Other sizes

I didn't see this in the forums but I was wondering if P5 was going to have a way of selling smaller sizes of our clips.
We would still be able to control the prices though.
I think some people may want smaller sizes then the HD I sell now.

Ok, guys don't throw rocks at me. I'm just askin'

Jake

We've talked about this in the past and I know it was in the plans. Is it still? I hope so.

Bryan

I've talked to Tom about it, for me I don't like it. I see too many small ones sold at other place and don't believe it will increase bottom line sales. I owned five restaurants in two states that were based on volume at low prices. It didn't work when you are under-cutting yourself. The chain almost failed until they increased quality and raised prices. (That chain still sucks and glad to out of it, extremely poort senior leadership that only thought of their own profits and the expense of the franchisees.) I believe if a buyer needs a clip the difference between paying $50 for HD that they can use multiple times in various media to $30 for a SD where use is limited ... will not make a difference. If the buyer is smart he'll pay the $50 and down-size it to use over and over. Now if we were selling clips at $100 plus then it may make sense. Yes P5 is great at 50% and we will make more per sale on SD than we do at SS or IS, I don't like micro-agencies or those who try to act like one. I think P5 has made great progress but still has a long way to go at what they are trying to do now. I see other sites that offer various sizes, with better marketing I also see more full size HD clips selling than SD or web size. A bad business model is to lower prices then start better marketing. Market, sell, brag, pat yourself on your back and then if needed drop quality and prices. BUT, once ya go down ya can't go back without losing buyers. Better quality, better marketing, better visibility first. Then I may be convinced. Yes, Tom and team are still considering it, I hope they focus on what we have first, we're taking baby steps still, wait until we are ready to run. Currently we have a new "look" to the web site but it's still the same functionality. Let's get the functionality caught up before begging for lower quality. AND yes it will be up to the seller to opt-in and set his prices. I still think many sellers are under-cutting themself with too low prices.
So I'm off my soap box, thanks P5 and team, you've made some great improvements, keep working on these and improving review and approval times before implementing new features.
Thanks and I'm ready to be beat by your baseball bats ;)
Don

Hi Don, no baseball bats here :))) I understand and agree with what you are saying about smaller sizes when it comes to professional buyers. The market for our brand CrackerClips is a mixture of both professional and non-professional buyers. Non-professional buyers (which by the way there are many more of these) aren't necessarily that knowledgeable about licensing and editing video. Many just want a clip for their blog or website and simply want to buy it, download it and upload it directly for their application. No editing, no tweaking and no resizing. This is where smaller sized files come in to play. For a pro-buyer you're right it makes no sense to save a couple of dollars and miss out on the current or future benefit a full HD clip offers but for others it needs to be easier. In addition, I'd be happier selling these small web-sized clips at Pond5 rather than elsewhere at a lower commission.

Cheers,
Bryan

Yup, I agree much better here than somewhere else at 20-30% and a fixed price.

Some time back P5 said they would put a list together of major companies that are buying from P5. I know it is impossible to list individual web buyers but at least a basic list of the top buyers and then a breakdown (pie chart or bar graph) of type of buyers. This could include tv, internet advertising, basic web use, broadcast etc etc. This may help us to see where our buyers are coming from. So far all we know of is Disney subsidiary DreamWorks. How about it P5, is it possible to give us a better idea of who the buyers are and maybe intended use. Yes, I know the clips are RF and actual usage information isn't known, but a good idea of major users may help.

I do agree that many smaller producers and web sites don't want to or don't know how to change size or quality and that's where we may pickup some incremental sales, not a bad idea, just not totally sold yet.

Maybe on the P5 buyers page a bold faced flashing in the face message telling the advantage of buying HD would help. Sorry, I wasn't thinking of all the artists that are not selling HD YET. With inexpensive HD cameras available now it might be a good idea to look forward too ;).

Oh just to let ya'll know, in may I've sold 10 HD clips most at $55, no SD clips or no low priced HD. Not a real business profit yet but P5 is working better each month.
Thanks,
Don

I would like the web sized clips to come but it should include the option to opt out for those who do not like that idea, whether for all of their clips or just for some.

With respect to SD and HD, or HD downconverted to SD:
1.I personally will not upload HD until they implement at least native HDV streams.
2.If I were a buyer who needs SD, I would buy SD, because even if the clip is very good you never know if there will not be a better one when HD became mandatory...:).

But, what seems more important to me at this moment is the implementation of a state of the art frame rate conversion between the most important formats like NTSC 29,97 / 30 fps and PAL 25. You might say that if you submit to an US-site you should buy an NTSC cam and you might be right at this point of the game. But imho it is better for all of us not to depend too much on one single market, even if it´s the biggest in the world, and there is no better business than this one for going international. No shipping, no import taxes, instant delivery and use. Hope this is still in the plans...

Cheers,
Stefan

Hey Don,
No bats here. I value your opinion on this. (and I knew you would have a strong one) :-)
I just think we need to offer more choices to the customers. I think we're missing some sales that are going elsewhere. Of course I could be wrong on that, depends on what clientele P5 draws in.
I do enjoy getting 50% of something here then 20% of something anywhere else.

I didn't want to reopen what seems to have been talked about, I missed the post. Sorry guys.

Jake

This is just a fun subject to talk about. I do like Stefan's idea that maybe a more important sales avenue would be a great conversion to PAL or 25/30 Progressive for European sales. There are a few agencies over the pond but having a major player like P5 step in with 40,0000 clips ready with a conversion program to allow all of our 29.97 interlaced clips to be purchased as a European standard format would be a tremendous market to open. A few search engine tweeks and the doors to Europe could swing open like we all dream. Whatcha think "His Program Majesty" Marcus .... possible?
Don

I agree with Don's statement about downsized clips... However I think there should be an option where you can download a 1080 HD clip as a 720 HD version. Just because a lot of people prefer 720 HD clips. (because of the smaller sizes etc) It would be the same price.... just a different download option.

...but you can't start selling Ferraris, you have to start with Toyotas. You cant start off with high quality. What business model are you talking about where you start off at the top? When p5 started there were like 100 clips here... all the marketing in the world wouldn't have helped them.

It annoys me when I hear people who talk about how they are going to be famous with their 'big' movie script, and they have NO experience, they haven't won any script writing contests. They expect to just waltz right in to hollywood.

I do of course prefer it the other way around Don, I want my PAL clips converted to NTSC to give them more chances on the US-market :)...

Anyway, if this comes it will definitely go in the two directions together with some marketing in Europe, hopefully. I remember a post from P5 were they were stating that format conversions are in the plans. Probably they got enough work to get started with V1.0 like it is right now. But when the time has come to implement some new features, this one would be a great and important one for a pure video site like P5.

Greetings,
Stefan