pond5 now takes 65% of sales?

Update: Removal of all 555 music tracks from Pond5 is complete. After I receive my last payment on Sept 15, I will request my account be removed. On one hand I'm disappointed, on the other I'm very excited that this may be the turning point for something far better.

@StevenOBrien I can't wait to see!! Seriously, I'm considering a paid MLR account just for access to that thread since it looks like it's been set private now. Again, let me know when I can help. Data entry, mock submissions, reviews, research, whatever I can do.

Today we instructed to have all 8000+ of our tracks removed from Pond 5. We encourage all others to do the same as 35% is unfair and an insult to our artists. For those who think that their new "Pond 5 Publishing" will make up this difference - you are sorely mistaken. It is just a false hope distraction to make artists stay with them. We also believe raising your prices is the wrong move since it will just reward Pond 5 by giving them more net revenue from their 65% cut on any sales. The new management has made it clear that they either do not value artist contributors and/or do not know how to effectively manage their business. Too bad since we had a great relationship with them up until these recent negative changes. It will be interesting to see if they go the way of failed platforms such as Revostock and Music Dealers.

222485 => gdpr

If you are having good results with raising your prices (again, this doesn't put buyers off if they want that particular sound) I am curious to know why you are removing all your tracks from Pond5 ?

222485 => gdpr

What they just did is abusive and insulting. So guys, what other marketplaces are working for you? I've tried a lot but at the end P5 is the one that gave me steady sales, so I focused on it. I'd have no trouble in moving anywhere else if I knew there are other music sites worth it, but I don't feel like trying every other site again. I just don't have the time to do that.

@Marbury - Pond5 is (was) acting as a publisher to license our music. Traditionally, a Publisher splits revenue 50/50 because they find the customers, take care of the paperwork, run the business and do all the stuff other than music. In my opinion, most RF websites aren't doing 50% of the work, but that's what everyone was used to so we went with it. However, the current trend to lower prices to customers, decrease the split to composers, offering unlimited subscription models is driving the market lower and lower. And maybe that's not the end of the world in some regards. With as much video content that's being produced, some of it low end, maybe crap music at dirt cheap prices isn't terrible.

However, it becomes a problem for those spending time and energy creating quality music. If the revenue continues to drop, it keeps getting far more difficult to sustain a music production business.

By participating in Pond5's 65/35 split, you are supporting it. Does anyone think Pond5's, or any other RF site's contribution to licensing your track is worth 65%? I don't. I also don't think it's going to stop at 65%. If they go to a subscription model at $99 a month unlimited, how much of a cut do you think you're going to get?

For me, and apparently many others, going 65/35 is too far and we won't participate. Even if I could charge $1000 for a piece of music, knowing Pond5 was taking $650 for simply hosting it on their site would make me sick.

Part of me wants to wish you guys luck that have decided to stick it out on Pond5, but I can't do it. I sincerely hope Pond5 fails in this market with their unfair business model and that the current model starts to crumble. I hope composers that create quality music will decide that the race to the bottom has gone too far and there's got to be a better way.

There has been a little talk here, and a lot of talk on another site about building a portal where composers pay a fee to host their music, but they keep control over how they license, and pricing, and they keep 100% of the revenue. The hurdle will be how to drive the customers that currently go to P5 and AJ to a new marketplace. I'm excited at the prospect.

Good for you guys. I am now doing solely video and Pond5 used to bring in to much money to think about dropping them. Sales have tanked so much recently that it doesn't seem so unrealistic now.

As a first step I will remove all my advertising links from any social media and direct people to other platforms. It is just outrageous and I am absolutely disappointed with POND5.
I am also considering of removing all my music from POND 5 as I did with iStock a few years ago when they started to shamelessly rip off their authors.

Terrible news! Not sure about my future here.