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Author Topic: Pond5 launches The Public Domain Project  (Read 55596 times)

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« on: January 20, 2015, 12:48 »
-18
Hey Everyone,

Here at Pond5 we've been hard at work for a big release today: The Public Domain Project

http://www.pond5.com/free

Our little "Marketplace for Creativity" now hosts the first ever public domain media archive collected & tailored for content creators...copyright-free for perpetual use. At 80,000 items of historic footage, audio, images and 3d models (so far), we think youll find something useful.

Whys it free? The answer is easy: it already belongs to you.

Public Domain content is already free through public archives and government agencies, but were the first to organize it for media makers at this magnitude so that its easily accessible and useable.

From the very start, its always been our mission to provide the tools and resources to empower creativity and we hope you enjoy the access to the this trove of historic content.

Please let me know if you have any questions, thanks!


objowl

« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2015, 12:53 »
+24
More exciting news, I can't take any more! :-[

« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2015, 12:55 »
+13
More exciting news, I can't take any more! :-[

Another exciting news....
Warning - Media available in the public domain in the U.S. isnt necessarily categorized as public in other countries!

P5 PD disclaimer starts: "To the best of our knowledge, this Content is in the public domain..."


 :o
« Last Edit: January 25, 2015, 16:16 by KnowYourOnions »

« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2015, 12:56 »
+27
All this does is add to the conditioning of people to demand free images. It is nothing more than a move that will further cheapen the imagery market and take microstock into a new low.

« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2015, 13:12 »
+1
All this does is add to the conditioning of people to demand free images. It is nothing more than a move that will further cheapen the imagery market and take microstock into a new low.

so true... but why would P5 care about that  ::)

more signups for P5 = more numbers to show off to the VCs = more funding to get and join top tier millionaire club  8)

Would folks who downloaded these free clips actually buy something afterwards?... that's the Q :-)

 
p.s. meanwhile ... "This helps tell our story," CEO said. "We know there's been a lot of activity in the sector, but we think this project will help let people know that we're the good guys." *Crain's NY Business

 :o  :o  :o  :o  :o
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 15:16 by SSContributor »

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2015, 13:17 »
+12
It's truly mind-boggling that after the negative reactions to recent "exciting news," agencies still aren't thinking before they post here. Know your audience!!!

« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2015, 14:34 »
+4
so can we take this material and then upload them back to p5 to sell? (perhaps with some subtle change?)

« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2015, 14:51 »
+4
It's like a fruit vendor offering free fruits... not a very smart move.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 15:24 by Nikovsk »

Tror

« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2015, 15:15 »
+12
....this is what should have been announced:


Pond5 launches ....
Automatic Video size conversion - no more need to convert and encode manually and then send support mails for joining all those files just to be able to offer Footage to a broader audience of buyers!
Minimum price of 20 $ for HD in order to protect the market and profits for Artists as well as Pond5
Site redesign! We realized that every now and then a fresh look may attract more buyers and we invested as well in the structure of the navigation to facilitate clients and contributors experience.....
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 15:18 by Tror »

« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2015, 15:39 »
0
 - 4K video auto down conversion is coming. :)
 - The current minimum price for HD video is $10. Recently, we raised the minimum price for music from $5 to $15. We'll be paying attention to how this affects our market, and if it makes sense to apply the same type of change to other formats, like video, we'll certainly consider it. It's in Pond5's interests to help everyone sell more.
 - We're always working on new designs for the site. We launched V2 just two or so years ago, and there will eventually be a V3 (and hopefully a V4, and a V5...) We're always happy to hear your feedback on the site's design so we can take that into account.

I understand how some sellers could be worried that the Public Domain project might cannibalize their sales. That's a valid concern, and a natural reaction. But please, rest assured, Pond5 has poured a lot of time and resources into this project, and we did that because we are very confident that the end result will be more sales for everyone.

This project holds the essence of many of Pond5's ideals. We've always believed that public domain content is great by virtue of not having any copyright restrictions. We believe in the idea that public domain content should be free and accessible for the world, but that hasn't been the way it's worked up until now. Previously, if you wanted to get some PD content, you would have to go to the Library of Congress or another archive and search through hall after hall of old reels that were organized with an archaic system that only people who were trained in could possibly use to find anything at all. Or alternatively, you would have to pay someone else to do that research for you, sometimes for hundreds of dollars an hour. We want to change that with this project!

We did previously accept some of this kind of content from some artists at Pond5, though we no longer do. In order to submit public domain content to Pond5 today, you need to make sufficient edits/changes to the content such that you've added value and created a new piece. We've had this policy in place for many months now.

We've always believed that all public domain content should be free and easily accessible for everyone, but we've never had the resources to make our vision a reality until now. This is why we used to accept this kind of content, because accepting it was the best way to make it available to media makers. But Pond5 has grown up a lot in the last few years, and we're big enough now to make this dream a reality.

We are very confident that this is going to be a massive boon for everyone at Pond5, including all of our artists. This is the first time in history that such a large collection of public domain content has been made easily available for free to the whole world, in seven different languages! It's going to draw lots and lots of traffic to the site. More traffic means more buyers, and more buyers means more sales.

« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2015, 15:48 »
+8
And yet, after years and years, you're unable to stop the system from changing all my titles and keywords to lower case.

« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2015, 15:53 »
+1
And yet, after years and years, you're unable to stop the system from changing all my titles and keywords to lower case.

Hi Sean, if you like you can shoot me a direct email and I'll be happy to help troubleshoot any problems you're having. You can always reach me at: [email protected]

« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2015, 15:57 »
+3
 - 4K video auto down conversion is coming. :)
 What about 1080p down conversion? Still the market for 4k is probably 5% of 1080p and 720p why not thinking about now like all the other agencies do? They all down convert our clips why doesn't Pond5? Could you please Johnatan tell me one reason please


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2015, 16:04 »
-2
And yet, after years and years, you're unable to stop the system from changing all my titles and keywords to lower case.

These guys had been around over 8 years... with this kind of speed solving basics, we all might be dead when they finally achieve their goals.  :P



« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2015, 16:11 »
+4
- 4K video auto down conversion is coming. :)
 - The current minimum price for HD video is $10. Recently, we raised the minimum price for music from $5 to $15. We'll be paying attention to how this affects our market, and if it makes sense to apply the same type of change to other formats, like video, we'll certainly consider it. It's in Pond5's interests to help everyone sell more.
 - We're always working on new designs for the site. We launched V2 just two or so years ago, and there will eventually be a V3 (and hopefully a V4, and a V5...) We're always happy to hear your feedback on the site's design so we can take that into account.

I understand how some sellers could be worried that the Public Domain project might cannibalize their sales. That's a valid concern, and a natural reaction. But please, rest assured, Pond5 has poured a lot of time and resources into this project, and we did that because we are very confident that the end result will be more sales for everyone.

This project holds the essence of many of Pond5's ideals. We've always believed that public domain content is great by virtue of not having any copyright restrictions. We believe in the idea that public domain content should be free and accessible for the world, but that hasn't been the way it's worked up until now. Previously, if you wanted to get some PD content, you would have to go to the Library of Congress or another archive and search through hall after hall of old reels that were organized with an archaic system that only people who were trained in could possibly use to find anything at all. Or alternatively, you would have to pay someone else to do that research for you, sometimes for hundreds of dollars an hour. We want to change that with this project!

We did previously accept some of this kind of content from some artists at Pond5, though we no longer do. In order to submit public domain content to Pond5 today, you need to make sufficient edits/changes to the content such that you've added value and created a new piece. We've had this policy in place for many months now.

We've always believed that all public domain content should be free and easily accessible for everyone, but we've never had the resources to make our vision a reality until now. This is why we used to accept this kind of content, because accepting it was the best way to make it available to media makers. But Pond5 has grown up a lot in the last few years, and we're big enough now to make this dream a reality.

We are very confident that this is going to be a massive boon for everyone at Pond5, including all of our artists. This is the first time in history that such a large collection of public domain content has been made easily available for free to the whole world, in seven different languages! It's going to draw lots and lots of traffic to the site. More traffic means more buyers, and more buyers means more sales.

First bold. Make it $30 minimum please.

Second bold. You are missing the point. You are conditioning content users to expect free....free....free... And so on.  The larger that collection gets the more that expectation grows. Yea there might be some cannibalization, but i am far more concerned about your strategy to breed demand for more free content. This is the direction most agencies are going with their commission slashing and now the one agency left i liked the most has put in its second nail in the growth coffin. The first nail is $10 hd clips.

« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2015, 16:12 »
+7
- 4K video auto down conversion is coming. :)
 What about 1080p down conversion? Still the market for 4k is probably 5% of 1080p and 720p why not thinking about now like all the other agencies do? They all down convert our clips why doesn't Pond5? Could you please Johnatan tell me one reason please


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

For real, right? All of our competition has been doing auto down conversion for a long time, but Pond5 never did. I work in customer service, just to be clear. So I don't make any of the big business decisions, like what items are priority when. But I can tell you this is something the team has been working on for some time now. I wish I had a better explanation as to why we don't have it yet, but I feel confident that we'll have it very soon.

« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2015, 16:23 »
+2

First bold. Make it $30 minimum please.

Second bold. You are missing the point. You are conditioning content users to expect free.bthe larger that collection gets the more that expectation grows. Yea there might be some cannibalization, but i am far kore concerned about your strategy to breed demand for more free content. This is the direction most agencies are going and now the one left i liked the most has put in its second nail in the growth coffin. The first nail is $10 hd clips.


$30 is the price point I hear suggested for that a lot, I'll be sure to pass that along.

Pond5 has actually been offering free content for many years now, that's not new. We've always had the promo page (http://www.pond5.com/promo) with rotating free items. There's the free item of the week too. And there are other promotions with free content for film festivals or for things like our Adobe plugin as well. But having free content doesn't invalidate the piles of fantastic paid content our artists offer.

I'm not a business annalist, and I won't pretend to be. I'm saying that we're confident that the public domain project will bring in buyers and sales for everyone because experts with more years of experience than I am old have looked at the numbers and stats, and their experience and analysis tells them that this is a great move for everyone. I absolutely believe that.

Pond5 only makes money when our artists make money. Why would we do something to damage our own pocketbook?

« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2015, 16:32 »
-4
I'm not a business annalist, and I won't pretend to be. I'm saying that we're confident that the public domain project will bring in buyers and sales for everyone because experts with more years of experience than I am old have looked at the numbers and stats, and their experience and analysis tells them that this is a great move for everyone. I absolutely believe that.



clip to watch on bs metrics - http://vooza.com/videos/crap-metrics/ 
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 16:42 by SSContributor »

« Reply #18 on: January 20, 2015, 16:36 »
0
Nevermind, deleted  ::)
« Last Edit: January 21, 2015, 04:03 by Ariene »

« Reply #19 on: January 20, 2015, 16:44 »
+2
How about the "our contributor console doesn't strip out capital letters" project? How's that coming along?

« Reply #20 on: January 20, 2015, 17:04 »
0
How about the "our contributor console doesn't strip out capital letters" project? How's that coming along?

You're the second person to mention that. Maybe I'm out of the loop. Could you elaborate on that for me? You can do that here if you like, or you can email me directly too: [email protected]

For as long as I can remember, all of our keywords have always been all lowercase. I'm not sure what impact the case of the letters could have on anything though...? If it's a big concern, I'll be happy to bring it up with the team, or at the least I could find out why we do it that way.

« Reply #21 on: January 20, 2015, 17:06 »
+3
How about the "our contributor console doesn't strip out capital letters" project? How's that coming along?

You're the second person to mention that. Maybe I'm out of the loop. Could you elaborate on that for me? You can do that here if you like, or you can email me directly too: [email protected]

For as long as I can remember, all of our keywords have always been all lowercase. I'm not sure what impact the case of the letters could have on anything though...? If it's a big concern, I'll be happy to bring it up with the team, or at the least I could find out why we do it that way.

It's not about keywords. Pond5 converts the descriptions and titles to all lower case, which is a pain to fix.

« Reply #22 on: January 20, 2015, 17:21 »
+5

It's not about keywords. Pond5 converts the descriptions and titles to all lower case, which is a pain to fix.

Ah, I see. Okay, yeah, I'm on board, I can see how that would be incredibly frustrating. I want to talk about this more with you as I have a few more questions about the details, but I don't think this thread is the best place to do that troubleshooting. Could you please shoot me a direct email?  I'll work on this for you guys. :)

[email protected]

« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2015, 17:48 »
+4
Actually I think to offer public domain clips in addition to all the regular content is useful for buyers, you become the one stop shop for everything.

It might also help balance a raise for HD video ;)

But the best news is that downsizing for 4k is coming. The sooner the better.

« Reply #24 on: January 20, 2015, 18:08 »
+4
Unbelievable the amount of disasters announced in the past week, and the amount of horse carp corporate double speak thrown out to justify it.  Just fracking amazing. 

Please stop piddling on me and telling me its raining.


 

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