Nice idea, I really like and understand your point, but interesting... there are so many threads and posts about it, old subject, and U decided to open another one?

According to Alamy the distributor does most of the work, hence the bigger cut. They also reason, without the distributor your images would not get maximum exposure, hence you get more sales if you opt in. Sales you otherwise wouldnt have had.

I don't argue about 40% of distributor cut,
I think that if image was sold for $100 and distributor got $40 - Alamy should get commission from $60, since that's what they received.

I think that if image was sold for $100 and distributor got $40 - Alamy should get commission from $60, since that's what they received.

That's exactly what they do.
They take their 50% from the $60, which gives them $30 and leaves $30 for us.

Here are the numbers from an actual sale, which should make it easier to understand?

Sale                                         +77.24
Alamy 20% (of the total sale)  -15.45
40% Distributor Commission    -30.90     (30.896)
My Commission 40%                +30.89       

That was when they were taking 40% of sales. Haven't had a Distributor sale with the new 50% levels.
See below...

Now it's 30ME-30A-40D

http://www.alamy.com/contributor/contract/default.asp?login=1

Quote from: xst on December 19, 2014, 17:10

I don't argue about 40% of distributor cut,
I think that if image was sold for $100 and distributor got $40 - Alamy should get commission from $60, since that's what they received.

Isn't the normal royalty split 50-50 so in this case the distributor gets 40% and then Alamy and the contributor get a 50-50 split of the remaining 60%?

I didn't realize (at first) that I did that either. Apply, my fault, my own confusion. Glad to pass it on. 

Before I could correct it, you had replied with the correction.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 22, 2014, 04:10

Here are the numbers from an actual sale, which should make it easier to understand?

Sale                                         +77.24
Alamy 20% (of the total sale)  -15.45
40% Distributor Commission    -30.90     (30.896)
My Commission 40%                +30.89       

That's not how it usually works.
Here's one of mine:
Sale      44.79    
Alamy     30%    13.44         
Distributor     40%    17.92    
Me     30%   13.43
Ouch - I thought the odd 1c was supposed to come to us.

@Pete: I didn�t notice you had given the OLD figures.  No wonder I was confused!

This is just a way for Alamy to effectively get more salespeople at no cost. 

There is a cost.
With regular sales, Alamy gets 50%. With distributor sales, they get 30%.

Maybe just coincidence (and based on a low number), but my distributor sales usually have a considerably higher gross licence price, which means even my 30% is often higher than my average Alamy sale 50%.

Quote from: ShadySue on December 23, 2014, 13:11

Quote from: stockastic on December 23, 2014, 12:49

This is just a way for Alamy to effectively get more salespeople at no cost. 

There is a cost.
With regular sales, Alamy gets 50%. With distributor sales, they get 30%.

Maybe just coincidence (and based on a low number), but my distributor sales usually have a considerably higher gross licence price, which means even my 30% is often higher than my average Alamy sale 50%.

I get that, but I still think they might or might not make less money on these sales.  Presumably they paid a lot less for advertising, travel, phone sales and support, because they pushed off those costs to the distributor - oops I mean the contributor.   So at 30% they may calculate that they come out ahead, or dead even, compared to a normal sale.  I'd say it's just another creative, obfuscated way to cut royalties:  outsource sales and marketing, and use that to justify paying us less.

It's worse than you state assuming your logic is accurate. Almay has had partners for years but they have cut our commissions twice since I have been with them (8 years). This leads me to suspect that partner percentages do not cover all intended costs, rather it's calculated as a shared expense, whether 60%40% or whatever. In any event it does come at the cost of the contributor. While I don't really care for 30% royalties, it beats 3% at DT.

I feel worse about them cutting our 'normal' royalties from 60% to 50% to set up a new US office

I feel very good about 50% being the normal royalty rate and 30% being the minimum.

Quote from: Mantis on December 24, 2014, 09:15

... Almay has had partners for years but they have cut our commissions twice since I have been with them (8 years). This leads me to suspect that partner percentages do not cover all intended costs, rather it's calculated as a shared expense, whether 60%40% or whatever. In any event it does come at the cost of the contributor. While I don't really care for 30% royalties, it beats 3% at DT.

Yes, I feel worse about them cutting our 'normal' royalties from 60% to 50% to set up a new US office, but now that they say it's doing very well, they show no signs of restoring our former cut.
To be fair, they were transparent about distributor sales when we joined up, and we can come out of the distributor scheme (though only during the month of April, IIRC), which is better than I read for a lot of other sites when people find their files on other sites and only when querying it they discover they are in a partner scheme - some of which can't be opted out of.

I'm not saying that they weren't up front about it at all. They were pretty clear and honest. That being said my sales, personally, have tanked there, so if the US is doing well, the benefits must be spread wide. Nonetheless, with fewer sales, and two tiers of commission cuts and 30% of two tiers of commission cuts (meaning partners not taking any commission cuts), I'm with you. Remember, assuming prices remain stable, the partner sites keep roughly the same amount as when when we made 60%. We are the sacrificial lambs as the full burden of "take backs" is on us, the contributors.  But I'm with you, if the US office is doing so well bring back 60% commissions.