desperate moves...this industry will collapse soon and that's why everybody is trying to make the last penny. unfortunately is simply the truth.

I doubt he is 'struggling'. It does look like good, popular content, so educated guess - if he is on the major agencies, I'd say about $10-$15k/month at least.

But I would say he knows storyblocks makes $20 million+ year with their subscription model, motionarray makes about $400k/year currently with their stock video category, envato - don't know their numbers - but I believe it is in the millions, and he wants a cut of that/up his profit to maybe $50-$60k/month, if not more.

What I don't know is if he has the marketing experience/know how to achieve that, because it is a lot easier said than done - especially as these agencies have been around for 7/15 years approx respectively, and going into it will be a bit of work. Not that it's impossible - it's not - but I don't know if he knows the work involved.

The fact he posted "here" telling his competition that he is going to undercut them significantly, instead of making more intelligent marketing decisions leads me to believe he is rather new to marketing.

Quote from: David Baumber on April 16, 2019, 13:05

Hello,

I'll come out from under my rock if you promise not to pelt me with Rice Crispie.

Yes I'm responsible. I started FilmHERO.com 2 years ago.  It started as an idea with my partner in crime Helen Fields. We wanted to become more independent. The idea grew and evolved from there as the industry changed over that time.  I'm not an agency that's supporting other artists.  We run an expensive business, as you all know, video is not cheap to produce and it's become unsustainable.

The cut that all agencies take from us leaves us too little to secure our futures.  We had to move into a different model with better control over our assets, that would be more effective going into the future. We're not the first. Others are already doing it - take a look at Storyblocks. Nothing we do is designed to impact anyone else, but this was the only business model that showed ongoing promise rather than slow decline, and believe me, we spent years studying it. Subscription is coming - the larger agencies are already discussing it - and when that happens the cut we get is likely to drop dramatically. So we invested . in ourselves, in our own site. We spent years working 12 hour days, saving money, busting ourselves to provide for our family.  Us sitting around moaning about the decline of the industry wasn't an option.  We're happy to answer any (polite) questions.
 
Thank you

David Baumber

the situation is dramatic that's the only truth i read from your words. fee facto giving away your great content hoping to make some money because even video soon will be worst than photo.
nfrotunately this is the truth fro everybody who want to live out of this. no matter the quality of content produced, as you are simply proving that even top notch are struggling. sure this can be stil for years good holy and side line earning but to live out of this you need more than a miracle. live i mean earning more than 100k years as independent and more as house of production.

Gloom and doom is all I hear but on the bright side can you still find a way to survive? He will get some buyers but he can't span the subject matter that is needed for most people! Hence Pond5 and the others.

Hello everyone!!!  We are incredibly excited to announce the launch of the FilmHERO marketplace.   We feature:

✔ 12,000+ 4K+ Clips
✔ Unlimited Clip Downloads
✔ 100% Royalty Free
✔ Exclusively Shot on RED in 4K+
✔ New footage added weekly

UNLIMITED downloads of our entire 12,000 clip archive is ONLY $29 per month. 
www.filmhero.com


For a limited time, we are also offering an additional 15% off promo to celebrate our launch.  This brings the monthly subscription down to $24.50.  For promotional pricing, use coupon code LAUNCH15 at checkout.


Please feel free to reach out with any feedback or questions.  Cheers!!
- FilmHERO Team
[email protected]


www.filmhero.com

Get out of here with this garbage, you aren't welcome on this forum. Go sell photos if you want to make peanuts.

Hey all, 

Yes I have a business plan, a marketing team and a small'ish budget to give it our best shot.  We have an idea of what FilmHero is capable of but all business is a gamble.  I've talked about being independent with other artists for literally years and now I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

Just to reiterate, this is 100% my own content shot over many years and call me crazy but I'm not trying to eat your lunch.

I love this business like you wouldn't believe and I've been around it since the early days.... really early.  I enjoy the distribution and sales of content as much as shooting and wake up everyday thinking about it.

I wish I was making the $'s that's banded around here.  If I were I'd be happy to cash in.  I have a business, staff and family to consider for the next 10 years.  I'm not quite old enough to retire..... well nearly.

FilmHero.com is a brilliant site and I'm very proud of the dev team. It's NOT a template from Shopify, it's 100% java built from the ground up so it's super fast at delivering the video.  That was a stressful build but also immense fun to see it come alive.

David

Hi David, did I out you? 

If you want to keep this crowd happy, make a good effort at supporting exclusive pond5 content. A lot of people are rallying around that project and 60% is pretty fair.

Plus it will bring eyeballs to your own website and thus leads for filmhero, but I am sure you already know that.

I agree with the fear of subscription, but the difference is that the video producer community is much smaller and better networked. If high quality content is withheld from subs, you guys will have many more years of good income than we did in photography.

Please consider also talking to Pat Gowan from Blackbox. He has a lot more ideas for the future then just distributing content to agencies. You might find some of that interesting enough to support.

He also now has 40 000 people supplying BB, which does give him some options in negotiating with agencies.They are not supplying Istock/getty which seem to have by far the lowest prices for video subs. Even if the contributors just upload 10 clips a year to bb, that is 400 000 flies year that are not going to the subscription market.

I sincerly wish you guys all the best, you have worked hard enough.

The crowd here is tough, but I find that very helpful.

No name producer. Hey Bill did you see film hero? .. I sure did... go ahead and get the 6 month sub at $179.00 and download all the clips he has... sure thing boss we gotta love guys like him who doesn't know the value of their work! Hey boss we don't need all those...take them anyway who knows what we will need in the future and be sure to cancel the subscription when you are done! We can check back in a few years to see if we want to do this again.

If you want to make your own site then do so! at least charge $49.00 per clip which for your quality will still bring you a lot more money then your sub. program! Also most buyers need more options so the subscription will not have a lot of value in a couple of months.

No name producer. Hey Bill did you see film hero? .. I sure did... go ahead and get the 6 month sub at $179.00 and download all the clips he has... sure thing boss we gotta love guys like him who doesn't know the value of their work! Hey boss we don't need all those...take them anyway who knows what we will need in the future and be sure to cancel the subscription when you are done! We can check back in a few years to see if we want to do this again.

If you want to make your own site then do so! at least charge $49.00 per clip which for your quality will still bring you a lot more money then your sub. program! Also most buyers need more options so the subscription will not have a lot of value in a couple of months.

but even ask 19 dollar for 1080 and 39 for 4k...is much lower than pond5 but higher probably than what they earn in crediti in pond5. as i said this is a move to earn as much as possible in short time...for me it's a bad sign from a video top notch producer who is practically telling the market that even video cow  has finished the milk...

This is a fast cash grab. I have no doubt he will make a bunch of money in the short term but he's sinking his (and our) long term prospects in this industry.

the fact that is last production and files are aerial or cheaper production tells me they made a lot of money but also spend lot of money also in production and taxes, because they are  western company...probably they want right now recover and capitalize this till they can and till pond5 will go subscription plan also. as i said multiple time you can produce big files and work hard mostly in eastern country or poor country...ding this in western world is so * hard due to cost.

cant get more moronic, offer your whole library for 29 dollar and allow a full download of the library in one month. not very business savvy. best invest some money to hire a CCO

Not true,  I am living on my stock and Pond5 is not going sub that is why they are going Exclusive! Yes I know I have talked with the owner

They already have subs, they call it the membership collection.

Over 400 000 files and the artists receive no information how often the files are downloaded.

I really like pond5, but it is important to look at everything.

I fully understand they have subs, I am not a part of their sub plan and am doing just fine the subs market for video is just not there! people use their smartphones for social media video not stock, advertisers use stock and can pay for it!

Sadly, the market is well there, hidden for now, but growing. They're covering instagram post, facebook and twitter ads. With these low prices, people won't bother shooting with their phone anymore.

And as people get lazier, these companies get richer and will eventually crash the video market.

https://promo.com/for/instagram-posts?utm_content=header

Of course I know that but I am not a part of subs! So you can survive well without them!