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Messages - Uncle Pete
3376
« on: February 14, 2020, 13:45 »
Two things 1) We are moving
YAY is focusing all our efforts on our popular subscription site, yayimages.com. Customers can get the same great images, innovative visual search, and a whole new way of working with online images called Streaming, all for the best prices on the web. Come join us at YAY Images! 2) Is This Site Down, fast, easy instead of asking on a forum. https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/YayimagesWebsite Name: yayimages.com URL Checked: 151.97 ms. Response Time: Yayimages.com is UP and reachable by us.
3378
« on: February 13, 2020, 13:55 »
February 20, 2009 -Shutterstock reaches 6 million photos, (5 million 2.5 years)
February 14, 2010 - Shutterstock reaches 10 million Photos (4 million new 12 months)
February 2017 - 110 Million
Feb. 24, 2018 - 180 Million
Feb. 14, 2019 - 250 Million images on Shutterstock
Feb 14, 2020 - 321 Million (71 Million in a year)
3379
« on: February 13, 2020, 13:52 »
Sales from Scientific names, not searches. That comes from people who use scientific names and have sales.
Yes, but only a very few people are reporting that. Clearly, if the buyers were always buying on scientific names, which isn't true, that would be even more evidence for Alamy not being a great place to sell wildlife.
Who wouldn't put in the scientific names except the clueless, who probably don't know what the species is? (Lots of species misidentifications and deliberate spam on Alamy, as with all the micros.)
If you look at the monthly reports, and the recent sales threads, there's a good photographer of mostly wildlife (she's branching out more recently). You one might think that she makes a lot of sales and a lot of dollars, but her port is nearly 21500k, so actually her Alamy sales/earnings, considering her port quality and size is shockingly low.
I was just opining that Martha probably hasn't lost much by not submitting to Alamy.
You answered your own question.  You mean an IS exclusive can't sell similar images on Alamy? Or that an IS exclusives doesn't make more per download than an indie does on IS, including having Getty and IS distribution? If you meant an indie on IS verses the same person with the same images on Alamy, that would be something for a person who does that to come and answer? I can't I don't do wildlife, or if I have any it's nothing like you or Martha have. My ground squirrel, birds in the yard or ants, isn't wild enough. 
3380
« on: February 13, 2020, 13:35 »
3381
« on: February 13, 2020, 12:47 »
Here is the article https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2020/02/13/shutterstock-founder-and-ceo-jon-oringer-to-step-down-in-april/#295a04167e8b
Time to enjoy life, he's an advisor now. Here's the part that scares me: "... streamline operations, expand the marketplaces margins, and make the core photo product more valuable to customers. " 1) Less staff, less support, no one checking for theft or other cheaters. 2) margins = less commissions paid? 3) more valuable to customers = lower prices. Feel free to disagree or correct me, but I don't see the new plan as something to make me optimistic about our future earnings.  More and more looks like a self portrait. 
3382
« on: February 13, 2020, 12:39 »
Makes me very glad I never bothered with Alamy. Sometimes just keeping one's operation small and simple is the best approach.
Use scientific names and make sure they are in the title and the keywords. Alamy buyers have been shown to search that way.
Some do, most don't. Easy enough to check in Measures.
From Feb 1st 2019 until today:
African Wild Dog: 28 searches + 2 for % African Wild Dog
Lycaon pictus: 7 searches.
American Bison: 9 searches + 2 for % American Bison; really? In just over a year?! I'm astonished!)
American Buffalo: 9
Bison bison: 2
Red Kangaroo: 21
Macropus rufus: 3
So obviously put scientific names in (who, who had a clue, wouldn't?), as you would anywhere, and I know Martha does; but don't hold your breath.
These are just three examples chosen at random from different continents but you can pick your own species and check for yourself.
I just noticed recently that whereas previously, Measures was a selected portion of Alamy buyers, it now represents "all searches from customers who have spent money on Alamy within a specified date range."
Whether an indie who placed wildlife pics on Alamy would gain enough sales they wouldn't otherwise have got to make the effort worthwhile, who knows? IMO, probably not.
Sales from Scientific names, not searches. That comes from people who use scientific names and have sales. I don't expect that wildlife is a best seller on Alamy, nor that someone with the same images, exclusive on IS and Getty would have better sales on Alamy. Interesting: "all searches from customers who have spent money on Alamy within a specified date range." Meanwhile "nothing will change"  Until it does...
3383
« on: February 13, 2020, 12:19 »
More, I'm still digging through the 11 pages.
gregp5 2020-02-12 15:14
Hey guys,
Hyperstock is not live. Its still in a test/beta phase. If you see some of your content there its because we hand-selected it, mostly out of the Membership Collection (a subscription). If you dont want it there, just shoot us an email at Support and well handle your request.
For anyone who needs to review our fully transparent announcement of the Hyperstock product, check this Town Hall video again (around the 16:00 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuULwC1m8Jk&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=artists_town_hall_oct_8
We explain all the protections weve put in place to ensure this product does not cannibalize regular Marketplace sales (our core business).
We were not the first to introduce an unlimited subscription business - and the rise of these services has attracted budget-conscious buyers and impacted our long-tail buyer base. Hyperstock will service that same buyer group with an even more attractive package, growing participating artists incremental subscriptions payment in the process. It is not meant for our core Marketplace buyers of TV and film production.
The protections weve built in against cannibalization are robust - from marketing to content selection to the licenses available, everything is crafted to ensure that in serving the low price buyers, we dont sacrifice the high price ones. Feel free to email us, or review the video, for the full details.
If you want your content removed from Hyperstock, let us know - but keep in mind that placement in the collection is limited.
Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuULwC1m8Jk&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=artists_town_hall_oct_8Someone else pointed this out, I'm just doing some time saving with a quote: From the town hall at 37:26 - "Never are we going to put your best selling content into a subscription product."
3384
« on: February 13, 2020, 12:05 »
I cant find the topic, was it deleted? Do you still have it cached?
"Your search returned no results." But the link shows some messages when I'm logged in. https://www.pond5.com/community?forum=76121&thread=117761099 Look in Artists Forum it's the #1 topic 11 pages. Just want to note that Hyperstock is not top secret, I got this a couple weeks ago. Hi Peter,
Good news from Wirestock!
We listened to your requests and have some news for you!
>From January 27th we are starting to collaborate with Hyperstock, a new subscription-based marketplace launched by Pond5.
That means you will be able to upload your awesome images to Hyperstock as well.
Please note that we will be submitting all your images that are on Pond5 to Hyperstock.
IMPORTANT: If for some reason you would not like your portfolio to be submitted to Hyperstock's platform or you're personally against the idea, please let us know via replying to this e-mail until this Sunday, January 26th.OK so that came from Wirestock, and I haven't seen anything since then. But Hyperstock is photos, video and music, a subscription site. No clue what the terms are or anything else. Yet
3385
« on: February 13, 2020, 11:47 »
I requested a payout on 7th Jan, until now still no news, submitted ticket on 24th Jan, also no reply at all, very disappointed with CanStockPhoto.
40 votes with a 1.4 rating. There's a message in that?
3386
« on: February 13, 2020, 11:45 »
Pretty certain they're using AI on first submission. How else can someone explain that images are reviewed often a few seconds after submission?
Rise of the machines!
Humans, aided by software that tells them analysis of the images or video. Still stupid human tricks behind the flawed rejections.
3387
« on: February 13, 2020, 11:36 »
Gotta love threads like this. One person says, SS is killing their business by accepting crap. Another says, they like AS because they don't reject their work as often. Seems like you can find whatever you want. RPD is higher on AS, earnings are higher on SS, except some people where, AS has passed SS. SS even today makes consistently 3-4X more than AS for me in an average month
If I take RPD over lifetime with both AS and SS, I see that both are around 0.70; the only difference being that AS is in GBP () and SS is in USD ($). With 4 years less at SS, I have a factor 3-4X as many dl's at SS compared to AS.
I have plenty of editorial on SS and none on AS, but still my numbers are similar to OM. Around the same RPD on both, and roughly 4x more sales on SS. No way mine is a fair comparison. Most of my sales on AS are files that SS doesn't take, and 50% of my sales on SS are Editorial files that AS doesn't accept. The simple point is, SS is still four times more money per month, for me, than SS. No video on either. I suspect that we all have different kinds of content and subjects, so comparing my sales to anyone else is pretty meaningless. If we all had the same type files, subjects and content, then there might be something? No sign of controlled sales for me, must only be for special people. I wish I had a quota or fixed level, instead of these ups and downs on SS.  Where's my fixed income!!! I want my monthly quota!
3388
« on: February 13, 2020, 11:07 »
Makes me very glad I never bothered with Alamy. Sometimes just keeping one's operation small and simple is the best approach.
Use scientific names and make sure they are in the title and the keywords. Alamy buyers have been shown to search that way. That's if you decide to upload something for the 40% they pay, which is much better than anything Microstock. And yes, there are far less sales on Alamy. Just for higher prices. Meanwhile, back to Alamy sold. We won't know for awhile, but anyone who cares should make a copy of the TOS now. I see these contract changes as, my choice is accept or leave, so reading and looking for every word that changed, is much easier. Agree or go away. PA Media Group has 26 shareholders, many of whom are national and regional newspaper groups. I see this as a buy into the market for people in the newspaper business, so they can make more money from some area of the business, because print media has been on the downturn for 50 years, and the Internet has been the dagger. Notice how many free news sites are now requiring a paid subscription? Free on the Internet is now becoming, pay and monetize on the Internet. Alamy is a separate division of PA Group. No promise that they always will have things that way, but look at the purchase like buying a division, that produces something related, but different from the parent company or some area they were already involved in. Not the same as Getty buying iStock. https://pamediagroup.com/our-brands/ The whole nothing will change is just an assurance, because no one knows what will change. No planned changes, means, we haven't decided yet, what WILL change. There will be changes, that doesn't mean all will be bad or that I expect most will be for our good. The whole claim that PA doesn't want to offend contributors is utter rubbish. They don't care about contributors any more than any other commodity broker does about their sources. The exception is top quality producers or specific hard to acquire products will be treated differently. If you are shooting Microstock and uploading that to Alamy, don't expect PA to be catering to you or offering any improved deals. If you are shooting news or Editorial, there might be some hope of values holding steady. Here's how to look into the possible future. Search for what you create, make, take, or whatever you wish to call it. Do a search. If there are already 40 to 100,000, or more, similar images, subjects and generally available "product" for the distributor, they aren't going to care if you are offended, or if you leave. (that's not any person here you or someone specific, like Martha or Sue, I mean anyone in general) Hamburger Stock Photos and Images (165,356) Cheeseburger Stock Photos and Images (48,118) Ruben Sandwich Stock Photos and Images (46) You might want to shoot a Ruben, not a hamburger? Sure there's more demand for hamburgers and cheeseburgers (maybe on Microstock and not Alamy?) but when someone is competing with 165K or 40K other, fantastic, great, amazing, best cheeseburger ever, there's not going to be much of a repeat business. Alamy is not Microstock!
3389
« on: February 12, 2020, 10:56 »
This is a feature that I've been getting requests for since day one.
I'm very pleased to inform you that you can now search for specific assets using the content ID number within the dashboard section of the Adobe Stock Contributor Portal. The "Search By Content ID" box is in the upper right corner of the main dashboard page.
Cheers!
Mat Hayward
Now if they would let us search for content by keyword? 
Any sign of that for the future?
No sign I'm seeing of that happening at the moment.
-Mat
Oh well, had to ask. Thanks
3390
« on: February 12, 2020, 10:53 »
 Does this acquisition change anything for me? In terms of commission rates/contracts/processes, etc? No, it doesnt. Alamy continues to operate as usual.Alamy prides itself on offering a better commission rate than most other agencies. Will PA Media Group continue to offer the same commission rates to Alamys existing contributors? There are no plans to change that.How do PA Images commission rates compare with Alamys? The two businesses operate different models for instance, PA Images relationships are mainly with agencies while Alamy works with a wider community of individual photographers. As such, there is no like-for-like comparison between the two business payment structures.Are there plans to reach parity? If so, in what direction? There is no like-for-like comparison between Alamys and PA Images payment structures. The two businesses continue to operate separately.Are Alamys contributor images going into the PA Images archive? Alamys and PA Images archives will sit alongside each other. There are no plans to add Alamys portfolio to the PA Archive. Will Alamys contributor images be distributed via the PA newswire? There are no plans to distribute Alamys contributor imagery via the PA newswire. Will Alamy content be sold by PA Images? At present, Alamy contributor sales continue to be managed within the Alamy platform and via Alamys distributors. However, ways of working will be reviewed over the coming months and we will consider what elements to integrate and which to keep separate.Will there be any change to the way rights are managed? No, there will not. The PA Media Group has long history of building successful relationships with photographers and photography agencies and ensuring that rights are managed.For the full FAQ on the above announcement, please visit the following page: https://pamediagroup.com/faqs-pa-media-group-acquires-alamy/
Best,
Alamy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWeLd1clK5s&feature=youtu.beJames West on YouTube Personal Opinion: There are no plans to change that. In no way does that mean, there will not be changes to commissions, sales outlets. what's sold where! Just that the plans haven't been solidified or announced yet. Expect Change, wait and see, but as most of us have experienced over the years, this will more likely mean less into our pockets and more into PA medias accounts. Alamy was a charity, they paid themselves and money to the charity. PA Media is for profit. Here's something that could change? Buyers pay in advance! No more waiting, self reporting or chasing slow to pay accounts. And I wouldn't mind more distribution of News and Editorial images to more media outlets. I can hope for some small positive changes, can't I? Wait and see  https://www.alamy.com/blog/pa-media-group-acquires-alamy
3391
« on: February 12, 2020, 10:18 »
This is a feature that I've been getting requests for since day one.
I'm very pleased to inform you that you can now search for specific assets using the content ID number within the dashboard section of the Adobe Stock Contributor Portal. The "Search By Content ID" box is in the upper right corner of the main dashboard page.
Cheers!
Mat Hayward
Now if they would let us search for content by keyword? Any sign of that for the future?
3392
« on: February 11, 2020, 09:55 »
"I see there being a continued adjustment away from massive numbers of uploads to more specific needs, better quality and more authenticity."
3393
« on: February 11, 2020, 09:42 »
I got one from Fotolia LLC in the mail (I'm in California, USA)
When did you get receive it? I'm also in California.
I'm not positive, I've just been throwing them in the tax envelope, but I think it was in the last week or so.
Yes last week, I was surprised to see it came from Fotolia. By law the 1099s, W-2 and that, have to be mailed by January 31st, unless made available online.
3395
« on: February 09, 2020, 14:40 »
Nice and just to your West is #6 Arizona with some more beautiful scenery and open space. But 5 million more retired people? You have a nice location.]
Relatively few people seem to know New Mexico even exists, which is just fine with us. It's just this big blank square on the map between Texas and Arizona. For me a heavenly place to live, play, and photograph nature!
Because other than Alaska and Hawaii, mainland... the lower 48, whatever we are. Only states to enter in the 1900s 46 Oklahoma November 16, 1907 47 New Mexico January 6, 1912 48 Arizona February 14, 1912 New kids.
3396
« on: February 09, 2020, 14:34 »
I have sent a first batch of photos at Wirestock.
At the ones already sent to the agencies, I see some mistakes, although I had at the photo title the format: city/monument title.
At the details tab, I do not see any option to submit any note, I only see a notes tab prior to submission.
Does anyone know how do I tell them the correct name?
Finally, out of the ones submitted, will I see after some days which photos were accepted at which agency?
I may have missed it, but all I see are what's submitted from Wirestock and to which agencies. As noted here and also when I wrote support, they are making changes where we can add specific information. I have to wait and see how that works. If that means I have to supply everything and not just details, that can inform the person doing the keywording, and I have to do everything, "non-easy submission" then why would I use WS? ...some of the improvements that we are working on right now:
-Keyword optimization for easy submission
-Curation and Easy Submission speed
-Ability to read metadata for non-easy-submission uploads
-Addition of new marketplaces
-Referral Program
We are planning to release a major update of Wirestock in the next couple of months which will be much faster and easier to use. Please stay tuned for new updates and improvements.
We'll have to wait and see? On large marketplaces like Getty, shuttestock etc partners that upload large volume or special content can negotiate their own royalties and also ranking.
That would be an advantage possibly. But WS has dropped iStock. 
3397
« on: February 09, 2020, 14:13 »
If you have the same portfolio on both sites it might not be too significant if one is going down and the other is going up.
Impossible to have the same portfolio on both for many of us. Especially when there's Editorial on SS and not on AS. But then there are illustrations accepted on AS (for me) that aren't allowed on SS. Quite the apples vs oranges situation. Also personally 4700 vs 600. Images rejected by AS are on SS, images rejected by SS are accepted on AS?  With that, I just want to add what should be "as a personal note" RPD on SS has been falling, RPD on AS has always been higher. I only joined AS after they bought FT. I'm happy with both, considering the other choices and their terrible returns.
3398
« on: February 08, 2020, 08:25 »
I was uploading some images from New Mexico (apparently a very popular place).
New Mexico is the 5th largest US state with a population of just 2,000,000 people, which means lots of breathtaking unspoiled scenery, abundant wildlife, a unique mixture of three cultures, and great historic places like Santa Fe (where I live), the oldest and highest-elevation state capital in the USA. Not to mention some of the best food on the planet. 
I'm not from here, but after spending 33 years in Chicago, my husband and I retired to New Mexico in 2002 and have never regretted it.
Photographers, come see us sometime!
Nice and just to your West is #6 Arizona with some more beautiful scenery and open space. But 5 million more retired people? You have a nice location. I think Alamy reads keywords like that too. You can add phrases, but all the words are seen as singles as well?
3399
« on: February 07, 2020, 12:15 »
Works for me again too. Thanks Mat! Stephan
I will happily accept all credit for fixing this.
-Mat
3400
« on: February 07, 2020, 12:10 »
So no more opting out of "sensitive use" and "extended licenses"? The extended license profit was not worth it for me after they changed it a few years ago.
Not sure if the TOS doesn't have that, specifically, but the site still does?  Until that options disappears, when the new TOS become effective? Or could have been oversight? I wouldn't jump to any conclusions, either way.
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