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Author Topic: Alamy cutting all commissions by 10%  (Read 42638 times)

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« Reply #75 on: November 21, 2012, 10:25 »
0
Really looking forward to the full launch of Picturengine!


PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #76 on: November 21, 2012, 10:56 »
+2
Another thought - if some other agencies reduced our commission by 10 percent points it would leave us with a commission in the single digits  :o

To see that Alamy still pays us 50% AFTER the commission cut is not a total disaster...


It used to be 70% then 65% then 60% now 50%.  Next up???

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 50% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.


Do we all seriously believe that while (nearly) all agencies cut our royalties that Alamy HAS TO stay the same - forever - and ever - to all eternity?

The last IS commission reduction took away also 25% of my (pre-commission-change IS) income, leaving most of us with a commission of less than 20%.

I'm not that naive to praise Alamy for their future 50% cut due to the relatively low quantity of sales but I think a few here should get their facts straight as for example many were oh-so-grateful when Stockfresh came out of the bushes announcing the same deal like Stockxpert used to have (50/50).

So for a microstock agency it's a blessing to pay us 50% but how dare Alamy pay us 50% ?

Come on. I think we really have to worry a lot more about other issues than get getting paid 50% from a macro agency.

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 70% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 40% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 30% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 20% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 10% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.

Is it just me or does anyone still realize that Alamy WILL pay us 1% commission?

Why is it such a big deal what they used to pay us? Is everyone now living in the past? Sorry but times are moving on.

---------------------------

You can't be serious right? See a pattern? Yes, times are moving on to where we will be making 1% of almost nothing.

Anybody who wants to work for nothing please contact me. I have a company I would like to start up and having employees work for free will get me a yacht and oceanfront home a lot more quickly.

« Reply #77 on: November 21, 2012, 11:07 »
0
It's certainly no news to be happy about.
But the only right reaction would be to withdraw from those agencies that pay lower percentages (the majority of the micros...).
I know it will not happen (and I plead guilty as well, the only one I left due to commission cuts is IS - the next will be 123RF).
It is like PaulieWalnuts has said earlier in this thread: We (as in the combined masses of contributors) did not walk away on previous commission cuts by other agencies. That only proves that we will take another one without much reaction.

« Reply #78 on: November 21, 2012, 11:13 »
0
"You can't be serious right? See a pattern? Yes, times are moving on to where we will be making 1% of almost nothing. "

Wait until SS sees how happy everyone is here to take less...

ginasanders

« Reply #79 on: November 21, 2012, 11:15 »
+1
Quote
are you leaving stock?

No, only Alamy.

« Last Edit: November 23, 2012, 18:40 by gina »

« Reply #80 on: November 21, 2012, 11:31 »
+1
Thats quite in order and will probably benefit us long term. :)

The last cut, to fund the US offices, didn't.


Yes.  Exactly.  It isn't the fact that we will now be getting 50% that bothers me.  It is the fact that this is the SECOND royalty cut in the last couple of years for them. I doubt it will be the last. 

And the 30% part of the distributor sales is a problem.  The distributor, who is a non-entity 3rd party, is getting more than the author of the images.  And Alamy takes a cut on top of that. 

Alamy sales are few and far between compared to the micros, and most of them aren't for the high prices they were a few years ago.  They do NOT make it up in volume.

I don't understand the need of having re-distributors in these "acces for everybody" internet days. It was more undesrteable ten or twenty years ago, when customers had to be reached through  more pedestrian means.   

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #81 on: November 21, 2012, 11:32 »
0
"You can't be serious right? See a pattern? Yes, times are moving on to where we will be making 1% of almost nothing. "

Wait until SS sees how happy everyone is here to take less...

Yep, and they also are now a public company with a gazillion investors who will be putting enormous pressure on them to squeeze every penny out of it.

We'll see how long it takes for the changes to start happening.

« Reply #82 on: November 21, 2012, 11:32 »
0
Thats quite in order and will probably benefit us long term. :)

The last cut, to fund the US offices, didn't.


Yes.  Exactly.  It isn't the fact that we will now be getting 50% that bothers me.  It is the fact that this is the SECOND royalty cut in the last couple of years for them. I doubt it will be the last. 

And the 30% part of the distributor sales is a problem.  The distributor, who is a non-entity 3rd party, is getting more than the author of the images.  And Alamy takes a cut on top of that. 

Alamy sales are few and far between compared to the micros, and most of them aren't for the high prices they were a few years ago.  They do NOT make it up in volume.

I don't understand the need of having re-distributors in these "access for everybody" internet days. It was more undesrteable ten or twenty years ago, when customers had to be reached through  more pedestrian means.

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #83 on: November 21, 2012, 11:34 »
0
Really looking forward to the full launch of Picturengine!

Really looking forward to some new disruptive model that gives us other options than being financially squashed by agencies.

« Reply #84 on: November 21, 2012, 12:04 »
0
Not much we can do except vent our frustrations here, and look for other applications and outlets for our skills.  The micros will only continue to cut commissions.  What really fries my bacon is how they're cutting in even more middlemen like themselves - excuse me 'partners' - and endlessly complicating their pricing schemes.  This tells me the sales and marketing guys are driving the bus.  In the long run this complexity discourages buyers from using stock imagery at all, regardless of price. 

« Reply #85 on: November 21, 2012, 12:31 »
0
... Anybody who wants to work for nothing please contact me...




You seriously consider a 50% commission working for nothing? Did I miss something?


PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #86 on: November 21, 2012, 12:43 »
+1
... Anybody who wants to work for nothing please contact me...

You seriously consider a 50% commission working for nothing? Did I miss something?

Oh, okay. Let me try this again.

Anyone who wants to work for me where I start off paying you a decent wage and then I reward your hard work by regularly dropping your wage until it's next to nothing, please contact me.

« Reply #87 on: November 21, 2012, 12:56 »
+1
Well I won't apply - sorry.

I'm trying to make a living and 50% commission is still a good deal in my books.

No idea whether you are happy with the 45% commission you get from IS (assuming you are selling 1.2 Million credits per year) or not but 50% is still more than 45%.

So why complain about a company that gives you 50% when you are perfectly fine selling EXCLUSIVELY your RF stuff for 45%?

This kind of doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

« Reply #88 on: November 21, 2012, 13:16 »
0
...and then I reward your hard work by regularly dropping your wage ...

And what could possibly be more demotivating?

The people running these agencies have all sorts of numbers and statistics which they analyze endlessly.  But there is one question they can't answer: are they getting more high-quality images over time, or less?  Unanswerable, because there's no consistent, objective way to measure quality in this context, except for superficial aspects like digital noise.  But over time, the quality of stock imagery has to be declining in meaningful ways, as skilled and creative contributors submit less material, or drop out completely.


« Reply #89 on: November 21, 2012, 13:22 »
0
..No idea whether you are happy with the 45% commission you get from IS (assuming you are selling 1.2 Million credits per year) or not but 50% is still more than 45%....

Just to keep the facts straight, IS exclusives do not make the rate they should on Agency or Vetta collection files sold on IS - IS cut those rates back when they jacked up Vetta prices and introduced Agency on IS. Those collections sold via Getty's site net them a whopping 20%

« Reply #90 on: November 21, 2012, 13:24 »
0
"So why complain about a company that gives you 50% when you are perfectly fine selling EXCLUSIVELY your RF stuff for 45%?"

A: because, as said, next time it will be 40% for a new HQ somewhere, and then %35 for a pool table, etc
B: they earn their cut by selling a large amount of my content

Sales at Alamy are pretty lame from what I read on their forum.

« Reply #91 on: November 21, 2012, 13:30 »
0
Well I won't apply - sorry.

I'm trying to make a living and 50% commission is still a good deal in my books.

No idea whether you are happy with the 45% commission you get from IS (assuming you are selling 1.2 Million credits per year) or not but 50% is still more than 45%.

So why complain about a company that gives you 50% when you are perfectly fine selling EXCLUSIVELY your RF stuff for 45%?

This kind of doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

While it's never good to have your rates cut, I tend to agree with you. I think people should have a standard across every agency of what they get paid. And, they should organize their priorities or affiliations with agencies according to those standards. I know I do, but that doesn't seem to be the case with most contributors.

« Reply #92 on: November 21, 2012, 13:34 »
+1


Sales at Alamy are pretty lame from what I read on their forum.

I think most people posting on the forum are there to complain rather than brag about how well they are doing. Alamy is my second best earner after Shutterstock.

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #93 on: November 21, 2012, 13:46 »
0
Well I won't apply - sorry.

I'm trying to make a living and 50% commission is still a good deal in my books.

No idea whether you are happy with the 45% commission you get from IS (assuming you are selling 1.2 Million credits per year) or not but 50% is still more than 45%.

So why complain about a company that gives you 50% when you are perfectly fine selling EXCLUSIVELY your RF stuff for 45%?

This kind of doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

And here we go with the exclusivity BS again.

I can sell RM anywhere including Alamy. So a cut at Alamy or any RM can affect me.

And again, when one site gets away with cutting commission it shows the other sites they can do the same so this affect us all.

Not sure what's so hard to understand. Seems like common sense to me.

« Reply #94 on: November 21, 2012, 13:56 »
+2
"So why complain about a company that gives you 50% when you are perfectly fine selling EXCLUSIVELY your RF stuff for 45%?"

A: because, as said, next time it will be 40% for a new HQ somewhere, and then %35 for a pool table, etc
B: they earn their cut by selling a large amount of my content

Sales at Alamy are pretty lame from what I read on their forum.


Lame sales or not. The discussion topic is not about the sales volume but rather about the drop from 60% to 50% commission for contributors.

There are still people on Alamy that rake in 100K+ a year with their non-exclusive content. I think, as always it matters what type of imagery you are uploading.

Again, just to put things in perspective, nearly everyone almost fainted when IS reduced commissions the last time for both exclusives and non-exclusives. You know that Sean.

You also know that IS is running their operations far below 50% contributor commissions.

It hasn't been the first time and it won't be the last time that IS has lowered commissions for contributors - I try to stay realistic regarding this issue.

Some of you who are actively reading the forums remember the discussions about commission on new and old agencies debating what is fair and what isn't.

So if I try to sum it up:

SS pays less than 50%
IS pays less than 50%
FT pays less than 50%
DT pays less than 50%

oops - are those already the TOP 4 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

So now people are having a problem with an agency actually paying 50%



Are you guys serious?


« Reply #95 on: November 21, 2012, 14:09 »
0
And here we go with the exclusivity BS again.

I can sell RM anywhere including Alamy. So a cut at Alamy or any RM can affect me.

And again, when one site gets away with cutting commission it shows the other sites they can do the same so this affect us all.

Not sure what's so hard to understand. Seems like common sense to me.

PaulieWalnuts, I only used the exclusivity commission of 45% in order to make a point that as the most successful contributor at IS you couldn't possibly make more than 45% period.

I have no clue whether you are in fact exclusive (if you have mentioned this before, well then I missed it, bummer). I don't care whether you are exclusive or not, I don't care how many credits you accumulate each year at IS I just wanted to illustrate that highest possible commission you could get with IS.

I try hard to refrain from producing "BS" on this forum.

I have never claimed that it is NOT affecting Alamy contributors. I don't understand why people put words in my mouth.

I said that 50% commission at Alamy is still fair. I very well understand that 50% commission is worse than 60% commission. I also know that commissions used to be even higher than that.

I assume your argument is that since one agency which shall remain nameless started reducing commissions causing a number of agencies do the same that we all will be not making any money anymore by the end of what? Next year?

I can picture your train of thought - but it doesn't change the fact the Alamy remains as one of the highest paying agencies in the world. No matter you look at it.

« Reply #96 on: November 21, 2012, 14:15 »
+1
"Lame sales or not. The discussion topic is not about the sales volume but rather about the drop from 60% to 50% commission for contributors."

But it's linked.  I have felt that the amount I pay IS is more ir less acceptable for the amount of business they are bringing me.  I don't see giving Alsmy another 10% is going to result in much, and if it is for a new 'growth project', they should be able to return the 10% when it is finished.  But they won't, of course.

« Reply #97 on: November 21, 2012, 14:23 »
0
It's really a psychological thing.  The absolute percentages don't matter as much as the knowledge that they're only going to continue to decrease, year after year.   
« Last Edit: November 21, 2012, 14:31 by stockastic »

« Reply #98 on: November 21, 2012, 14:28 »
0
60:40 as a split was the norm 20 years ago with RM. For Alamy to reduce to 50% only now is good business sense - they have 33million images gained from a 60:40 split - question is are their sales keeping all the contributors happy? Probably not given the price reductions they have had to implement.

It's win or bust time - aggressive marketing for 5 years to see if they can oust Getty as the number 1 go to agency. If not they are going to struggle keeping owners of 60 million and increasing images happy with their current market share of sales in years to come.

Something would have to give. I think they are genuinely reducing our commission to take on the giant. It's irrelevant if we like it or not - we can always leave. Me, I'd love to see Getty knocked off their perch.

10 points reduction is Alamys fighting fund taking the company forward. This is an aggressive statement of intent by them, a shot across the bows....

« Reply #99 on: November 21, 2012, 14:32 »
0
"Lame sales or not. The discussion topic is not about the sales volume but rather about the drop from 60% to 50% commission for contributors."

But it's linked.  I have felt that the amount I pay IS is more ir less acceptable for the amount of business they are bringing me.  I don't see giving Alsmy another 10% is going to result in much, and if it is for a new 'growth project', they should be able to return the 10% when it is finished.  But they won't, of course.

I agree with Sean, although I am not going to defend IS in this thread.

Alamy has cut not just the percentage to us, it has greatly reduced the prices of our images therefore my revenue has been constantly declining even though I have added more images. It usually takes 4 months or more to get a sale cleared and another month of two to get contributor paid. It used to send out a cheque so we receive the payment in the first week of the month. Now with Paypal, it takes two weeks to get the money.

Apparently Alamy is not doing great in the past few years with increased competition. I think Alamy should focus on improving their marketing and niche, instead of squeezing the contributors harder for their loss in the market place. If they don't improve their marketing and stop losing market shares, they will cut more, any doubt about that?


 

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