Pond 5 lowering artist share to 30% (and exclusive to 40%)

Just saw the Pond5 contributor agreement notice that said as of Jan. 15, 2025, the artist share of revenue will drop for 40% to 30% (and from 50% to 40% for exclusive). This actually represents a 25% drop for artists (or 20% drop for exclusive)...which is substantial.

It's getting to the point where I may stop adding new content. Just not worth the time when the middle man takes 70% of the cut.

Pond5 has been a nice source of passive income for me since about 2020. I have a feeling the income stream is about to slow to a trickle.

Optimist in me says maybe there will be more volume in sales to make up the difference.

Pessimist in me says AI is about to drive real world content into extinction, and the stock footage market will be dead in 5-10 years anyway.

There's no point in being exclusive when casting a wider net holds more opportunity, which is just going to increase now that it's 30% for non-exclusive contributors. And the disgusting 40% for exclusivity will just encourage people to stop being exclusive.

Kinda funny that they recently changed the pricing structure though, which led to an increase in pricing for many. Sounds like Pond5 just did it to give themselves a bigger cut while initially selling it off as a positive to the contributor.

Unbelievable greed

Now you know how the composers feel. They did this to us a few years ago. Thankfully, I'm a full time composer and use pond5 strictly for music that doesn't get placed. If I were full time on here I would be freaking out.

The era of royalty free content is coming to an end. We will be crowded out by video, image and music generators by 2028.

Way sooner than 2028....Ai is just exploding on the scene faster than any other technology.

How can the exclusive status be terminated?

Oh Yes! Don't forget " supporting our artists remains at the heart of everything we do". Bullshit

The greed level is disgusting. They are not offering anything extra

Until January 15th I will post my content on pond5, after that I will stop posting stock music and sound effects forever. It's simply not worth it anymore, these are the ones that will be applied are predatory and unfair.

"How can the exclusive status be terminated?"

email to: exclusive@pond5.com