Enterprise Custom Licenses

I had an "Enterprise Custom License" video clip sale for a whopping $3.00 recently. Does anyone know what type of license this is? Thanks.

Hey JSMitch,

Thanks for writing in. This sale was a digital use only license for a YouTube channel. The “Enterprise Custom License” is how our system labels these types of sales, but that’s not technically what it was.

We apologize for any confusion. Please feel free to reach out to support@pond5.com if you have any more questions.

Have a great weekend!

I am hearing of more of these sales, Ryan, not less. Your post a month or so ago indicated that there would be less. Some people are wondering where to take their clips.

Selling to Youtube channel is not synonymous with "selling to poor people". There are a lot of very rich YouTubers out there.

That this kind of thing continues (increasing?) is very disturbing, especially as it seems to be increasing as real sales decline.

Eventually contributors are going to grow some (insert your favourite term) and start pushing back for real, as these sales proliferate, and they have nothing to lose.

Ryan sez:

"Thanks for writing in. This sale was a digital use only license for a YouTube channel. The “Enterprise Custom License” is how our system labels these types of sales, but that’s not technically what it was."

Yeah, so what? Why are the youtubers allowed to license our content for such abysmally low rates?

Hey Mizamook,

Thanks for the reply. There is a lot at play here. First, this transaction happens to be for a customer that has a large-volume subscription package (they use 25K+ video clips per year) producing a YouTube channel and supporting their social media presence. We've actually worked with this customer for several years now, so this is not a new deal.

As you know, it's a highly competitive market, with all of our major competitors selling video subscriptions with list prices per download that go below $10 per clip, or even pennies per download for unlimited download subscriptions. While we look to price our content at a premium to those competitors (given the quality and breadth of our collection), our objective remains to grow our business. In this particular case, we won this deal from Getty about 3 years ago where they were already purchasing at very low prices and we would not have secured the deal had we not matched the existing pricing.

Are they "poor people" you asked? In this case it's actually company with a moderate size subscriber base producing YouTube native meditation videos in high volume, publishing constantly. The audience size, the channel's target reach, and amount of content they produce are all factors in how we think about fair pricing. For the most part, our video business does not sell to these types of digital channels due to our premium pricing structure, but we look to expand our market reach and remain competitive for the mutual benefit of our artists and Pond5.

Lastly, in regards to the post last month about lower-priced sales, it was referring specifically to Adobe subscription sales. Those sales are phased out, as our partnership is over. Artists shouldn’t be receiving any of those anymore.

Thanks,

Literally just had sales post yesterday of 4 HD clips at $3 per clip with this license, so it appears these sales are not "going away". Seems kind of pointless to set our own prices if they are going to be completely ignored because someone paid you $75k up front (25k licenses at $3 each). If they are only paying $3 per clip, they should NOT get access to the entire Pond5 library.

Hiya Ryan, the full detailed response is highly appreciated as usual, so thank you.

OK< sorry about the misunderstanding ... I conflated the Adobe deal with "all" sub-standard sales.

I'll admit freely that I know little, and like any peasant (defined here as a supplier of goods or services who has to agree to a disagreeable contract, or leave) I have concerns. Some bigger picture stuff I can't possibly have the perspective to understand, but I, like many here, have the capacity to understand, if we have all the salient info.

Not understanding the massive discounts though. Yes, Pond5 is dealing with competitors that have last-minute garage sale pricing, but how does that actually work? All it will do, ultimately, is allow customers to continue forcing our prices down ... and then there's no reason a contributor would bother separating P5 from the rest, thus making the competitors stronger.

That is what the Exclusivity gambit was supposed to address, but even now that's being undermined heavily.

We're in a world where all prices are going up ... I don't think any of the companies I pay money to in order to do my work look at my low income and say "Oh, I guess you can't afford our product, let's make you a special deal" to the extent that these discounts. Usually, a volume discount is like, you know .. 10%. 20% at most. But people reporting these epically low sales are seeing more like 90% and more!

When you talked about the specific customer, the youtube meditation channel, you mentioned fair prices. This is a steal for the buyer. And it's "fair" I guess to Pond5, who gets some money. But it's not fair or sustainable for anyone actually producing product. This serious inequity leads to ruin for all, eventually.

I see your point though .. keeping a medium-sized, growing youtube company loyal to Pond5 "might" result in happy times eventually. Sadly though, I keep running onto situations where digital products were free or cheap now being priced much higher, as in reality, the majority of "potential future customers" just take what is offered and do not ever spend real money, so the ploy, in those cases, is shown to be a fail, and costs prove such things unsustainable.

Most products I see with a "free" version are heavily trimmed of functionality. This is designed so that the purchaser can legally work with it, get to know it, and, hopefully, decide to upgrade to better function. The videos being sold for peanuts have only "limited licenses" ... which are, sadly, completely dependent on the honesty of the buyers. (I've seen a few license upgrade sales, but they are very rare!) Nothing really prevents them from using the product how they see fit. Even photos are easier to track. Who, really, is going to police this usage?

I'm really rooting for Pond5 and for an outcome that does not crush all us small contributors or remove all our inspiration to work (in this field). Please keep us posted!

Louis Vuitton doesn't give their bags for $20 just because Walmart is selling bags for $19.99 though. Let those cheap sub sites give low quality clips for less. Pond5 should hold its ground by keeping the price we the contributors set. That's the whole point of uploading the best clips to Pond5 instead of those low quality cheap sub sites.

At least, Pond5 Exclusive clips should be protected from these disgustingly low price Enterprise Custom License sales that amount to nothing significant imo.

Blvdone: I agree. Were my non-ex account to be having those sales, I'd be OK ... especially as the vast majority of those are my worst clips and I know they're on other accounts. But "stealing" the legitimacy of the Exclusive agreement is foul play. That really took the wind out of my sails.

Disclosure/truth: I don't think I've had sales on my Exclusive account (not that I recall, anyway). It is that I've heard from others that they have had such. I'm writing in interest on this subject because I know that it would rankle something fierce, especially as I held the spirit of the Exclusive agreement in high regard, and now it is very one-sided, given that Pond5 has changed the rules with a "love it or leave it" attitude. Makes me very sad.