It's like sales are in a hole.

It's quite a cliff SS fell off in October, which is typically my best month.

My new strategy is to not do too much work or spend too much money (if any) to get new shots.  So, I will not be lugging my high quality DSLR-style camera out very often, but rather, I'll be shooting more on my iPhone.  Mostly things I come across naturally.   I won't be doing too much planning going forward.

If buyers want to pay little-to-nothing, they'll be getting iPhone footage from me.  And if those clips don't get approved by the agencies, I won't fret over it.

Good job banning these AI images, but how do they know it was generated via AI?  How will they be going back to purge previously accepted AI imagery?

The first half of September was horrible, but these past few days for me have been promising.

Overall, I do see a significant downtrend in commissions, but I suppose it is what it is.  I'm not very motivated to shoot new topics, but I'm glad I have a decent sized portfolio that generates something each month.

Quote from: Findura on September 15, 2022, 07:59
"Prohibited activities:
Submitting public-domain content"

They may mean uploading unmodified public domain content.

Congrats on the book cover, but I'm confused: they bought your image and mostly changed it?  Other than the concept, I don't see much of your original image in the final.  New hair, new coat, new bokeh, etc.  Seems like it would have been less work for them to just shoot what they wanted rather than heavily Photoshop a stock image.

But I guess paying one Photoshop guy is cheaper than paying a model, photographer, and scouting a location.

Quote from: Chinni on August 18, 2022, 12:31
They just added subscription earnings from last month to dashboard.
but there is no information about the earnings that we made from each file

That's how subscriptions seem to work.  Welcome to the future!

Quote from: aitor on August 10, 2022, 13:54
I was exclusive on pond5 so I didn't have any other video on Adobe. I'm uploading them now.

Then get prepared for your share of $2.80 and $4.20 commissions.

#cantescape

Quote from: aitor on August 09, 2022, 14:42
I have preferred not to collaborate with companies that I consider exploitative. Right now, I only submit content to Adobe Stock.

But aren't you also getting $2.80 commissions on AS?  I am.  I don't think these low commission sales are avoidable these days.

Image:
$849.50 (SS) on an image shot with my iPhone.

Video:
$7,715.11 (SS)

Vertical video is the worst, but if there's money in it, I'm in.

P5 has had a "subscription" program for a few years.  It was called "membership."  Don't know how this new announcement compares to the old program, but I assume it will replace the old membership option.

The pool of available clips was determined back when the membership was first introduced.  Not sure how they picked the clips or how they'll add more later.

In a nutshell, all these "exciting update" emails we get from agencies all boils down to this:

"We've come to the conclusion that artists are earning too much from us, so we're going to re-write the game to address this problem, but we'll spin the wording in the announcement email in such a way to make it sound like we're making exciting updates for the better of the community as a whole and make it more difficult for individual contributors to see what's really going on."

Quote from: cascoly on May 26, 2022, 19:25
why would SS close P5 when they havent done so w other acquisitions? P5 is no longer a competitor, but now an additional source of income and potential buyers

Ok, I'll rephrase my original thought.

SS bought P5 to acquire P5's customers.

In the end, the result will be the same.

SS bought P5 to reduce competition.  It's that simple.  Because of that, one day, P5 will be shuttered and "dissolved" into SS.  How and when that happens is anyone's guess.

While I believe them when this guy says nothing at P5 is changing in the immediate future, the end is definitely coming.  I bet they just don't have the exact plan in place yet.

I understand why people dislike all this and why contributors are thinking of leaving P5.  But the issue is, there are fewer and fewer places to go.

Quote from: komikmiha on May 21, 2022, 14:20
Subscriptions are killing this business. For example, I have an annual subscription to Storyblocks and I have unlimited downloads. From videos, after effect templates, sound effects, images, anything. I can d/l the entire f*****g server.

So, you hate subscriptions, but have a Storyblocks subscription account?

I think you inadvertently hit the nail on the head.  For the contributor, subscriptions aren't optimal.  But for the customer, subscriptions can be a valuable resource.

And what group drives this and any other business?  The customer.

BTW, I've talked to Storyblocks about the "download the entire server" concern and they assure me they have measures in place to curb download abuse.

Where do you see what Paypal address iStock has on file?  I can't seem to find it in their ESP dashboard.

Your stuff is very solid, well shot and well composed.  If anything, I'd say maybe think about more "concept" or "off the wall" shots.  Maybe think of some COVID themes, since that's heavy in the news lately.

And my American-bias might be showing, but something else that may be hindering you is your shots are very "European."  Not your fault obviously, and I don't even know if that's a problem, but maybe try to compose your shots in such a way to not make it so location-specific.

People using technology, "cutting the cord", general lifestyle, silly shots -- these are some topics I don't really see in your portfolio.

25% of my 2021 income came from subscription services.  I only expect that percentage to increase as time moves on.  I shied-away from subscriptions for years, but now I consider it a viable portion of my business plan. 

The only Russian that should be banned from anything is Vladimir Putin.

QuoteFirst, check if you got an email confirming they'd paid you, and double-check by looking at the account into which the money should go.

Good point.  I never received an email saying payment was made.  I started a support ticket, but the system said I can't start a missing payment from the 25th until the the first of the following month.

Anyone get their December payment yet?  It said we were to get it January 25, but I haven't received it yet.  I don't recall payments being late before.

And they buried the price information.

A full-blown subscription model is in our collective future.

Quote
Not true. You can put your image on rarible or opensea without paying any gas fees. On Opensea, all you need to do is choose Polygon instead of ethereum to mint your NFT. On rarible, you have the option of having the buyer pay your gas fees so you don't have to.

But is there a downside to minting on Polygon?  Would a prospective buyer shy away from an NFT if it's on Polygon and not Ethereum?