Just got an e-mail saying there is a change coming to the contributor agreement coming... hope it really is "good news"...

Keyword is "impact"

"How changes will impact to you"

...and i thought that i misschose words!

Anyway,  as a newbie i am (still) an optimist, plus that I loved the "dear Artist" greeting at the beginning of the mail!

Haven't received the email, could someone copy-paste it?

Doesn't look good.........hope I am wrong...............

Dear Artist,
We are making important changes to your Contributor Agreement this month. On Thursday, March 21 at 12:00 pm EST, we�ll be hosting a YouTube Live Town Hall event to walk you through what�s changing, explain how it will impact you, and answer your questions live.
 
The meeting will be hosted by Pond5 CEO Jason Teichman; Scott Koehler, GM, Artists & Content; and Greg Andreacchi, Senior Manager, Artists & Content. Please RSVP below to join us for the discussion. We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Predictions:

• They'll "suggest" we price more in-line with other agencies if your material is duplicated there.
• They'll "suggest" we seriously consider uploading exclusive content with a premium price point.
• They'll "suggest" we start liking the idea of a subscription-based marketplace.

Whatever it may be, I think we can bet that 2019 will be the year the stock market takes a left turn.

It is going to a fixed price model or something along those lines. It is a revenue grab. It ties right into the RESEARCH they just conducted on the optimal video pricing.  Why on earth would they do research on video pricing when it is a contributor sets the price model? They wouldn�t. So expect this to be bad news spun as good news that ends up being bad news. Volume will go up...bla bla.

@jjneff

I like the video a lot.

I agree with everything you say, unfortunately it has been my experience that many company execs oder higher up managers simply don�t understand how to build a community and how to work with one. istock had many clever tools that allowed the community to essentially be self organising. From a clear royalty plan that you could spend  years working on and that gave you a reliable framework to invest in your shootings, to the excellent gallery system that allowed you to organize your port and make it easy for the customer. Plus any kind of entrepreneurial talent was actively encouraged by the management team. If you had good ideas, you�d often found yourself literally drafted in and the positive energy was used to propel the business forward.

On many agencies there is fear of interacting directly with the community. Management sits in walled of glass houses, never goes online themselves. When they do, you can tell they have very little online communication experience and many of them don�t have portfolios of their own, they have no practical experience in selling. On istock many admins had ports. If sales were slow, everyone felt it. Yes, there were a lot of discussions, but this free flowing communication, allowed ideas to rise. Many people where entrepreneurs anyway, it was not just the classical artist, many stock shooters have practical experience in running an online business. istock saw them all as little shop owners and offered them a professional plattform. In other places you get the �shut up and shoot� vibe, or the �you are an artist - please don�t worry your pretty little head about these difficult business things�...money is dirty...don�t think about it...it is condescending and not empowering.

I do believe we are lucky that in 2019 we are living in a multi polar world of agencies and I think that Adobe entered directly was one of the best things ever for producers.

 Now we have 3-4 large companies and many, many smaller places. I think this is much better for us, than being dependent on one superlarge global marketplace.

I am worried what will happen to pond5, they are one of the few places with a supportive community vibe. And being able to price your clips yourself is their true advantage.

If the coming changes mean, they take that away...well...I guess this will mean that it opens up a place for a different or new agency to offer that important advantage that so many producers believe in.

But let us see what they have to say...however, the producers are not helpless. If the new system is no advantage to us, people will start looking for a new place. There is balance after all, producers control the upload streams. If the money is unreliable, the quality will go down quickly, because nobody will invest in their shootings.

We don�t work for �likes�.

Don't be so pessimistic.
I think the video part, which is doing well,  will remain the same. They will launch huge photo part advertising campaign and to do this lower commission to 40% + standardise prices.

Dear Artist,
We are making important changes to your Contributor Agreement this month. On Thursday, March 21 at 12:00 pm EST, we�ll be hosting a YouTube Live Town Hall event to walk you through what�s changing, explain how it will impact you, and answer your questions live.
 
The meeting will be hosted by Pond5 CEO Jason Teichman; Scott Koehler, GM, Artists & Content; and Greg Andreacchi, Senior Manager, Artists & Content. Please RSVP below to join us for the discussion. We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Thanks, seems like I did receive the email, except they didn't mention contrbutor agreement changes in the subject. Just a discreetly titled "Join us in the next Live Artist Town Hall"...

I have a bad feeling it's not going to be good news for us. This will not be some minor change. Why else would they plan a live Q&A session with the CEO and two managers from the Artist and Content department? They're probably expecting quite a lot of questions and concerns, so they're doing this session to prevent massive panic and social media backlash.

I'm not sure telling people there is a big announcement in a week is the best way to avoid panic!

I'm not sure telling people there is a big announcement in a week is the best way to avoid panic!

On the other hand, how happy would everyone be with, "Oh by the way, new unannounced change." We've had our share of those as well.

I think P5 is up front and tries to communicate with us in the open. Come on folks, announcing a video conference is now starting a panic? LOL Are we that suspicious and that distrustful of agencies? Hmm, that might be a yes?

I expect that they will remove the option to price your clips if those are not exclusive to P5

Wouldn't this exclusivity be a good thing though?
If other agencies see users deleting or stalling new uploads in favor of Pond5?
They should have to give good, or better alternatives to keep contributors?