changes to search engine

When searching for music without any key words added, 43 of the top 50 tunes are by the same provider. A company that sells music (and advertises as such) on a site outside of Pond5. This same company continues to feature very prominently in the next 20 or so tunes - where i gave up counting. I think it would be more equitable to share this high profile placement with other artists - especially those who do not own another site in which to buy music. This would hopefully be in the best interest of Pond 5 because it would not encourage music to be bought elsewhere.

Those are probably the most sold items, and the company is pushing sales to P5 if they are the top result. So p5 probably wants them at the top if people continue to buy their work. The search results are definitely weighted (theoretically) to the best content suited to that search string, because that means people are getting the search results they want and getting to what they need the quickest.

I really with they would force add this to all searches : artist:dapoopta

Why would someone pay $500 for a still image on a "Royalty Free" site. Especially since there are lots of similar images (some even better, in my opinion) that are considerably less expensive. Because some agencies are using Pond5 to distribute their "Rights Managed" content.

Wait! "Pond5 doesn't do Rights Managed." Correct, but some agencies handle the rights managed license themselves with their clients and then just have the client purchase the item from Pond5. Why? Because Pond5's 50% share is greater than the typical 15% to 25% of the top RM sellers like Getty. So they can sell RM licenses to their clients directly and use Pond5 for distribution and make more money than with other agencies.

Brilliant strategy.

You could be right dapoopta, but i would be surprised if 43 out of the top 50 of all tunes and genres bought (out of 400 000 available) are from the same supplier. The search that provides the results i have discussed is not made by putting in terms eg country music. It is purely when you click on music and search, so the buyer is not necessarily getting to what they want quickest.

Personally I found this because i was looking for some audio that was Public Domain that I had heard. So i can imagine someone who is just curious what this Pond 5 is all about and whether it would suit them could follow the same choices as I did. Therefore they are exposed to one artist or company, which increases that companies exposure and skews future results.

I do think that as a tune is bought it is moved up the list of a particular search term and that is fair enough. But when just clicking on a search for music with no keywords, again i would be surprised if 43/50 tunes of all genres sold are from the one producer.

those tracks are neither the most sold on this site (generally most sold) nor the most recent adds to pond5. how is this possible? it's like pond5 on purpose favored them. if any admin reading this, could you explain?