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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 33939 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« Reply #75 on: March 26, 2019, 14:37 »
+4
Just had a 45 minute phone call with Jason Teichman. Wish I could say I was able to convince him to keep non-exclusive commissions at 50%, but the best I can say is that I argued it a half-dozen ways (literally) and gave it my all. As he explained it, the situation at Pond5 is that in the last couple years they've increased sales and marketing by millions of dollars, and it has increased sales, but at the same time they're constantly getting under-bid by Getty and Shutterstock, who are more focused on photos and will sell their videos at greatly discounted prices to big buyers. The price war that collapsed the stock photo world is occurring in the footage world, and he sees exclusivity as the best possible bulwark against it. For non-exclusives, he says marketing expenses and price competition have made it impossible to maintain 50/50 splits. I have my arguments against that, such as that cutting commissions will lead to price increases at Pond5 and people signing up with more agencies, both of which will hasten the price war. And of course cutting commission kills trust and partnership. I think he genuinely understood and empathized, but in the end he said from a financial perspective there's no way they can continue a 50/50 split when the competition is so much lower. Disappointing for sure. On the plus side, it was good to get more insight into what is happening in the industry. And I give him credit for spending 45 minutes in conversation with someone who was criticizing his decisions. The one big thing we agreed on is that the commoditization of footage is the death knell of the industry. How to fight it is an evolving question, but he was receptive to my point that Pond5, while viewing exclusive content as a way to maintain value, also needs to work more with non-exclusive contributors on solutions to maintain the value of non-exclusive content. So glad I deleted my videos at iStock years ago.


« Reply #76 on: March 26, 2019, 14:41 »
+3
You have to respect a CEO who will talk to the artist!! This is not the norm trust me! He is right about the market and where it is headed. I hope Pond5 can pull off the magic!

« Reply #77 on: March 26, 2019, 14:47 »
0
How to fight it is an evolving question, but he was receptive to my point that Pond5, while viewing exclusive content as a way to maintain value, also needs to work more with non-exclusive contributors on solutions to maintain the value of non-exclusive content.
What are the solutions other than not supporting sites that pay less? 

« Reply #78 on: March 26, 2019, 14:57 »
0
Not uploading to sites that sell low and pay crap is a huge thing contributors should do. But it gets trickier when it comes to Shutterstock, which pays well on some sales and a pittance on others. It's not clear what Pond5 and contributors can do about that (or Getty), but if we don't collectively think of something the price war will slowly hurt us all.

« Reply #79 on: March 26, 2019, 17:39 »
+1
I'm newbie to this market, only 4 years of experience,  but would like to give my thoughts

Any exclusive content has a reason to be exclusive only if it is really unique, no other reasons.
As the video stock market is full of content in quite any niches I strongly doubt that going exclusive could give a real advantage for single contributor.
I work as content manager for commercial television and  in my company (medium national company) the exclusive content is really high value considered only for few top projects. This market is really specific.

I sincerely doubt that exclusive could be a great value in stock market. I could understand if pond5 or any agency should promote selected high value contents giving more to authors (ss with offset, as with premium do that). At the contrary, cutting royalties for contributors will never be a good answer to market.
Let's see
« Last Edit: March 26, 2019, 17:41 by derby »

« Reply #80 on: March 27, 2019, 09:53 »
+2
The line from Pond5 is that the buyers looking for exclusive content are generally companies concerned about branding, such as agencies (as opposed to social media buyers or lower end corporate work). They want clips that are not on ten different stock sites, and I guess not as frequently used. I don't entirely understand this. Whether a clip is exclusive to one agency or not, it's still "used goods." And for us contributors, we of course want our clips to sell as often as possible, which seems to be at odds with what buyers are looking for when they shop for exclusive content. The only point where our interests align is if a buyer requests a permanent buyout on a clip, which will be an option with Pond5 exclusive - this would be a multi-thousand dollar sale. Of course, a contributor will have to do the math to see how much money is worth giving up years and years of repeat sales.

The Town Hall showed a graph showing that exclusive content has double the "average revenue per clip" compared to non-exclusive. However, they did not detail how they did the math on that, and we have to consider that exclusive clips may in general be of higher quality. I view this whole endeavor as a grand experiment with a lot of variables. It will be very interesting to see how it plays out and what its effects on the industry are.

« Reply #81 on: March 27, 2019, 21:49 »
+1
One part if the problem is that we've always been reactive, we struggle against companies that cut commissions but do nothing against the ones that had low commissions to begin with. We should do a massive ask for fair commissions from companies like SS, istock, getty. Petitions, multiple mails, even roping in fair trade government/international bodies to help. That'll also help players like Pond5 maintain royalties. Maybe we can take their help in ensuring that the race to the bottom does not happen

« Reply #82 on: March 27, 2019, 22:38 »
+1
One part if the problem is that we've always been reactive, we struggle against companies that cut commissions but do nothing against the ones that had low commissions to begin with. We should do a massive ask for fair commissions from companies like SS, istock, getty. Petitions, multiple mails, even roping in fair trade government/international bodies to help. That'll also help players like Pond5 maintain royalties. Maybe we can take their help in ensuring that the race to the bottom does not happen

The only solution is to unionize. As much as many of us would resist, a union where we all collectively agree to work together...refusing to submit to agencies that pay less. Agreeing collectively to set certain price policies and standards.

   It's headed in that direction. It's just a matter of time. Just as it has formed in the past when people asked: You want to pay me how much for picking your cotton? You're going to pay me how much for working in your sweat shop? A union is the only answer. It's now just a matter of someone getting it started.

« Reply #83 on: March 27, 2019, 23:52 »
0
One part if the problem is that we've always been reactive, we struggle against companies that cut commissions but do nothing against the ones that had low commissions to begin with. We should do a massive ask for fair commissions from companies like SS, istock, getty. Petitions, multiple mails, even roping in fair trade government/international bodies to help. That'll also help players like Pond5 maintain royalties. Maybe we can take their help in ensuring that the race to the bottom does not happen

The only solution is to unionize. As much as many of us would resist, a union where we all collectively agree to work together...refusing to submit to agencies that pay less. Agreeing collectively to set certain price policies and standards.

   It's headed in that direction. It's just a matter of time. Just as it has formed in the past when people asked: You want to pay me how much for picking your cotton? You're going to pay me how much for working in your sweat shop? A union is the only answer. It's now just a matter of someone getting it started.
It'll have to get started here only by us. Maybe needs to move to another thread so we don't lose the discussion with Pond5

Find the thread here https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/uniting-contributors-for-better-royalty-price-control-and-safeguarding-this-indu
« Last Edit: March 28, 2019, 03:28 by izzikiorage »

« Reply #84 on: March 28, 2019, 05:35 »
+4
To be honest the best path forward is to support Pond5! Now I know they are not perfect and some things you may not like but they are paying fair royalties and trying to support the artist. This is a long game not a, oh I had a big sale on SS today! 

« Reply #85 on: March 28, 2019, 09:43 »
0
Totally agree that the best thing we can do to protect and support ourselves long term is create some kind of collective voice, whether that's a formal union or loose collective. Some people are going exclusive with Pond5, for others it doesn't make financial sense - either way, it's a no-brainer that it would be tremendously beneficial to have more (any!) bargaining power with the agencies. Right now we're at their mercy, and even if you like a particular agency, make no mistake that they are much more concerned about their profit than yours. We need to level that playing field.

« Reply #86 on: March 28, 2019, 10:01 »
0
I am all for what you say but I have seen this topic posted over 15 years and no one can do anything. Point is we are all in business for ourselves and no one wants to take the time to work this through. You would have to have people commit to pulling their content and enough of them to have an impact, for photos that time has passed and for video we are getting close!

« Reply #87 on: March 28, 2019, 10:15 »
0
To be honest the best path forward is to support Pond5! Now I know they are not perfect and some things you may not like but they are paying fair royalties and trying to support the artist. This is a long game not a, oh I had a big sale on SS today!
That sarcasm at the end

« Reply #88 on: March 28, 2019, 13:20 »
+2
One part if the problem is that we've always been reactive, we struggle against companies that cut commissions but do nothing against the ones that had low commissions to begin with. We should do a massive ask for fair commissions from companies like SS, istock, getty. Petitions, multiple mails, even roping in fair trade government/international bodies to help. That'll also help players like Pond5 maintain royalties. Maybe we can take their help in ensuring that the race to the bottom does not happen

The only solution is to unionize. As much as many of us would resist, a union where we all collectively agree to work together...refusing to submit to agencies that pay less. Agreeing collectively to set certain price policies and standards.

   It's headed in that direction. It's just a matter of time. Just as it has formed in the past when people asked: You want to pay me how much for picking your cotton? You're going to pay me how much for working in your sweat shop? A union is the only answer. It's now just a matter of someone getting it started.

You aren't working for the company, you aren't picking their products, you are working for yourself. If you want to boycott or stop uploading, you only hurt yourself. There are another 10,000 artists who will fill your spot. And for a petition what will that do, hurt their feelings? To form a union you need something to hold that the company needs or wants. Labor for example. What does anybody with 10,000 pictures have to hold against the agency with 250 million images? If you can find that, you can start a union. If not, you're just imagining that the agencies would listen. No power, no union.


 

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