Been selling on Pond5 for over 10 years, do this full time for a living, whatever they're done they've really screwed things up. Sales tanked since the utterly stupid exclusivity program. Such a shame

Quote from: pkphotos on May 16, 2019, 11:26

Quote from: thepokergod on May 16, 2019, 10:29
Been full time stock footage producer since 2010, things really took off in 2012 and 2013 onwards has been great. Last 6 weeks though have been horrendous sales wise though.

pkphotos is completely wrong...

yes but for how long when people have to trumpet their success and encourage another 1000 newbies to an already over-saturated market. People on this forum love shooting themselves in the foot.

I get it and I agree to a certain extent. But if you're so terrified of the masses destroying your business then you either need to adapt or have a plan B in the sidelines.

Personally I'd direct your sentiment toward the folks running Youtube channels and writing e-books about how to make a living at stock footage. I'm more than happy to share with people the fact it's possible to make a living at stock, if you really have a unique high value niche available, but that's about as much as I'll say.

Been full time stock footage producer since 2010, things really took off in 2012 and 2013 onwards has been great. Last 6 weeks though have been horrendous sales wise though.

pkphotos is completely wrong...

Quote from: cathyslife on April 23, 2019, 04:39

Quote from: thepokergod on April 23, 2019, 04:04
I just deleted 2700 clips off Shutterstock and terminated my account with them, $1000 a month that will hopefully shift over to other agencies.

They were repeatedly allowing the same Russian thief to upload and sell my premium clips, stonewalled me when I requested information on how many times the stolen content had licensed, refused to even have a conversation about how to try and stop this problem and chose to honour the rights of the thief over the victim in refusing to give me the user details of the thief (like email address, name etc so I could pursue them.) It was against their "privacy policy."

An absolute scumbag company without an ounce of morality - I couldn't in good conscience continue to license my work through them. It felt extremely satisfying deleting my portfolio there.

I've registered all my works with the US copyright office and next time there's an infringement lawyers will be involved.

That is just disgusting behavior on their part. Good for you for ending your relationship with them. I know it can't be easy giving up money like that...it never is, for anyone. Just shows how greed corrupts ethics. What do they care, they make money off you, or the thieves, all the same to them.

Thanks! It wasn't an easy decision but the feeling of disgust was really burning deep inside of me and actually making me feel really down and out (I'm usually extremely positive person and blessed to not get depressed etc.) Along with the royalty cut at Pond5 it was a nerve wracking couple of weeks but now I'm very comfortable with everything.

Decided to turn a bad situation into a good one (hopefully.) Raised my prices on Pond5 / my own website etc (since they can't be found cheaply on SS any more.)

But yeah, they're a rotten company devoid of ethics.

I just deleted 2700 clips off Shutterstock and terminated my account with them, $1000 a month that will hopefully shift over to other agencies.

They were repeatedly allowing the same Russian thief to upload and sell my premium clips, stonewalled me when I requested information on how many times the stolen content had licensed, refused to even have a conversation about how to try and stop this problem and chose to honour the rights of the thief over the victim in refusing to give me the user details of the thief (like email address, name etc so I could pursue them.) It was against their "privacy policy."

An absolute scumbag company without an ounce of morality - I couldn't in good conscience continue to license my work through them. It felt extremely satisfying deleting my portfolio there.

I've registered all my works with the US copyright office and next time there's an infringement lawyers will be involved.

I write this post with all due respect to David and team, you're clearly a very accomplished stock producer (part of the HotelFoxtrot team no?!) with a fantastic portfolio.

I think this whole venture is a mistake and I'd guess is a knee jerk reaction to changes in the market which have lead to a significant drop in revenue for you. It really smells of "my ship is sinking and I've got to try and milk as much money out of it before it goes under." An act of desperation.

First off, as others have said, it appears totally open to abuse. Buy one month subscription and download the whole library, that's essentially giving your work away for free.

It's also extremely short sighted - how do you expect to fund future helicopter shots with Cineflex systems etc when existing content is being given away like this? I guess you have no plans to in future to generate quality, high production value stock.

I can understand the rational to do something radical in hopes of a quick cash grab. I shoot extremely hard to get nature and disaster footage with a minimum price of $299 per clips, in the past when time were slow I started uploading it all to Shutterstock to sell at $79 and lower. Thank god I came to my senses and deleted it all and stuck to my guns. I'm a full time stock producer, my business grows every year and above all else I value my work and have the long term interests of my portfolio and the industry as a whole at heart.

Unfortunately you appear to be committing stock footage suicide and also dragging others with you. I'm extremely relieved you don't shoot any content which overlaps with my portfolio....

March was one of my best months ever on Pond5 and elsewhere followed by a sudden slow down in April. This is an unsubstantiated theory, but I'm guessing it might be to do with end / beginning of new tax year. New budgets being allocated etc in April causing a temporary slow down. That being said things have picked up on Pond5 but will need a solid final week of sales to limp to the average mark.

Quote from: davidbautista on December 17, 2018, 04:20

Quote from: thepokergod on December 17, 2018, 02:16
Video here:

Deleted files and closed account at iStock years ago due to horrific royalty share. Recently deleted all content at Videoblocks due to their low pricing and low sales. Clipcanvas and Clipdealer old, hopeless agencies which sell nothing.

Where do you sell the most, in video?

Enviado desde mi ALP-L29 mediante Tapatalk

Pond5 - always been a big fan, being able to set my own prices is extremely important for me with a considerable amount of niche / hard to shoot footage. All the regular stuff reluctantly goes on Shutterstock too (I'd drop them in a heartbeat if I could but it doesn't make financial sense right now.)

Video here:

Deleted files and closed account at iStock years ago due to horrific royalty share. Recently deleted all content at Videoblocks due to their low pricing and low sales. Clipcanvas and Clipdealer old, hopeless agencies which sell nothing.

Video here: felt slow on the agencies here but month ended up decent enough.

On the plus side hints of the TV production industry waking up after summer slow down with direct inquiries and current deals being worked out - hopeful the -ber months will see a solid end to year.

I'm pretty surprised by all the outrage, you must be pretty naive to think 100% royalties was a sustainable, long term prognosis. If it's too good to be true, it almost always is.

I originally uploaded my crappiest 1500 B-roll clips to VB knowing that it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do given the low prices but at least try and get a bit of short term extra income from my lower quality clips. That plan worked pretty well before sales dried up completely.

Now with this royalty cut I'm asking myself, do I want an agency which sells footage for $49 a clip and offers 50% to become the market leader (and subsequently drag  other agencies down to that level?) The answer is of course no, so I've pulled my entire portfolio and emailed them notifying them. If they raise prices or even enable artist pricing control (oh lord I wish there were more agencies who would do this) then I'll happily start uploading again.

For the record I make a solid living doing this and the bulk of my portfolio never sees the light of day on SS, VB etc

Sorry but petitions etc are a complete waste of time.

Not at all surprised with this development - deleting my entire portfolio there now. If they raise prices I might be persuaded to stay but I'm not having my work out in the marketplace for peanuts and receiving 50%.

Pond5 is awesome, nowhere else even comes close, well done!

If any of my clips sell within 6 months of uploading to Pond5 I always find that a nice surprise, I usually expect it to take a year or so for clips to take traction.

Had 3 sales there today, one from 2012, 2015 and 2017.

Well I had a weird one which is kind of the opposite of the current problem. Sold 2 clips a while ago then a few hours later the same two clips sell again. Of course I was expecting a refund pretty quick but so far nothing - clearly something weird going on.

That's a pretty harsh dry spell, sorry to hear that. It's happened to me a few times in the past and if its any consolation sales have come back.

First two weeks of October were pretty poor there then last week went nuts with lots of sales. Just overtaken 2014 as my best year ever there with 2 months to spare!

So I just found out today Framepool, a primarily RM video agency based out of Germany, have just filed for bankruptcy. I'm not surprised it ended up this way since I've been chasing them for around $1000 US they owe me (and any subsequent unreported sales) since August last year.

The letter attached from the lawyer stated at least employee wages are guaranteed until next month (nice bit of salt to rub in the wounds of unpaid contributors there!)

If you see them soliciting for content stay well clear!

It's down for me and when I search the main buyer side site for my own clips it appears they're all offline. What the heck is going on!?

Video here:

For me March always seems to be the final hangover month from the Christmas and New Years holidays before things get going solidly in April, this year following that trend but doing better overall than last year. Overall I'm very optimistic about everything, not sure why though. Maybe because I'm out shooting a lot more content than before.

Video only here but signs of things improving after traditionally slow Jan / Feb / Mar. No freak outs this year though, given that this time last year everything just crashed suddenly and I thought everything was falling apart. Thankfully everything recovered nicely and the year ended up good. So far 2017 has exceed last year so fingers crossed all continues well.

However I'm under no illusions that this is a safe and steady industry to be a part of with wild swings up and down and agencies making major decisions with affect our livelihoods at a whim. It's only getting harder!

This is my full time job with no other sources of income.

Yes this happened to me and i went ahead and submitted anyway to see what would happen and all seemed ok, file accept and showing in my port.

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on March 11, 2017, 13:21
Pond5 is usually only #3 for me when it comes to footage, but a clear #1 when it comes to music. It has A LOT to do with when you started.

People who have been with P5 for a while have a huge advantage in the search, if they sell clips that have many uses. Coming in now with subjects that sell really well won't break you out of being invisible because the library is simply so big, and authors with clips there for 5-10 years will always show up in search before you.

I am fortunate to be a top seller when it comes to audio as I've been doing it for a number of years, and that is a huge advantage over newer sellers. When it comes to footage, however, I am relatively invisible. I know I have usable clips because they sell elsewhere every day. But they just can't be found in the enormous ocean that is Pond5 (or the competition is just better).

Just try searching for your latest sale at VB for example with some relevant keywords. I'm sure you'll be able to find it quickly at VB, but probably not at P5.

You have a good point there, it usually takes at least a year to a year and a half before my clips start to sell on Pond5, why that is I have no idea. Right now my decent sellers are from mid 2015 and before. If anything uploaded in the last year sells I always find it a pleasant surprise.

Space - just had a quick browse through your clips, awesome work - some great stuff in there! Sorry off topic!

March has been pretty quiet for me so far and I see quite a few others complaining on the P5 forums about sudden drop in sales.

However I'm not freaking out. The first 3 months of last year were a complete disaster and I seriously thought it was the end of P5 as a serious agency to sell video, however April bounced back and the rest of the year was good culminating in Dec 2016 being my best month ever there. So far each month this year has surpassed last year's so I'm cautiously optimistic (one can never be sure of anything in this industry tho!)

Coming up on my 9th year being a seller there.

Nice, well composed shots but there are probably many thousands of similar type clips out there which means sales will be few and far between, especially with only 50. You'll need many thousands of this type of clip to make some decent sales.