Photo sold for 16� to a national publication for unlimited use in perpetuity. My cut 0�. Getting more like Getty all the time! 

Glad to know I am actually getting those few cents! 

Still waiting for my first sale of 2022.

I hope your sold image was pristine quality for the generous privilege of 0 cents gifted you by this agency.

Quote from: emjaysmith on March 22, 2022, 12:09

Still waiting for my first sale of 2022.

Me Too? Who knew I could go from most downloads ever in one year to nothing the next year.

I think the ten clients that Alamy has, already bought all your interesting photos. So now it's drying up. You have to upload new stuff

For years, we've been cheering on the "race to the bottom".  So what comes after that? 

I'm on a roll!

Quote from: jefftakespics2 on March 30, 2022, 14:49

I'm on a roll!

"Race to the bottom" doesn't even describe it anymore.  The game now is "what would it take to make photographers actually close their accounts?"   I get the feeling that people at Alamy have a betting pool going.

Yeah I'd go along with that version. IS started with the changes and then the fixed 15% and those wonderful (always a mystery even after it's explained) connect sales for fractions of a cent. Then SS jumped in with resets and levels based on downloads and the more common than fleas on a camel... 10c downloads. The new owners of Alamy don't want to keep what the old Alamy did, and here we go from good and fair dealings to mystery partner subs for pennies, commissions dropped to 20% for many contributors and the stunning, so fractional $0.00 sales that they don't show as whole cents?



The race to the bottom looks to be a head on tie?

There is not a lot of information in the sales "report"

There is not a lot of information in the sales "report"

You get more info when you load the report into e.g. Excel.
(Oh, sorry I didn't notice RF, maybe not so much info, then.)

Looking at my distributor sales over the last year, I can see the US and EU are ok but there are a bunch of ROW which I have a feeling maybe China. Anyway, I've removed Asia and Africa off this year and if it continues I'll remove all next year.

It�s April by Alamy standards and I opted out of everything except regular sales. Just got 29 dl�s of anout 3 pennies per image net. Screw that. Now to monitor if I still get this crappy sales.

That's my point. People may be flogging their computers, opting out and clicking with smiles and anticipation because they stopped the foul smelling sales. It's possible, in July we'll see no change.

Just in time for the cut from 40% to 20% and Alamy could see a mass exodus. What do they care? They have millions of images, all kinds of similar. They can pay us chicken feed and rake in the money, because everyone won't quit. This is how Microstock has evolved.

The agencies paid fairly enough for people to work hard at building. They promoted and encouraged referrals. They filled the collections to million of images, in excess. And now, they have all they need, plus the reserves, and I don't mean all of this is just Alamy but the entire industry, so they don't care if the inventory drops in half. They still have all they need. None of them care or need the artists to upload much new... they have an overstock inventory of images.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 01, 2022, 09:04

Quote from: Mantis on March 31, 2022, 21:30

It�s April by Alamy standards and I opted out of everything except regular sales. Just got 29 dl�s of anout 3 pennies per image net. Screw that. Now to monitor if I still get this crappy sales.

That's my point. People may be flogging their computers, opting out and clicking with smiles and anticipation because they stopped the foul smelling sales. It's possible, in July we'll see no change.

Just in time for the cut from 40% to 20% and Alamy could see a mass exodus. What do they care? They have millions of images, all kinds of similar. They can pay us chicken feed and rake in the money, because everyone won't quit. This is how Microstock has evolved.

The agencies paid fairly enough for people to work hard at building. They promoted and encouraged referrals. They filled the collections to million of images, in excess. And now, they have all they need, plus the reserves, and I don't mean all of this is just Alamy but the entire industry, so they don't care if the inventory drops in half. They still have all they need. None of them care or need the artists to upload much new... they have an overstock inventory of images.

Exactly.  The other agencies see what SS did and there will be other agencies that will continue further down this pathway.  On Pond5 I am seeing more and more $2-3 net on videos.

My usual comment, the other agencies saw what IS did, then followed. SS was the last of them to stab us in the back. Alamy held out, but now new owners, that's the end of that original group that paid us fairly.

I just thought of something this morning and I should add, that in a way, SS did lead the way, when they bought BigStock and cut the commissions from 50 cents down to 25 cents. (2010) But now they have improved the returns:
From   To   In USD
1   199   $0.25
200   999   $0.27
1,000   1,999   $0.29
2,000   9,999   $0.31
10,000   19,999   $0.33
20,000   49,999   $0.35
50,000+       $0.38

iStock introduced Thinkstock in 2010 and killed it in 2018. Meanwhile everything shifted to Getty servers and we all (except exclusives) got set at 15%, no levels, no changes, just 15% forever for photos. Connect sales (are those like the Alamy new sales?) and a promise of a minimum of 2 cents. Oh that's so kind, 2 cents? Which makes SS and the 10c almost look better, but both are an insult.

My point is, SS was not the leader in this shift, and more like a follower after the rest had cut us down. Alamy is the last for now as they went from 60% to 50% to 40% and now 20%. Plus Alamy added these absurd partner or distributor sales that give us 12 cents in return.

Supply and demand and the agencies have all the images they need, so they aren't going to pay us fairly anymore. None of them can compete on price when everyplace else in the world is offering the same for less. One of them could pay us more and commit suicide?

And what is a large segment of the competition? FREE!