Author Topic: Pond5 deals and more deals and less sales (Read 6166 times)

Level6 · « **on:** January 02, 2022, 14:03 »

Pond5 I suppose is still the better of the lot at least for video but they have definitely strayed from their original goal of being fair to contributors and that happens when you have VC investors or shareholders, that's business in startup land though.

They have a deal that basically sunk us editorial contributors, Reuters and Newsflare content is now on Pond5 and at very high prices I might add but all the media outlets feed into Reuters so they're impossible to beat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond5
"the company launched partnerships with Reuters, Cover Video, and Newsflare to create the world's largest collection of royalty-free editorial video"

and in searching around to find out what's going on at PA media/Alamy I found this, so you're Pond5 content is being given away on Alarm, I'm sure you get a little "incremental income" for it somehow, don't ask because I don't know.

https://www.alamy.com/blog/you-can-now-access-premium-video-through-alamy

Went from $3500/month on P5 alone (editorial) to about $400/month as of April 1 2019 when lightning struck and people all of a sudden stopped buying .

in 2021 sales stopped completely in May and I assumed it was the recession as this is the worst economy since the depression and it's the summer slump but then came the fall selling season and and only one sale and now a massive bankruptcy for me.

Pond5 might be the nicest agency and staff to deal with but they are still a startup and there is a business side to things and that means it's over as for making a living selling stock through them.

Edit: Having said that I'd still say Pond5 is the best agency to deal with our of all of them and I guess Adobe is a close second, none are even close to perfect anymore but Pond5 is trying to keep things as fair as they possibly can given that they have VC investors as well. As I go out of business I will leave the content up there if the bankruptcy trustee allows me to.

Dumc · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2022, 15:46 »

You don't fail to mention in every post, how sales have completely stopped on pond5 and how you have bankcrupted? I mean, we all heard it already gazillion times.

Level6 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2022, 16:30 »

Quote from: Dumc on January 02, 2022, 15:46

You don't fail to mention in every post, how sales have completely stopped on pond5 and how you have bankcrupted? I mean, we all heard it already gazillion times.

Some people are still getting sales there so that's a good thing, I could too but I'd have to buy my own clips.

Findura · « **Reply #3 on:** January 04, 2022, 03:17 »

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 14:03

and in searching around to find out what's going on at PA media/Alamy I found this, so you're Pond5 content is being given away on Alarm, I'm sure you get a little "incremental income" for it somehow, don't ask because I don't know.

https://www.alamy.com/blog/you-can-now-access-premium-video-through-alamy

P5 does not give anything away. P5 has a deal with Alamy.
And I think this is similar to the deal P5 has with Adobe : GPP, Global Partner Program.
That means Adobe customers can buy media from P5 on Adobe's website. These sales are named in the P5 account with GPP license. We get the payout every third month.

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 14:03

Went from $3500/month on P5 alone (editorial) to about $400/month as of April 1 2019 when lightning struck and people all of a sudden stopped buying .

If you were making $3500 a month at P5, you should be making at least as much or more at SS. Why are you whining about your bankruptcy?
And what about all the other agencies? Are they not selling your media anymore either?
You uploaded your media to several agencies, didn't you? Haven't you?

Level6 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 04, 2022, 11:51 »

Quote from: Findura on January 04, 2022, 03:17

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 14:03
and in searching around to find out what's going on at PA media/Alamy I found this, so you're Pond5 content is being given away on Alarm, I'm sure you get a little "incremental income" for it somehow, don't ask because I don't know.

https://www.alamy.com/blog/you-can-now-access-premium-video-through-alamy
P5 does not give anything away. P5 has a deal with Alamy.
And I think this is similar to the deal P5 has with Adobe : GPP, Global Partner Program.
That means Adobe customers can buy media from P5 on Adobe's website. These sales are named in the P5 account with GPP license. We get the payout every third month.

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 14:03
Went from $3500/month on P5 alone (editorial) to about $400/month as of April 1 2019 when lightning struck and people all of a sudden stopped buying .
If you were making $3500 a month at P5, you should be making at least as much or more at SS. Why are you whining about your bankruptcy?
And what about all the other agencies? Are they not selling your media anymore either?
You uploaded your media to several agencies, didn't you? Haven't you?

Actually it's always been less sales on SS vs P5, different types of content sells better/worse on different websites I guess, different customers, I've often wondered about that as SS has a larger footprint but P5 was always #1 and by a lot, 2nd was Videoblocks back when they existed and always in 3rd place for me was SS.

On SS it was those larger $ sales that helped make up for it but those didn't happen for me in 2021.

As for the deal with PS media and Adobe, sure it's great, customers can buy our clips on those sites and we get a tiny but of incremental income for them IF you are opted in to the GPP program, a regular sale on P5 gets you a lot more, it's a good deal for P5 as they are getting more for those sales than we are.

But considering what's happening at Alamy, istock, Getty and SS now I guess P5 is still the best one, i did made one sale since August 31 2021 on p5, I emailed support to make sure my account was ok and it's all good, they said "sales are like cats, sometimes they come and sometimes not"

My mistake was staying in as long as I did, summer was dead, nothing from May 2021 to September but I assumed that was the recession and then came the fall selling season and it stayed dead. I operated off credit cards since May, kept producing and uploading and here we are, no income whatsoever.

Level6 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 04, 2022, 12:33 »

Quote from: Findura on January 04, 2022, 03:17

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 14:03
and in searching around to find out what's going on at PA media/Alamy I found this, so you're Pond5 content is being given away on Alarm, I'm sure you get a little "incremental income" for it somehow, don't ask because I don't know.

https://www.alamy.com/blog/you-can-now-access-premium-video-through-alamy
P5 does not give anything away. P5 has a deal with Alamy.
And I think this is similar to the deal P5 has with Adobe : GPP, Global Partner Program.
That means Adobe customers can buy media from P5 on Adobe's website. These sales are named in the P5 account with GPP license. We get the payout every third month.

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 14:03
Went from $3500/month on P5 alone (editorial) to about $400/month as of April 1 2019 when lightning struck and people all of a sudden stopped buying .
If you were making $3500 a month at P5, you should be making at least as much or more at SS. Why are you whining about your bankruptcy?
And what about all the other agencies? Are they not selling your media anymore either?
You uploaded your media to several agencies, didn't you? Haven't you?

Another question I have is why is the GPP necessary?, why can't customers around the world not just buy off the p5 website?, SS has a drop down menu to select any language you want if English isn't the main language.

I just got two 10 cent photo sales and one $.125 video sale overnight it seems on SS, Taiwan, Israel and Germany.

Unless language translation plugins for websites are very expensive?, I honestly don't know.

Findura · « **Reply #6 on:** January 09, 2022, 02:55 »

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 16:30

Actually it's always been less sales on SS vs P5,

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 16:30

Went from $3500/month on P5 alone (editorial) to about $400/month as of April 1 2019 when lightning struck and people all of a sudden stopped buying .

In another forum topic you wrote that before 2019 you had up to $160.000,- income from stockfootage per year.

https://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/i-reached-level-2-today!-how-is-your-progress/25/

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 16:30

Great point although before April 1 2019 happened I was making $140k to $160k/year when you added up my P5, SS, and videoblocks revenue, and I've read that others did much better in stock before the agencies cut pay and started doing direct deals with distributors and buyers leaving us with a few one-off sales.

Your stories do not match.
You are the only contributor so far who went from $160.000,- to $0,-, I haven't read a similar story yet.
Even if you went from only $3.500,-/month to $0,-, that is also very unbelievable.

Pacesetter · « **Reply #7 on:** January 09, 2022, 05:54 »

I referred to Shutterstock as SS previously and on one occasion was blasted for it, something to do with it suggesting Nazism.

marthamarks · « **Reply #8 on:** January 09, 2022, 18:28 »

Quote from: Pacesetter on January 09, 2022, 05:54

I referred to Shutterstock as SS previously and on one occasion was blasted for it, something to do with it suggesting Nazism.

Sounds like somebody forgot what kind of forum he/she was posting on!

Level6 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 10, 2022, 18:58 »

Quote from: Findura on January 09, 2022, 02:55

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 16:30
Actually it's always been less sales on SS vs P5,

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 16:30
Went from $3500/month on P5 alone (editorial) to about $400/month as of April 1 2019 when lightning struck and people all of a sudden stopped buying .

In another forum topic you wrote that before 2019 you had up to $160.000,- income from stockfootage per year.

https://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/i-reached-level-2-today!-how-is-your-progress/25/

Quote from: Level6 on January 02, 2022, 16:30
Great point although before April 1 2019 happened I was making $140k to $160k/year when you added up my P5, SS, and videoblocks revenue, and I've read that others did much better in stock before the agencies cut pay and started doing direct deals with distributors and buyers leaving us with a few one-off sales.

Your stories do not match.
You are the only contributor so far who went from $160.000,- to $0,-, I haven't read a similar story yet.
Even if you went from only $3.500,-/month to $0,-, that is also very unbelievable.

Also your name does not fit to the stories at all.
Level6. The highest level in SS.

Also, you called Shutterstock SSTK in many of your earlier posts.
No one has ever called SS that.
Also, that doesn't fit a stock contributor who has been around for several years.

SSTK is the ticker symbol for SS (Shutterstock) on the stock market.

New to this forum but not new to stock, haven't been here for long but been in stock since way too long, you have to be in stock this long to be as cranky as I am trust me.

Sounds like you're still making a good living at this and banking. Congrats!.

Level6 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 10, 2022, 20:00 »

Quote from: Pacesetter on January 09, 2022, 05:54

I referred to Shutterstock as SS previously and on one occasion was blasted for it, something to do with it suggesting Nazism.

That's literally why I've started using SSTK which is their stock ticker symbol.

These days, especially on social media, forums and IR, with cancel culture and microaggressions these days you literally can't say anything and even then whatever you say someone will still find something, I've always been nervous abut using SS and just use SSTK most of the time.

You're probably heard of or maybe even used the "OK' hand gesture, it's used a lot on construction sites if it's noisy or even in the office if your too far away for voice, it also used to mean "perfect" and now people are getting fired from their jobs for using it or even not realizing your hand is resting in that position. Just put ok hand gesture into a Google search and you can see what comes up, I can't say it here.

Now put that same search into a stock site and see how many models have done that ok hand gesture.

I've used it many times and didn't know until I saw a story on CNN about people being fired on the spot for using this gesture, then I did the Google search, workers fired, students suspended, we had a high school student in Hamilton Ontario kicked out of her co-placement for pre med school and suspended after she was seen with her hand in that position in a pic that made social media.

Some of the stuff is obvious, we should say anymore but some isn't obvious until you find out your being fired. SS is something I've been nervous to use but used it here only because others use it and also most of us don't use our real names here.