Well, they are eliminating IS audio as a whole. In the next couple of weeks all customers will be redirected to GI website for purchasing. This is the first step to something... now, what that "something" is I don't know.

We want to make our Audio product great by creating a better customer experience and meeting the expanding and evolving opportunities in the music licensing industry. iStock Audio is moving to Getty Images Music.


This is a header from a newsletter just received...

This can be a good move. But time will tell. Anyone selling on GI sound express? I have some files there but nothing significant in sales.

As far as I recall, they tend to change the price to VB price.

Quote from: stockVid on May 25, 2016, 23:00

Quote from: mirkic on May 25, 2016, 22:53
I had completely different experience with Dissolve, CL especially. George also. I've had some more than easy tasks and questions for them and after a little back and forth emails they done more for me than many other agencies even comprehend of doing for anyone. I've had very friendly and warm experience with them and believe me, I've been writing emails to them almost every week in the past year. And every email was responded to with detailed answer and a helping hand. I'm not some super-high selling-mega-giga stock star with awesome portfolio, on the opposite I have around 3000 clips in my port and yet they've treated me very, very nicely.

Now, I cannot speak in other's name but the other side of the story should be out here also. I've had only positive experience with Dissolve, Char and George.

Sorry for your misfortune and bad luck. At the moment I'm having similar thing with SS and Easy Release. They reject one batch for it and they approve another... I'm loosing my mind.

Anyways, maybe you should talk to them again and explain what is happening... don't know what else to say.

Do you have the same clips on Videoblocks?

I used to have. Then I had to be IS exclusive for a while and now I'm non exc again and my files will be everywhere including VB.

And regarding OP's newest situation evolvement - that's the the reality we live in unfortunately. Remember what happened to Sean and Is?  I saw your port and there are some titles that are more "keyword" oriented than the other titles you are giving and maybe that's the trigger for this kind of action by Dissolve? Afraid that Google will penalize them in search if they have 20k of something new on their site with that kind of headlines? But I would accept them in a heartbeat, as the other agencies did.

To bad that that this happened to you.

I had completely different experience with Dissolve, CL especially. George also. I've had some more than easy tasks and questions for them and after a little back and forth emails they done more for me than many other agencies even comprehend of doing for anyone. I've had very friendly and warm experience with them and believe me, I've been writing emails to them almost every week in the past year. And every email was responded to with detailed answer and a helping hand. I'm not some super-high selling-mega-giga stock star with awesome portfolio, on the opposite I have around 3000 clips in my port and yet they've treated me very, very nicely.

Now, I cannot speak in other's name but the other side of the story should be out here also. I've had only positive experience with Dissolve, Char and George.

Sorry for your misfortune and bad luck. At the moment I'm having similar thing with SS and Easy Release. They reject one batch for it and they approve another... I'm loosing my mind.

Anyways, maybe you should talk to them again and explain what is happening... don't know what else to say.

I think they will be in the pending state untill audio goes live.

I laughed at"10.000" mark that morning cause I submitted 9600 the night before )))

But be sure to tick only footage, active and others so it will list for you rejected, pending and online files. And also be sure to select all clips. It won't work on one clip only. And when you are pasting into excel or libre office use "import wizard" or something like that, I forgot how it's called. And then play with the columns and settings. It should be delimited with comma and text should be with " ". And next thing you wanna do is submit to pond5. When you do that, pond5 give you the ability to download your list of files in CSV with original filename and new one (the one you gave it). I had this problem where 99% of my clips had some moronic names like Nat01 (clip of windy trees etc). So I had to go and rename all of the files )) Also, there is a freeware program called Advanced Renamer or something like that... You can rename whole list of files in batches, you can give numbers, you can do a lot of things in that one. It helped me a lot with my audio port. The only downer for DM and IS is that it wont give you "original filename". So if you are organised as I was, you are in a week of bloody renaming and sorting things out

Anyways, make your master csv file and keep it updated. Afterwards, with a little or no tweaking at all, you can use it for Shutterstock, Canstock, Videoblocks, Motionelements, Dissolve, Depositphotos etc... Spreadsheets rules )

Quote from: Cider Apple on May 04, 2016, 22:32
I've just dropped exclusivity on istock after many years being exclusive and I must say uploading 1000's of clips to multiple sites is not an easy task. Also re-keywording and adding descriptions for all the files and saving them as a .csv file is the most boring thing I've ever done (and as summer jobs I've packed cheese in boxes coming off a conveyor belt's in 12 hour shifts).

I went non-exclusive as sales on istock were getting worse each month. My Getty sales were and have always been great but my istock sales have just been rubbish (to what I would expect).

I know signs are early but the selling power shutterstock has is just mind blowing. Royalties are a little lower but wow they sure sell in abundance!

To sum it up - I'm really going to miss Getty but the sites like Shutterstock and Pond5 - adobe(Fotolia) too although a little slower, have made a huge impact on my wellbeing as getting multiple daily downloads sure makes me feel better than a tiny triple from istock.

Copy your whole list of footage files from deep meta and paste it into excel. You get names of your files, keywords, description and categories. After that it's easy ))

Again, I wrote another email to them. I still cannot accept that this is their new policy. It just doesn't make any sense to me. But a friend wrote me on PM that they were burned in the past (last year I think) and had to delete 100k sfx files that were fraudulent and that I should push this a bit further cause I already submitted my work there and then delete it when I went back to IS and now again I'm indie... and prove my identity even that I've already did that. I don't know how far should I go without acting like a psychopath or a stalker I mean, I'm not that desperate but I also don't like the idea of being "rejected" over some birocatic or misunderstanding matter.

Anyways, I wrote another email and I'll wait and see, again.

@sharpshot
I cannot say how much is low quality that wont sell but I can say that there is a room to grow and that if they were keen to implement some sort of "check up" for SFX artists they should have written it somewhere and colored it red and bold the letters - AUTOMATIC REJECTIONS OF SOUND WORKS WILL OCCUR IF THIS AND THAT IS NOT UP TO DATE AND IF THIS AND THIS IS DID NOT MET OUR DEMANDS REGARDING PROVE OF COPYRIGHT ETC... Then you are prepared for submission process and if not, you would get prepared and you would submit all the documents that are needed beyond the usual SFX ID checkup.

Then again, maybe they really don't need my files

Ok, Pond5 definitely don't accept any new sound effects, sound recordings and other audio related NON MUSIC stock materials. Here is the last idiotic letter from Pond5

---------------------------
Pond5
Hi Mirko,

Thank you very much for contacting us with your inquiry. I have forwarded your inquiry to our Audio lead, and this is their feedback:

While we understand your frustration, after speaking with the team - including our Senior Audio Manager - we've reviewed and stand by our decision. At this time we have over 550,000 items in the SFX collection.

We're always upgrading quality, filling gaps, and entering new markets. There are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment our existing collection. Among other things, we're working on a new artists' newsletter where we'll be communicating needs on a regular basis. Please don't be discouraged and good luck.

If you need anything else from us let us know. Thanks for your patience. This was a tough one.

----------------------------

So, they are not opened to any new SFX submissions but they say that " are many opportunities to provide content that will compliment their existing collection. Among other things, we're working on a new artists' newsletter where we'll be communicating needs on a regular basis"... I'm definitely going to Envato with my sounds. And they are "working on a new artist newsletter" Working? You need a team of 20 people and six months timeframe to work on a newsletter to communicate needs? As far as I'm concerned Pond5's only need is a slap in the face. I know it sounds like Im insulted and hurt (and I am to a point) but this is 90% money related! I gave up my exclusivity (again) with Pond5 in mind as a second/first earning agency for my audio library. If they WROTE ANYWHERE on their submission page, first page, newsletter etc, that they are not accepting NEW SOUND FILES OTHER THAN SONGS AND MUSIC my decision regarding non-exclusivity would be different. Like this I'm stranded (I think that the word) to a degree.

You can submit files but 99% would be rejected. Now, I'm not talking about one kind of audio files, I'm talking about everything - War, fighting, breaking, racing, woods, nature, birds, ocean, beach, walking, running, shooting a gun, cannon, automatic rifle, jumping into water, underwater diving, snorkeling, whales, snakes, bears, lions, hyenas, chickens, pigs, cows, turtledoves, cats, dogs, tennis, football, basketball, crowds, applauses, indoors, ambiance, traffic, car crashes, car skids, indoors car sounds, cheering, objects.........

This is just from the top of my mind and maybe some 5% of files that I have and that they rejected in the first 2400 batch of files. It's not like "oh, if I send variety maybe something will pass". It wont pass.

I'm taking my business elsewhere. Again, I just saw what videohive did to uploading process. It's gonna be a flood but let it. Setting your own prices, auto watermarking, preview files... they will probably do the same with audio. Anyways, there are 5 agencies to submit to other than Pond. Going to work.

Cheers people!

@hafakot
I've talk to them several times already and after a few "nasty and not so polite" emails and a few cooled down versions with apologies and stuff their head audio curator is reviewing the "case". They will notify me by email about their decision. I didn't want to sound like an a@#$ole but when they act like ones several times I just lost my temper and good manners. After that I was feeling a bit off but that's just the way it is. I just hope to make this work.

@Sharpshot
I had a professional looking website (www.videoaudiostock.com) where I used to sell my own stuff but never got the time to fully load it with all my stuff. Also, I took it down when I went back to Istock excl. I have a Linkedin page but it's not so "audio oriented". It's more of a graphic design/photo/video oriented cause I used it before I quit my job as layout editor and Ringier Axel Springer. And I mostly used it for those type of connections. I've sent my istock audio port, facebook page, linkedin page and I was told it's a "go" for sfx. But apparently not

One thing crossed my mind, every single file of mine have in it's metadata www.videoaudiostock.com and me as copyright holder... Maybe that's the problem? Nevermind, I'll wait and see.

I've sent another email. Third. Tomorrow is a phone call day. And I would really love to see someone from Pond5 in this topic trying to explain this idiotic situation... lol... I'm going to submit more files, just for fun (not to mention my income directly evolves - evolved, around Pond5, after breaking up with Istock...)... furious. This is... I'm going back to photography. Audio and video is too much hassle

So, to spread this a bit further, I've deleted all of the files and started uploading again, high quality recordings and sfx's and submitted the first batch of 49 files... guess what? 49 files rejected. Curator 22 Miklos...

Now, this is getting a bit personal. Have to go and write some more emails. What is happening over there?

I'm still the champion with 2400 files rejected all at once ) At least I'm 100% successful in something )

It's business after all. They have their rules and you put up or shut up. That's too bad but that's just the way it is. I understand (to some point) what are they trying to do but I think it's kinda late after 5 million footage files in library with over 2 million mediocre and 1 million garbage files to talk about quality standards etc.

I just know that I need the money so I'll have to change the way I'm doing stuff. At least for P5. And instead of having my whole port in several days online earning me money, I'll have most of my audio port in six months ))

Well, I was counting on P5 sales of my audio port cause they were good and on par with IS last year. Now, I think I'm gonna turn to AJ and envato for high dl number-low royalties momentum. And a pain in the ass uploading process. But as much as I don't like the way they are organised, I talked to a lot of folks doing audio there (and footage but mostly graphic etc) that number of sales are the thing keeping their heads above water. Something like when microstock started and macro folks were desperate about micro killing the business and stuff. I see it that way. Remember the "my photo will sell 1000 times per year for 0.50c and yours will sell once per year for higher amount of money" explanations? Well, it's kinda like that. I don't know, will try envato. I had 10 files there last year and every one of those files sold min once But I was happy with P5 sales so I didn't went the whole "watermark your files and zipped them up" way. But now I think that's a must. Anyways, don't know what P5 is thinking. They have a ton of "garbage" files, footage and audio. What's up with this new "high quality" thing? I only know that I'm far from "low quality" and to be rejected like this... hilarious But I'm gonna try again with different aproach and see what happens.

Well, after a few email back and forth I manage to get 2400 audio files rejected )) Ok first thing is first, I mainly do whooshes, swooshes, short one to five second files that are mostly used in a larger montages or productions etc... I also have over 4000 top notch quality sound recordings and other miscellaneous sound effects that over the course of last seven years netted me over 100k and that's only audio, without footage or photo.

Now, I read msg daily and I was informed about "tightening" the review process at P5 so I wrote an email to support asking them what's up with inspectors rejecting large batches of files after viewing just several of the files submitted and I got my answer that seemed more or less ok with me...

P5 Contributor relations answer (really a good person so no names)
It's not true that Curators would reject a batch of 200 video clips after seeing couple at the beginning. But if 90% of clips uploaded are way under the quality line, Curators may not spend hours finding the borderline 10% as they used to before, and reject the whole batch. I makes sense to seek only for a god quality media. As much as we want to encourage for example new artists, we seek for a good quality first.
--------------------

Next, I needed to be verified as a SFX contributor, ID or Passport, professional looking website or linkedin page with connections etc. I was already a contributor at P5 and sold a ton of files but, ok, I got myself verified. Then, I uploaded over 9000 files of my audio port. I've send in the first batch, mainly songs and that was 50-50% acceptance rate. I was not happy about that but I assumed that this is the "new pond reviewing system" and I resumed sending my files to curators. Also, I was told by the P5 staff that "There is no difference in a search results if you would upload them at once or slowly" so I clicked three pages of 2400 files, my first batch and waited for several days just to find out today that all of the files are rejected )))) Smiley is not really a smiley face but a shock/surprised/smiley face. Then I wrote several emails to the "nice person from support" and to "regular support" regarding Curator 22 Miklos.

The point is that in that first batch of 2400 files were around 1500 high quality transitional whooshes and the rest were top notch sound recordings, sound effects and ambients that were selling like crazy at Pond5 last year!!! Than I also wrote that I turned to whooshes and transitional sounds and that majority of my files are 1 to 5 second files and that if there is a new policy about acceptance of "short whooshes" files, that should be available for us to read. A warning, something...

I passed many rejections at IS, SS, and all of the rest agencies that are out there since 2005 and I'm not bitching or whining about the rejection process but about the "not even looking at the whole batch" thingy. I was right in the first place, they don't even bother to look at the titles of the files (it's different in audio, no visuals, you have to listen to every file or at least read the tittle to know what it's about). And it's not my problem that someone cannot hear the difference between two or more whooshes. Also they were handmade, not massgenerated... etc.

So, I'm about to delete the rejected files, upload my sfx's, recordings and the rest of the files that aren't whooshes and hope that this time around Curator 22 Miklos would actually look and read and maybe even listen to the files that are submitted before he rejects them all. Also, I won't be submitting more than 50 files per day.

If this helps someone who is about to upload a large batch of audio files at P5, great. If not, than just a eye opener about P5 new inspection process.
Waiting for reply from support.
Cheers.
Mirko.

No. Your email account maybe

If you clicked and signed into the page that asked pass and username, then I would advise to access your email account you gave on that page and change taht password and all other important passwords

Its scary a bit. I knew it was a fraud but I remembered the topic about the guy who offered his  services for videohive uploading etc... and it was strange that this email was sent only few days after the topic was started here at mg. And also who knows how many people did clicked od Dissolve's email about documents signing? And gave their email and pass. Anyways, my 2 cents.

Hey guys, just a heads up. Two days ago I received an email from Dissolve representative to sign "providential documents" Link in the email directed to a website that looked like google official website with other major pass and username accounts, yahoo, bing etc. I accidentally look at the taskbar and it was some spanish decking website. I then checked the address the email from "dissolve" came and it was some [email protected] so I imidiately contacted Dissolve and they realized that the official email was hacked and sent out a newsletter to inform contributors.

Today I've received another email and I've engaged in conversation just to see how far will this scheme go. And the worst thing that my address came from [email protected].

Here is the copy paste and Leaf and the guys from videoblocks and other agencies should take notice.

HI!

        I am a Commercials Broker employee in a position of Search Team Leader. Since I am the one responsible for finding the most fitting product for us, I was also given the authority to use our financials for company purposes. But since
our company is BIG (http://stenda.lt/) and a little greedy - I come to you with an offer. I will send you a fixed amount and we split it 40% to my personal wallet and the other 60% is yours. I would like to use https://www.videoblocks.com/ as a bussiness ground. There is no prepay requierement, only after you get your money to account.
We will be a constant client!

        P.S. Don't hesitate to ask me anything!

Kind regards,
        Leader of Search Team, Jonas

For contacts e-mail me at [email protected]

My answer
Could you please explain a bit further how will I get my money and is this business proposal illegal in any way?

His answer
Hi, Mirko

No, it is not illegal at any given point. There could be a penalty for me and me.

You will get your money through VideoBlocks like a normal sale, i'm just asking 40% of the money you get

Kind regards, Jonas

------

And I've stopped there cause I realized that he wants me to give him 40% of money from the sales I get that will come from him but with a false credit card or something. I presume that this is the way it could go. So if you guys wonder from where are all the refunds amd stuff, there's the answer. Anyways, this the first time I get these kind of emails in just a few days. And these kind of proposals. My account was once hacked when we were in Vegas for the first Istock audiolypse in 2009. And by just a plain luck no harm was done to me. But this is a bit broader. Dissolve email with all the contacts hacked and now email from microstock group proposing a fraud.

Stay on your toes.
Mirko.

There's been a bug in audio pp and GI sales. So no purple bars for February and some for January

What about audio?

Quote from: sharpshot on February 15, 2016, 23:41

Quote from: mirkic on February 15, 2016, 18:38
Regarding this topic, I've received this text message from a "unknown sender" last year in August. Ive pqssed it over to Jeff from audio crew cause at that time I was returning to exclusivity for audio. Anyway, it was a bit clumsy written and nothing was "published" anywhere after the sms. Afaik. Some others received it also. Heres the copy paste

You are being played and rigged! Istock owns you money! This message is for Mirko Pernjakovic and several others who received it also. You are robbed from your daily and monthly earnings and limited to a daily download limit set by IS. We have a proof and we will announce it. Share this! - end of quote.

So they didn't have proof and they didn't announce it?  Looks like they made it up then.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Don't know why would anyone bother doing those kind of conspiracy theories. But I must admit I had several minutes back then, thinking about  the possibility of "not reporting sales" etc. Cause one company doesn't have a motif to "not sell" your work. But does have one not to report those sales back to you. Also, it's a wide spread criminal act and it's possible that's for sure. Two years ago I had apple sales from tone store for 24c instead of 25c. I reported it and it was a "manual mistake" made by a person doing it. It wasn't much but x1000 contributors x100.000 sales it adds up.