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Messages - Bart
26
« on: April 12, 2019, 20:38 »
I talked to VB. Only 2 video sales in 2019. Drastic fall-off! I stopped uploading fresh content and will wait another 3 months (if something changes) before I close the account. Sad story  they were one of my favorites
27
« on: April 05, 2019, 16:30 »
Exciting news falls under good news ...not good for contributors You missed one point: news can also been exciting.
Generally it means that it is extremely bad for us
28
« on: March 25, 2019, 22:57 »
Agree with OP. Trust is broken. Let's imagine a scenario where a big footage buyer calls up Pond5 and says "I have budget of 10K and need 100 4K clips for a series we're doing... we have created lightboxes on competitor sites but we really prefer the P5 exclusive lightbox our interns created" ... what will P5 do? will they send them back to competitor? or "work with them" on a deal? think about it  Perhaps P5 misunderstood buyers calls for exclusive content... exclusive is, exclusive. An exclusive news story is not exclusive if any station can run it. Pond5 "Exclusive" content will still be available to others on P5... oh, and P5 affiliates! Shutter and Getty have been doing "Custom Content"(Exclusive) briefs for specific clients that don't want royalty free and want hundreds of catered options for pennes on a dollar, good for them! I just feel terrible for all the starving artists fulfilling their requests. Might as well work in a sweat shop kid! Bart
29
« on: March 21, 2019, 22:52 »
agree, its a simple code implementation: Do you wish this clip to be exclusive: Are y selling similar clips at other agencies [ ] yes, Done. I would very happily go per video exclusive at P5, and the majority of us are well trained in what is a "sister image" so we understand the rules. But they must show us respect (rather that talking about respect) and allow us to put rejected work, or more niche work, where it's going to sell best. I urge P5 to reconsider this move. It's not respectful. [/quote]
30
« on: March 21, 2019, 14:55 »
I think so. this lovely quote sums it up... "don't piss on my boots and tell me it's raining"0 people are going to become exclusive with pond5. pond5 will pay everyone 10% less. this is what will happen.
31
« on: March 21, 2019, 14:39 »
Volume though. SS/Adobe I get 20-30 image sales a day, pond5, 3-5 image sales a year. Hows the extra royalty % going to help me pay bills, get new gear without volume? The whole Town Hall livestream was a bunch of hypocritical nonsense. It started off great with them claiming they would never want to do a race to the bottom and they give contributors total freedom.
And then monkey came out of the bag, as we all predicted on this forum: a commission cut...unless you join our Exclusivity Program!
Being forced to raise prices or become exclusive, if that's not a total lack of respect towards your contributors, I don't know what it.
If you are licensing content for a lower price and accepting a lower royalty rate at other sites I'm not sure what the complaint is? SS is 30% and Adobe is 35%, last I checked 40% was better. If you value your work lower then why should you expect agencies to value it higher?
32
« on: March 21, 2019, 13:57 »
I'm no lawyer, but the way I read this is that, if, let's say Shutterstock sells by clip as subscription at $1.50 (to be extreme here), this allows Pond5 to offer the same clip at same price? "we may change the price of your content" (i assume to price match the lowest price). B That is not a problem at all the same way it is not a problem at Gettyimages. When you send content to Getty you can not send similar content to other sites. If you get caught you are out.
It says artist exclusivity some places and video artist exclusivity others. Is this just for video content? I assume it is but they license other types of media as well so just want to make sure I understand it. Time to crunch some numbers but I think pulling my video stuff off SS and iS is probably the right choice.
FWIW I think content exclusivity just won't work, too many people would abuse it by putting similar (almost identical) content on other sites, it would be impossible to police.
Getty and P5 are very different in many ways and I don't think P5 wants to deal with kicking people off or policing similars. It's much simpler and clearer for the contributor if it's artist exclusive, no gray areas there.
33
« on: March 21, 2019, 13:34 »
PS. the 20% pay cut is just the tip of the iceberg... read the new agreement (sec4.i) and I quote... "If you do not enroll in the Exclusivity Program, notwithstanding section 3.b. above, you shall not set the price for an item of video Content that is higher than the lowest price for which the same (or substantially the same) Content item is offered by or on any Other Marketplace, and if we discover that the Content item is offered at a lower price by or on any Other Marketplace, we may change the price of your content in our marketplace." https://www.pond5.com/legal/contributor
34
« on: March 21, 2019, 13:19 »
I will higher prices for my Pond5 assets
this will be my way to protest.
but wait, someone just mentioned this (I assume new agreement): If you do not enroll in the Exclusivity Program, notwithstanding section 3.b. above, you shall not set the price for an item of video Content that is higher than the lowest price for which the same (or substantially the same) Content item is offered by or on any Other Marketplace, and if we discover that the Content item is offered at a lower price by or on any Other Marketplace, we may change the price of your content in our marketplace.
35
« on: March 21, 2019, 12:14 »
Just watched the Town Hall with Pond5. I created quick poll, please take time to complete.
Below is my e-mail to Pond5:
What just happened guys??
An ALL OUT exclusive option or 10% pay cut (thats 20% less profit on my end)? Thats it?? We know how great ALL EXCLUSIVE programs work, we can hear all the success stories about Stocksy Video? (and no offense to Stocksy and Bruce their content really is top quality) The things I agree with, yes people shop around, and they will always. Myself as both a content contributor, and content buyer, I will not pay premium for exclusive content (especially when its 5-15sec stock clip), so whomever goes to ALL EXCLUSIVE at pond5, sorry you might be disappointed, unless pond5 shoves(Favors) exclusive content into buyers faces (which will not be done according to your Town Hall) . Yes, there are clips and moments that we capture that are unique, and I think you should have instead added an option based per clip (not contributor) to make exclusive that way we could experiment, see the great results and be the judge for ourselves. Putting lipstick on a pig is not my cup ...Putting us contributors up against the wall like that is NOT FAIR, and Im considering going the total opposite of EXCLUSIVE.
Respectfully,
Bart Sadowski
36
« on: February 06, 2019, 09:58 »
Just talked to someone at Adobe, they are reading this thread and seems like they are listening to the concerns posted here ...that's a breath of fresh air. hopefully Adobe Stock (contributor) Portal will evolve to a lean & mean insight machine for all of us contributors.
37
« on: February 01, 2019, 17:15 »
Oh godness! Would I be shocked if they already had that subject come up in "Brainstorming"?? nah. Don't put ideas in Getty's head they'll probably start charging you to have images sold on their site before long and call it "exciting news" 
38
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:26 »
I was going over my monthly sales report from Getty Images. Having run a business for several years, I am familiar with Profit/Loss column in accounting applications. Now, looking at this screen grab from Getty, when something is in RED that usually means a negative (or LOSS), The only conclusion I can come to, is that now I am paying Getty buyers to use my image, in this case .33 cents?!?!
39
« on: November 09, 2017, 17:54 »
Just opted out. Seems like few agencies are trying to squeeze video contributors (also mentioning recent 123rf "donation" program). This happened few years back with photo assets, and we all know how that turned out. I for one will be opposing any "revolutionary" "experimental" "feel-good" video licensing model. I removed all my video assets from Getty/iStock when few clips were sold for $3-$4 a pop. The equipment, shooting, editing and uploading is way time consuming. Let's stand firm and prevent our video assets slipping to stock photo price model. If a client likes a clip, they will pay for it. I work in the business, and have never heard a client say current prices are "too much", If buyer loves the asset, they will pay for it.
40
« on: October 24, 2017, 18:22 »
Anyone else receive a contributor survey asking about stat reporting, contributor support etc???
I just let all my frustrations out, and it feels good.
Maybe they are realizing their downward spiral with contributors, maybe a change is coming?? ...probably not! 😂
41
« on: July 10, 2017, 18:09 »
easy way to test that theory is to have a "friend" (in another region) purchase your clip as a non-member, and record the process while on skype (let's say) if the royalties show up and all is there we're good, if only $49 shows up on contributor side then we prove the theory, if nothing shows up then we PANIC!
youtube and social media is a powerful tool, no agency would want that kind of stain on them.
PS. if contributor keeps "100%" -minus a dollar or so, then this experiment will cost very little
PSS. if anyone tries this please follow up in this thread.
Cheers,
Bart
EDIT: I believe the $30 non-member fee goes to agency not contributor, so we always get $49 for HD.
42
« on: March 21, 2017, 09:40 »
once you are logged in to ESP, go to My Performance (Royalties), then the tab on left called "Export", select the month (FEB) and iStock from Contract type (If you have more than one), select PDF and download. Where do I see how many photos I sold? I can only see the total amount I earned.
43
« on: March 21, 2017, 08:40 »
So Getty/iStock Feb reports are out. As confusing and difficult it is now a days to make sense of their reporting, I was able to download a pdf breakdown of my sales for Feb. When I opened the pdf I quickly understood why would Getty/iStock would be having "technical difficulties" with reporting, with not providing us live (daily) stats. Today i learned that majority of the sales are a joke, .28 cents, .15 cents, and .02 cent commissions for files that once were paying $5 and more. For a corporation as big as Getty, to me, it seems all the technical difficulties, troubles with coding are a mere deception to keep the contributor passive. From my perspective the delayed earning report and lack of live stats can be compared to a slaughter house, if we were to enter it and see the gore and agony we would be more likely to protest, leave and perhaps change our ways. However by providing us delayed and monthly (processed and packaged) stats, we don't see what normally would make our blood boil. Our content is being slaughtered, and it's not pretty! my .02 cents Bart
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