sell your stock footage and loops online

[shedli]

Hi all,

I?m very happy to announce the beta launch of Pond5.com, a web-based stock footage marketplace.

Pond5 is a revolutionary new way to buy and sell downloadable, royalty-free stock video footage over the web. Sellers can upload their footage and make it available to a global marketplace of buyers, who can search for, preview, purchase and download clips ? instantly, online, 24-hours a day.

We?re currently looking for video content creators and copyright-holders who are interested in partnering with us to sell their work online. We accept high-quality footage of all subjects and type ? including motion graphics and vj loops. Artists get 50% commissions on all sales, monthly payouts, a non-exclusive contract and complete control over their work.

Also, we have a referral program, so if you sign up and invite your friends, you will earn 5% of everything they buy or sell on the site, for a year (they will of course still earn their full 50% commission; the 5% comes from our end).

And for those of you looking for footage, we have a small but rapidly growing collection of royalty-free clips available for purchase and instant download.

You can check out the site at
http://www.pond5.com

and feel free to email me directly with any questions or comments.

all best
tom bennett
tom /at/ pond5 /dot/ com

[andythetwig]

very enterprising- but most of the clips seem like holiday snaps though... got any more vj friendly stuff?

Is there anything else in your services besides hosting the clips and selling them? (using a free shopping cart system by the looks of things)... will you be promoting contributors outside messageboards and investing in some marketing?

Sorry, I don't want to be cynical, it's just 50% seems like a lot of money for what is essentially an automated service.

[shedli]

hey there Andy,

Well, we?ve just launched the beta and begun recruiting artists, so there?s not a huge selection in terms of clips -- a couple hundred HDV and DV clips online now, but we?re hoping to grow fast.

As far as the 50% commission ? this is actually very competitive in the stock footage industry. Our system isn?t entirely automated ? we individually review all clips as they come in, to check for quality and content. So there?s a certain amount of work involved on our part, not to mention the long development and testing process, and the ongoing process of making improvements and adding new features.

BTW, we?re not using a pre-packaged cart system ? it, and the rest of the site, has been programmed from the ground up.

As soon as we reach a critical mass of quality clips, we?ll be launching a major advertising/pr campaign to bring as much business as possible to our artists. Obviously, though, the clips have to come first.

In the meantime, we?ll be adding a slew of new features. We?ve already got things like an artist?s page with blog for every registered user, sitemail, a robust search interface, streamlined uploading and tagging (metadata) utilities, etc. Also, we?ve got an ajax-enabled cart and clip bin deal, which is a little hard to explain but they are very cool (imo). You?ll need to register for an account to check them out.

And we plan on adding a lot more ? ratings and comments, galleries / shared clip bins, rss feeds, things along those lines. A lot will depend on the feedback we get from artists ? we?ll be working hard to make it the best place to buy and sell stock footage on the web.

Thx for the feedback

Tom

[USE]

does anyone else feel very aprehensive about sellign clips online? i mean fair enough, we all mix em differently, but in a way they are half the battle. i spose if i had been doing this long enough to have clips i was bored with or had replaced, i'd do it, but surely making clips is a lot of your identity, and i wouldnt wanna sell that.

[andythetwig]

BTW, we?re not using a pre-packaged cart system ? it, and the rest of the site, has been programmed from the ground up.

my mistake, sorry!

the artist pages sound like a great idea... it takes long enough to produce clips without having to worry about a website as well...

[andythetwig]

does anyone else feel very aprehensive about sellign clips online? i mean fair enough, we all mix em differently, but in a way they are half the battle. i spose if i had been doing this long enough to have clips i was bored with or had replaced, i'd do it, but surely making clips is a lot of your identity, and i wouldnt wanna sell that.
this is true, but musicians don't have control over the time and place their music is played either. When I'm djing and I play a good tune, people come and ask who it's by, as interest grows in vjing, I think the same will be true about video clips. provided the clips are of good enough quality and individual enough, wouldn't it be great if thousands of party goers were watching them in hundreds of clubs at the same time?