Videohive has stopped (Part 1)

Envato Authors Video Authors
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My Thoughts:

1. Authors Control The Prices as They Want
2. No Review Process At All.
3. Only 4 Projets Per Month ( from all your Duplicated Accounts (for Smart folks))
You can Upload 4 from every market (Jungle ,Hive etc) But You can’t Upload 5 and more projects from different VH Accounts you have ) If you are super fast You Have to pay Envato For Extra Projects. Money from these Extra Projects for Copyrights system not for new cars and stuff
4. Review Team Only Checking What’s Going On. They Only Document it.
5. Global Court System ( Authors and Envato Team Make Decisions and Vote )
This Global Court will Ban Authors that Do wrong stuff and Delete BS Copy-Paste Projects
6. Strong Copyrights System.
7. Give me Back Animated GIF Profile Image ! :slight_smile:

…
Thanks!

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I’m novice on videohive but changing in the licences sounds good. It gives more ‘flexibility’ for buyers.

Videohive is the biggest market of AE Templates. And I think Hive must expand not only in numbers of projects, but also in quality of the same one. So… The authors need motivation. :slight_smile:

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the strongness of videohive is review system. if there is no review process lots of rookies will try to upload and make more messer than uploading quality projects. Its always bad idea of running marketplace without review process

only 4 project a month are you kidding me for individuals its ok because 4 quality projects is not that easy. but team working hardly by givinig salaries and maintain offices they cant be able to get such income with 4 items for sure

my first project is approved i think with in 15 minutes i have almost seen 20 days review process here in my 5year membership. Reviewers always busy with new items they cant do documentation for it

Whatever alex said is right. I know him for long time and even he is cheering our community giving quality comments. i got some inspiration from even his projects in the begining.

The fact alex is saying each and everything is right about licenses

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Well, if it turned to topic with ideas…

1. About licence.
From time to time question from buyers pops up about what licence he should buy. So I think all of us understand the difference but the point is, for example, If my project have 3 versions inside and customer allowed by license to use this template for single end product, than should he buy it again to use it one more time just because he want some minor changes provided by the second version inside? It is confusing me a bit…

2. Pricing
A lot of suggestions was made here about author-driven price. Themeforest is already raged about it. So I think prices should be set by reviewer this way we can have fair price for items set by third-party, yet from time to time it is hard to understand how price is set, so authors should at least see criteria by which prices for their projects are set to get more understanding.

3. Reviewing process
It is absolutely must have. But for last few months there is being some projects that was based completely on tutorials from youtube. We also see from time to time, when people take old projects from elite authors, make minor tweeks and upload them again and this is really bad. I understand that reviewers have tons of work to do and with existing number of projects it is hard to track all derivative works, but this issue should be addressed.

4. Elite authors
And this is thing is really stings me as a new author. In the beginning of the topic there was some remarks towards new authors who just learn AE, like me for example. Of course we will look how elite authors work and try to copy some of the elements since when don’t yet have this sacred element of “creativity” which is just knowledge and the ability to generate new ideas based on previous experience. In the end - everything is remix. What really drives me mad is that if elite author and new author have similar projects the difference in sales will be enormous simple because one is elite and another is newbie with 2-paws no stars from customers and no means to endorse his work through targeted campaigns. A lot of new authors came here to get fast additional income and to learn how to make things that stand up on international level and the most easy and effective way to do that is to learn from elite and copy elements of their work by recreating it with hope for some sales.

5. SEO
That one thing is what rises most of the questions for me. So it is not enough for example to make good project. It can be simply be proved by the number of the views of the item page. I need to do a tremendous work to advertise my projects through social media and etc. And it is really hard for single author when obviously under some accounts there is a whole studio with marketing department. And after that I can’t hardly get advertised by envato because I am not elite or don’t have enough rating stars on my items.

So to make some conclusions - I understand that for some old authors old times are always better and you don’t like new authors to much for lots of simple and second-grade work from your point of view. But I don’t think videohive stopped, I think that lack of feedback from community, and by community I mean old and new authors, on some key moments lead to this point where old authors don’t like to do new things and for new authors fastest way to grow their portfolio is to copy old authors’ work and trade their creativity for working solutions.

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Thank you, @felt_tips, for your attention to this thread, and for your words. This is really important for all of us to get a look from the people who work for a long time in the industry, and who has seen a big change over this long time.

I don’t think that Videohive has totally stopped, of course not, but I think that Videohive has stopped at the part of the adoption of very important decisions and changes that were ripe a long time ago. How you’ve said: “Maybe it was a funky young upstart, it grew and now it’s part of the establishment”. I agree with you, and now adult life requires more serious and responsible decisions. Awkward age is never easy. :slight_smile: And to be honest, “Videohive has stopped” was needed also to pay attention to the thread because I believe it is very important. And also I believe that Videohive needs right changes to eventually it has not turned so that is happening with Photodune right now.

The idea of this article appeared a year ago, but only now I finally decided to do it. I’m really happy that Mark said that they are working on changes. Actually, I’m sure that they started working on changes long before the appearance this thread, but I just hope that we, authors can help them to draw attention to the points that could be overlooked. The opportunity to communicate with all members of the community here, to get feedback, was always one of the greatest advantages of Envato. Well, let’s see what it will be. :slight_smile:



Also, I want to thank you authors who wrote here, thank you very much for your support and the feedback. Also, I want to tell that I do not feel that I have done something serious. I just expressed an opinion based on my experience and formed after contact with few old authors. Something serious here could do only Mark with the team. I am 100% sure that neither I or my article can not draw attention to themselves without your support, thus, it is I who should thank you that my opinion was noticed. So, thank you, guys!
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Cheers, man! It takes some courage and dignity to bring such things to discussion in such polite manner.

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Good points.

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Elite authors were all Level 1 authors at one point.

If you want fast additional income then you’d be better working at McDonalds. Unless you have an existing portfolio, then earnings on VideoHive are highly unlikely to be ‘fast’, although there are rare exceptions.

Copying other people’s work may be easy and effective, but it’s also wrong! Well… that depends on how much you’re copying and recreating (which is definitely wrong) and how much you’re influenced and inspired (which might not be wrong!).

You don’t need to, but it will help. A good project will sell no matter what, but if you have great SEO and a decent social media presence then it will probably sell more. And you’re right, if you’re Elite, then you’ll probably sell more again… but that makes sense as they’re going to be higher up the ‘top authors’ list and they’ll have more followers, and they’ll have got to Elite by making great stuff, so they kind of deserve to be there!

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Thank you Wayman, Great Post.

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Great Post, time for some changes .

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Thank you Wayman ! Good post !

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Thanks to @Wayman for bringing these topics up. I’m an old-ish timer as well (since 2010), but have not been as consistently active in the VH community. I have often looked up to authors like @Wayman @elements and @felt_tips who have been stellar examples of unique and creative authors and who also help out the community in the forums. Thanks.

My main grievance… ahem

SEPARATE THE STOCK FOOTAGE FROM MOTION GRAPHICS TEMPLATES

That said, looking at my own experience on VH, I have to agree more with @felt_tips in that the community has changed but not stopped exactly. I can certainly confirm suspicions that VH is the redheaded stepchild… Theme Forest is the lion-share of the revenue and web/code are where new developments are focused, so it is not surprising that VH does not receive very much love and innovation.

Personally I have never treated VH as a main source of income, but rather an outlet where I can turn when freelance dries up for a spell. I can almost guarantee that time spent developing work for VH will not be a waste, because on balance it has paid me for work that I’ve put in, especially considering that without VH, such work would have no market at all. If one particular template doesn’t sell (and boy has that happened), at least I have developed skills creating it that I can bring to bear on other projects. Learning to work clean, modular, and with as few keyframes as possible has been a great bonus to developing content for VH.

I do little VH work at all in a given year and my sales are fairly level– the long tail on some templates is amazing (I still sell several copies of my first template each month). But my expectations are modest– I’m still below 4000 in total sales. I make enough money each month to pay my rent– no more than that.

However, if another marketplace pops up with better terms, I would jump ship without hesitation… Too many little things bug me like the ones you have mentioned. For instance, I am not at all happy about being taxed on the gross sales from the market place rather that the net payment we receive. And the general level of garbage that you have to sift through is too high. To my limited knowledge, the other sites don’t currently compete (correct me if I’m wrong– I’d love to know).

About licenses:
I understand everyones frustrations: they are not clear. The pages that explain the licenses are cobbled together and were created at different times and seem to contradict one another. At the very least these should be updated with better, clearer information so that both authors and buyers are better informed. What would be great is if there were a few toggle boxes you clicked when buying that led you to the appropriate license… You would select your use-case from a drop down to get your specific license.

Also, I would love a multi-use license. I think some buyers believe that’s what the extended license is (it’s not).

Even authors in this thread here are misunderstanding the difference between standard and extended licenses… Just to clarify for @Gesh_tv @DigitalT1ger (not to call you out) – the extended license is only for use in ‘end products’ that are charged for. That’s the only difference. Not the number of uses (you can reuse both a standard and extended-use license multiple times for a “series”– up to 52 times in fact, but you may never use the same license for two separate clients).

What constitutes “charged for” is hard to figure out… A clear example of “charged for” “end product” is if your work is included in a movie that people buy tickets for. On the other hand, if your work is used in a trade show that people paid to attend, was the ‘end product’ paid for? If your work is shown on broadcast TV that people pay a cable subscription to see, was the ‘end product’ paid for? These questions are open to interpretation as far I can tell.

I believe the root of this problem is that the license terms were created for the other marketplaces, failing to consider the specifics of motion graphics and video.

This has been a topic for years. I don’t expect that to change now, but I hope it does.

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughtful posts… Lets hope for a bright VH future.

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Just to clarify… do you mean a separate marketplace? So AE templates on one site and stock footage/motion graphics on another?

Good point on the trade show example… that one’s a definite grey area! I’ve always been under the impression that use on a paid for cable TV channel would need an extended license… hard to say where or when I read that one though!

One thing to note, not sure if you’re aware… there is a multi-use license for motion graphics items, and stock footage, but not for AE templates. No extended license though, so the price to use on Youtube is the same as for a blockbuster movie… and the price to use in unlimited blockbuster movies, is only four times more than the price to use in one Youtube video.

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Good question, and I’m not sure if I know exactly. What I don’t like about the combo is that the landing page for VH gets swamped in stock footage. Also, I’d like to be able to curate my portfolio to separate my stock items from the templates. I’d like to control how the portfolio gets viewed. I’d be fine if stock moved to its own marketplace, but it maybe would be too harmful to what already exists. I have no idea if anyone else shares my issues, so let me know one way or the other.

I’d love to see where you found that!

I totally forgot this; thanks for reminding. What you bring up about the Youtube vs movie usage doesn’t sound good to me either. Most other stock licenses are by use-case like web, retail, broadcast, film, corporate, ect. This would bee a better way!

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100% Agree with this, I’m really upset with how envato decided to handle 1099’s and really wish they would use common sense.

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I agree with @Wayman Thank you for your post!

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I completely agree, @Wayman! Absolutely detailed

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Hold on, I’ve just thought… in my Marvel Cinematic Universe example, I based the calculation on them buying a multi-use license. But as the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be considered ‘part of a series’ they wouldn’t even have to buy a multi-use license. They would have to use the item in 52 weeks, but still… they could finish the effects for at least a few movies in a year.

So a $19 song, used in three Marvel movies in a year: $912 (or $304 if they could also get away with the old ‘part of a series’ clause)
An $8 motion graphics clip, used in three Marvel movies in a year: $8

That would be bitter sweet if they used one of your clips. “Hey Dave, I hear they used one of your stock clips in three Marvel movies this year… that is so cool, you must be so stoked! I bet you made a ton of money on that?!”

"Erm, yeah… so anyway, nice weather we’ve been having, right?!

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Waymen thanks! Very good post. Let’s hope that it will be heard by the envato team

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Hi All :slight_smile: Missed you guys. Videohive has changed but its still great place that everybody gets the freedom to create whatever he wants . It was great please where you could compete with others very talented guys and had great comunity with forum. With the years the comunity dissapeared the quality of the projects in general rised , but it was also flooded with projects that has very much in common. We all see that :frowning: but we have to admit that it still makes it’s main purpose - it is still great marketplace, where clients (with more browsing than before) can find good projects for their needs and we can still make living of it. if we can have the comunity that was in the begining it will be awsome :slight_smile:
greetings

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