pond5 now takes 65% of sales?

@StevenOBrien: thank you for your insight. Good luck

Now that I've had a couple days to let this sink in and think about it, and not seeing a response from Pond5 to my email or publicly, I have decided I will pull all 555 of my music tracks on Sept 2, and request my account be closed. I have also completed downloading all my sales data, meta data, descriptions, and keywords. I'm looking at other RF sites, but this may very well be a wake up call to get as far away from the race to the bottom as I can and aim for the higher end of the industry. I wish you all luck.

RonKujawaMusic, My thoughts exactly. I have over 250 tracks which I will be taking out as well. Just need to put together my data. Although I have these tracks on a few other RF sites, I'm putting all my focus on higher end exclusive libraries which have already shown to make me the most money.

@guscave - I love it!

i Will also pull my 500+ tracks if they don't update the terms.

This is just the umpteenth example of an agent doing the dirty and cutting incomes to their suppliers.
Tsja... and we are expected to take it on the nose and muddle on through.
I was suggesting Pond5 to a colleague a couple of days ago, I hope he bins my advise. The tragic in that is that he is a musician and composer and I am a news photographer with 20 years of archive behind me... and we were colleagues cleaning plates in a kitchen because that is better paid.
A couple of thoughts...
i) Media companies buying your work are not charitable organisations. They have money, they spend money, they sometimes spend lots of money. So why do so many creators sell their work so cheap. I have just looked up my last sfx sale on here... most on the same subject are for sale at 1/4 of my price (since increased to mitigate the rate cut.) There is no way many are running a business at the prices they are asking. We can set our prices, put them up. If I can get $x for an audio why sell at $x divided by four.
ii) The situation with news photography pricing has reached a point where we in The Netherlands have started co-operating. In January we went on strike. https://www.nvj.nl/nieuws/half-jaar-na-landelijke-actiedag-fotojournalisten
Its not just photographers, other creatives are getting militant and seeking publicity for their appalling tariffs. At one lobby meeting I attended in parliament in The Hague we were joined by the kunstenbond, artists, directors, singers etc. etc. The lobby is having effect. The NMA (Dutch competitions authorities) have indicated that they wont take action if certain groups of freelancers start making collective agreements. A landmark European case concerning Irish voice actors also allowed them to cooperate over tarifs. On a micro level we are talking to each other about pricing. At a recent demo a number of colleagues quickly agreed ... no photos to agents ... direct sales only ... minimum price €70. And yes... there are many colleagues who have continued to supply agents they are complaining about... I dont get why... its like they are in an abusive relationship.
The crux of the matter is we need to communicate more. In the spring I was shooting at a conference. My dayrate was based on what I thought was that of my colleagues. After actually conferring with colleagues I now know that I was way under. My price will more than double next year for the same.

This all seems rather short-sighted by P5, ultimately they will be the architects of their own demise.

As a wise person once said though "Sometimes we must break completely in order to rebuild fully" Let's hope something positive comes from all this turmoil. Good luck to everyone.

This has become an issue of principle for me more than economics. For those who are thinking of simply raising their prices to compensate for the loss remember this; Even if you sell you track at $100 you're still giving P5 65% of that money and you're keeping a measly $35.

We are the content creators. At no time whatsoever should we be getting less than 50% of the revenue "OUR" content produces. I don't mind giving a publisher, library etc.. 50% if they are producing significant results that I cant do on my own. But anytime that 50% split changes, it should always be in the favor of the creator, not the distributor.

With that being said if P5 doesn't backtrack on this deal, I'll be removing all 267 of my tracks for sure and won't be looking back.

I raised my prices in July considerably and buyers still purchased. I am not sure what that has stopped for now but the only way is for everyone to do this to stop the race to the bottom and bring our income to a healthier level. At this point I am not too bothered that Pond will get a bigger % cut of my income, I need to make more money here and am thinking of my mortgage etc.

Everyone needs to raise their prices for the benefit of us all.

Well I guess it was a good run... P5 was the last place I even considered as worthwhile for uploading stock music. With the rise of subscription services I'd say this business is well on the way to not being worthwhile for the majority. I definitely can't keep investing the time I have been. Super disappointed in Pond5.