New P5 Contract :exclusivity

The email I received today from P5, saying either I agree to the new exclusivity contract or lose my 50% split payment on sales (to 40%) I find disturbing. I am BOTH a contributing Artist, AND a buyer since the beginning, and that was one of the best features of the P5 service to me. Since the time I agreed to split my sales money 50/50 with P5, I have witnessed many changes. The more popular the site became, the less support and more hoops they makes us jump through, some of which were annoying both as a buyer and seller. Does anyone else like the "I'm not a robot" crap when you try to log in? One of the reasons many artists like P5, is because of the non-exclusivity, so we CAN post on other sites to increase revenue, unlike GETTY. (plus the prices are better) I find this is NOT in the best interest of any artist on here. As a buyer I don't care, because it doesn't affect me. The only artists that will benefit from this agreement, are those who have tons of content and enough sales that it won't affect their bottom line. For the rest, well too bad......P5, you are going to shoot yourself in the foot by doing this, just wait and see. It's a bad idea, and as they say,"if it ain't broke, don't fix it."......don't get greedy

Talk about not being greedy. That's a good one.

Just watching the stream from yesterday, what a joke. A couple of points:

-buyers don't shop around, from my own experience and what other people said it's just not true. I sold the same clips I sold here on shutterstock for basically double the price. On average Pond5 clips are already priced lower in general than SS, so their point about undercutting is not really true. If I start getting lots of 1.5 USD sales from SS then yeah I might consider it, but as of now there is no reason to.

-also the clips are still available for anyone to buy on Pond5 even if they are exclusive, so it doesn't really make them unique. The initial point about agencies wanting to use clips that nobody else uses in their commercials doesn't work as the clips will be bought by multiple customers anyway.

-I don't like the fact that they are informing us about these details through a stream of 3 dudes sitting and talking about this for 40 minutes with comments and likes disabled for obvious reasons. How about an email with summary of important information?

All in all it seems like Pond5 is trying to get a bigger slice of the cake with nearly no effort put in. If I have 3 agencies that sell my clips equally well, I'm not going to just delete my portfolio on the other two because of extra 10% commission, that just doesn't make sense.

Basically that's my main thing: A buyer who would actually shop around would approach an artist directly anyway, were it a real concern. In fact I recently had a request via my site for a clip that I had been asked about from Pond5 staff ... so the buyer was using Pond5 services, but then they wanted to undercut them, and buy direct from me. THAT is uncool, and unfair, and THAT is honestly and loyalty on my part that I declined. Not whether I sell for more or less on other sites.

Exclusivity for an artist is not exclusivity for a clip. That's a whole separate deal, and I've only had that happen once,(and it wasn't related to or via Pond5) and the license was in perpetuity. The only reason I agreed was that the honor of being part of that major project far superceded the worry about the pay.

As it stands, IF I delete all my other accounts and IF Pond5 sells as much as I usually do, and I get that 60% on my bigger prices, THEN it would be worth it for me. And it is most likely that such is the case.

But I am responding more to the fact that the FEELING of this is not quite right. I want to give Pond5 the benefit of the doubt, because that's the kind of person I am. I trusted Revostock, too. Hmmm. But I also want to give voice to the fact that these misgivings indicate that the whole thing was not played well by Pond5.

No, I could not have offered better ways to do it. Yeah, if it's a "we need to cut commission because as a business things are changing and we need to do what we need to do to survive, and we require your help, and trust that you all will support us" thing ... then freaking SAY THAT, and the outcome will be better.

Instead, what is being proposed is that we are suddenly asked to do a huge amount of work .... remove clips/accounts from other sites, or to branch off and create entirely new entities/accounts on Pond5 and move clips around. That's a lot of time not being creative. Not making media. Not artistry. It's hard enough to find time for those things, and now it all has to stop while this kind of "management" needs to take place?

I really hope to hear this gets retracted until a better plan comes to the fore.

It is true, I could delete all clips on Storyblocks, Clipcanvas, a couple other ones I've even forgotten the names of, and of course I could put my Shutterstock account on hold. Adobe/Fotolia is another matter.

But if Pond5 is so easily taken aback/swayed, has to rush back to do corrective response to something like this, it wasn't as well-thought out as it should have been, and in a few months, like with the web priced clips, will they come back and say "oh sorry, nevermind, we changed our minds, and you all get 30%, sorry about losing all your work on those other sites ... "

Got P5 email... Interesting points but seems not well thought-out!
This is my first agency I ever uploaded and that was in far 2007.
1. Why the hell I need to be exclusive artist here and delete all my work on other places when I get more sales there than here?
2. What I get with exclusivity here? 60% of 0? Not boosted in search results? Not instructed on what to shoot and what are options to create clips to get sold? No creative director who will help exclusive artists to shoot what is needed and to get that sold?
3. I am considering to get exclusive only if I can mark my clips one by one. Not as an author of P5 because P5 is not such big player on the market who will be the best earning option.
4. Buyers who tell you they would pay premium can pay for someone who can shoot for them.
5. Exclusive license in its basis should mean so. That is 1 clip - 1 sale and big money.
6. Find only on P5 means that clips are only there and that may be done with just one flag by clicking it on upload page.
7. Making me to choose about two bad choices makes me feel bad and even furious.
8. Review here became too picky - which comes to that I don't upload for a while. Last time they rejected 14 of my 4K videos!
9. Sales here? IF they are every day I would not complain. But, they are just once in a while.

So, new exclusivity policy as presented here is as others already concluded: Shooting P5 in its own foot. In a long term it is similar to some other agencies who did similar things and ruined all the good what they was built from.

-P5 is 50/50 split and that should remain. Show that P5 is strong.
-Exclusivity is OK but only if author can flag clip as exclusive. Who is crazy enough to delete all other agencies and become exclusive with no guarantees that it will be better?
-Percentage of split is not crucial - so P5 made a miss-math on it. If author can make a pricing by himself, he will raise price to compensate percentage lost for being non-exclusive. P5 should think about staying in its own boundaries which made agency become what it is. And that is 50/50 split. IF you need exclusive content then just make it by enabling flagging of content and make some extra push for it in search results. If you even find someone sold the same thing on other places, and lower his price - you will possibly lose that content by author deleting it from P5!

And so on...

Just to add... I was exclusive NOT on ISTOCKPHOTO and that was good thing for me. I hope that I will not be forced to become Exclusive NOT on P5.

I would have to triple my income at P5 overnight to make going Exclusive feasible. So, that's not going to happen. My take-away is that I just got a 20% pay cut from Pond5. I've been here since 2009, and this seems like the end of an era for me. Not a good end.

I was confused when the email about this arrived and I am still confused.

1. Is P5 asking for exclusivity on everything or just when uploading new content that this will be an option?

2. If we uploaded content on P5 under the agreement that it was not exclusive to Pond 5, does that original contract still stand?

I recognise that there is usually fine print in contracts that state something along the lines of "we have the right to change the contract." But it would also be my (perhaps naive) understanding that a contract cannot be backdated. It would be like the law saying "we have changed the age u are allowed to drive and now you all owe us money."

3. So, if the content has sold on other sites is this a breach of exclusivity even though there was no exclusive content contractual obligation when the content sold?

If anyone can clarify some of this for me it would be appreciated. I am assuming P5 staff still visit and comment on forums but I'll be grateful for information from anyone.

Big, big mistake from Pond5.
I'm very disappointed.
My opinion, - P5 should have made standard fixed prices like on Shutterstok: SD:49, HD: 79, 4K: 179.
Or SD:45, HD: 75, 4K: 175!
IT IS ALL!
Pond5 must apologize to the authors and return the royalty 50%
P5 is 50/50 split and that should remain. Show that P5 is strong!

I live solely from stock. Placing all my eggs in just one basket makes it simply IMPOSSIBLE to make a living. The new contract only entices me to place my clips at even MORE agencies to make up for my loss of -20%. I had no intention to do this, but - dear Pond5 - you FORCE me to do so. I think you made a big mistake ....... unless your only aim is to reduce our share - knowing damn' well that most won't go for exclusivity. I'm very disappointed!!!

I solely live from stock for the past 9 years as well. This is a long play people and if Pond5 plays fair a good one. Lets say we all live in the same town and there are 5 farmers who sell the exact same kind of eggs. Farmer 1 says I need my business to grow and I have the exact same eggs so I cut prices or offer more discounts... Farmers 2-5 now have to respond in order not to lose market share from their customers who are finicky and love a good deal. Ahh now farmer 5 says I am going to get some different chickens that lay big brown eggs instead of just the little white ones. Now people stop by and and get the white or the rare big brown ones and farmer 5 is making more money. Farmer 5 chargers more for the big brown eggs because the others don't carry them. In the long run in order to stop the race to the bottom you have to have product that no one else does. Pond5 is not being greedy here they are looking at the buyer information they got and adding the big brown eggs. Now the real question is do they have enough market pull and for that only time will tell. In the end it is your choice on how and where you want your content sold and under what terms.