Pond5 Exclusive account questions

Hello there,
Can someone who is selling clips on Pond5 exclusive share his experience? Is it worth it selling exclusive here? I am really considering it after what SS did like I am sure everyone know and I am seriously thinking about giving it a try because we all should be supporting agencies who care about their contributors and pay a decent %.

Can someone who is exclusive here share his experience?

I think you will get mixed views on this subject, I personally went part exclusive when it was first announced, that is I put 4000 clips on exclusive and left around 21,000 clips on SS and AS. At that time it was a bad move for me as like others here saw an overall decrease in sales and end of year turn over decreased. I then removed my exclusive account. Due to the recent changes, the prime one being the new low video sub plan at SS which would see sales of 4K clips being sold at $9 with a return of around 3-4 dollars I quit SS over two months ago and again went fully exclusive here at Pond5. My honest answer is that I am seeing good potential growth now on my EX account, I have other joint accounts here and they have always done well though it has been slow of late. In the light of recent events I would consider going exclusive because of the simple fact is it is the only viable option at the moment if you want more control and see better returns per sold clip, everyone will have their opinion on this, but remember big changes have happened in just a week, and more changes will happen as the stock industry works out just what the effect SS has done to the market. I for one recommend going exclusive at this time, it's the only way to safe guard you creative work and keep it's value where you believe it should be.

If you watch this video this guys explains what is happening at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmerympWkCU&feature=emb_logo

It could be a morel choice that made me go exclusive, I believe in doing the best I can to protect our micro stock market from the downward price spiral that is accelerating.

This question is likely to be asked time and again, here and on other forums, especially now due to contributors fleeing Shutterstock, looking for a safer haven for their work. In the spirit of fairness it should be mentioned that over the year or so since Pond5 introduced exclusivity, it hasn’t exactly met with enthusiastic support.

A 60% commission sounds great in principle but that doesn’t necessarily mean good earnings overall. P5 has been dogged by poor sales for over a year now, and to make matters worse, was not so long ago about to introduce a sizeable, low-cost video subscription regime, which surely would have operated in direct competition with its own exclusive portfolio, had the subs scheme not been abandoned - not least due to fierce contributor resistance.

Therefore, before significant numbers of ex-SS contributors look longingly at a 60% commission, they might be better advised to go for the standard 40% commission at P5, and still be able to put their videos with other agencies as well. At present, P5 has lost so much ground to Shutterstock, that it first needs to get back to a much healthier sales performance for all contributors, regardless of whether or not they’re exclusive.

Thank you for your comprehensive and honest answers. I decided to give it a try and upload exclusive to Pond5 now and we will see how it goes.

In my opinion you can go exclusively if you have unique shots, that cannot be found elsewere.
Some agencies have 70% fee + transfer fee + taxes, its just robery. Probably they never hold the camera it their hand and dont know how hard it is to make some interesting shots or make and render motion graphics. And now a new subscription business model also not good for authors.
P5 would be the best with a 60% commission for non exclusive and 25% for exclusive. But i doubt this will happen.