POND 5 has been dead for a while anyway, who cares what SS does to a dead body

Quote from: ADH on December 15, 2024, 05:52

POND 5 has been dead for a while anyway, who cares what SS does to a dead body

I agree, too, based on my lack of sales.  As I've mentioned before, in January 2024 my sales nearly literally stopped.  My biggest earning has been the dataset.  Month over month zero sales. Previously I would get 3-7 video sales a month. I think I have about 6 for the whole year, several of which are for a net royalty of $2.

Pretty much the same for me as well.

It's crazy how it can go from multiple sales to zero so quickly. I wonder what happened, and yes this trend began before the SS buyout. Maybe they had no more funds for marketing and promotion when competing with AS iS and SS.

I read somewhere (I think on one of Alex Rotenburgh's interview blog posts) that someone had noted Pond5 sales collapsed sometime during 2019. I hadn't started there until around December 2019 so never knew what it was like before then.

Since then, Pond5 has never been a great seller but I certainly had more sales with a smaller port even up to as far as this year in May 2024. But now as Shutterstock's management objectives are beginning to work their magic, sales have plummeted.

They don't even hide their contempt for contributors now, except to add in a line about 'commitment to supporting our artists' and 'earning potential for our contributors', they would of dropped royalties to 10%. I suppose 30% is still not bad really in today's market. But the bigger insult by far is to exclusive contributors.   

I still can't understand the pond5 pricing system. One of the last 2 videos sold was 4k, the other was HD.

The price I found appropriate for 4K was $50. But it was sold for $16. I was also paid a $6.40 commission. For HD video, I set the price I found appropriate as $25. It was sold for $22.50. And I was paid a $8.97 commission.

In my participant portal, I set the video price as $50, but if I want to buy it, it appears as $16. So why do I set my own prices for videos?

I set a price of $89 for 4k and $49 for HD for all the videos I recently uploaded. But on the video purchase screen, it appears as $60 for 4K and $48 for HD.


I am a participant from Turkey. And I open the purchase screen with a Turkish IP. Could it be that the purchase prices change automatically depending on the country?


A city under the stars   HD   $22.42   Global Market Earnings   $22.42   $8.97

A time lapse close up of a half moon moving across the black dark night sky.   4K   $16   Individual License 20240102   $16   $6.40

I still can't understand the pond5 pricing system. One of the last 2 videos sold was 4k, the other was HD.

The price I found appropriate for 4K was $50. But it was sold for $16. I was also paid a $6.40 commission. For HD video, I set the price I found appropriate as $25. It was sold for $22.50. And I was paid a $8.97 commission.

In my participant portal, I set the video price as $50, but if I want to buy it, it appears as $16. So why do I set my own prices for videos?

I set a price of $89 for 4k and $49 for HD for all the videos I recently uploaded. But on the video purchase screen, it appears as $60 for 4K and $48 for HD.


I am a participant from Turkey. And I open the purchase screen with a Turkish IP. Could it be that the purchase prices change automatically depending on the country?


A city under the stars   HD   $22.42   Global Market Earnings   $22.42   $8.97

A time lapse close up of a half moon moving across the black dark night sky.   4K   $16   Individual License 20240102   $16   $6.40

well.... since August 2024 they can price whatever they want. Read contract agreement "we will have sole discretion to adjust the price of any Content to (A) maximize your overall revenue performance, (B) align with our tiered pricing model, or (C) comply with our minimum pricing guidelines;"

So you can set a price BUT it's only a suggestion, as they say... " Video pricing on Pond5 is dynamic and may change over time. When submitting prices, please provide suggestions to help us determine the optimal list price for your clips".