MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Pond5 => Topic started by: stephenkirsh on March 03, 2016, 22:02
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Pond 5 always used to be my highest approval rating... 95%+. I always thought it was a bit odd that they just accepted most everything, but ok.
Now, the last 3 times I've submitted, I've got 90% REJECTED. I don't expect them to just keep accepting everything, but these same ~100 images/videos got acceptance ratios ranging from 35-75% on the other stock sites.
What gives? They have an easy upload process, and I make decent money from all my old content, but it's not wroth the time if they're rejecting everything everybody else is accepting.
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I got most of my last uploads accepted, but the notice with some of the rejections was interesting.
"At this point, the clips with this topic that have a greater chance of acceptance on the site are both unusual and high-quality. The best way to tell whether or not your clip has a good chance of getting rejected would be to do a search on our site for what you're thinking of creating before you put in the time to make it, and see how many results come up. If it's something that has 100+ very similar results, then chances are we're not currently looking for more unless they're something we haven't seen before or something that will make us say "wow"."
On one hand I can see how more than 100 clips of a subject wouldn't be of much use to them. But most topics do need to be updated to stay fresh and up to date. Also this means that they wouldn't be accepting anything that isn't a niche.
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Looks like the same recipe for disaster that DT followed with stills. I'm sure google likes lots more new content, why else would SS be accepting so many new images? I'm starting to get seriously concerned about P5, they should remember what made them so good and not destroy it.
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95% rejections here (50+ files), no more uploads until things change.
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Maybe write to them directly?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/720805501262878/?fref=ts (https://www.facebook.com/groups/720805501262878/?fref=ts)
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I have a lot of video clips only on Pond5, so I might as well upload to all their rival sites now. Seen how this works out with images, unfortunately, there's no point wasting time uploading to sites that make such bad mistakes. Buyers like choice, sites that accept more are doing really well while those that let inexperienced reviewers reject most of our uploads aren't doing well.
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This seems pretty daft especially if they're rejecting new 4K content in preference for older existing HD content.
Pond5 has been around almost 10 years - maybe it's time to start deleting files which are very old (say 8+ years) with no sales to make way for better quality new clips
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I got most of my last uploads accepted, but the notice with some of the rejections was interesting.
"At this point, the clips with this topic that have a greater chance of acceptance on the site are both unusual and high-quality. The best way to tell whether or not your clip has a good chance of getting rejected would be to do a search on our site for what you're thinking of creating before you put in the time to make it, and see how many results come up. If it's something that has 100+ very similar results, then chances are we're not currently looking for more unless they're something we haven't seen before or something that will make us say "wow"."
On one hand I can see how more than 100 clips of a subject wouldn't be of much use to them. But most topics do need to be updated to stay fresh and up to date. Also this means that they wouldn't be accepting anything that isn't a niche.
What a strange rejection reason...
I didn't upload 100 files of the same subject, it was from 3 different shoots, and one was travel oriented, so very few "similar" were uploaded.
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Maybe write to them directly?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/720805501262878/?fref=ts (https://www.facebook.com/groups/720805501262878/?fref=ts)
Interesting... looks like they're based in Czech.
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Or ambassadors might know the answers ...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Pond5Ambassadors/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Pond5Ambassadors/)
DESCRIPTION
Welcome to the Pond5 Ambassadors Facebook Group! Our mission is simple: connect talented Pond5 media makers in an imaginative virtual space. We aim to open the lines of communication between creators to share ideas, sparking inspiration within the group and beyond. Pond5 will regularly share news, giving members a sneak peek into our latest product and program updates.
Create. Connect. Inspire.
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their rejections have become weird. What they donīt take is the content that will then sell pretty fast on SS.
But the worst are the long review times.
I used to love pond5, but it looks like they are ignoring what is necessary to be done while the management plays with new toys. Reminds me of istock unfortuantely.
The main advantage was that pond5 was a real marketplace, that set them apart from all the other places where you canīt decide on prices or run your portfolio as your own webshop.
I hope they donīt kill it off with too many "exciting" projects.
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their rejections have become weird. What they donīt take is the content that will then sell pretty fast on SS.
But the worst are the long review times.
I used to love pond5, but it looks like they are ignoring what is necessary to be done while the management plays with new toys. Reminds me of istock unfortuantely.
The main advantage was that pond5 was a real marketplace, that set them apart from all the other places where you canīt decide on prices or run your portfolio as your own webshop.
I hope they donīt kill it off with too many "exciting" projects.
Recently P5 terminated contracts with many long term contractors/employees ... so go figure why such long reviews. :o
Totally buckle up for more "exciting" projects ppl. 8)
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That doesnīt sound good at all.
Pond5 was the only real marketplace the industry had.
They could have become the ebay or amazon of the industry.
But that means no interference in peopleś portfolios, no "micromanaging" by inexperienced reviewers.
Now I am really worried where they are going.
They were outselling compared to SS for a very long time with a much smaller budget.
Their marketplace concept was brilliant and unique.
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That doesnīt sound good at all.
Pond5 was the only real marketplace the industry had.
They could have become the ebay or amazon of the industry.
But that means no interference in peopleś portfolios, no "micromanaging" by inexperienced reviewers.
Now I am really worried where they are going.
They were outselling compared to SS for a very long time with a much smaller budget.
Their marketplace concept was brilliant and unique.
Towards acquisition or IPO or au revoir!
Welcome to capitalism! 8)
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What happened to "intelligent" capitalism...
Guess it is now all just about creating a "story" like a movie trailer and then selling out quick before it all crashes.
We will see what happens, but the long review times mean someone decided not to invest in the most basic structure.
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I used to have rejection rate a little less than Shutterstock and Fotolia-- now they are rejecting 100%. Ridiculous because m images are different even if similar subject matter (same animal). I wrote to them and got a pre-scripted nonsense response. I removed my portfolio and will not be uploading to them unless they get some sense. At this point I am having much better sales at several agencies and 0 sales there.
The reasons the curator gave were bogus. They said things like not sharp 1:1 and not bad at even 200%-- sorry they were sharp and accepted at SS and FT without a sharpness issue so just a fake issue.
It is sad because I thought Pond 5 might be a good place to combine my art longings and stock, They are not. The images closer to my main photographic interest are selling elsewhere so I do not care to waste my time with Pond 5 until they get some sense.
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I got most of my last uploads accepted, but the notice with some of the rejections was interesting.
"At this point, the clips with this topic that have a greater chance of acceptance on the site are both unusual and high-quality. The best way to tell whether or not your clip has a good chance of getting rejected would be to do a search on our site for what you're thinking of creating before you put in the time to make it, and see how many results come up. If it's something that has 100+ very similar results, then chances are we're not currently looking for more unless they're something we haven't seen before or something that will make us say "wow"."
On one hand I can see how more than 100 clips of a subject wouldn't be of much use to them. But most topics do need to be updated to stay fresh and up to date. Also this means that they wouldn't be accepting anything that isn't a niche.
What a strange rejection reason...
I didn't upload 100 files of the same subject, it was from 3 different shoots, and one was travel oriented, so very few "similar" were uploaded.
They're not talking about 100 uploaded files that are too similar to each other. They mean that they already have lots of files of a similar topic and don't want more unless they're unusual or exceptional.
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This seems pretty daft especially if they're rejecting new 4K content in preference for older existing HD content.
Pond5 has been around almost 10 years - maybe it's time to start deleting files which are very old (say 8+ years) with no sales to make way for better quality new clips
Wait... is there a cap in uploading?
You saying if we delete old files, new ones will be accepted easier?
btw...I agree on 4K remark.
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This seems pretty daft especially if they're rejecting new 4K content in preference for older existing HD content.
Pond5 has been around almost 10 years - maybe it's time to start deleting files which are very old (say 8+ years) with no sales to make way for better quality new clips
Wait... is there a cap in uploading?
You saying if we delete old files, new ones will be accepted easier?
btw...I agree on 4K remark.
There's no cap that I know of - was just airing the idea that maybe the curators should start culling all the old unsold crap (of which there is plenty) instead of rejecting new 4K acceptable stuff.
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There's no cap that I know of - was just airing the idea that maybe the curators should start culling all the old unsold crap (of which there is plenty) instead of rejecting new 4K acceptable stuff.
I agree a thousand percent. The trouble is agencies need to brag about how big their stock library is: "no small hands with our agency" ;D so the idea of culling years of crap is a non-starter. Agencies, if they want to attract more buyers IMO need to start being more selective and treat clips like they do with images. Poor framing, exposure, panning, tilting, etc. should not be offered to the buyer who is always seeking professionally shot material.
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There's no cap that I know of - was just airing the idea that maybe the curators should start culling all the old unsold crap (of which there is plenty) instead of rejecting new 4K acceptable stuff.
I agree a thousand percent. The trouble is agencies need to brag about how big their stock library is: "no small hands with our agency" ;D so the idea of culling years of crap is a non-starter. Agencies, if they want to attract more buyers IMO need to start being more selective and treat clips like they do with images. Poor framing, exposure, panning, tilting, etc. should not be offered to the buyer who is always seeking professionally shot material.
Doesn't old non-selling stuff get pushed back so far in the search that it doesn't really matter if it's there or not?
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This seems pretty daft especially if they're rejecting new 4K content in preference for older existing HD content.
Pond5 has been around almost 10 years - maybe it's time to start deleting files which are very old (say 8+ years) with no sales to make way for better quality new clips
Wait... is there a cap in uploading?
You saying if we delete old files, new ones will be accepted easier?
btw...I agree on 4K remark.
There's no cap that I know of - was just airing the idea that maybe the curators should start culling all the old unsold crap (of which there is plenty) instead of rejecting new 4K acceptable stuff.
Yes that makes sense, but prior to deleting anything they got to ask you for permission to do it, no? ....which would be time consuming. :-\
Or just us decide to do the cleaning our ports. BUT, I really don't think there is any guarantee they would accept your new work afterwards. :-\
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There's no cap that I know of - was just airing the idea that maybe the curators should start culling all the old unsold crap (of which there is plenty) instead of rejecting new 4K acceptable stuff.
I agree a thousand percent. The trouble is agencies need to brag about how big their stock library is: "no small hands with our agency" ;D so the idea of culling years of crap is a non-starter. Agencies, if they want to attract more buyers IMO need to start being more selective and treat clips like they do with images. Poor framing, exposure, panning, tilting, etc. should not be offered to the buyer who is always seeking professionally shot material.
Doesn't old non-selling stuff get pushed back so far in the search that it doesn't really matter if it's there or not?
I think it matters with Google. Since DT started culling old images, they slipped down the earnings poll results here. Perhaps a coincidence but I think it could be one of the reasons for their decline.
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Same here, pond5 seems to reject stuff that sells well everywhere else. Plus slow approval means i already have some sales before it actually makes it to the review on pond 5
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40% rejection after 2 months wait here. I never had that happen at Pond5, usually 100% or 95% approval. Most of the clips are new 4k clips which there is no 4k equivalent on the site. Rejection reasons like :
"Thanks for the upload but we are seeking uniquely original and vibrant content, so we have decided not to include this video as part of our collection.Please let us know if you have any questions"
"Thanks for the upload but we have decided not to include this clip as part of our collection. The clip has no motion and looks like still frame. Please let us know if you have any question."
This is ridiculous, so locked shots are out, it takes a lot longer to upload and keyword on Pond 5 than most of the other sites, it took 2 months to review or more and then the boatload of arbitrary rejections. Sales have been ok but trending lower compared to other sites. The other sites accepted these clips and have started selling no problem especially the 4k ones.
I am disheartened at best and now I am frankly scared of submitting content and waste valuable time in the upload process. I really think they need to rethink this strategy. Maybe they have reached critical mass and do not want to have tons of content as a marketplace and more as a curated collection.
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Eh, they are too busy over there ;)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BC0rOJFr6PH/?hl=en&taken-by=allisongf12 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BC0rOJFr6PH/?hl=en&taken-by=allisongf12)
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40% rejection after 2 months wait here. I never had that happen at Pond5, usually 100% or 95% approval. Most of the clips are new 4k clips which there is no 4k equivalent on the site. Rejection reasons like :
"Thanks for the upload but we are seeking uniquely original and vibrant content, so we have decided not to include this video as part of our collection.Please let us know if you have any questions"
"Thanks for the upload but we have decided not to include this clip as part of our collection. The clip has no motion and looks like still frame. Please let us know if you have any question."
This is ridiculous, so locked shots are out, it takes a lot longer to upload and keyword on Pond 5 than most of the other sites, it took 2 months to review or more and then the boatload of arbitrary rejections. Sales have been ok but trending lower compared to other sites. The other sites accepted these clips and have started selling no problem especially the 4k ones.
I am disheartened at best and now I am frankly scared of submitting content and waste valuable time in the upload process. I really think they need to rethink this strategy. Maybe they have reached critical mass and do not want to have tons of content as a marketplace and more as a curated collection.
There's no incentive to upload 4k clips if a reviewer that probably doesn't really know what they are doing is going to choose what to accept and reject. Such a shame that my favourite site, after alamy, seems to of lost the plot. I wont bother uploading until this crazy policy is changed. They can't have a more curated collection when they used to accept everything, it just doesn't make any sense.
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As I said before this is lunacy, they should be culling old crap accepted during the "anything goes" years before rejecting new decent 4K material...
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I think all agencies should stay . out of our portfolios instead of trying to micromanage what we do.
They can always hire editors that go through the collection to showcase to the customers.
Inspections should be for technical quality, logos and legal stuff, checking releases etc...
Or they add an additional "superstock" collection with extra high prices or special license that they heavily promote.
But micromanaging portfolios means destroying the marketplace.
It is a shame, I really loved pond5, I was hoping they would use their skills to increase sales of photos, not ruin their video sales :(
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I think all agencies should stay . out of our portfolios instead of trying to micromanage what we do.
They can always hire editors that go through the collection to showcase to the customers.
Inspections should be for technical quality, logos and legal stuff, checking releases etc...
Or they add an additional "superstock" collection with extra high prices or special license that they heavily promote.
But micromanaging portfolios means destroying the marketplace.
It is a shame, I really loved pond5, I was hoping they would use their skills to increase sales of photos, not ruin their video sales :(
After 10 years of existence P5 still does NOT have Sales Department.
Who is doing sales there? N O B O D Y
Video sales that was generated trough SEO got ruined by competition, because buyers go elsewhere for better deals and experience.
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I think all agencies should stay . out of our portfolios instead of trying to micromanage what we do.
They can always hire editors that go through the collection to showcase to the customers.
Inspections should be for technical quality, logos and legal stuff, checking releases etc...
Or they add an additional "superstock" collection with extra high prices or special license that they heavily promote.
But micromanaging portfolios means destroying the marketplace.
It is a shame, I really loved pond5, I was hoping they would use their skills to increase sales of photos, not ruin their video sales :(
After 10 years of existence P5 still does NOT have Sales Department.
Who is doing sales there? N O B O D Y
Video sales that was generated trough SEO got ruined by competition, because buyers go elsewhere for better deals and experience.
Obviously not true because up until recently, they have been selling lots. Most people here seem to say they are either the best selling video site or they are in their top 3. I think there is enough real things to concern us in the past few months without having to make things up.
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I think all agencies should stay . out of our portfolios instead of trying to micromanage what we do.
They can always hire editors that go through the collection to showcase to the customers.
Inspections should be for technical quality, logos and legal stuff, checking releases etc...
Or they add an additional "superstock" collection with extra high prices or special license that they heavily promote.
But micromanaging portfolios means destroying the marketplace.
It is a shame, I really loved pond5, I was hoping they would use their skills to increase sales of photos, not ruin their video sales :(
After 10 years of existence P5 still does NOT have Sales Department.
Who is doing sales there? N O B O D Y
Video sales that was generated trough SEO got ruined by competition, because buyers go elsewhere for better deals and experience.
Obviously not true because up until recently, they have been selling lots. Most people here seem to say they are either the best selling video site or they are in their top 3. I think there is enough real things to concern us in the past few months without having to make things up.
ha ha...
Who is making things up? What is not true?
P5 does not have sales department. Check their LinkedIn page, if you don't believe me.
After solid 10 years, only recently (January 2016) they have got VP of Sales who is from February 2016 looking for first ever Sales Executive. 8)
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You said "Who is doing sales there? N O B O D Y". If that was true, they wouldn't be selling anything. So yes, you are making things up and there's really no need when there are real problems at the moment, like the long review times, mass rejections and the subscription program.
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You said "Who is doing sales there? N O B O D Y". If that was true, they wouldn't be selling anything. So yes, you are making things up and there's really no need when there are real problems at the moment, like the long review times, mass rejections and the subscription program.
When buyer calls there is no sales department to talk to, like in other agencies!
There is no sales agent to discuss and make deals, like in other agencies! To me, this is a huge problem.
I said "nobody" as no live person to talk to.
Company is in re-construction phase to corporate business, but their 10 years long
legacy of laid back attitude towards everything is still present all over.
Ok? Now back to the real problems .... the long review times, mass rejections and the subscription program.
We pointed out to these long ago and NOBODY from P5 came forward to explain them.
What else we can do here? :-\
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What . is going on there? I have just got only one accepted out of a batch of nearly 70 images. Some of the images are selling really well at SS and Fot. I've rarely had rejections there before. The images I uploaded came from at least 6 different batches so it isn't like I took a whole batch with the wrong lighting or something. I'm really pissed.
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Same here 100 images uploaded only 19 accepted and 81 rejection (on shutterstock no rejections) what happ?
:-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\
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Hm, I don't have a portfolio with P5 yet and I probably won't try for a while :)
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To P5 Director of Artist Development & Experience, Robert Pascale keywords are more important than reviews! ::) >:( ::)
https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154023617589777 (https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154023617589777)
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To P5 Director of Artist Development & Experience, Robert Pascale keywords are more important than reviews! ::) >:( ::)
https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154023617589777 (https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154023617589777)
I'm thinking someone who is introducing an article about keywording ought to know the difference between complimentary and complementary and use the correct one. Or is this just me being old-fashioned and pedantic?
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To P5 Director of Artist Development & Experience, Robert Pascale keywords are more important than reviews! ::) >:( ::)
https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154023617589777 (https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154023617589777)
I'm thinking someone who is introducing an article about keywording ought to know the difference between complimentary and complementary and use the correct one. Or is this just me being old-fashioned and pedantic?
Ha...spot on!
Curious to see how long is going to take them to correct that!?!
(40 hours later, 22 likes & nobody noticed!) :o
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After 2 and a 1/2 months waiting I've got almost 45% rejections of 350 files (video).
I can agree with 10% of those rejections. The ones that are editorial (Fotolia doesn't accept editorial either...)
The other 35% I just cannot understand!!!! great shots with model / equipment / good keywords....
What . is wrong with them.... :(
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I can agree with 10% of those rejections. The ones that are editorial (Fotolia doesn't accept editorial either...)
Has P5 stopped accepting editorials? They certainly used to. In fact, I'm pretty sure I had one accepted in my last batch, but that was last month (before the reports of so many rejections gathered steam).
What's happening with P5 is quite sad; it had always been one of my favorite sites.
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Has anyone send them an email asking for any explication for this mass rejections? Din you get any response?
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Has anyone send them an email asking for any explication for this mass rejections? Din you get any response?
No reply.
They do read this forum, I ve got confirmation from an insider.
Why they don't engage at MSG, nobody knows.
Fancy more insanity?
At P5, Dev team helps buyers ... :o :o :o
No offense to IT guys, but this kind of reply will not persuade anyone to join that gig. ::)
http://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=52887369 (http://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=52887369)
A QUESTION BEFORE GETTING A MEMBERSHIP
swoo007 17 Mar 2016 08:45
I'm planning to get a monthly membership. It says 10 clips per month and 10%off on all clips. Is it any 10 clips in pond5 or is there a limited selection? If so, how do I know which are free when you get a membership and which aren't?
jonasdev 17 Mar 2016 09:02
Hi swoo007!
Thanks for looking into the Membership Program. There is a limited selection of clips that are available within the Membership program. You can search for membership content only by clicking the "Membership Content" checkbox in the search filter. Like this: http://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/new-york.html#1/2063/membership:1,new,york. (http://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/new-york.html#1/2063/membership:1,new,york.)
Additionally, as you say, you get 10% off on all clips in the entire library with the Membership.
You can read more about our Membership program here: www.pond5.com/membership (http://www.pond5.com/membership)
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120 videos submitted 120 videos rejected. Pond 5 is done for me I guess.
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Boy... wow, Never a rejection since day One. Was a big supporter. Now rejections today and some of my newist and best sellers. I was a fanBoy also. Oh well.
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120 videos submitted 120 videos rejected. Pond 5 is done for me I guess.
Unbelievable...you'll have to email them about that. That's ridiculous.
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120 videos submitted 120 videos rejected. Pond 5 is done for me I guess.
Unbelievable...you'll have to email them about that. That's ridiculous.
Honestly, I think they are looking for a different kind of contributor now. They are executing on some new model and the consequence is no more regular contributor types. And I would make a guess that the 50% will go away soon. I did email them but I expect that canned answer they are giving everyone. I will not upload there any longer. Waste of my time. The sad thing is that I am up to about $400 this month and have no more opportunity to grow with them.
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Last week I emailed them about my rejections. I explained them why my videos should be added to the database, one by one with the file numbers. They sent me a plastic, copy-paste answer, saying that I should send my best files?!...I think I will have a brake with them. Very discouraging...
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I wont bother uploading until this policy is changed.
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@Mantis
This high rejection rate is really terrible. Thank you for telling us. I wonīt upload to them until this changes. I have a slow internet connection and so I have a limit on how many agencies I can upload.
In my priority list P5 drops down every day. I loved them in the past but that is over.
My earnings stay the same at P5, while on several other agencies I increase my earnings. Even on Fotolia I get at least one or two sales of a new video batch within a week or two.
The review times at P5 and the high rejection rates lately put me off uploading to them since last october.
Really sad.
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I think they are destroying Pond5. They should at least tell us more about what they do want now. Uploading video clips isn't a trivial task, I think the reviewers are unlikely to look at all the clips they are rejecting but if they do, that's a big waste of time as well.
The lack of communication is more than alarming, it will stop most of us uploading and then they are stuck with a site full of old clips. Their rivals must be so pleased to see this happening.
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Is there anyone actually working there at all? >:(
Their official instagram had been corrupted...or sold out to contributor called Markesper???!!!!
https://www.instagram.com/pond5official/ (https://www.instagram.com/pond5official/)
Pond5 on Instagram! Visual inspiration delivered daily. Create with Pond5 and bring your ideas to life. 🎬📽📸 bit.ly/1MmiqGm
382 posts
1,457 followers
778 following
When you click on the link bit.ly/1MmiqGm you get to...
http://www.pond5.com/artist/markesper (http://www.pond5.com/artist/markesper)
WOW!
This link was redirected over 300 times....nice little advertisment for Markesper who has only 147 files on P5! >:(
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Got my answer here....
Pond5
15 hours ago
We spent the day playing with the new Hyperspektiv app so you didn't have to (but you'll want to!). http://bit.ly/1Rlohsz (http://bit.ly/1Rlohsz) #iphonephotography #coolapps #appreviews #filmmaker #fun
https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154052607239777 (https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10154052607239777)
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I am expecting the canned response also. I did a check on a few of my videos. I have one, for example, where I couldn't find any. It is a time lapse I set up at Superstition Mountains in Arizona. I have some easter videos of decorated chocolate bunnies that they have maybe a dozen of. So it is like they are blanket rejecting based on viewing the thumbnail only. They definitely are not reviewing the entire video. I think they are doing the Alamy mentality and looking at maybe one and basing their rejection on that one or so video, or simply just doing a cursory view of the thumbs.
I sure with Istock would revamp their video program to be more equitable. We're running out of fair trade outlets, but we know that fair trade is not in their vocabulary.
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If istock paid out 30% for non exclusive, they would get a lot of content.
But overall, this is an opportunity for all the other agencies to pick up reliable producers.
With only 4 million files and basically zero 4k content the video market is not in an oversupply situation like photos. The video market is in the earliest stages ever and the number of people who regularly produce and upload video is extremly small. And wonīt be growing fast, the upload times alone is putting off a lot of people. Also many photographers try it and then back off, too much work, to little revenue or they simply donīt enjoy making videos.
pond5 was unique because it was a fantastic marketplace.
That they would destroy it themselves to go boutique, who would have expected that?
ETA: can anyone convince Adobe to take editorial video? They have 24 hour reviews, they could get into a new market easily.
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What I found interesting in all this is that P5 actually got that massive funding based on market place idea and not on this new "boutique gig".
Possibly after some observing and closer look into the real numbers, Investors concluded there was no way to earn on higher scale, so they opted for exclusivity and boutique path.
OR they are just experimenting into all this and in worse case scenario instead of IPO they will just go for acquisition and return their invested $.
Time will tell...
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I think they havenīt even realized that they have completly changed their business model.
That is the really scary part.
It would have been really easy to introduce curated collections while not disrupting the marketplace.
Pond5 was the agency that had everything at every price point, the first place you go to.
With their weird reviews and artists favoring other places, they will quickly fall behind. Somebody else will have the largest collection in the market.
There is no oversupply in video.
And nearly nothing in 4k.
The comments on the forum point to a management that wants a completly different company and believes they have the right to micromanage our portfolios.
They should be proud of what made pond5 unique, not destroy itś USP.
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I think they havenīt even realized that they have completly changed their business model.
That is the really scary part.
It would have been really easy to introduce curated collections while not disrupting the marketplace.
Pond5 was the agency that had everything at every price point, the first place you go to.
With their weird reviews and artists favoring other places, they will quickly fall behind. Somebody else will have the largest collection in the market.
There is no oversupply in video.
And nearly nothing in 4k.
The comments on the forum point to a management that wants a completly different company and believes they have the right to micromanage our portfolios.
They should be proud of what made pond5 unique, not destroy itś USP.
As I said long ago...great idea but bad execution, that's P5.
I doubt buyers would agree with you that everything was in place...many things were missing from their pov.
P5 wild recruiting policy was also rather weird and in the end that crew wasn't able to deliver what was needed. Too much experimenting on every level....
Without knowing how to lead, old management was therefore sized and ill advised to all this.
New management, new employees (some chameleons just changed their color though!), new logo, new site, new offices, new biz model ...
I am sure there will be no way back to marketplace as it once was. 8)
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I opened an account there and uploaded a bunch of videos 4 months ago. Yesterday i get an email rejecting all the videos because they feel the descriptions need more info. I write back. After several email exchanges it turns out they haven't even looked at my ID yet, my account still isn't active, and my files were never actually reviewed. So they have time to email back and forth all day and send nonsensical rejections, but after 4 months nobody has had ten seconds to glance at my driver's license.
I think they're nuts.
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I opened an account there and uploaded a bunch of videos 4 months ago. Yesterday i get an email rejecting all the videos because they feel the descriptions need more info. I write back. After several email exchanges it turns out they haven't even looked at my ID yet, my account still isn't active, and my files were never actually reviewed. So they have time to email back and forth all day and send nonsensical rejections, but after 4 months nobody has had ten seconds to glance at my driver's license.
I think they're nuts.
They are soooo relaxed and cosy! ;)
https://www.glassdoor.com/Photos/Pond5-Office-Photos-E926933.htm (https://www.glassdoor.com/Photos/Pond5-Office-Photos-E926933.htm)
More fun:
https://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=52634772 (https://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=52634772)
http://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=53060334 (http://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=53060334)
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I think they are destroying Pond5. They should at least tell us more about what they do want now. Uploading video clips isn't a trivial task, I think the reviewers are unlikely to look at all the clips they are rejecting but if they do, that's a big waste of time as well.
The lack of communication is more than alarming, it will stop most of us uploading and then they are stuck with a site full of old clips. Their rivals must be so pleased to see this happening.
The parts in bold pretty much sum it up.
After a long wait I just had 20/20 clips rejected, even though all were accepted at SS. They seem to be trying the DT approach of rejecting anything remotely similar to what they have already. We know how well that worked out for DT and P5 is likely to experience the same. With the extra time to upload video it is no longer worth bothering with P5 unless they change this policy - I make much more on Canva than P5 these days so will devote my time there instead.
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I think they are destroying Pond5. They should at least tell us more about what they do want now. Uploading video clips isn't a trivial task, I think the reviewers are unlikely to look at all the clips they are rejecting but if they do, that's a big waste of time as well.
The lack of communication is more than alarming, it will stop most of us uploading and then they are stuck with a site full of old clips. Their rivals must be so pleased to see this happening.
The parts in bold pretty much sum it up.
After a long wait I just had 20/20 clips rejected, even though all were accepted at SS. They seem to be trying the DT approach of rejecting anything remotely similar to what they have already. We know how well that worked out for DT and P5 is likely to experience the same. With the extra time to upload video it is no longer worth bothering with P5 unless they change this policy - I make much more on Canva than P5 these days so will devote my time there instead.
I agree. I was hoping for a fruitful relationship with p5. But really, in my case 100% of 120 videos rejected means they aren't actually reviewing them, they are looking quickly at the thumbnails and blanket rejecting. We will see more big changes soon. This is just the beginning.
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Yesterday I had 712 videos accepted - none rejected and today 1042 accepted with none rejected.
I don't think my video's are amazingly special or anything. It took them 3 weeks to review. So I'm either very lucky or everything is normal? I'm hoping on the latter?
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You are probably on a list of favored producers they want to encourage, while the rest of us are getting the go away message.
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Yesterday I had 712 videos accepted - none rejected and today 1042 accepted with none rejected.
I don't think my video's are amazingly special or anything. It took them 3 weeks to review. So I'm either very lucky or everything is normal? I'm hoping on the latter?
You probably just got lucky. In their forum they have said they have changed review standards and that seems to of led to some reviewers rejecting almost everything while others must of missed the memo and are still accepting everything. There's no point in raising standards if they haven't gone through all the old clips and removed the substandard ones.
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I had most of my last largish batch refused. If that happens again I will stop uploading there. They were acccepted 95 - 100% at 10 other sites. Shame as I really like that fact that you can set your own price but therir upload process is too cumbersome with MRs to make it worthwhile if they are going to reject photos for no reason.
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Yesterday I had 712 videos accepted - none rejected and today 1042 accepted with none rejected.
I don't think my video's are amazingly special or anything. It took them 3 weeks to review. So I'm either very lucky or everything is normal? I'm hoping on the latter?
Hey Cider Apple, have you been selected for membership contributor? Maybe you guys gets priority now.
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I haven't uploaded anything for a while so can't comment on rejections but I've been absolutely hammered in the sales department. Let's just say March 2015 had 26x as much revenue come in compared to March this year, this will be the worst month since 2011 - that's a dramatic drop.
It seems something has changed drastically there, for 5 years I had stellar sales and made a solid income. (Onions yes I know you think I'm a "favourite" but I didn't even have my first email contact with anyone there until this time last year and ironically since then things have slowly faltered and now seriously dropped off a cliff.) I have a feeling a shake up in top management and "suits" coming in may have something to do with it.
If things don't pick up or change drastically soon I'll have a serious rethink of my strategy there. Luckily I'm well spread and don't rely solely on Pond5...
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I haven't uploaded anything for a while so can't comment on rejections but I've been absolutely hammered in the sales department. Let's just say March 2015 had 26x as much revenue come in compared to March this year, this will be the worst month since 2011 - that's a dramatic drop.
It seems something has changed drastically there, for 5 years I had stellar sales and made a solid income. (Onions yes I know you think I'm a "favourite" but I didn't even have my first email contact with anyone there until this time last year and ironically since then things have slowly faltered and now seriously dropped off a cliff.) I have a feeling a shake up in top management and "suits" coming in may have something to do with it.
If things don't pick up or change drastically soon I'll have a serious rethink of my strategy there. Luckily I'm well spread and don't rely solely on Pond5...
Mate, I am really sorry to hear this. Well common sense logic was, if they featured you in their adverts you must have felt some benefits of it, no? How amazing, they even screwed that one up.
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If things don't pick up or change drastically soon I'll have a serious rethink of my strategy there. Luckily I'm well spread and don't rely solely on Pond5...
I made the mistake to rely mostly on pond5 and SS. I really need to go out and explore the competition.
But I really thought the pond5 marketplace approach was brilliant and by not sending my files everywhere I was actually helping them stay the first place a customer would look. I also recommended them to many people, at least for video.
At 50% they are fair trade. But if they micromanage my portfolio and have review times of several months, and now the drop in sales, Iīll have to look elsewhere, I canīt wait until the new managers have finished experimenting.
We have seen how this works out too many times. What will come now is sad, but so many other agencies have gone that way before them.
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Yesterday I had 712 videos accepted - none rejected and today 1042 accepted with none rejected.
I don't think my video's are amazingly special or anything. It took them 3 weeks to review. So I'm either very lucky or everything is normal? I'm hoping on the latter?
Hey Cider Apple, have you been selected for membership contributor? Maybe you guys gets priority now.
No I've just dropped istock exclusivity so just uploading my portfolio. I've had no issues as of yet. Maybe because I'm new?
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I got a reply from P5 today and I was right. They spot check, blanket reject. They looked at my first couple of videos, didn't like them and rejected them all. They then went in and looked again and a few others and said we have too many of these. I pointed out to them that I have dozens that were not "over saturated" that they would not acknowledge. Verdict. All 120 rejections stand. They DO NOT review the entire batch, of large batches anyway. I am not surprised. They are going down the toilet.
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Yesterday I had 712 videos accepted - none rejected and today 1042 accepted with none rejected.
I don't think my video's are amazingly special or anything. It took them 3 weeks to review. So I'm either very lucky or everything is normal? I'm hoping on the latter?
Hey Cider Apple, have you been selected for membership contributor? Maybe you guys gets priority now.
No I've just dropped istock exclusivity so just uploading my portfolio. I've had no issues as of yet. Maybe because I'm new?
Week ago all 250 videos and 250 images accepted! Member since 2008 so new or old member is irrelevant! Most of the videos are 3d animations so I guess they are looking for such type of videos! ...or maybe I'm wrong
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I got a reply from P5 today and I was right. They spot check, blanket reject. They looked at my first couple of videos, didn't like them and rejected them all. They then went in and looked again and a few others and said we have too many of these. I pointed out to them that I have dozens that were not "over saturated" that they would not acknowledge. Verdict. All 120 rejections stand. They DO NOT review the entire batch, of large batches anyway. I am not surprised. They are going down the toilet.
So they no longer review our files?
What are we supposed to do, send batches with single files? Instead of batch uploading, one or two a day?
What about 4k content, do they at least review that?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFympKLy1os (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFympKLy1os)
The man who made some interesting choices after this interview, 4 years ago.
Surely he is sunning somewhere super warm while we all trying to conclude what's going on with P5.
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I have not been a fan of pond5 accepting literally everything so this is a welcome move...... as long as it's not too extreme without decent consideration of all footage.
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I got a reply from P5 today and I was right. They spot check, blanket reject. They looked at my first couple of videos, didn't like them and rejected them all. They then went in and looked again and a few others and said we have too many of these. I pointed out to them that I have dozens that were not "over saturated" that they would not acknowledge. Verdict. All 120 rejections stand. They DO NOT review the entire batch, of large batches anyway. I am not surprised. They are going down the toilet.
Don't alamy do the same thing? Reject a whole batch if they don't like a couple of the images?
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Does anybody know if we can 'sneak' the refused images up again in with other batches or is there some sort of automatic system that knows that they have been refused before? My batch that got refused had images from 6 different shoots all of which had images from the same shoots approved previously. There is no way that most of them should have been refused. I get the feeling that a reviewer just refused them all without even looking at them properly.
ps I just looked and before refusing these last large batch I had only ever had a total of 15 rejections from them.
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Does anybody know if we can 'sneak' the refused images up again in with other batches or is there some sort of automatic system that knows that they have been refused before? My batch that got refused had images from 6 different shoots all of which had images from the same shoots approved previously. There is no way that most of them should have been refused. I get the feeling that a reviewer just refused them all without even looking at them properly.
ps I just looked and before refusing these last large batch I had only ever had a total of 15 rejections from them.
Desperation call at its best ... is there any pride left? :o
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Does anybody know if we can 'sneak' the refused images up again in with other batches or is there some sort of automatic system that knows that they have been refused before? My batch that got refused had images from 6 different shoots all of which had images from the same shoots approved previously. There is no way that most of them should have been refused. I get the feeling that a reviewer just refused them all without even looking at them properly.
ps I just looked and before refusing these last large batch I had only ever had a total of 15 rejections from them.
Desperation call at its best ... is there any pride left? :o
I am talking about images that have sold many times in the little while that they have been up at other sites. One of the images refused has sold nearly 60 times at Fotolia alone in less than 2 months. I don't put up images just for the sake of it. I am very choosy about what I upload and it really annoys me when I take the time to upoad and they aren't reviewed properly. It's not sourgrapes it's the fact that I know that there is nothing wrong with the images.
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Does anybody know if we can 'sneak' the refused images up again in with other batches or is there some sort of automatic system that knows that they have been refused before? My batch that got refused had images from 6 different shoots all of which had images from the same shoots approved previously. There is no way that most of them should have been refused. I get the feeling that a reviewer just refused them all without even looking at them properly.
ps I just looked and before refusing these last large batch I had only ever had a total of 15 rejections from them.
Desperation call at its best ... is there any pride left? :o
I am talking about images that have sold many times in the little while that they have been up at other sites. One of the images refused has sold nearly 60 times at Fotolia alone in less than 2 months. I don't put up images just for the sake of it. I am very choosy about what I upload and it really annoys me when I take the time to upoad and they aren't reviewed properly. It's not sourgrapes it's the fact that I know that there is nothing wrong with the images.
I hear you... but what kind of business is that, where contributors got to make plans to sneak their product in, in order to prove right!
How about writing to their investors or CEO and explain the nonsense taking place and asking for help/clarification.
https://twitter.com/ryan1scott (https://twitter.com/ryan1scott)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmscot (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmscot)
[email protected]
off I go...great Easter folks!
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How about writing to their investors or CEO and explain the nonsense taking place and asking for help/clarification.
I wrote to support and didn't get a very satisfactory answer
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How about writing to their investors or CEO and explain the nonsense taking place and asking for help/clarification.
I wrote to support and didn't get a very satisfactory answer
ok, one last shout before I really take off for some Easter fun ....
Who is support? Some young kid working remotely on low salary, probably not knowing what you on about.
Always go to the top to get things done.
When in shop and not happy with sales assistant, you usually ask for manager to help you, no?
On a much more serious note here...
Could THIS copyright lawsuit against P5 (link below) that is going on since last September be the reason for all this paranoid behaviour?
Nobody messes up with Gordon Hempton of SoundTracker.
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9470397/Hempton_v_Pond5,_Inc_et_al (https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9470397/Hempton_v_Pond5,_Inc_et_al)
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/washington/wawdce/3:2015cv05696/221382 (https://dockets.justia.com/docket/washington/wawdce/3:2015cv05696/221382)
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I got a reply from P5 today and I was right. They spot check, blanket reject. They looked at my first couple of videos, didn't like them and rejected them all. They then went in and looked again and a few others and said we have too many of these. I pointed out to them that I have dozens that were not "over saturated" that they would not acknowledge. Verdict. All 120 rejections stand. They DO NOT review the entire batch, of large batches anyway. I am not surprised. They are going down the toilet.
So they no longer review our files?
What are we supposed to do, send batches with single files? Instead of batch uploading, one or two a day?
What about 4k content, do they at least review that?
I am merely communicating what they told me...."we looked at your first few and didn't like them, so they were rejected". That's when I wrote back and found out that they didn't even check the others. They "blanket rejected". They refused to even acknowledge the videos I pointed out that they either only had a dozen or so or none....yes none. They did not care.
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Who is support? Some young kid working remotely on low salary, probably not knowing what you on about.
Always go to the top to get things done.
When in shop and not happy with sales assistant, you usually ask for manager to help you, no?
Yes you are right. Thank you. Have a great Easter.
ps no idea what all that copyright stuff is all about but it looks serious.
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I had a decent approval rate there and then suddenly hey started rejecting everything,inc. photos that were accepted and selling everywhere else (SS, FT, DT, BS...) I wrote them and got back some canned bogus response, I deleted all my portfolio there because other sited have better sales for me and honestly, I would rather spend my time photographing for sites that have better sales than waste any more time with Pond5. If they get their act together, maybe but right now, Pond5 is a waste of time.
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Itˋ s not a good place for photos, they donīt know how to sell them and now they have completly crazy rejections.
But for video they are a very, very strong agency. They were ahead of everyone else for many years.
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They were good for video but I'm not sure they still are after all the changes. A lot of the good feeling I had about Pond5 has gone this year. The only positive now is the 50% but wont that be on their list of things to ruin?
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With 600 files video portfolio my last sale was on Feb 29. No sales since the membership program started. Maybe I am a little bit unlucky but I do think there is a shift in sales from the private portfolios to the membership collection.
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With 600 files video portfolio my last sale was on Feb 29. No sales since the membership program started. Maybe I am a little bit unlucky but I do think there is a shift in sales from the private portfolios to the membership collection.
Weirdly that was the day of my last decent sale before things fell off a clip. One of the admins did post in the P5 forums saying they acknowledged there was some issues and had made some changes and since then a few sales have trickled in but nothing major. Right now March 2016 running at 10% of March 2015 in revenue.
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My belief is that we are only seeing the beginning of the P5 transition from fair trade to something quite different. With new management & funding, my gut tells me we will see a 50% royalty go to 30%. I think it's also probable that they will do more to control pricing. If they create a boutique-type collection (which it looks like they are doing) that will be a "premium collection"priced accordingly. If buyers find something in the "general"collection they won't want to pay boutique pricing, they would likely expect to pay quite less. The collections can't compete; there has to be a clear divide between them, which is content and price. The only way to make that work is to devalue or control the general collection in some way so as to make the boutique collection of higher perceived value. The reason I say this is that other sites offer spectacular footage at regular micro stock rates. P5 won't be able to compete with that so the only way is to devalue existing work below the threshold of which the boutique collection is priced. In any event Pond 5 has begin eroding the trust of its contributors who helped build them. Classic behavior once you are rolling in dough. The direction of their inspections alone has alienated a lot of us contributors, especially knowing that they spot check and batch reject, even after waiting 10 weeks for inspection to happen. No thank you Pond 5.
As I mentioned earlier, I hope the rumors are true that Istock is feeling the pinch on video and changing their game later this year to be " a little bit "more equitable on royalties. If anyone follows the Istock forums feel free to post any news you find on this, if any. I browsed the forums but could only find that they are maybe going to build a CSV capability of ESPAWS, but nothing specific about the video program being re-engineered like someone said in another MSG thread.
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I wouldn't put much hope in istock, they would have to pay at least 30% for non exclusive content if Adobe is paying 33 and SS 30.
This would mean paying 40% or more to the exclusives.
Not very likely.
with all the debt getty has...
No, the only real hope for additional revenue at the moment is adobe, but they don't even take editorial.
If pond5 folds on the regular producers, it will be hard to replace, because it was the only real marketplace. It basically functioned as our personal webstore.
Not anymore, now it is boutique with editors that micromanage our portfolios and with curators imposing their opinion without even looking at the files.
I still don't understand why, but it is easy to see what is coming.
Maybe if enough producers ask photoshelter, or vimeo or youtube very nicely, somebody will run the numbers, look at the stage of the market and decide this is a fantastic time to get in.
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I wouldn't put much hope in istock, they would have to pay at least 30% for non exclusive content if Adobe is paying 33 and SS 30.
This would mean paying 40% or more to the exclusives.
Not very likely.
with all the debt getty has...
No, the only real hope for additional revenue at the moment is adobe, but they don't even take editorial.
If pond5 folds on the regular producers, it will be hard to replace, because it was the only real marketplace. It basically functioned as our personal webstore.
Not anymore, now it is boutique with editors that micromanage our portfolios and with curators imposing their opinion without even looking at the files.
I still don't understand why, but it is easy to see what is coming.
Maybe if enough producers ask photoshelter, or vimeo or youtube very nicely, somebody will run the numbers, look at the stage of the market and decide this is a fantastic time to get in.
Agree. I just wonder if they realized their shortsightedness through revenue loss via contributor defection. In simplest of terms, they could have a much more complete collection that would attract buyers that they've either lost or simply never hooked because they don't/didn't meet the very basics of a collection: variety of subject matter & breadth of each subject. Perhaps that loss may be realized and when one balances current state against future state to assess what the revenue/margin delta really is. They HAVE TO KNOW they are getting killed in video. I am surprised any indy is even uploading 4k there when you get paid the same as HD. Pathetic.
Anyway, I agree with you that the new rabbit hole at P5 will not really be contributor friendly for the "basic shooters"as opposed to the professional production artists they are looking for. That leaves me out.
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The istock video team have some of the loveliest people youīll ever meet. They are really passionate about their community.
I am sure they are fully aware their content is lacking and producers are leaving, hardly anyone going exclusive.
But I doubt there is anything they can do, Getty simply has no money.
I still upload to istock, but only what is appropriate for 4-8 dollars..., and after everyone else.
There is no point in uploading higher quality content.
I am sure most people donīt supply them at all, if you invest in production, you canīt submit there.
Somebody will pick up and continue what pond5 is about to leave behind, but we might have a really difficult year in video.
I really hope Adobe starts accepting editorial soon, that would make such a difference.
However, Adobe is no real replacement for producer webshops, where you can set your own prices, create your own galleries and decide the direction of your portfolio and your business.
The entrepreneurial approach, that is what is needed somewhere.
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As I mentioned earlier, I hope the rumors are true that Istock is feeling the pinch on video and changing their game later this year to be " a little bit "more equitable on royalties. If anyone follows the Istock forums feel free to post any news you find on this, if any. I browsed the forums but could only find that they are maybe going to build a CSV capability of ESPAWS, but nothing specific about the video program being re-engineered like someone said in another MSG thread.
Hi Mantis I think you probably mean me. I read on the forum that istock were going to change some of the exclusive contributors files around so some would end up in the Essentials collection. Another contributor then wrote does that mean the signature collection will be a Vetta like collection again and this was the response by a istock idmin...
"As far as a more premium tier reminiscent of Vetta, we technically have a Signature+ collection for video, and we continually edit content into it just like we do for photos. The only difference being that we do not use it as a marker for mirroring to Getty Images and it is not flagged to customers. This may change and will play into the new royalties system that we going to be rolling out later in the year
yes, that's a dropped hint to something big coming, and we're confident that contributors are going to like it."
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As I mentioned earlier, I hope the rumors are true that Istock is feeling the pinch on video and changing their game later this year to be " a little bit "more equitable on royalties. If anyone follows the Istock forums feel free to post any news you find on this, if any. I browsed the forums but could only find that they are maybe going to build a CSV capability of ESPAWS, but nothing specific about the video program being re-engineered like someone said in another MSG thread.
Hi Mantis I think you probably mean me. I read on the forum that istock were going to change some of the exclusive contributors files around so some would end up in the Essentials collection. Another contributor then wrote does that mean the signature collection will be a Vetta like collection again and this was the response by a istock idmin...
"As far as a more premium tier reminiscent of Vetta, we technically have a Signature+ collection for video, and we continually edit content into it just like we do for photos. The only difference being that we do not use it as a marker for mirroring to Getty Images and it is not flagged to customers. This may change and will play into the new royalties system that we going to be rolling out later in the year
yes, that's a dropped hint to something big coming, and we're confident that contributors are going to like it."
Thank you Cider Apple. Probably good news for exclusives at the least. Thanks for digging that up. Much appreciated.
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This may change and will play into the new royalties system that we going to be rolling out later in the year
yes, that's a dropped hint to something big coming, and we're confident that contributors are going to like it."
And I'm just as confident we won't.
I wonder who's going to be right? ::)
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This may change and will play into the new royalties system that we going to be rolling out later in the year
yes, that's a dropped hint to something big coming, and we're confident that contributors are going to like it."
And I'm just as confident we won't.
I wonder who's going to be right? ::)
I'm going with you... ;)
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As I mentioned earlier, I hope the rumors are true that Istock is feeling the pinch on video and changing their game later this year to be " a little bit "more equitable on royalties. If anyone follows the Istock forums feel free to post any news you find on this, if any. I browsed the forums but could only find that they are maybe going to build a CSV capability of ESPAWS, but nothing specific about the video program being re-engineered like someone said in another MSG thread.
Hi Mantis I think you probably mean me. I read on the forum that istock were going to change some of the exclusive contributors files around so some would end up in the Essentials collection. Another contributor then wrote does that mean the signature collection will be a Vetta like collection again and this was the response by a istock idmin...
"As far as a more premium tier reminiscent of Vetta, we technically have a Signature+ collection for video, and we continually edit content into it just like we do for photos. The only difference being that we do not use it as a marker for mirroring to Getty Images and it is not flagged to customers. This may change and will play into the new royalties system that we going to be rolling out later in the year
yes, that's a dropped hint to something big coming, and we're confident that contributors are going to like it."
If they were going to raise royalties wouldn't they say "we are going to raise royalties"? A new system could well mean they have found an new way to cut royalties, maybe raise prices so we make a bit more per sale? As the previous royalty cuts were dressed up as something we would like, I wouldn't get too excited about this.
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Copyright lawsuit upon P5 that is taking place is a huge pressure to speed things up and grab some money for themselves asap.
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9470397/Hempton_v_Pond5,_Inc_et_al (https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9470397/Hempton_v_Pond5,_Inc_et_al)
So, be considerate, they can't think of us now...when they got to defend their own being and not so happy investors.
Not sure good IPO/Acquisition can happen under lawsuit going on.
Remember what happened after Revostock lawsuit.
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Review times suck and I started getting a few rejections here and there, but can't complain about sales.
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I had a long discussion via email with them on their review problems and they just blew me off. I think it is time I part ways with Pond5, not that they will care or even notice, but purely on the principle that what they are doing is just bad business practice and a waste of my time.
How it all started:
1. I purposely submitted and extremely sharp image of an Anhinga( bird).
2. It was rejected for focus
3. I called them on it
4. They sent me bad an unsharp part of the image where the depth of field had shifted.
5. When I submitted the eye of the bird and head at 100% and totally sharp they just dropped the conversation. They knew I was right but didn't want to back off their decision. That my friends is just bad business.
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I had a long discussion via email with them on their review problems and they just blew me off. I think it is time I part ways with Pond5, not that they will care or even notice, but purely on the principle that what they are doing is just bad business practice and a waste of my time.
How it all started:
1. I purposely submitted and extremely sharp image of an Anhinga( bird).
2. It was rejected for focus
3. I called them on it
4. They sent me bad an unsharp part of the image where the depth of field had shifted.
5. When I submitted the eye of the bird and head at 100% and totally sharp they just dropped the conversation. They knew I was right but didn't want to back off their decision. That my friends is just bad business.
Sorry that sucks.
Obviously, what they are looking for is something entirely in focus with no depth of field.
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Itīs amazing how much negativity they are spreading in such a short time. Just a few weeks or three months ago people were only complaining about long review times, but otherwise were satisfied with pond5. You can always use more sales, but people felt at home.
Now there isnīt a single board where people are not complaining bitterly.
Who is now in charge of pond5? Do they now have a management that has never worked in the stock industry?
Instead of changing everything, why didnīt they add an additional site to experiment with and then very gradually implement what works on pond5, after discussing it carefully with contributors?
Why drive people to explore the competition? I donīt understand their goals at all.
Shutterstock, Videoblocks and Adobe are probably ordering champagne every week, this is an unexpected gift for them. And if istock had vision, they would use this opportunity to announce a new royalty system to attract all the content that has avoided them.
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Itīs amazing how much negativity they are spreading in such a short time. Just a few weeks or three months ago people were only complaining about long review times, but otherwise were satisfied with pond5. You can always use more sales, but people felt at home.
Now there isnīt a single board where people are not complaining bitterly.
Who is now in charge of pond5? Do they now have a management that has never worked in the stock industry?
Instead of changing everything, why didnīt they add an additional site to experiment with and then very gradually implement what works on pond5, after discussing it carefully with contributors?
Why drive people to explore the competition? I donīt understand their goals at all.
Shutterstock, Videoblocks and Adobe are probably ordering champagne every week, this is an unexpected gift for them. And if istock had vision, they would use this opportunity to announce a new royalty system to attract all the content that has avoided them.
I would love this to happen but I can't recall a time where they did anything in favor of the contributor. The only thing is that if they realize the delta between revenue loss that's linked to how much profit they are losing. They are reaming us with horrible commissions, so a lot of people pulled content and no longer upload there. But what if they recognize this? By increasing royalties to some higher level, they attract more content that ultimately yields higher gross margins. The problem is that they would never offer royalties that even comes close to competing with P5.
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This would be a perfect time for istock to announce 30% for all content or at least for 4k non exclusive content. But it wonīt happen because it would be a logical thing to do...
All the agencies are in a race who will be first to have 1 million 4k files.
Pond5 is making sure, it wonīt be them - 2 months review time, random rejections, including whole batches and they have the audacity to suggest the artist should write to support for a "second" opinion, while the first reviewer was too lazy to even look at the file...
Uploading video is a lot of work, if they donīt want to have the largest library, somebody else will. Micromanaging portfolios and driving people towards the competition, only benefits the competition.
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Let's hope, new posh office on Park Ave. in Manhattan will inspire curators to work harder.
8)
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Let's hope, new posh office on Park Ave. in Manhattan will inspire curators to work harder.
8)
Do you really think curators work in this office? Once there was a talk about P5 outsourced curation to an Indian company.
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Let's hope, new posh office on Park Ave. in Manhattan will inspire curators to work harder.
8)
Do you really think curators work in this office? Once there was a talk about P5 outsourced curation to an Indian company.
I was super cynical.
They are all in Czech Rep.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/720805501262878/?fref=ts (https://www.facebook.com/groups/720805501262878/?fref=ts)
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yesterday i had last 7 clips reviewed - 100% rejected.
b.t.w. all of these were 100% accepted at competitive agencies. 2 dl's so far now.
previous batch (actually few batches) were 23/13 in. also 100% in at other agencies.
good thing regarding last batch: at least review time is shortened
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I suppose there will be less competition if they reject so much but I still don't get why they haven't gone through the collection and removed all the lower quality clips they accepted in the past. Having the highest standards now wont make the site more appealing because it was already full of clips that all the other sites would of rejected.
They should communicate with all contributors to let us know exactly what they want now because I don't see the point in uploading if there's a good chance of 100% rejection. They should also let us know that they are committed to keeping the 50% rate because with so many things changing, that's the last thing left that will make me want to carry on uploading.
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Well, Google man just came on board.
Google VP Torrence Boone Joins Pond5 Board as Company Becomes the First Royalty-Free Marketplace to Surpass 5 Million Videos
"As Pond5's team expands, so does its community. The company's commitment to putting artists' needs first is reflected in users' allegiance to Pond5 as their creative platform of choice."
Nice PR sadly doesn't match reality!!! 8)
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/google-vp-torrence-boone-joins-pond5-board-as-company-becomes-the-first-royalty-free-marketplace-to-surpass-5-million-videos-300248160.html (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/google-vp-torrence-boone-joins-pond5-board-as-company-becomes-the-first-royalty-free-marketplace-to-surpass-5-million-videos-300248160.html)
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My number one selling photo on Shutterstock and Fotolia can't get accepted at Pond5. It's rather a mystery, but at least their rejection notices make some sense compared to Fotolia, which just gives you a list of a dozen possible reasons they might reject any photo.
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yesterday i had last 7 clips reviewed - 100% rejected.
b.t.w. all of these were 100% accepted at competitive agencies. 2 dl's so far now.
previous batch (actually few batches) were 23/13 in. also 100% in at other agencies.
good thing regarding last batch: at least review time is shortened
*correction (i just checked messages): it's 23/13, 17/19 and 0/7 in. (with 100% at other sites).
i guess it would be fine to remove some of the old not-ever-selling content. - i would not have problem with that at all.
but, my self-artistic-professional-ego is somewhere close to zero :) (which i noticed is not so often).
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I just had a badge of clips reviewed that were submitted 6 weeks ago, all of them were approved.
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I too have just had a small batch of clips approved. 13 out of 15 accepted. The two rejections were arguable but not ridiculous as previous batch of rejections had been. Took about 10 days to review. Light at the end of the tunnel on review policy, or just the luck of the draw on whether one gets a well informed reviewer??
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Official reply just in today:
lawrence 21 Apr 2016 16:51
Hey folks! Not sure if I posted in this thread yet. I can confirm that the curators are tightening their acceptance parameters as we grow and evolve. Some pieces of advice from us:
1. Look at the clips from your own batch that were accepted, and use that as a guide for what we are looking for from you.
2. If you feel clips were mistakenly or wrongly rejected, please do write in to [email protected] with the clip IDs and why you think there may have been a mistake. We can run them by the curators for a second look. Please be aware that sometimes the decision is final, and each time we send clips for a second review, the queue becomes longer.
3. We realise frustrating things happen when acceptance patameters change. That's why our curation leads are working on a comprehensive guide to add to our Artist Resources - this will be an anvaluable resource and something to help you consider what exactly we're looking for when we curate.
I hope this helps! Please be assured, we value you guys and we want everyone to do well, from the jack of all trades artists to the b roll folks, to the full time stock shot professionals. Building a strong, high quality marketplace with things that are likely to sell will help us all do better.
https://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=52442241 (https://www.pond5.com/community?forum=715&thread=52442241)
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The way to introduce such drastic changes is to FIRST send out a new style guide or acceptance guide, then give people 3 months to prepare for the changes and shoot new content. And then, only then, very gradually start changing the inspection standards.
At the same time taking in feedback from community and customers.
To do it like this overnight is unprofessional.
People have invested a lot of time and money into their shootings. This is not a game, it is a business.
You only play with peopleīs income if you donīt appreciate them.
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I don't upload new content for a while, sales are at such low level that I don't see any point in investing my time with pond5.I will wait few more months to see what will happen with sales and then decide is it worth to keep my videos there.Past two months sales are
down almost 75%
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My last review was ok, they took nearly everything. I forgot one model release on a file with four people, but can add that.
Nevertheless I find the way they work now very scary and will be careful with uploads.
Too many people reporting huge batches rejected, drastic drop in sales. And that they no longer inspect individual files, just a few testclips and then decide on everything.
So many artists uploaded only or predominantly to pond5. Now everyone is exploring the competition. Just because pond5 gives files a thumbs down, doesnīt mean we canīt make money with them.
It will be difficult to replace though, it was the only real marketplace the industry had. But in a marketplace the seller controls the port and you donīt have to impress the employees with your products.
I really miss the old pond5. It was chaotic yes, but a very caring work environment.
But it is their company, the owners can do whatever they want with it.
It is my own fault that I "specialized" on SS and p5. Should have uploaded to many more agencies to reduce the risk.
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Itīs amazing how much negativity they are spreading in such a short time. Just a few weeks or three months ago people were only complaining about long review times, but otherwise were satisfied with pond5. You can always use more sales, but people felt at home.
Now there isnīt a single board where people are not complaining bitterly.
Who is now in charge of pond5? Do they now have a management that has never worked in the stock industry?
Instead of changing everything, why didnīt they add an additional site to experiment with and then very gradually implement what works on pond5, after discussing it carefully with contributors?
Why drive people to explore the competition? I donīt understand their goals at all.
Shutterstock, Videoblocks and Adobe are probably ordering champagne every week, this is an unexpected gift for them. And if istock had vision, they would use this opportunity to announce a new royalty system to attract all the content that has avoided them.
To be fair there's one person that has been complaining at every opportunity about everything Pond5 does and starting threads for the purpose. The problem with this forum is that many of those contributing do nothing other than use it for a sounding board for negativity.
I can't see that things have changed that much in terms of sales or reviews at Pond5. Obviously they're now starting to reject a bit more, but lifting the standards of contributions isn't necessarily a bad thing. I haven't seen complaints from anyone that has a high quality portfolio - if that happens there's more to be alarmed about.
There were some big site changes last month that will have an impact, but its far too early to really know how those will impact sales if at all.
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People are complaining on all groups in all languages and you think that one artist is creating these complaints?
They just have to go through their rejection list, every time their curators are not "impressed" and reject a large batch, the artist will complain somewhere. All that negative energy comes from their own actions.
Their rejection list is their karma list.
The artists vent in one of the many public and closed groups in the community. What is being written here and on p5 itself is just the tip of the iceberg. Most community communication went underground after the Getty Google deal and DPC, but the overall activity is the same. If anything, Iīd say it has increased, because information of who is worth uploading to, is what people live from.
I donīt remember p5 ever creating such negative vibe so drastically. They always had a good reputation.
For many sellers 300 dollars a month is a full time income. Might be nothing if you are from New York, but there is a huge world of sellers out there that really feed their family with their stock income.
Again it is their company, they can do whatever they want. I donīt think there is anything we can really do. It will be several months until the new management has implemented whatever they want to change and until they acknowledge the impact of what they did.
ETA:
Have you ever heard Amazon or ebay say to their sellers: "We already have too many people selling chairs and your selection does not impress our employees. Please sell these chairs with one of our competitors and we hope you can impress us next time"
No? Because they are marketplaces, they provide a framework but every seller is responsible for their own success.
They never micromanage a sellers port, which is why they have this explosive growth.
If you micromanage, you are not a marketplace.
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People are complaining on all groups in all languages and you think that one artist is creating these complaints?
They just have to go through their rejection list, every time their curators are not "impressed" and reject a large batch, the artist will complain somewhere. All that negative energy comes from their own actions.
Their rejection list is their karma list.
The artists vent in one of the many public and closed groups in the community. What is being written here and on p5 itself is just the tip of the iceberg. Most community communication went underground after the Getty Google deal and DPC, but the overall activity is the same. If anything, Iīd say it has increased, because information of who is worth uploading to, is what people live from.
I donīt remember p5 ever creating such negative vibe so drastically. They always had a good reputation.
For many sellers 300 dollars a month is a full time income. Might be nothing if you are from New York, but there is a huge world of sellers out there that really feed their family with their stock income.
Again it is their company, they can do whatever they want. I donīt think there is anything we can really do. It will be several months until the new management has implemented whatever they want to change and until they acknowledge the impact of what they did.
ETA:
Have you ever heard Amazon or ebay say to their sellers: "We already have too many people selling chairs and your selection does not impress our employees. Please sell these chairs with one of our competitors and we hope you can impress us next time"
No? Because they are marketplaces, they provide a framework but every seller is responsible for their own success.
They never micromanage a sellers port, which is why they have this explosive growth.
If you micromanage, you are not a marketplace.
My point was that about half the complaints on this forum come from one poster who finds some negative comment to make about anything Pond5 does regardless of what it is. On other forums yes there's some complaints about poor sales and rejections, but there's also plenty of opposite sentiment. Also when i look at the complaints, I see the same people posting in multiple forums and making the same points wherever they go.
If you buy into sales threads for any agencies you'll find the same views at any given time. Best match algorithms change or there's variation in sales - its part of the industry and if your portfolio is at the size or quality where its making $300 a month, its far too small to get any idea as to whether this is normal fluctuation of if something else is going on - change in best match maybe?
I don't check every forum in every language - I don't have time to. The nature of forums and this industry is that people like to talk about their failures and rarely successes. What I read on the Pond5 forum is a mix of people that are happy that there are new standards and those that aren't. The discussion then descends into whether rejections of videos shot at f22 are warranted. The other forum on Pond 5 is a repeat of the same people posting and really only a handful of the same points being made over and over.
The comparison with Ebay and Amazon aren't really relevant, no matter how many times you repeat it. You're never going to have thousands of sellers going out and making their own chairs when they've never made a chair before. Also there's a rating process and way of buyers getting their money back if they get products that aren't up to scratch, which usually involves a cost to the seller in terms of shipping. If you think just anyone can set up shop and list products on Amazon like this, you're mistaken. The other big difference is that these sites are selling to a consumer market, whereas stock agencies are mostly to businesses.
From my perspective I think Pond5 made a mistake in letting through a lot of the content on for so long - in video its much more difficult and time consuming for buyers to sort through thousands of clips and try to find material they want. If they constantly find substandard clips, they'll go somewhere with better curation.
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I am not against curation, not at all. But there are many ways to do this and you donīt have to interfere with the sellers port to do it. Curation of content and sorting it into different quality or price bands is not a new problem.
There are also advantages to being the one place that has everything, the customer never has to leave.
They can easily let editors comb through the collection and decide what they consider premium. Then give the customer a sort button like they have for membership and voila - only superstock visible! Problem solved!
It also gives a great guide to the community what they are looking for and can inspire people.
And then take time to explain to the community what is their next direction.
If they had told people before that they want to make changes, given examples, had some discussions and explanations, they could have avoided all the emotion they have now.
Many people donīt have English as a first language, of course you can say, tough luck, their problem, but what is wrong with working together with people and taking them along on the journey?
Reach out to the community instead of implementing something drastic and not telling anyone? Wouldnīt that make more sense?
Only pond5 can control how they are perceived. I really donīt think there is anything we can do.
Or are you trying to suggest that it is my fault that artists are having huge batches rejected abruptly?
Isnīt it more useful to look for a simple solution instead of blaming individual artists??
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They are co-defendants http://www.law360.com/cases/5609a33c257d674b1c000001 (http://www.law360.com/cases/5609a33c257d674b1c000001) can't read without a paid subscription and I'm not going to pay.
Defendant Pond5 user ckennedy342
Plaintiff Mr Gordon Hempton http://soundtracker.com/ (http://soundtracker.com/)
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They are co-defendants [url]http://www.law360.com/cases/5609a33c257d674b1c000001[/url] ([url]http://www.law360.com/cases/5609a33c257d674b1c000001[/url]) can't read without a paid subscription and I'm not going to pay.
Defendant Pond5 user ckennedy342
Plaintiff Mr Gordon Hempton [url]http://soundtracker.com/[/url] ([url]http://soundtracker.com/[/url])
More here - https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9470397/Hempton_v_Pond5,_Inc_et_al (https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9470397/Hempton_v_Pond5,_Inc_et_al)
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Itīs amazing how much negativity they are spreading in such a short time. Just a few weeks or three months ago people were only complaining about long review times, but otherwise were satisfied with pond5. You can always use more sales, but people felt at home.
Now there isnīt a single board where people are not complaining bitterly.
Who is now in charge of pond5? Do they now have a management that has never worked in the stock industry?
Instead of changing everything, why didnīt they add an additional site to experiment with and then very gradually implement what works on pond5, after discussing it carefully with contributors?
Why drive people to explore the competition? I donīt understand their goals at all.
Shutterstock, Videoblocks and Adobe are probably ordering champagne every week, this is an unexpected gift for them. And if istock had vision, they would use this opportunity to announce a new royalty system to attract all the content that has avoided them.
To be fair there's one person that has been complaining at every opportunity about everything Pond5 does and starting threads for the purpose. The problem with this forum is that many of those contributing do nothing other than use it for a sounding board for negativity.
I can't see that things have changed that much in terms of sales or reviews at Pond5. Obviously they're now starting to reject a bit more, but lifting the standards of contributions isn't necessarily a bad thing. I haven't seen complaints from anyone that has a high quality portfolio - if that happens there's more to be alarmed about.
There were some big site changes last month that will have an impact, but its far too early to really know how those will impact sales if at all.
Just block KnowYourOnions and you wont have to read the one person who just complains all the time.
There's nothing wrong with tightening up a bit on reviews but when there are good contributors reporting near 100% rejections, something has gone wrong. They haven't gone through their collection and removed the lower quality clips that they have been accepting for years, so rejecting lots of new 4k clips seems like a strange policy to me. There's also the fact that sites that accept almost everything with stills are doing better than sites that started the Pond5 policy. Just look at the difference between Shutterstock and Dreamstime, they were much closer 5 years ago. I think Google likes a lot of content and buyers will buy a lot of content that inexperienced reviewers would reject if they have to make subjective decisions on "commercial quality".
Pond5 was doing great accepting almost everything. The search should be good enough to bring the best to the top. I think making such a radical change that has led to disaster for other sites is highly likely to be bad for them. Not giving us any guidance before making the change has made a lot of people waste time uploading big batches of video clips and has wasted reviewers time when they already had a huge backlog. I hope they think things through more in the future.
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Well, after a few email back and forth I manage to get 2400 audio files rejected :))) Ok first thing is first, I mainly do whooshes, swooshes, short one to five second files that are mostly used in a larger montages or productions etc... I also have over 4000 top notch quality sound recordings and other miscellaneous sound effects that over the course of last seven years netted me over 100k and that's only audio, without footage or photo.
Now, I read msg daily and I was informed about "tightening" the review process at P5 so I wrote an email to support asking them what's up with inspectors rejecting large batches of files after viewing just several of the files submitted and I got my answer that seemed more or less ok with me...
P5 Contributor relations answer (really a good person so no names)
It's not true that Curators would reject a batch of 200 video clips after seeing couple at the beginning. But if 90% of clips uploaded are way under the quality line, Curators may not spend hours finding the borderline 10% as they used to before, and reject the whole batch. I makes sense to seek only for a god quality media. As much as we want to encourage for example new artists, we seek for a good quality first.
--------------------
Next, I needed to be verified as a SFX contributor, ID or Passport, professional looking website or linkedin page with connections etc. I was already a contributor at P5 and sold a ton of files but, ok, I got myself verified. Then, I uploaded over 9000 files of my audio port. I've send in the first batch, mainly songs and that was 50-50% acceptance rate. I was not happy about that but I assumed that this is the "new pond reviewing system" and I resumed sending my files to curators. Also, I was told by the P5 staff that "There is no difference in a search results if you would upload them at once or slowly" so I clicked three pages of 2400 files, my first batch and waited for several days just to find out today that all of the files are rejected :))))) Smiley is not really a smiley face but a shock/surprised/smiley face. Then I wrote several emails to the "nice person from support" and to "regular support" regarding Curator 22 Miklos.
The point is that in that first batch of 2400 files were around 1500 high quality transitional whooshes and the rest were top notch sound recordings, sound effects and ambients that were selling like crazy at Pond5 last year!!! Than I also wrote that I turned to whooshes and transitional sounds and that majority of my files are 1 to 5 second files and that if there is a new policy about acceptance of "short whooshes" files, that should be available for us to read. A warning, something...
I passed many rejections at IS, SS, and all of the rest agencies that are out there since 2005 and I'm not bitching or whining about the rejection process but about the "not even looking at the whole batch" thingy. I was right in the first place, they don't even bother to look at the titles of the files (it's different in audio, no visuals, you have to listen to every file or at least read the tittle to know what it's about). And it's not my problem that someone cannot hear the difference between two or more whooshes. Also they were handmade, not massgenerated... etc.
So, I'm about to delete the rejected files, upload my sfx's, recordings and the rest of the files that aren't whooshes and hope that this time around Curator 22 Miklos would actually look and read and maybe even listen to the files that are submitted before he rejects them all. Also, I won't be submitting more than 50 files per day.
If this helps someone who is about to upload a large batch of audio files at P5, great. If not, than just a eye opener about P5 new inspection process.
Waiting for reply from support.
Cheers.
Mirko.
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I have decided to not upload more than 10 files a week and make them a mix from several different shootings.
I hope this way, someone will actually look at the files and I wonīt get the batch reject.
This is a great bonus for Adobe, SS and all the other agencies. Everyone knows by now that pond5 no longer has the full selection of what is available.
As the upload traffic moves elsewhere, so will the business. We have seen this again and again with the photo agencies.
The suppliers are also buyers, if pond5 tells people to go away and support other agencies, the money will walk with them.
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Well, I was counting on P5 sales of my audio port cause they were good and on par with IS last year. Now, I think I'm gonna turn to AJ and envato for high dl number-low royalties momentum. And a pain in the ass uploading process. But as much as I don't like the way they are organised, I talked to a lot of folks doing audio there (and footage but mostly graphic etc) that number of sales are the thing keeping their heads above water. Something like when microstock started and macro folks were desperate about micro killing the business and stuff. I see it that way. Remember the "my photo will sell 1000 times per year for 0.50c and yours will sell once per year for higher amount of money" explanations? Well, it's kinda like that. I don't know, will try envato. I had 10 files there last year and every one of those files sold min once :) But I was happy with P5 sales so I didn't went the whole "watermark your files and zipped them up" way. But now I think that's a must. Anyways, don't know what P5 is thinking. They have a ton of "garbage" files, footage and audio. What's up with this new "high quality" thing? I only know that I'm far from "low quality" and to be rejected like this... hilarious :) But I'm gonna try again with different aproach and see what happens.
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I think if envato gives people a good and easy upload process many people would try them.
There are a lot of artists reporting excellent sales there, but I really donīt see myself going through that system.
I donīt know if they are aware that many people would like to try them, but their system stops many from even trying.
I am currently processing lots of stuff from the last two years and will fill up Adobe, Videoblocks and SS.
Iīll send a few files every week to the pond to see how it goes, but if the management is new and just changed everything, they will probably need many months to connect to reality.
Adobe reviews files in 24 hours. Sales are slowly climbing as well. 33% is not 50, but on Fotolia itself you can earn more and to have your whole portfolio visible is a real bonus.
At least for now they are drama free and have just closed dpc.
What surprises me is that there doesnīt seem to be much solidarity between the artists on pond5. If we had received such drastic and unfair rejections on the old istock or even today on a photo agency, there would be a riot.
Instead the crowd seems to belittle the artists with batch rejections, as if they deserve it.
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It's business after all. They have their rules and you put up or shut up. That's too bad but that's just the way it is. I understand (to some point) what are they trying to do but I think it's kinda late after 5 million footage files in library with over 2 million mediocre and 1 million garbage files to talk about quality standards etc.
I just know that I need the money so I'll have to change the way I'm doing stuff. At least for P5. And instead of having my whole port in several days online earning me money, I'll have most of my audio port in six months :)))
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Yes, itīs their company, I agree.
And we will go and focus on our own business and how we can best make money.
I just donīt understand why anyone would bring down a well run business so quickly, also all the changes on the website, it is not very functional if you want to buy. I even miss the old logo it looked much better than the little squiggly line.
Maybe envato doesnīt want to be the next industry marketplace, but this is certainly an opportunity for someone to step in and take over the ponds position. Especially if they are giving up their main advantage so easily.
eta: Shutterstock now inspecting videos in less than 12 hours!!
Looks like someone is keen to attract content :)
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50 % regection !
So much hard work went to waste...
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I'm still the champion with 2400 files rejected all at once :)) At least I'm 100% successful in something :))
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Yes, itīs their company, I agree.
And we will go and focus on our own business and how we can best make money.
I just donīt understand why anyone would bring down a well run business so quickly, also all the changes on the website, it is not very functional if you want to buy. I even miss the old logo it looked much better than the little squiggly line.
Maybe envato doesnīt want to be the next industry marketplace, but this is certainly an opportunity for someone to step in and take over the ponds position. Especially if they are giving up their main advantage so easily.
eta: Shutterstock now inspecting videos in less than 12 hours!!
Looks like someone is keen to attract content :)
I've also noticed SS reviews have really gotten faster this month but sales not so much and pay seems to have been cut, went from $28 a sale to $4 and $11 a sale now.
We really need another site that does everything from editorial to commercial video of all kinds and quality as well as still photos. Even crap sells and Pond 5 used to be a very open market place to offer all types of content but it changed and there really nothing out there that I can find that is even close to the original Pond 5. And the original Pond 5 was successful so that model can work again if someone can get the millions needed to start the business.
Pond 5 was one of the few places that took editorial so it's sorely missed.
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So, to spread this a bit further, I've deleted all of the files and started uploading again, high quality recordings and sfx's and submitted the first batch of 49 files... guess what? 49 files rejected. Curator 22 Miklos...
Now, this is getting a bit personal. Have to go and write some more emails. What is happening over there?
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I've sent another email. Third. Tomorrow is a phone call day. And I would really love to see someone from Pond5 in this topic trying to explain this idiotic situation... lol... I'm going to submit more files, just for fun (not to mention my income directly evolves - evolved, around Pond5, after breaking up with Istock...)... furious. This is... I'm going back to photography. Audio and video is too much hassle
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Writing them is very important and I believe it will make a change.
I wrote them three times since the auto-rejection mode took place and I encourage all of you to keep writing.
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I couldn't get verified for audio because I don't have a professional looking website or linkedin page. I only had 2 audio clips but was planning on doing more and one of them was getting regular sales. I had already gone through a verification for video and stills. Would of had no problem with them phoning me on my landline or sending a verification code to my home address. This was the first time Pond5 had done something that I thought was strange, unfortunately, it was the first of several in the last year.
Doesn't seem worth getting a linkedin page now, as it looks like they would probably reject my audio files.
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@hafakot
I've talk to them several times already and after a few "nasty and not so polite" emails and a few cooled down versions with apologies and stuff their head audio curator is reviewing the "case". They will notify me by email about their decision. I didn't want to sound like an a@#$ole but when they act like ones several times I just lost my temper and good manners. After that I was feeling a bit off but that's just the way it is. I just hope to make this work.
@Sharpshot
I had a professional looking website (www.videoaudiostock.com (http://www.videoaudiostock.com)) where I used to sell my own stuff but never got the time to fully load it with all my stuff. Also, I took it down when I went back to Istock excl. I have a Linkedin page but it's not so "audio oriented". It's more of a graphic design/photo/video oriented cause I used it before I quit my job as layout editor and Ringier Axel Springer. And I mostly used it for those type of connections. I've sent my istock audio port, facebook page, linkedin page and I was told it's a "go" for sfx. But apparently not :(
One thing crossed my mind, every single file of mine have in it's metadata www.videoaudiostock.com (http://www.videoaudiostock.com) and me as copyright holder... Maybe that's the problem? Nevermind, I'll wait and see.
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@hafakot
I've talk to them several times already and after a few "nasty and not so polite" emails and a few cooled down versions with apologies and stuff their head audio curator is reviewing the "case". They will notify me by email about their decision. I didn't want to sound like an a@#$ole but when they act like ones several times I just lost my temper and good manners. After that I was feeling a bit off but that's just the way it is. I just hope to make this work.
@Sharpshot
I had a professional looking website ([url=http://www.videoaudiostock.com]www.videoaudiostock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.videoaudiostock.com[/url])) where I used to sell my own stuff but never got the time to fully load it with all my stuff. Also, I took it down when I went back to Istock excl. I have a Linkedin page but it's not so "audio oriented". It's more of a graphic design/photo/video oriented cause I used it before I quit my job as layout editor and Ringier Axel Springer. And I mostly used it for those type of connections. I've sent my istock audio port, facebook page, linkedin page and I was told it's a "go" for sfx. But apparently not :(
One thing crossed my mind, every single file of mine have in it's metadata [url=http://www.videoaudiostock.com]www.videoaudiostock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.videoaudiostock.com[/url]) and me as copyright holder... Maybe that's the problem? Nevermind, I'll wait and see.
For that many files I'd fight too. Keep pushing....and good job so far not giving up.
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Well, I just had 7 of 7 rejected, including one file where they asked me to include a missing model release in a group of 4 people. Mostly 4k.
But the review time has improved.
So, we are all getting the go away message. Iīll keep uploading small batches, but otherwise the focus will be on SS, Videoblocks and Adobe. Maybe even a little bit to istock.
Somebody will step in and say: I want to be the next pond5...
SS sometimes inspects in under 4 hours, fotolia in one day.
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Well, I just had 7 of 7 rejected, including one file where they asked me to include a missing model release in a group of 4 people. Mostly 4k.
But the review time has improved.
So, we are all getting the go away message. Iīll keep uploading small batches, but otherwise the focus will be on SS, Videoblocks and Adobe. Maybe even a little bit to istock.
Somebody will step in and say: I want to be the next pond5...
SS sometimes inspects in under 4 hours, fotolia in one day.
I suspect Pond 5 is watching their costs and that includes storage costs, they have five million clips already in the pond and probably can't afford much most space at their current burn rate plus lack of sales revenue plus their normal operating overhead so I think they without saying they are closed to new clips they are mostly closed to admitting new clips, they are using the terms like we have new and improved standards but I don't believe it.
They probably figure that if they reject 90% then most people will simply go away and stop submitting.
and yes we hope someone will step in and become the next Pond5, the challenge will be finding investors with many millions willing to invest when the returns are so small in this business and there are already some big players in the space, would be a tough pitch to make.
Guess the lesson learned here is no matter what we are doing these days our job security is zero, in this case it was a management change at pond5 and just like that....done.
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if they are closed to new clips, the place will die as soon as Shutterstock overtakes them and has the largest library.
SS also has no storage problems, neither do Adobe or Getty.
Maybe they do see their future in the membership content where they don't have to share their income with contributors. But a successful subs model needs tons of new content every week.
I don't think the new owners really have a plan, they are just changing absolutely everything, seem to have let go of the experienced reviewers and just experimenting with everything to see what sticks.
Reminds me of what Getty did after Bruce left, but even they were not this drastic in their changes.
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No offense to anyone here but many have rather naive outlook of new/old management.
Both just wanted $$$$, not the revolution in fair play sharing profit. Old folks got it and vanish into better life, the new one will get $$$ somehow or move to another gig. 8)
p.s. Who really knows what new management inherited from the old one, what kind of issues and problems to scale the business further.
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They are still paying out 50%, the fastest way to increase their earnings is to cut royalties.
So I do think fair trade was part of the concept.
Of course the owners make money, why else would they run a business.
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They are still paying out 50%, the fastest way to increase their earnings is to cut royalties.
So I do think fair trade was part of the concept.
Of course the owners make money, why else would they run a business.
Well, as I said long ago...not much fun in 50% if no sales. Nice PR though.
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Well, I just had 7 of 7 rejected, including one file where they asked me to include a missing model release in a group of 4 people. Mostly 4k.
But the review time has improved.
So, we are all getting the go away message. Iīll keep uploading small batches, but otherwise the focus will be on SS, Videoblocks and Adobe. Maybe even a little bit to istock.
Somebody will step in and say: I want to be the next pond5...
SS sometimes inspects in under 4 hours, fotolia in one day.
I suspect Pond 5 is watching their costs and that includes storage costs, they have five million clips already in the pond and probably can't afford much most space at their current burn rate plus lack of sales revenue plus their normal operating overhead so I think they without saying they are closed to new clips they are mostly closed to admitting new clips, they are using the terms like we have new and improved standards but I don't believe it.
They probably figure that if they reject 90% then most people will simply go away and stop submitting.
and yes we hope someone will step in and become the next Pond5, the challenge will be finding investors with many millions willing to invest when the returns are so small in this business and there are already some big players in the space, would be a tough pitch to make.
Guess the lesson learned here is no matter what we are doing these days our job security is zero, in this case it was a management change at pond5 and just like that....done.
If they wanted to reduce storage costs, they would of removed all the low quality clips already in their collection. So I think that can't be the reason for rejecting new clips.
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No offense to anyone here but many have rather naive outlook of new/old management.
Both just wanted $$$$, not the revolution in fair play sharing profit. Old folks got it and vanish into better life, the new one will get $$$ somehow or move to another gig. 8)
p.s. Who really knows what new management inherited from the old one, what kind of issues and problems to scale the business further.
Good points, at least one of the new CEO's is a known startup guy, he is from Grubhub, these guys aren't here to make a family business out of this, they are here to make changes and make money and then off to their next gig. They also hired a currently serving VP at Google to join the board so I think even more change is on the way.
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if they are closed to new clips, the place will die as soon as Shutterstock overtakes them and has the largest library.
SS also has no storage problems, neither do Adobe or Getty.
Maybe they do see their future in the membership content where they don't have to share their income with contributors. But a successful subs model needs tons of new content every week.
I don't think the new owners really have a plan, they are just changing absolutely everything, seem to have let go of the experienced reviewers and just experimenting with everything to see what sticks.
Reminds me of what Getty did after Bruce left, but even they were not this drastic in their changes.
Or maybe they are preparing the company for sale or merger, I'd give it until August for that to happen. Maybe SS will buy them.
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They are still paying out 50%, the fastest way to increase their earnings is to cut royalties.
So I do think fair trade was part of the concept.
Of course the owners make money, why else would they run a business.
Well, as I said long ago...not much fun in 50% if no sales. Nice PR though.
This is why I think as a company they are very fast running out of time. Need another Pond 5 to startup asap but I don't know if that will happen for at least a few years, maybe some merger and acquisition action first but right now what investors would drop millions on a startup that makes 50% commission of photo and video sales of around $40-$100 in a crowded market and in a business with high overhead costs? Take a look at Motion Elements, nice website, almost like Pond 5 except very cumbersome to keyword and title files but almost no sales for some reason.
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Maybe motionelements is a family business? If it pays their daily bills, they donīt need to grow very fast. Not everyone wants their company to go public. Some people treat it as a business like a coffee shop, many smaller places are just run to feed the owners.
Videoblocks got a lot of content in just a few months, so if someone starts new and can convince people to upload they will get content fast.
But if they donīt pay enough, they will be avoided. istock has a little banner now asking to upload 4k, because it will get priority reviews.
I do upload 4k, but it is not my best clips, for 4-8 dollars I am sure there are many who donīt bother with istock. I only started uploading agan now, to diversify.
So videoblocks is there and has a chance, Adobe pays 33% and you can get higher royalties on Fotolia itself, all they need is editorial.
We have options. pond5 was very comfortable and very unique.
But we will survive, we create the content and there is no oversupply in video and now there is also 4k.
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Pond 5 was ok until about a year ago. You could upload anything that was competently shot and they would accept it.
Having had all but 2% of a recent near 200 clip upload rejected I'm finding it hard to justify using Pond 5. I have clips on there that I still need to label and submit but don't really want to do it now.
Here are the multiple reasons for rejections this time around. Btw none of these reasons were given when I submitted almost the same material from the same shoots a year ago.
Clips are out of focus and 'smudge'. Pond 5 destroyed quite a number of my clips post upload. The curators also don't know that slight haze in the air and shooting before dusk or at dawn and during magic hour creates some wonderful soft effects. Thanks but I do know how to focus the glass. The belief that all digital photography needs to be pin-sharp and look electronic in order to be technically correct is just wrong.
Pond 5 already has clips similar to the ones you submitted. Is this company familiar with the whim of the customer, the value of a huge catalogue and the fact that giving more choice means more sales and that you can effectively sell the same thing many times over. Pond 5 told me that having fewer clips of the same thing means that they stand a better chance of selling. This is illogical. I wouldn't mind if they culled clips which never sold after a few months or a year, but hanging them out and seeing if they sell or not is a pretty good idea.
I was told that Pond 5 are looking for 'vibrant and original material'. Most video stock collections are not very interesting to actually watch until you need something for your edit. I do a lot of establishing shots which tell you very obviously what city you are in. They are simple, not arty and will fit into any edit. This is a cornerstone of the stock business. For a curator to reject material because it isn't interesting enough or it bores them means that they don't understand the stockshot business too well. Art House clips and niche clips are in fact less likely to sell and specialisation ruins your business.
Lastly Pond 5 returned clips that I had helpfully labelled at 1080p 25fps.
If you find this kind of attitude annoying then you can vote with your feet. Delete your clips and stills and close your account.
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Closing an account is a very,very drastic measure.
I think it is worth waiting and watching what will happen.
There are enough agencies to upload to and in a few months either the new managers of pond5 have arrived in the real world or a new group of people will come in.
It will probably be an example how not to burn a 61 million dollar investment.
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Closing an account is a very,very drastic measure.
I think it is worth waiting and watching what will happen.
There are enough agencies to upload to and in a few months either the new managers of pond5 have arrived in the real world or a new group of people will come in.
It will probably be an example how not to burn a 61 million dollar investment.
I agree. While I believe that P5 is taking a different path that does not benefit me, time will help shake things out. However, they are getting smug in their contributor responses, not reviewing content fairly, and not communicating anything about the direction they are heading and how that affects the masses who helped build them. Not a good feeling, but perhaps the model fails miserably and they revert back to the existing model or a good hybrid of it. I still think that they could do something effective with their current model, though. They simply choose not too.
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I can't remember any site starting down the wrong path and putting it right? They all seem incapable of reversing bad decisions. So that makes me think Pond5 are highly unlikely to go back to what made them a great site. Would be good if they are the exception to the rule.
Alamy are about the only site that seem to have a good relationship with contributors, pay a fair commission and still communicate in this forum. Such a shame they haven't taken video seriously. That's one bad decision I feel they made that hurts now because they could be doing well if Pond5 is no longer a great place to sell video. Lots of us are looking for somewhere else to sell video clips and Alamy would be the obvious choice, if they had the same commitment to video that they do for stills.
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Remember Crestock? Remember Revostock?
Downfall starts with picky agency front-men or reviewers... Add just a little more almost impossible standards as they did and they will be erased before we all notice that.
It seems you now need top class footage to get it accepted on Pond5... Production of such footage is VERY EXPENSIVE and selling it for low prices on Pond5 is NOT SUSTAINABLE...
So, now people from movie industry with AVATAR 2 quality footage will be accepted... Regarding documentary footage you need to fly to some other planets and capture footage of unusual and unseen landscapes which are not similar to those in Pond5 base...
I'd call it Mission Impossible and waste of time to do anything with Pond5 anymore.
Have a fast death Pond5!
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I can only speak for myself but I see this as Shutterstock genius.....
They were the ones who started the "out of focus" syndrome. P5 and
DP have now jumped on the bandwagon while, at least for me and my
submissions, Shutterstock has returned to a more reasonable form of
rejections. And I'm guessing their consistent acceptance of video clips
will leave P5 in the dust.
P5 will crash just like DP did. Remember when DP was floating near
the top of the middle tier category? What both P5 and DP fail to recognize
in my humble opinion is that not everyone is looking for that perfect shot
of a female CEO leaning across her desk to shake hands with an enamored
client. Many of us who are buyers are often looking for that one simple
shot/clip to fill the void. Forget the aerial shot of a plane flying through
clouds...do you have a static shot of leaves falling to the ground? In other
words, the greater the subject range, the more likely you'll find buyers.
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Ok, Pond5 definitely don't accept any new sound effects, sound recordings and other audio related NON MUSIC stock materials. Here is the last idiotic letter from Pond5
---------------------------
Pond5
Hi Mirko,
Thank you very much for contacting us with your inquiry. I have forwarded your inquiry to our Audio lead, and this is their feedback:
While we understand your frustration, after speaking with the team - including our Senior Audio Manager - we've reviewed and stand by our decision. At this time we have over 550,000 items in the SFX collection.
Were always upgrading quality, filling gaps, and entering new markets. There are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment our existing collection. Among other things, were working on a new artists newsletter where well be communicating needs on a regular basis. Please dont be discouraged and good luck.
If you need anything else from us let us know. Thanks for your patience. This was a tough one.
----------------------------
So, they are not opened to any new SFX submissions but they say that " are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment their existing collection. Among other things, were working on a new artists newsletter where well be communicating needs on a regular basis"... I'm definitely going to Envato with my sounds. And they are "working on a new artist newsletter"??? Working? You need a team of 20 people and six months timeframe to work on a newsletter to communicate needs? As far as I'm concerned Pond5's only need is a slap in the face. I know it sounds like Im insulted and hurt (and I am to a point) but this is 90% money related! I gave up my exclusivity (again) with Pond5 in mind as a second/first earning agency for my audio library. If they WROTE ANYWHERE on their submission page, first page, newsletter etc, that they are not accepting NEW SOUND FILES OTHER THAN SONGS AND MUSIC my decision regarding non-exclusivity would be different. Like this I'm stranded (I think that the word) to a degree.
You can submit files but 99% would be rejected. Now, I'm not talking about one kind of audio files, I'm talking about everything - War, fighting, breaking, racing, woods, nature, birds, ocean, beach, walking, running, shooting a gun, cannon, automatic rifle, jumping into water, underwater diving, snorkeling, whales, snakes, bears, lions, hyenas, chickens, pigs, cows, turtledoves, cats, dogs, tennis, football, basketball, crowds, applauses, indoors, ambiance, traffic, car crashes, car skids, indoors car sounds, cheering, objects.........
This is just from the top of my mind and maybe some 5% of files that I have and that they rejected in the first 2400 batch of files. It's not like "oh, if I send variety maybe something will pass". It wont pass.
I'm taking my business elsewhere. Again, I just saw what videohive did to uploading process. It's gonna be a flood but let it. Setting your own prices, auto watermarking, preview files... they will probably do the same with audio. Anyways, there are 5 agencies to submit to other than Pond. Going to work.
Cheers people!
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That's a shame Mirko. 550,000 seems like a tiny number when compared to the image collections some sites have. I know sound effects is a smaller market but I just don't see how limiting buyers choice of new media helps when they used to accept everything. How much of that 550,000 collection is low quality that wont sell? They currently have a limited collection that wont grow much and had almost no quality control. Still hope they can see the problem but I very much doubt they will now.
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Again, I wrote another email to them. I still cannot accept that this is their new policy. It just doesn't make any sense to me. But a friend wrote me on PM that they were burned in the past (last year I think) and had to delete 100k sfx files that were fraudulent and that I should push this a bit further cause I already submitted my work there and then delete it when I went back to IS and now again I'm indie... and prove my identity even that I've already did that. I don't know how far should I go without acting like a psychopath or a stalker :) I mean, I'm not that desperate but I also don't like the idea of being "rejected" over some birocatic or misunderstanding matter.
Anyways, I wrote another email and I'll wait and see, again.
@sharpshot
I cannot say how much is low quality that wont sell but I can say that there is a room to grow and that if they were keen to implement some sort of "check up" for SFX artists they should have written it somewhere and colored it red and bold the letters - AUTOMATIC REJECTIONS OF SOUND WORKS WILL OCCUR IF THIS AND THAT IS NOT UP TO DATE AND IF THIS AND THIS IS DID NOT MET OUR DEMANDS REGARDING PROVE OF COPYRIGHT ETC... Then you are prepared for submission process and if not, you would get prepared and you would submit all the documents that are needed beyond the usual SFX ID checkup.
Then again, maybe they really don't need my files :)
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So, they are not opened to any new SFX submissions but they say that " are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment their existing collection. Among other things, were working on a new artists newsletter where well be communicating needs on a regular basis"... I'm definitely going to Envato with my sounds. And they are "working on a new artist newsletter"??? Working? You need a team of 20 people and six months timeframe to work on a newsletter to communicate needs? As far as I'm concerned Pond5's only need is a slap in the face. I know it sounds like Im insulted and hurt (and I am to a point) but this is 90% money related! I gave up my exclusivity (again) with Pond5 in mind as a second/first earning agency for my audio library. If they WROTE ANYWHERE on their submission page, first page, newsletter etc, that they are not accepting NEW SOUND FILES OTHER THAN SONGS AND MUSIC my decision regarding non-exclusivity would be different. Like this I'm stranded (I think that the word) to a degree.
....
AND that's the main problem here! You nailed it!
Always go to the top...in your emails always cc new CEO - [email protected]
Reply will come quicker, for sure! 8)
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Ok, Pond5 definitely don't accept any new sound effects, sound recordings and other audio related NON MUSIC stock materials. Here is the last idiotic letter from Pond5
---------------------------
Pond5
Hi Mirko,
Thank you very much for contacting us with your inquiry. I have forwarded your inquiry to our Audio lead, and this is their feedback:
While we understand your frustration, after speaking with the team - including our Senior Audio Manager - we've reviewed and stand by our decision. At this time we have over 550,000 items in the SFX collection.
Were always upgrading quality, filling gaps, and entering new markets. There are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment our existing collection. Among other things, were working on a new artists newsletter where well be communicating needs on a regular basis. Please dont be discouraged and good luck.
If you need anything else from us let us know. Thanks for your patience. This was a tough one.
----------------------------
So, they are not opened to any new SFX submissions but they say that " are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment their existing collection. Among other things, were working on a new artists newsletter where well be communicating needs on a regular basis"... I'm definitely going to Envato with my sounds. And they are "working on a new artist newsletter"??? Working? You need a team of 20 people and six months timeframe to work on a newsletter to communicate needs? As far as I'm concerned Pond5's only need is a slap in the face. I know it sounds like Im insulted and hurt (and I am to a point) but this is 90% money related! I gave up my exclusivity (again) with Pond5 in mind as a second/first earning agency for my audio library. If they WROTE ANYWHERE on their submission page, first page, newsletter etc, that they are not accepting NEW SOUND FILES OTHER THAN SONGS AND MUSIC my decision regarding non-exclusivity would be different. Like this I'm stranded (I think that the word) to a degree.
You can submit files but 99% would be rejected. Now, I'm not talking about one kind of audio files, I'm talking about everything - War, fighting, breaking, racing, woods, nature, birds, ocean, beach, walking, running, shooting a gun, cannon, automatic rifle, jumping into water, underwater diving, snorkeling, whales, snakes, bears, lions, hyenas, chickens, pigs, cows, turtledoves, cats, dogs, tennis, football, basketball, crowds, applauses, indoors, ambiance, traffic, car crashes, car skids, indoors car sounds, cheering, objects.........
This is just from the top of my mind and maybe some 5% of files that I have and that they rejected in the first 2400 batch of files. It's not like "oh, if I send variety maybe something will pass". It wont pass.
I'm taking my business elsewhere. Again, I just saw what videohive did to uploading process. It's gonna be a flood but let it. Setting your own prices, auto watermarking, preview files... they will probably do the same with audio. Anyways, there are 5 agencies to submit to other than Pond. Going to work.
Cheers people!
I feel the same way but with video and photos now that Pond 5 has a near 100% rejection rate, upset yes, hurt yest, and angry but this is a business and business is about making money and switching to another site is a ton of work and time and then more time until revenue starts coming in if at all, it takes time for stuff to be indexed by search engines and for buyers to find it so right now for those selling on pond 5 they are incurring a major business disruption. Sales have stopped and now the door is basically closed to new uploads.
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It all sounds very crazy, only 550 000 files and they are basically closing the collection?
So they donīt want stock audio,stock video,stock photos and need months to prepare a newsletter, to explain to their suppliers what they want us to produce?
Why not close the upload queue completly until they figure out their needs?
That would be better instead of wasting our time uploading material they donīt want.
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It all sounds very crazy, only 550 000 files and they are basically closing the collection?
So they donīt want stock audio,stock video,stock photos and need months to prepare a newsletter, to explain to their suppliers what they want us to produce?
Why not close the upload queue completly until they figure out their needs?
That would be better instead of wasting our time uploading material they donīt want.
Unless you are filming goofy hipsters who can't dance trying to dance while wearing large goofy glasses the collection appears to be closed.
Once again their inability to communicate and write a simple email has led to a lot of people being screwed up and losing a lot of their income, sure it's their house, their game but it would have nice if the new ceo's and management or the team would have sent out an email blast or posted a general notice on their website explaining the changes that are coming, give us 30 days warning or something. That would have been a decent thing to do. They are either too arrogant or maybe too clueless to actually write something.
Believe me I am just furious about this, it's not that pond 5 fell on hard times and went under, some new ceo comes in whos claim to fame is he worked at Grubhub and he probably doesn't even know what stock photos and video are and is making changes to fit what he thinks is "cool". They will have a bankruptcy on their hands by the end of the summer at this rate and keep in mind to add to their problems the summer sales slump is coming.
And some here complained about how things used to be under the old management, in one month under these new guys pond 5 is done. Didn't take them long to destroy a company. Wonder why that ceo isn't still at Grubhub.
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I noticed when my video sales at P5 stopped, SS sales went up. My guess is most of their video customers went to SS. Not sure about Fotolia, I don't upload there.
Btw I'm not as pessimistic as SquirrelPower, I think they go bankrupt in January after the Christmas dip hits P5.
Unless the exodus of all customers comes first 8)
Anyway it's no use uploading, even if it gets accepted there will be nobody left to buy.
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I noticed when my video sales at P5 stopped, SS sales went up. My guess is most of their video customers went to SS. Not sure about Fotolia, I don't upload there.
Btw I'm not as pessimistic as SquirrelPower, I think they go bankrupt in January after the Christmas dip hits P5.
Unless the exodus of all customers comes first 8)
Anyway it's no use uploading, even if it gets accepted there will be nobody left to buy.
If your sales and others sales have stopped already then that means the exodus of customers has already begun. Maybe of not bankruptcy or closing they will sell the company, I think acquisition or merger is what they are hoping for or even planning now. The investors put in $60 million, they have now realized the previous management team wasn't generating a hope in hell of making that money back plus profit and installed a new management team, this new team changed direction and others have reported major increases in sales at SS and Videoblocks as well so I think the buyers started leaving awhile ago.
Almost no one is buying video or photos there anymore now let alone next January. If not bankruptcy I would say a merger or acquisition by August.
I wonder how much of that $60 million is even left. The previous management team might have made mistakes but these new ones are something else and have no clue and want to make the site a boutique art house, I say you make more money by trying to be everything to all people, get all the buyers you can not just one segment of the market.
Sad to see the best and most artist friendly and revenue producing site go, I know that know your onions will disagree with me on that one but for some of us Pond 5 was #1 for a long time and the others not so good. Bad news that's for sure.
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I noticed when my video sales at P5 stopped, SS sales went up. My guess is most of their video customers went to SS. Not sure about Fotolia, I don't upload there.
Btw I'm not as pessimistic as SquirrelPower, I think they go bankrupt in January after the Christmas dip hits P5.
Unless the exodus of all customers comes first 8)
Anyway it's no use uploading, even if it gets accepted there will be nobody left to buy.
If your sales and others sales have stopped already then that means the exodus of customers has already begun. Maybe of not bankruptcy or closing they will sell the company, I think acquisition or merger is what they are hoping for or even planning now. The investors put in $60 million, they have now realized the previous management team wasn't generating a hope in hell of making that money back plus profit and installed a new management team, this new team changed direction and others have reported major increases in sales at SS and Videoblocks as well so I think the buyers started leaving awhile ago.
Almost no one is buying video or photos there anymore now let alone next January. If not bankruptcy I would say a merger or acquisition by August.
I wonder how much of that $60 million is even left. The previous management team might have made mistakes but these new ones are something else and have no clue and want to make the site a boutique art house, I say you make more money by trying to be everything to all people, get all the buyers you can not just one segment of the market.
Sad to see the best and most artist friendly and revenue producing site go, I know that know your onions will disagree with me on that one but for some of us Pond 5 was #1 for a long time and the others not so good. Bad news that's for sure.
Well, watch out who you blame for what....old management is still there!
Ex CEO is now Executive Chairman Pond5
New CEO got Grubhub to the IPO, so I guess that was his main reference for this new role.
Forbes said on ex CEO - "Bennett helped launch the business after toiling as an editor and odd-jobbing in the video world."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dadehayes/2015/01/22/pond5-mines-remix-economy-adding-public-domain-footage-to-its-growing-marketplace/#1272a59d1d19 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/dadehayes/2015/01/22/pond5-mines-remix-economy-adding-public-domain-footage-to-its-growing-marketplace/#1272a59d1d19)
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I noticed when my video sales at P5 stopped, SS sales went up. My guess is most of their video customers went to SS. Not sure about Fotolia, I don't upload there.
Btw I'm not as pessimistic as SquirrelPower, I think they go bankrupt in January after the Christmas dip hits P5.
Unless the exodus of all customers comes first 8)
Anyway it's no use uploading, even if it gets accepted there will be nobody left to buy.
If your sales and others sales have stopped already then that means the exodus of customers has already begun. Maybe of not bankruptcy or closing they will sell the company, I think acquisition or merger is what they are hoping for or even planning now. The investors put in $60 million, they have now realized the previous management team wasn't generating a hope in hell of making that money back plus profit and installed a new management team, this new team changed direction and others have reported major increases in sales at SS and Videoblocks as well so I think the buyers started leaving awhile ago.
Almost no one is buying video or photos there anymore now let alone next January. If not bankruptcy I would say a merger or acquisition by August.
I wonder how much of that $60 million is even left. The previous management team might have made mistakes but these new ones are something else and have no clue and want to make the site a boutique art house, I say you make more money by trying to be everything to all people, get all the buyers you can not just one segment of the market.
Sad to see the best and most artist friendly and revenue producing site go, I know that know your onions will disagree with me on that one but for some of us Pond 5 was #1 for a long time and the others not so good. Bad news that's for sure.
I heard some people still report sales, a few customers are still there. The question is more how fast before all of them are gone and once a customer is gone, they will be gone forever.
I think they got the new CEO to aim for IPO or to sell it. But at this rate only a fool would want to buy or merge with P5.
With 60 million they can operate for some time. In a couple of months we will probably get a notice they will be lowering commissions. Then they hope their sales will go up for the Holiday season, only to find out their customers and contributors all took off and that's when they will file for bankruptcy.
If I were working for P5, I would start looking for a new job.
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Hello everyone
On this subject, I would say the following. I am one of the founding contributors of this site, always I liked to take good care that treats me until we all have our limits of patience. I'm not very active on forum due to other obligations in my life, but lately I see that the work acceptance of change has changed dramatically. To say, with much "pedantry" by some curators.
I have Photos/Footage to be accepted for more than a month, and earlier before the last review was the same thing, too long.
I wonder if the P5 want to continue with contributors, or only served them to reach the level it reached and now discards them silently?
Last revision was 36 videos for review, 6 were accepted and 30 rejected for the reason that there were many within the same theme, not by me, by others.
This is a subjective decision, and in my gallery are not certainly more than two images of the same subject and photographed environment at the same time.
As time goes by, other stock sites have accepted me dozens and dozens of images, including those that the P5 rejected.
Monthly reviews are completely out of common sense and respect for those who feed this type of industry, and this site.
That for me has been one of the best to interact, is at full speed to become one of the worst, and in consequence have difficulty feeling the mood to continue ...
All need all, I just want to make this clear
Regards
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I posted my views on this site and on the Pond 5 forum and sure enough I had some little pr*ck calling me a crabby old man for not being hip enough. This guy was kneeling on my chest pretty much and ranting about how we should embrace new technology and pretty much frothing at the mouth. These angry hipsters ranting about cinematic story-telling and who can't tell the difference between the film biz and television are pretty scary. Their usual defence is to rant about how video on the interweb is the thing now and how it needs to be flashy and attention grabbing. Well that pretty much describes present-day television. When I want to watch an old programme from years ago I tend to go to Youtube. Oh the humanity of it.....It turns out that my hipster friend has nearly 50 years' experience in the business, but expresses himself like a not-very-nice teenager. Tragic.
The arrogance over 1080i expressed by Pond 5 a year ago as though it was a matter of fashion was annoying. They STILL haven't put up a sign saying what they don't want it any more and you won't see any warning that they don't want old-school stock shots, you know, of things and places, the kind of thing you could drop into a production that wouldn't be bloody annoying to watch. My little sh*tster friend on Pond 5 thinks that all establishing shots will be done with a drone in the future, unlikely as you won't be able to fly drones at will in public for much longer for fear of killing somebody or bringing down a 747.
The other source of annoyance is that Pond 5 will never ever take on board anything you say. The fact that somebody as ignorant and obtuse as Lawrence still has a job there just about says everything about the company. The public face of Pond 5 would be better suited to working in the civil service.
It is interesting that sales at Pond 5 seem to have slumped. Maybe potential customers just wanted to leaf through a infinite number of clips of the Taj Mahal until they found the one they wanted.
The bottom line is that Pond 5 needs its contributors and pretending that they are Getty Images is actually going to shrink their business because that's a much smaller market.
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There is no reason why his artsy shots and your stock content canīt coexist on an agency.
But maybe he really is an example of the newthink of pond5, who knows.
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Maybe you are right. When I was discussing 1080i on this forum a year ago, one person decided to scream about it and rant at me. His suggestion was at the time that I throw a perfectly good camera which would have cost about $6K when new into the bin and buy a progressive camera on a whim. It was much cheaper to use the fluid motion timewarp effect in Avid to make perfectly nice prog clips. It takes about 60 minutes to process 60 seconds of footage but you can leave a batch going over-night.
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There is no reason why his artsy shots and your stock content canīt coexist on an agency.
But maybe he really is an example of the newthink of pond5, who knows.
Exactly! to increase sales they need the legacy and the new stuff coexisting in one site. Going in one direction means leaving a lot of buyers behind. I liked it when they accepted almost everything and let the buyers decide what they want to buy.
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...
The bottom line is that Pond 5 needs its contributors and pretending that they are Getty Images is actually going to shrink their business because that's a much smaller market.
LOL
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There is no reason why his artsy shots and your stock content canīt coexist on an agency.
But maybe he really is an example of the newthink of pond5, who knows.
Exactly! to increase sales they need the legacy and the new stuff coexisting in one site. Going in one direction means leaving a lot of buyers behind. I liked it when they accepted almost everything and let the buyers decide what they want to buy.
Be honest and say is this you tube P5 promo aiming for artsy buyers or any buyers actually?
What's the idea behind? After seeing this you will buy stuff on P5? Seriously? :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYw6aAKqXW4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYw6aAKqXW4)
What an embarrassment for brand to invest money into something like this. :-X
Is this that new direction towards quality they were talking about? These guys are totally lost, I think.
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Be honest and say is this you tube P5 promo aiming for artsy buyers or any buyers actually?
What's the idea behind? After seeing this you will buy stuff on P5? Seriously? :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYw6aAKqXW4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYw6aAKqXW4)
What an embarrassment for brand to invest money into something like this. :-X
Is this that new direction towards quality they were talking about? These guys are totally lost, I think.
[/quote]
I'd say they've totally lost it after watching that video. So these are the new higher standard they are talking about? after seeing the GIF of the two goofy hipsters with large goofy glasses attempting to dance and now this hipster video I think there must be a big sign in there office reading DUMB IT DOWN.
One could laugh but a lot of us have lost a lot of our income due to this change in direction, buyers won't even watch that promo let alone click on Pond5, so annoying, stupid and silly they will just go click on another site. They've clearly gone art house and hipster and in a very different direction.
I'd love to know why, do they believe there is big money to be made in that space? did they get bad advice from consultants or was it a simple directive from one track mind simple management to dumb things down.
I watched that video and it's not funny, not sure if it was supposed to be but wasn't funny at all to me.
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The video got a bit tedious but he has 2.8 million followers, so I do see why Pond5 would want to be promoted on that channel. As usual, KnowYourOnions is using everything he can find to have a go at Pond5. They have done some things that deserve criticism in the last year but having a go at everything they do is as tedious as the joke in that video.
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The video got a bit tedious but he has 2.8 million followers, so I do see why Pond5 would want to be promoted on that channel. As usual, KnowYourOnions is using everything he can find to have a go at Pond5. They have done some things that deserve criticism in the last year but having a go at everything they do is as tedious as the joke in that video.
ok cool I am an obsesive idiot who likes to call out P5 nonsense...but please, enlighten me and tell me the benefits of having this terrible video promo on some celebrity you tube channel? Not a single comment below the video is about P5. Why spending money on such nonsense? :o
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So how much did they pay? Probably not a lot and some of those 2.8 million subscribers will check out P5 and use them. You complain that they don't spend money on marketing, then you complain when they do, so I fully agree with the start of your sentence :)
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So how much did they pay? Probably not a lot and some of those 2.8 million subscribers will check out P5 and use them. You complain that they don't spend money on marketing, then you complain when they do, so I fully agree with the start of your sentence :)
These you tubers are the rich kids, you know so just imagine how much they got paid.
I can put money on it, that some of 2 mil ppl won't...cos that's not the audience that brings money in. Maybe one odd out purchase here and there and that's it.
Call me whatever, I have right to make my point and welcome to complaining lot too (as per your recent posts). 8)
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There are a lot of rich youtubers, so I don't have a problem with Pond5 marketing there. I do complain but unlike you, it isn't about absolutely everything they do. You have a right to make your point but I have the right to disagree with you whenever I want to.
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There are a lot of rich youtubers, so I don't have a problem with Pond5 marketing there. I do complain but unlike you, it isn't about absolutely everything they do. You have a right to make your point but I have the right to disagree with you whenever I want to.
What I wonder is if those people who watch that youtuber are the buyers who have budgets to buy stock for their productions or if they themselves are low to no budget creatives who literally produce everything themselves.
At least Pond 5 tried something and I guess it clearly shows who their new target market is, I just don't really know if that market is the one with the deep pockets, a few Youtubers might be rich but the viewers?.
Could they have not picked a different Youtuber though? Perhaps someone who is actually funny? maybe https://www.youtube.com/user/gunnarolla/videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/gunnarolla/videos)
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That person has 82,000 subscribers, so I can see why they would want to go with the one with 2.8 million just on the numbers. There's a lot of people wanting to make it big on youtube and it would seem likely that some of them might end up as Pond5 customers.
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That person has 82,000 subscribers, so I can see why they would want to go with the one with 2.8 million just on the numbers. There's a lot of people wanting to make it big on youtube and it would seem likely that some of them might end up as Pond5 customers.
Based on those numbers yea it probably makes sense, hopefully some of those people become customers and maybe sales start happening again at Pond 5. Sales have been at or near zero for two full months there now.
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Pond 5 has gone mad. Even with different upload batches they review them in one shot and end up rejecting 70% of the batch. This is when SS already has them selected and has already gotten me a few sales till then
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Pond 5 has gone mad. Even with different upload batches they review them in one shot and end up rejecting 70% of the batch. This is when SS already has them selected and has already gotten me a few sales till then
"Join the world's most artist-friendly community today"... says on P5 ad banner. (attached)
8)
Try it to believe it!
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Yes and motion elements covered the Asian market for me ... :-X
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Different situation here: in my last batch, about 100 clips, 96% accepted.
But still, who care about being accepted or rejected if sales have totally disappeared?
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I think the reason why P5 is now utterly dead is because customers are only buying within the subscription thingy for peanuts.
Let's take an average typical small buyer: he was buying maybe 60 clips a year, at an average of $70 each. $2,100 was going to the artists and the same to Pond 5.
Now that same small buyer can get his 60 clips from the subscription crap for about $500 per year. P5 still has to pay the peanuts fee to the artists that accepted the blackmail, so let's say P5 keeps about $350 a year from that customer instead of $2,100. The artists get practically nothing.
So the idiots at P5 are getting now 15% of what they were getting before from each customer, at the same time artists have no reason whatsoever to upload there, since there are practically no sales outside the pathetic membership thing
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Some artists said there was a glitch where they saw their files in the membership program being downloaded 35 times a day.
Imagine how much money they would make if they had decided to offer their files themselves for 8 dollars and pond5 had an "8 dollar files" membership program with a filter button in their search to highlight these files.
The artist would get paid for every individual download, instead of 50 cents a month and nothing more.
I am surprised that there arenīt more people demanding real time sales data for the new subs program. Because pond5 obviously has the information.
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Some artists said there was a glitch where they saw their files in the membership program being downloaded 35 times a day.
Imagine how much money they would make if they had decided to offer their files themselves for 8 dollars and pond5 had an "8 dollar files" membership program with a filter button in their search to highlight these files.
The artist would get paid for every individual download, instead of 50 cents a month and nothing more.
I am surprised that there arenīt more people demanding real time sales data for the new subs program. Because pond5 obviously has the information.
This is exactly the whole point of the situation: the almost totality of sales have moved to the bloody membership rip off, which operates free of artist royalty.
I am not only talking about Pond 5 sales, but most footage downloads from other agencies too.
The situation is extremely dangerous and can be the nail on the coffin for the footage market: via the memberhip pond 5 gets about 15% of the income that was getting thorough regular sales.
The only way for pond 5 to survive is to multiply their customer base by at least 5 times. So they will certainly try to increase the number of files on offer on the deadly membership. If they do, the market for footage will be definitely murdered
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Well, somebody has to give them the content, right?
But unless the artists have real time sales data, how will they know if it is worth it for them?
This is a trial phase, nobody knows how pond5 will expand the program. Obviously the customers would love to have unlimited downloads or very high numbers for a subs program.
And will pond5 even continue to pay 50 cents? What if they only offer 30 cents a month, but will take more files?
It can still be an interesting option, but I donīt understand why they donīt give the artist real time sales stats.
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Sorry Cobalt, but I don't understand your point.
Unless I misunderstand, the artists gave full use of their clips to p5 for the ridiculous amount of 50c per month, thus surrendering their entire portfolio, as no customer are going to buy anything outside the membership, since they can have 300.000 good clips for peanuts.
Why should the artists care about real time sales, since they have already been paid that stupid amount?
And why on earth p5 should disclose their sales on the membership area, since they basically have the full use of those clips?
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Itīs a test phase for all sides involved.
In a balanced relationship, or letīs say the old pond5, would give you proper information to be able to evaluate if the system works.
Why would anyone add more content, if they canīt get data to compare results?
Also renting out 6000 files a month that never sold might be a good offer for many, so I donīt think that the idea to rent content just by itself is wrong.
It all depends on how it is implemented.
What I donīt understand is why so many people place expensive content into the program. But it is their choice.
I also offer photos for 30 cents or 600 dollars, but not usually not side by side.
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Some artists said there was a glitch where they saw their files in the membership program being downloaded 35 times a day.
There was a glitch for one day and that was the only glimpse that some got to see how many times their clips in the program are being downloaded.
One thing to remember is people will download when it's not costing them extra but they won't download and buy that many at the standalone regular full price.
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What I donīt understand is why so many people place expensive content into the program. But it is their choice.
The pond 5 people hand picked and chose the files that went into the program, the artists didn't select specific files, they opted in and gave permission but it was pond 5 curators that went and picked the clips.
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I didn't know that there is a way to see how many times a file been
Downloaded...
How is it possible?
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What I donīt understand is why so many people place expensive content into the program. But it is their choice.
The pond 5 people hand picked and chose the files that went into the program, the artists didn't select specific files, they opted in and gave permission but it was pond 5 curators that went and picked the clips.
This is correct: P5 have chosen not only the best clips, but also a selection that covers quite well all different subjects.
I don't see why on earth customers should buy anymore clips anywhere else but in the membership area. Not only P5 customers, but also SS and FT will move there.
In other words the new value for clips in the market is the cost of clips on the bloody membership area, around $6
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Wouldnīt everyone involved, including pond5, make more money, if they called it the " 6 Dollar Membership" program and every download was counted?
Like the Dollar Photo Club?
But I guess if files are being downloaded 30 times a day, but pond5 pays the artist 50 cents a month, then they make a crazy amount of money.
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Wouldnīt everyone involved, including pond5, make more money, if they called it the " 6 Dollar Membership" program and every download was counted?
Like the Dollar Photo Club?
But I guess if files are being downloaded 30 times a day, but pond5 pays the artist 50 cents a month, then they make a crazy amount of money.
I am sure that most files get downloaded much, much more than 30 times a day, basically the whole volume of footage sales is going into the bloody membership zone.
The Videoblock idea was already a threat to the industry, but they were not well organised and the clips in their membership area were frankly really poor.
This time is different: p5 ha chosen 300,000 quality clips covering most subjects, rents them for peanuts and a lot of artist fell unto the trap.
I really do not see why anyone should buy any clips from the marketplace in p5. The only way for other agencies to reply is to lower the price of footage to $5 for a clip
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It needs people who supply this madness.
Usually people only offer low quality files for cheap prices. The only reason to offer quality files for pennies is if you get extremly high volume sales, like some people do on envato.
Then you have a business model like the original micro market for photos, where those of us who got in early, made an unbelievable amount of money.
But now there is an oversupply situation and the quality photos are moving back to macrostock agencies or specialized collections like stocksy with a walled garden approach.
It looks like pond5 is trying to crash the video market really, really early in the game, if they place quality files in the 6 dollar price bin, while renting the content for 50 cents a month.
Maybe they are hoping to win back all the customers they lost to other places, I donīt know.
A rental concept for low quality clips, I can see that working as a win win for all involved. Reliable money is reliable money.
But with only 4,5 million videos in the whole market, I donīt understand why artists would give up on individual download income at 50% for good quality files.
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It needs people who supply this madness.
Usually people only offer low quality files for cheap prices. The only reason to offer quality files for pennies is if you get extremly high volume sales, like some people do on envato.
Then you have a business model like the original micro market for photos, where those of us who got in early, made a crazy amount of money.
But now there is an oversupply situation and the quality photos are moving back to macrostock agencies or specialized collections like stocksy with a walled garden approach.
It looks like pond5 is trying to crash the video market really, really early in the game, if they place quality files in the 6 dollar price bin, while renting the content for 50 cents a month.
Maybe they are hoping to win back all the customers they lost to other places, I donīt know.
A rental concept for low quality clips, I can see that working as a win win for all involved. Reliable money is reliable money.
But with only 4,5 million videos in the whole market, I donīt understand why artists would give up on individual download income at 50% for good quality files.
Basically p5 got a new management.made up by people that don;t really know this industry.
When a new mgmt arrives they try to do something big to impress the shareholders, even if it is something very stupid.
What is happening is that they are driving all previous p5 sales to this bloody membership area.
In the MA basically no royalties are paid, only the ridiculous half dollar per clip per mont one off.
The thing is that before p5 was getting an average of $ 35 per clip sold ($70 minus $35 for the artist), in the bloody membership they only get an average of $6 per clip sold. So their income per previously existing customer is 6 times smaller than before.
In order to maintain the same income they need to multiply their volume of sales of clip six times, therefore by attracting customers from other agencies, and remember that this entire huge volume of sales does not generate any income for artists.
In reality they are stealing a lot of customers from other agencies, that is why everyone is complaining of lower sales for video clips not only at p5
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Well, their calculation will also include normal royalties from content the customer buys that is not in the membership program.
We donīt know how many additional clips the customers are buying.
This is probably what the test phase is for.
At the moment customers can only download 10 clips a month (unless someone got a special deal...)
I am not sure they really need 6 times more customers to make it work. If enough casual pond5 buyers can committ themselves to the membership program, then it might be financially viable at a much earlier stage.
All the people that buy 2-5 clips every 3-6 months, just get them committed to a reliable 50 dollars a month and you can create a very visble rising subscription customer numbers, although the customer is not spending more than before.
The difference is, that pond5 now gets nearly all those 50 dollars, instead of sharing 50%.
A customer who spends an irregular 600 dollars a year on pond5, probably looking for the cheaper files, can now with the same money buy many more clips, but pond5 doesnīt have to share with the artist.
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In reality they are stealing a lot of customers from other agencies, that is why everyone is complaining of lower sales for video clips not only at p5
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You make some good points and sales are in fact down somewhat at other agencies this spring. Hard to believe at first since they only have 200,000 clips in membership area but if they hand picked the best of every genre then maybe it's having more impact on the industry that was previously expected.
Some said the same of Videoblocks when they launched but the way to get sales there is to have unique content that they don't have in their membership area, it's not easy to do but if you can do it sales will happen. I am guessing same would be the case at Pond.
I think by the time this is all over we will see some agencies collapse.
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I might be wrong, but I believe they are 300,000, not 200,000.
Videoblock was never a real threat because their content in the membership area was really poor, but in the case of p5 they have picked the best from their marketplace and most of the artists fell into the trap.
Yes, this is going to kill the footage market.
The only way to react from SS and FT is to lower the price of clip to $5-6, thus creating a price war.
P5 will be the first to die, because they rely solely on video, while the other two can last longer with their income from still images.
Once p5 will be dead and buried, finally out of the way, maybe they can try to slowly somehow drive prices a bit upwards
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The membership is made up of 200,000 clips - you can do a simple blank search for footage and filter by membership to find the figure, 199,797 to be exact.
My sales have tanked at Pond5, starting in January this year. I used to have super solid sales there selling multiple $299 clips a week and now that's completely dried up. I'm sure the membership program is having an affect but my hunch is other factors at play and customers have moved elsewhere. I have about 450 clips in the membership program all of which were my cheapo one, nothing that was priced high. If nothing improves in the next 4 to 6 weeks I'll hand in my notice and withdraw from the program.
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The membership is made up of 200,000 clips - you can do a simple blank search for footage and filter by membership to find the figure, 199,797 to be exact.
My sales have tanked at Pond5, starting in January this year. I used to have super solid sales there selling multiple $299 clips a week and now that's completely dried up. I'm sure the membership program is having an affect but my hunch is other factors at play and customers have moved elsewhere. I have about 450 clips in the membership program all of which were my cheapo one, nothing that was priced high. If nothing improves in the next 4 to 6 weeks I'll hand in my notice and withdraw from the program.
Is it at all possible to withdraw from the program, I mean to stop the devil using your clips in the membership?
If that is the case it is very, very good news.
I am sure that most of the artists who have fallen into the trap will see how they have been taken for fools and get out of the scheme
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Meanwhile, here in my bizarre world, a reviewer just approved one of my photos and increased the price from $5 to $10 dollars and said they thought I'd make more take home pay that way.
Don't get me wrong, I know photos don't sell much on P5, but I'm still tickled that the reviewer took the time to do it.