Author Topic: POND5 Free Collection? (Read 4598 times)

wds · « **on:** April 21, 2021, 08:22 »

I just got an email from POND5 about their new "free collection"....what's that about?

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2021, 08:39 »

https://www.pond5.com/free

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #2 on:** April 21, 2021, 12:05 »

I received the email this morning too, but I have no idea how they selected these items. I was just looking through some of the free photos to see what sort of work (all looks good - i.e. it's not rejects from the regular collection).

You'd think that the agency would notify contributors about a change like this, but unless I somehow missed an email, this was the first I heard about it.

Free content, money for the platforms/distributors and if there's anything left, throw a crumb or two to the people who made all the stuff!

The only good news for me is that Pond 5 is so terrible at selling photos it won't make any difference. It might look very different for music or video contributors though

marthamarks · « **Reply #3 on:** April 21, 2021, 16:39 »

I found this in the FAQs:

Did the artist give Pond5 permission to distribute this content for free?

We only offer free clips from artists that have agreed to be a part of the Pond5 Free Collection and have verified each clip is genuine. If you find free content that you really like, you can view more work from the same artist by clicking on their name within the product page.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #4 on:** April 21, 2021, 16:48 »

Yes, I saw that after I posted here. It is nice that it's "voluntary" but it would be good to tell other contributors exactly what the deal was. Transparency & all that

Any sort of communication with contributors to try and explain what they're doing and why.

It's also an unwelcome reminder that Pond5 doesn't really think about any kind of still images - even though they're happy to give them away - when they refer to the items in the program as "free clips"

kall3bu · « **Reply #5 on:** April 22, 2021, 10:58 »

Each time when you upload a photo, footage or whatever, you can click a button, which means, you allow them to use this file for promotions and so on. I think even the weekly free photo, footage are from contributors, who give some special photos or footage for this promotion.
I checked sometimes the free photos or footage. The good thing: Under that free file Pond5 FIRST shows files from the same contributor. Often I saw they offer one free footage from a serie and mostly I found the other ones (for sale) better even the free one was also good. So it is a win win situation: The contributor MIGHT get a sale instead of the just giving away a file for free.
But most important: The contributor decide it - not pond5.
Like the weekly free file changes weekly, I guess the free files are only free for one week or so and get changed next week with others: So the free files will get on normal sale again. But maybe another time they get used for free again.

kall3bu · « **Reply #6 on:** April 22, 2021, 11:04 »

And there is another one called ´this file is included abonnement (subscription)´. These files contributor opt in for selected files, too. So, Pond5 is not giving away anything, which is not signed as that from the contributor.