DroneBase Getty Images

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I've been working with DroneBase since January and done various pano and client missions with them. I'm thinking about upgrading to a P4 so I can do Getty Images cityscapes and stuff, well not just upgrading for that reason. I'm wanting to find as many ways as possible to help the drone pay for itself. Has anyone out there been uploading to Getty images via dronebase and, if so, are you getting paid? How often and what are the most desirable shots to upload to get paid?
 
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I’ve submitted a vid of some footage I had just to see what it was about but never heard anything back. No word on if it was accepted/rejected or anything else.
 
Ya, the whole Getty thing is oddly executed. They're so vague with what they want. I would advise only submitting videos that you create for your own leisure since we have 0 data about payout. I might submit some shots from my Florida vacation in a couple weeks and update with the results.

Side note, I can't find the pano missions in the app anymore...
 
Why send your footage to DB so "they" can send it to Getty and take part of the commission? Sign up with Getty yourself, and submit your footage directly.
 
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I started shooting footage for Getty last week. I live in a small town, so the cityscapes thing never interested me. Now that they are taking any interesting footage, I've been able to submit a lot of nature shots. One thing we have here in WV is some beautiful country! I've submitted around 6 so far, most are between 8 and 15 seconds, and I have been paid for 3 of them. The payout is rather instant, usually within 30 minutes or so of me submitting footage. I really don't understand the payout system though. They seem to pay $15 per accepted shot, and if I read it right, you can get commission if the footage sells. How much the commission is, who knows. The odd thing is some of my shots were rejected due to content, but it does not tell me what content prompted the rejection. I've emailed Dronebase about this, as how am I suppose to avoid rejected footage if I have no idea what I am doing wrong.

This is all you see when you go into the mission details. It tells you to "See guidline", but that just takes you to the generic page that says footage should be 4k, 5-60 seconds in length, etc. Nothing specific to my footage:

upload_2018-2-21_8-5-31.png
 
I've uploaded around 20 clips and 1 was accepted for $15. No reason given for the ones they rejected, I have no idea what they are looking for.
 
I submitted nine 'Creative Missions' to DB for Getty back in September and never heard a thing. Recently, I was looking around on Getty Images and all nine of my videos were on there for sale for a minimum of several hundred dollars each! I was a little peeved to say the least. I submitted four more videos this past week and all four were quickly accepted (I got an e-mail from DB indicating this was so within a day or two of submission) and I also got a notification that all four 'sold' and I was paid $15 each. I've queried DB asking why they never notified me the original nine I submitted were accepted. No answer. I also stated I was very unimpressed with the process they have. They have so far answered no questions or explained how they monitor sales by Getty and ensure our royalties are paid correctly. This is classic DroneBase communication from my experience. If they need to get a hold of you or you are talking about something mission related, they will reply. If you have questions about things like this, it can be like talking to the wall. Frustrating.

They called me once and left a message because they had several jobs in my area that they needed completed in one day and were calling some pilots directly to try to get it locked down. I called them back a couple hours after they left the message, it was the first chance I had to call since I was working my real job. The DB guy said he had already talked to someone else and had things covered and that I should "call back faster" next time. That just hit me as very arrogant. They're enjoying the fact that people snap client missions up so fast they can treat people like they do. When I'm confronted with these communication issues, I wonder why I even bother. If all pilots decided DroneBase could just cover their obligations on their own for a week, they'd be done. The DroneBase guys are too young and covered up to think like that at this point.
 
Follow up to last post - after stating to Dronebase that I would contact Getty directly with reference to the missions for sale on their site that was never acknowledged, Dronebase promptly paid me $15 each for all nine missions. They also answered a few clarifying questions. If you submit a video to Dronebase and it's accepted by Getty and you get your $15, you no longer own any rights to that video. It is now the property of Getty Images and you are not legally permitted to sell that video in any other way. Think about that before you throw good work up there. $15 and your rights to that material forever are gone. They are not merely marketing images on your behalf, in this relationship with Dronebase, if you submit and they accept you don't own it anymore.

The answer from Dronebase as to why they were approaching the compensation for Getty missions this way was that the $15 was the "average residual earned per video" by pilots on videos submitted...so, rather than pay a commission for each sale, they just thought it was better to pay pilots up front for what they could "expect to earn" from a video submitted. This doesn't add up in my little mind. So now, Dronebase is paying a person $15 UP FRONT for what you could expect to earn from the residuals on said video over a lifetime??? Generous!? I don't think they're that generous...that's stupid. They're either making much more and want to eliminate having to deal with tracking and paying residuals OR they weren't getting enough Getty submissions by DB pilots to satisfy their arrangement so they sweetened the pot. If it's the latter, I don't see this lasting.

I already get the impression that the $15 per video accepted deal is getting out. I submitted some more videos this last week and it took a long time to hear anything back. I queried their status four days after submission only to promptly get a 'Rejection' for all nine submissions. Coincidence? I think not. They're covered up. They're pretending to be something much bigger than they really are and making money on the backs of a group of people who will settle for doing the work for a fraction of what they charge. By the way, the reason for the video being rejected was "Damaged Footage" (7 out of 9 videos). I've never had a quality complaint in any way of any work I've submitted in the past. Again, making stuff up so they don't have to deal with things they really don't want to deal with. If every pilot out there would quit Dronebase for one month, we might get someone to listen. Until then, it's all hype at our expense.
 
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I have been paid $15 each for several videos submitted to Drone Base, but NOT all of those videos have been accepted by Getty. I viewed that as a royalty/incentive to submit videos to Drone Base, not because the video sold. Again, I got payed for videos that did not get accepted by Getty. My understanding from Nick Osgood of Drone Base is that royalties can be paid by Getty to Drone Base and the Pilot if the video sells, with the payout dependent on many factors with Getty’s different pricing options. I currently have over 50 videos on Getty submitted through DroneBase, but I don’t know if any have actually sold. That is frustrating.

UPDATE... With the new Drone Base app that just came out today it does say that you get paid 15$ if accepted, and it no longer says royalties can be paid each time it sells. So 15$ for your time. :(
 
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I'm not a professional, but I have a Part 107 and a P3P. I fly the drone around my New England area to make videos to share with friends. Just for kicks, I submitted a dozen clips to DroneBase, and five were selected for payout. The $75 is a nice treat.

Based on that measure of success, I joined Getty images as a contributor, so now I'll upload my nice shots there and see if I do any better. So far I haven't seen any of my videos on Getty, but I don't know how long their process takes once they buy a video.

One final note: although most 4K video clips are listed for $575, that's the 'list price' that almost nobody ever pays. The vast majority of these clips are sold to buyers with subscriptions to Getty images. They buy in bulk, and probably pay only $5 to $10 for a video clip.
 
I've submitted work thru drone base for Getty images for about the past 6 months. They've been paying $50 each time the video sells. It was adding up quite nicely. Now they changed and say they are only paying a one time fee of $15 when you submit and get accepted. So when the videos I already have with them are being sold, they keep all the money and I get $0. My videos are listed on Getty at $7,250. They have refused to return my videos since they changed the terms. According to their terms they can make changes at any time.
 
I too am a little turned off by dronebase. Sent some videos in last month. One sold for $15. The rest were rejected for whatever reason.

Some videos I sent in in last year I never heard anything not even a rejection. I never thought to search Getty. So I took a look and sure enough 3 of those are there for $545 each. If they went on to sell how would I have ever known.

Seems like their system is not very transparent.
 
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I too am a little turned off by dronebase. Sent some videos in last month. One sold for $15. The rest were rejected for whatever reason.

Some videos I sent in in last year I never heard anything not even a rejection. I never thought to search Getty. So I took a look and sure enough 3 of those are there for $545 each. If they went on to sell how would I have ever known.

Seems like their system is not very transparent.
Have you checked your dashboard? It's under your profile and then completed missions.
 
I've submitted work thru drone base for Getty images for about the past 6 months. They've been paying $50 each time the video sells. It was adding up quite nicely. Now they changed and say they are only paying a one time fee of $15 when you submit and get accepted. So when the videos I already have with them are being sold, they keep all the money and I get $0. My videos are listed on Getty at $7,250. They have refused to return my videos since they changed the terms. According to their terms they can make changes at any time.

How much did you make when it was at $50
 

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