40% is extremely massive more than 30% in your math!

« Reply #66 on: March 26, 2019, 05:36 »
+2
You are calling 20% reduction masive. But you write 40% is just as bad as 30%.

40% is about 31% more than 30%!

So 40% is extremely massive more than 30% in your math!

40% is 33.3% more than 30%. And a 20% reduction is of course massive. If you're making $5,000 a month that's $1,000 gone, just like that!

And just because someone offers 10% doesn't make 40% good, does it? Anything below 50% is quite frankly an insult, and 70% for us should be the standard.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2019, 05:39 by increasingdifficulty »

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #67 on: March 26, 2019, 07:54 »
+2
For me, I'll stop uploading to other sites and put everything up exclusively with Pond5.  I was leaning towards doing that before this change.  It's not that I want royalty rates lower it's that it seems inevitable if people put the same work on different sites.  The value will move towards the worst place.  Sites that pay lower royalties can use that money to market more or make the site nicer and in turn sell more content.  From the agencies' side if contributors are happy accepting less then why should they pay more, what's the benefit for them?

Same here.

Can you explain how encouraging people to buy clips with a 30% royalty because P5 is giving 40% makes any sense?  Seems to me that the anger should be directed towards the sites with lower royalty rates.

I can't and I'm going exclusive with Pond5 for almost everything from now on. I won't upload to the 20% sites.

That too, I'm not so desperate that I'll take crap percentages of low prices, just for some more minimal income. Then people complain about the percentage drop, and upload to places that pay lower commissions on lower prices. Where's that outrage?

I am happily going as a Pond5 Exclusive now! Yep all my choice and I know the risk.....Here we go.....

Going, Going, here's hoping this works out for all of us who choose this path.

In my case, small numbers, I just need to decide 100% or all new? Being the lazy type, I think I'm just going to convert and have only one video stock site for now. I can change my mind later. Yeah I suppose that means I am greedy, I like 60% of something over 20% of nothing.  8)

GONE

« Reply #68 on: March 26, 2019, 10:06 »
+2
Here it goes feel free to follow my journey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvyF_mnv8HI

georgep7

« Reply #69 on: March 26, 2019, 10:32 »
0
the exclusivity or the youtube journey!? XD :P

good luck! in a way we start even.
coming from youtube if I can only suggest not to get burned out soon there.
take care! :)

« Reply #70 on: March 26, 2019, 10:42 »
+1
Thanks, youtube is just a side hobby I enjoy doing, no income there for me but love to teach and share so that is it for me. Of course I put links up and try to teat it as a business to some degree but I have no goals to retire on youtube!

« Reply #71 on: March 26, 2019, 12:13 »
+1
Exclusivity benefits Pond5 while a contributor is sure to have an overall income loss. Its an insulting smokescreen to offer such a lame deal while at the same time lowering our cut to 40% - a whopping 20% earnings cut. Its a profit-grabbing betrayal by a company that has always marketing itself as artist-friendly, and it should to be called out as such.

Some asked, why call them out for cutting commissions when others pay even less? Because all of it is unfairly low 30% is too low and 40% is too low. Pond5 says they dont want a race to the bottom, but by cutting artist pay theyre participating in a race to the bottom in how much artists are compensated for their own work. Is the CEO getting a pay cut? Is any employee there getting a pay cut? So why . should the creators be OK with a 20% earnings cut?

The only good option here is to push back strongly against the commission cut. If Pond5 wants to go 60/40 for exclusive footage, fine, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what everyone else is paid. Stock companies can look to other areas of their business model for profit or accept the profit they're making, but they need to stop thinking they can take more money from contributors just because they want it.

Pushing back against Storyblocks worked because tons of people wrote emails and posted online. I wrote the petition against them and just created this petition against Pond5. Please sign this petition and share with everyone you know! https://www.change.org/p/jason-teichman-pond5-don-t-cut-the-already-low-compensation-for-stock-artists

And please contact Pond5 to let them know its not OK for them or any other site to cut our earnings for the work we create. Email is [email protected], and cc CEO Jason Teichman at [email protected].
Signed, this is a good initiative, we should be supporting this otherwise it also sends out a message that we are indifferent to reductions in our royalties. The bigger issue is that here the reduction does not even specify what that extra 10% will go towards, will it be used to drive more traffic or get the shareholders a new Porsche?


https://www.change.org/p/jason-teichman-pond5-don-t-cut-the-already-low-compensation-for-stock-artists?recruiter=275844661&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition

readding the link so it does not get lost
« Last Edit: March 26, 2019, 12:16 by izzikiorage »

« Reply #72 on: March 26, 2019, 12:23 »
+1
Thank you. I entirely agree - whether someone plans to go exclusive or not, it's in the best interest of every contributor to send a message to agencies that it is never OK to cut our earnings. That's not something we can be apathetic about.

If you haven't already, please sign the petition against the commission cut and share with everyone you know: https://www.change.org/p/jason-teichman-pond5-don-t-cut-the-already-low-compensation-for-stock-artists

I have a phone call this afternoon with Jason Teichman of Pond5. He talked in the Town Hall about how this business runs on trust. I'll definitely be making the case with him that cutting our earnings is a serious violation of trust, in addition to the other negative effects it will bring.

« Reply #73 on: March 26, 2019, 12:42 »
+6
The thing everyone going exclusive have to understand is that of all the times agencies do something along these lines and do not follow up with all the marketing needed to drive traffic to P5, when that exclusive journey fails you have to re-upload all your clips back to the agencies you just yanked them from.  The sales volume at p5 is so miniscule for me that i would never go exclusive there. They WILL HAVE TO HAVE A MASSIVE marketing campaign and be able to fund it. Perhaps their plan is to fund their marketing from the ones who refuse to go along with exclusivity. I wonder if anyone is getting a special deal to be positive about the whole thing. Because without any plan to grow and sustain foot traffic through costly marketing, bringing broad awareness to exclusivity then having the content to back it up, then exclusivity is really a moot point.

« Reply #74 on: March 26, 2019, 13:22 »
0
Well said Mantis.

I have been with Pond5 for many years. I am disappointed in their royalty grab. I have no intention of going exclusive with them. My clips can earn more going to all agencies.


 

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