MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: henri on December 04, 2021, 02:42
-
Just had a huge sale, my share is 7 cents.
The deal is this:
Usage: Editorial, Use in syndicated editorial news features, single context only. Includes archive rights in-perpetuity.
Media: Newspaper - national
Print run: Unlimited
Placement: National
Image Size: up to full area
Duration: In perpetuity
Alamy was acquired by PA Media 2020. It is part of PA Media Group Limited, a private company with 26 shareholders, most of whom are national and regional newspaper publishers. The biggest shareholders include the Daily Mail and General Trust, News UK, and Informa.
So 7 cents, unlimited print runs in perpetuity for all shareholders of PA Media. Includes archive rights in-perpetuity...
-
Congratulations! You got 47% more than me for a sale with the same licence type on Alamy last month.
-
This is liberalism
-
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15013-has-alamy-become-micro-stock-agency
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15088-image-sold-for-0
It could be argued that they're just responding to micro prices.
-
This is liberalism
Clearly, it's capitalism.
-
Just be thankful you aren't a musician earning nothing from Apple, Spotify, Youtube and all those other chiselling sh-its :'(
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090)
-
Just be thankful you aren't a musician earning nothing from Apple, Spotify, Youtube and all those other chiselling sh-its :'(
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090)
Thanks for finding and posting that, this is EXACTLY the way the stock agencies (startups) are going and this is a ticket to bankruptcy and it doesn't matter what agency, video or stills.
As much as we all love doing the work I think we need to realize this has become a hobby that might pay once in a while.
I am going bankrupt and since I do editorial I sell on Pond5 and I just wish these agencies (startups) had the honesty to tell contributors they are no longer able to make a living here and they are changing their business model.
I think only one that was honest enough to do that was Videoblocks when they stopped allowing individual contributors to sell on their platform.
The rest treat us like scum. I don't understand startup culture I guess.
-
Just be thankful you aren't a musician earning nothing from Apple, Spotify, Youtube and all those other chiselling sh-its :'(
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090)
Here's another one and a must read: https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-doesnt-need-streaming-royalties-former-spotify-boss-said-2021-7 (https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-doesnt-need-streaming-royalties-former-spotify-boss-said-2021-7)
The stock agencies have become like a cartel, no matter what you do and try to sell your videos or photos you're playing by their rules and paying to come to work and lose money or you're not playing.
"This thing of ours" controls the industry.
-
Just be thankful you aren't a musician earning nothing from Apple, Spotify, Youtube and all those other chiselling sh-its :'(
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59518090)
Thanks for finding and posting that, this is EXACTLY the way the stock agencies (startups) are going and this is a ticket to bankruptcy and it doesn't matter what agency, video or stills.
As much as we all love doing the work I think we need to realize this has become a hobby that might pay once in a while.
I am going bankrupt and since I do editorial I sell on Pond5 and I just wish these agencies (startups) had the honesty to tell contributors they are no longer able to make a living here and they are changing their business model.
I think only one that was honest enough to do that was Videoblocks when they stopped allowing individual contributors to sell on their platform.
The rest treat us like scum. I don't understand startup culture I guess.
Start up culture disguises itself as warm, keeping it real, disrupting, inclusive, diversity celebration and all the usual BS that gets lapped up by certain sectors of the population while practicing good old fashioned rapacious corporate values worthy of a 19th century cotton mill owner.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
nice. Shouldn't the one in April have been 50% since it was prior to the contract change?
-
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15013-has-alamy-become-micro-stock-agency
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15088-image-sold-for-0
It could be argued that they're just responding to micro prices.
Time to rename Microstock --> NanoStock ... or go directly to Picostock, don't pass Go and don't claim 200$ !
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
Oh, he gets his share of Jon tossing him a few dimes each day 8)
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
This implies that we should perhaps keep our content on the sites as once in awhile one of those rare high prices sales could come through but we all have to find new full time work as this is barely a hobby that pays most of the time and that full time work is hard to find these days.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
full time work is hard to find these days.
Actually it's the other way around: wherever I turn my head I see "we hire" signs.
There are not enough workers, these days, for all the jobs that are available.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
Yes, 10c balance, and my usual, then include iStock at even worse, and I'll leave out Connect:
Type Royalty Month Date Sale Getty ID Invoice Number Gross Royalty Royalty Rate License Fee File Type Collection Product Type Site Region Territory
Regular 2021-08 8/12/2021 1282483019 "OD-123275912" 0.01200 15% 0.08000 Creative Image iStockphoto RF Image "Partner Portal" non-US "China"
$0.012 commission, under 2 cents sold August 2021, my 15% of 8 cents
-
Good news for me at Alamy:
. I haven't sold anything under $5 gross yet.
. Received my first $50 from Alamy in October. (started in June 2020)
Bad news: Nothing sold after that
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
This implies that we should perhaps keep our content on the sites as once in awhile one of those rare high prices sales could come through but we all have to find new full time work as this is barely a hobby that pays most of the time and that full time work is hard to find these days.
well stated!
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
full time work is hard to find these days.
Actually it's the other way around: wherever I turn my head I see "we hire" signs.
There are not enough workers, these days, for all the jobs that are available.
That probably depends on the country you live in. There is also very little unemployment in the Netherlands, even though it was predicted because of Corona.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
full time work is hard to find these days.
Actually it's the other way around: wherever I turn my head I see "we hire" signs.
There are not enough workers, these days, for all the jobs that are available.
That probably depends on the country you live in. There is also very little unemployment in the Netherlands, even though it was predicted because of Corona.
Same in Canada, businesses are closing because they can't find employees, and salaries are going up way too fast...
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
full time work is hard to find these days.
Actually it's the other way around: wherever I turn my head I see "we hire" signs.
There are not enough workers, these days, for all the jobs that are available.
That probably depends on the country you live in. There is also very little unemployment in the Netherlands, even though it was predicted because of Corona.
Same in Canada, businesses are closing because they can't find employees, and salaries are going up way too fast...
My brother in law closed his pizza shop a few months ago due to the min wage at $16 per hour. He had the business for almost 15 years. Lot's of small businesses are folding here in Seattle...
-
That probably depends on the country you live in. There is also very little unemployment in the Netherlands, even though it was predicted because of Corona.
[/quote]
Same in Canada, businesses are closing because they can't find employees, and salaries are going up way too fast...
[/quote]
I have a question, I am also from Canada, Ontario Canada and the media keep running these stories about businesses not being able to find workers, "no one wants to work" they say, and and yet so many of us can't find jobs, every homeless shelter in Ontario is full, I am one of those desperately looking for work as I am going bankrupt after sales ended at Pond5 this fall and didn't come back and probably aren't coming back.
I am one of those people who will do "anything I can do" as long as my health permits and in fact do enjoy the variety of work, I love driving, I used to do building maintenance and cleaning, I love cars and trucks, painting, hardware store like Canadian Tire or Home depot?, totally could do that, I'm good at hardware tech but don't have a related degree but "anything I can do" and I can start tomorrow because stock video is ending if it hasn't ended already, it's literally a ticket to bankruptcy.
As the hosts of the local Italian radio program here say when they give advise to those who can't find work, "As long you're doing something, anything you do you do it". and that's me.
I actually started looking for new work in May 2021 and now desperately looking as stock is dead. "Employers can't find workers"?, I can start tomorrow yet I can't find a job, no one will hire me, everyone wants "experience", 3-5 years experience, 3-5 management references, a work history with at least 5 employers on it and no gaps in employment, one of them had a requirement that applicants had have been on or a captain of a varsity sports team when in school.....that was for a car wash and detailing job a car rental place, I play Pokémon GO but that's eSports and didn't count.
My background for the last 12 years is not the mafia but media, stock media, clean police and driving record as well but I have been a stock video producer which is self-employment and part of the gig economy, self employment is the kiss of death is seems.
Most of the times I don't hear back when I apply, I've worn the paint off the keyboard on my laptop this summer applying for jobs but when I go in person and the few interviews I've had these are some of the excuses I get, "This job isn't for you", "we don't think you're a culture fit", "you can do something better than this", "most of our crew is Indian and you wouldn't fit in", "you should stay in your field there's lots of money in photography".
And then there's my past, again, media, not mafia but I've gotten multiple times from the fast food places, grocery stores and Walmart, "we need 3-5 employment references" and we need a continuous employment history without any gaps.
And so I asked one time when they said that, would you hire a food delivery or uber driver who is looking for a career change? and the instant answer was no, we need a more traditional employment history with references not any form of self-employment, you can't be one of the references.
If you listen to the Canadian and US media you would think there is a shortage of workers or something, if there is then what are people doing to earn a living and pay these rents that have gone to the moon?.
I listen to an Italian radio program here every weekend in my town and the two hosts like to chat between songs a lot and they're always giving advice to people both young and not so young on the right attitude when it comes to jobs and how hard it is to find a job and all that matters is "you are doing something, anything you can do as long as you're going something", "doesn't have to be in your field right away just anything you can do you do it, as long as you're working".
I supposed my favorite job would be driving but I'd be just as happy cleaning hotel rooms or vacuuming floors.
-
I have a question, I am also from Canada, Ontario Canada and the media keep running these stories about businesses not being able to find workers, "no one wants to work" they say, and and yet so many of us can't find jobs, every homeless shelter in Ontario is full, I am one of those desperately looking for work as I am going bankrupt after sales ended at Pond5 this fall and didn't come back and probably aren't coming back.
I am one of those people who will do "anything I can do" as long as my health permits and in fact do enjoy the variety of work, I love driving, I used to do building maintenance and cleaning, I love cars and trucks, painting, hardware store like Canadian Tire or Home depot?, totally could do that, I'm good at hardware tech but don't have a related degree but "anything I can do" and I can start tomorrow because stock video is ending if it hasn't ended already, it's literally a ticket to bankruptcy.
.........
And so I asked one time when they said that, would you hire a food delivery or uber driver who is looking for a career change? and the instant answer was no, we need a more traditional employment history with references not any form of self-employment, you can't be one of the references.
If you listen to the Canadian and US media you would think there is a shortage of workers or something, if there is then what are people doing to earn a living and pay these rents that have gone to the moon?.
I listen to an Italian radio program here every weekend in my town and the two hosts like to chat between songs a lot and they're always giving advice to people both young and not so young on the right attitude when it comes to jobs and how hard it is to find a job and all that matters is "you are doing something, anything you can do as long as you're going something", "doesn't have to be in your field right away just anything you can do you do it, as long as you're working".
I supposed my favorite job would be driving but I'd be just as happy cleaning hotel rooms or vacuuming floors.
I know the feeling. I had studied civil engineering and came out of military service in 1972 and then applied many times in vain. At that point it went really bad. Lots of unemployed construction workers. The sad thing was that it was said that I had been out too long. While military service was compulsory at the time. In the end I became a technical draftsman for warehouse systems. Continued to study to become a teacher. When I was done, things went bad in education. Because of my background I found a job quite easily, but we were cut on our wages.
We currently have re-scoring programs in the Netherlands. I don't know what it's like in Canada.
There is a shortage of truck drivers, construction workers, etc. There are also those who are independent parcel deliverers (but work hard for too little pay)
In any case, I wish you luck.
-
I know the feeling. I had studied civil engineering and came out of military service in 1972 and then applied many times in vain. At that point it went really bad. Lots of unemployed construction workers. The sad thing was that it was said that I had been out too long. While military service was compulsory at the time. In the end I became a technical draftsman for warehouse systems. Continued to study to become a teacher. When I was done, things went bad in education. Because of my background I found a job quite easily, but we were cut on our wages.
We currently have re-scoring programs in the Netherlands. I don't know what it's like in Canada.
There is a shortage of truck drivers, construction workers, etc. There are also those who are independent parcel deliverers (but work hard for too little pay)
In any case, I wish you luck.
[/quote]
Thanks , I am not trained in any of the skilled trades so construction is not an option right now, there is supposedly a shortage of truck drivers but it costs $10,000 to train and get the class A license to go work and often you have to buy or lease the truck.
We had a lot of those parcel delivery drivers using small vans and delivering for Amazon but you need to lease the van and then work 12-15 hour days and make 150 deliveries and still lose money.
Same with the food delivery, some days as good and others you are paying to come to work just like stock footage.
I've talked to some career advisors and they say well try and get student loans and go back to school for four years and learn something that's in demand like programming or cyber security but at the end of the day I would still have to apply for jobs and face the same problems, self-employed past, camera work, and no management references due to being self employed.
My biggest regret was getting into video, in particular stock, I was making $3500/month on Pond5 alone and about $800/month on SSTK and all with editorial content, then in April 2019 things changed and it went downhill and then SSTK made it's changes and I stupidly hung on and now it's a massive bankruptcy and since I operated as a sole proprietor it's a personal bankruptcy that will be on my record for 7 years.
I applied for a job delivering car parts and they need a credit check and a credit score of 730+ and no exceptions, this is to work there not buy the company!.
You mentioned lots of unemployed construction workers, that's the exact reason I went to school for photography and not skilled trades, there was a severe recession at the time and all the trades got laid off, work stopped on construction sites and buildings left unfinished.
I had wanted to be an electrician at the time but there was just no hope so I ended up going down this path and I love the work and it served me well but I just wish I'd gotten out in April 2019 when sales crashed at Pond5.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
My average sale at SS this year has been 58cents/download, which isn't great. 2020 was only slightly better at 59cents/download.
2017, 2018 and 2019 were my peaks at an average of 74-72cents/download.
Not looking great for the long-run for average download commissions.
-
That probably depends on the country you live in. There is also very little unemployment in the Netherlands, even though it was predicted because of Corona.
Same in Canada, businesses are closing because they can't find employees, and salaries are going up way too fast...
[/quote]
I have a question, I am also from Canada, Ontario Canada and the media keep running these stories about businesses not being able to find workers, "no one wants to work" they say, and and yet so many of us can't find jobs, every homeless shelter in Ontario is full, I am one of those desperately looking for work as I am going bankrupt after sales ended at Pond5 this fall and didn't come back and probably aren't coming back.
I am one of those people who will do "anything I can do" as long as my health permits and in fact do enjoy the variety of work, I love driving, I used to do building maintenance and cleaning, I love cars and trucks, painting, hardware store like Canadian Tire or Home depot?, totally could do that, I'm good at hardware tech but don't have a related degree but "anything I can do" and I can start tomorrow because stock video is ending if it hasn't ended already, it's literally a ticket to bankruptcy.
As the hosts of the local Italian radio program here say when they give advise to those who can't find work, "As long you're doing something, anything you do you do it". and that's me.
I actually started looking for new work in May 2021 and now desperately looking as stock is dead. "Employers can't find workers"?, I can start tomorrow yet I can't find a job, no one will hire me, everyone wants "experience", 3-5 years experience, 3-5 management references, a work history with at least 5 employers on it and no gaps in employment, one of them had a requirement that applicants had have been on or a captain of a varsity sports team when in school.....that was for a car wash and detailing job a car rental place, I play Pokémon GO but that's eSports and didn't count.
My background for the last 12 years is not the mafia but media, stock media, clean police and driving record as well but I have been a stock video producer which is self-employment and part of the gig economy, self employment is the kiss of death is seems.
Most of the times I don't hear back when I apply, I've worn the paint off the keyboard on my laptop this summer applying for jobs but when I go in person and the few interviews I've had these are some of the excuses I get, "This job isn't for you", "we don't think you're a culture fit", "you can do something better than this", "most of our crew is Indian and you wouldn't fit in", "you should stay in your field there's lots of money in photography".
And then there's my past, again, media, not mafia but I've gotten multiple times from the fast food places, grocery stores and Walmart, "we need 3-5 employment references" and we need a continuous employment history without any gaps.
And so I asked one time when they said that, would you hire a food delivery or uber driver who is looking for a career change? and the instant answer was no, we need a more traditional employment history with references not any form of self-employment, you can't be one of the references.
If you listen to the Canadian and US media you would think there is a shortage of workers or something, if there is then what are people doing to earn a living and pay these rents that have gone to the moon?.
I listen to an Italian radio program here every weekend in my town and the two hosts like to chat between songs a lot and they're always giving advice to people both young and not so young on the right attitude when it comes to jobs and how hard it is to find a job and all that matters is "you are doing something, anything you can do as long as you're going something", "doesn't have to be in your field right away just anything you can do you do it, as long as you're working".
I supposed my favorite job would be driving but I'd be just as happy cleaning hotel rooms or vacuuming floors.
[/quote]
I live in Quebec and was offered a lot of work that I don't have any experience or formation for: road traffic signaler, convoy escort driver, project manager assistant. Restaurants here are closing on week-end because they lack employees (Tim Hortons, Thai Express). Almost every store I go have job offers on their front door...
-
good comments on the shortage of workers. Seattle is home to tech thus if you have a computer science degree (that is current) you can find work but as general laborer good luck. The house prices have exploded here as well. Our local real estate agent told us all tech people buying the homes! So now you have the rich and basically the homeless as your population here. Tons of crime now as well...
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
My average sale at SS this year has been 58cents/download, which isn't great. 2020 was only slightly better at 59cents/download.
2017, 2018 and 2019 were my peaks at an average of 74-72cents/download.
Not looking great for the long-run for average download commissions.
My average sale at SS this year has been 52cents/download, which isn't great also . 2020 was much better at 98cents/download and 2019 93 cents/download
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance" I must mention that I just got about 20 sales of $0.04 each! ::)
Yey!
Happy New Year to you too! :-*
-
I got 5 of them.
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance" I must mention that I just got about 20 sales of $0.04 each! ::)
Yey!
Happy New Year to you too! :-*
these distributor deals are ridiculous. Glad i opted out.
-
Also "for the sake of balance", for this month, my SS RPD is 17% better than Alamy.
Way to go, Alamy! ::)
-
Why not everyone leave these non-performing scam sites completely and upload your photos to Pond5 and SSTK, SSTK isn't great at 10 cents but some people are reporting that they 10 sales do add up and there are still a few one-off higher priced sales.
Ya'll need to realize you can't make a living doing this at these rates and if you're operating off credit cards in the hopes agencies (startups) will change course, they won't.
From what I head Pond5 isn't great with photo sales but you can set your own prices and if you promote like hell on social media and get indexed by Google you might drive some traffic.
Off the top of my head the only semi-viable sites left that aren't all out frauds and stealing and selling our content and giving us pennies for is are Pond5, Adobe and I guess SSTK but for video I'd start uploading to Newsflare, editorial and even some spectacular non-editorial, hit and miss with them but when a sale happens it can be anything from pennies to a few hundred depending on who the buyer is.
I sold three sunsets with hydro towers and power lines in the shot, red sky and everything, never sold on Pond5/SSTK but three of those clips sold on newsflare to the same buyer, $400 CAD each.
-
Pond5 for photos? I sell like 10 photos per year there. You can also get high earning sales at Alamy, they are becoming less frequent though.
-
Pond5 for photos? I sell like 10 photos per year there. You can also get high earning sales at Alamy, they are becoming less frequent though.
Any reason why photo sales are so low on Pond5?, it's a great site especially the new version of it and they everything from cheap to expensive but photos don't seem to sell well there although this fall same can me said for video unfortunately.
-
Sadly, photo sales have always been pretty slow on P5, they used to talk about starting their photo promotion push, but I haven't heard anything about that in ages, and sales seem if anything even slower this year although nowhere near the drop it sounds like video sales have made.
I also got 9 of those $0.04 sales at Alamy today. They should put a floor on the amount the so called distributors can sell for. ($0.15 sale price, I get a whopping 27% rounded up). That brings my RPD for the month down to $2.96. Definitely in the microstock range level.
I have tied the total number of sales for the year with my previous best year, 2012, but the total $ images sold for was beat 6 other years, and I am sure that the amount I actually get out of these sales is even less compared to previous years.
-
I woke up to see around 50 of those chinese 0,15$ sales (0,04$ net). This is an insult, especially coming from Alamy. And guess what - we still have to wait for them to clear
-
5 more here
-
I just saw seven today, I can't be bothered wasting time to check but if I remember rightly I had some of these sales last year which were subsequently refunded.
-
So far I've received 81 of these sales that result in $0.04 payment. That makes SS $0.10 seem good.
They provide very few sales other than these dirt cheap ones, normally less than 20 and they're not at the level they once were either. I stopped submitting to them regularly some time ago but this is close to seeing me pull my work from them.
-
Seems to be the "new Alamy"...
My last four sales : Summary for 01 December 2021 to 31 December 2021 ( 4 item(s) totalling $0.96 )
Three sales for 0.15 and one sale 0.51
I left Shutterstock when they started the 0.10 sales and now Alamy is following them....
-
what?
14 RF sales to China in highest resolution for 0.15$ gross?
Are you kidding me, Alamy? :-[ :-[ :-[
-
Start bombarding them on Twitter and email I sent my email this morning.
I haven't been signed up to Chinese distributor sales in over two years yet I still got one this morning. >:(
There's no point complaining here they don't read it.
-
Ten sales today in China for 15c, all vectors, when I signed up to sell vectors on this site they assured me that they would sell for $30.00 each.
They have over the last five or so years renaged on this contract, dropping the price over and over again, tell they have reached rock bottom of 15c.
Alamy used to give it's profits to Charity, but since it has sold it's soul to PA Media Group (which really is the Daily Mail newspaper, owned by Viscount Rothermere a notorious tax avoiding family, he and his father have never paid any tax in the UK, his father was a well known supporter of Adolf Hitler). I write this, so you know the type of people and the context of the situation.
What is basically going on is exploitation, personally I'm never uploading to them again.
The Microstock market is a money grab by the wealthy, one has to ask one self, don't these people have enough already?
I'm moving in to different creative markets and leaving Microstock behind, after 12 years of designing, illustrating and photographing along with thousands of hours keywording and uploading, I will just leave my portfolios to run their course and then when they stop making money, I will delete them, with the exception of Adobe.
Anyone who is sane will do the same.
-
Had 11 of those $0.15 ($0.04) sales today too.
Alamy is definitely microstock with those sales and even below Shutterstock with those sales.
And yes, complaining here won't change anything - and complaning anywhere else won't change anything too...
-
Seems to be the "new Alamy"...
My last four sales : Summary for 01 December 2021 to 31 December 2021 ( 4 item(s) totalling $0.96 )
Three sales for 0.15 and one sale 0.51
I left Shutterstock when they started the 0.10 sales and now Alamy is following them....
That's terrible and an insult, maybe time to start taking away my images. When they cut to 20% in July there's no reason to stay. Maybe there's no reason now?
-
Same here. Four 15 cent sales crossways yesterday, all went to China. The Chinese seem to be on a cheap shopping tour here. >:(
-
Some of the Alamy believers were grasping at straws suggesting they were "Novel Use" sales... well, I'm opted out of that little gem of a system so it can't be that... and if it is, they're selling my work there without authorisation. No, this is just Alamy hitting a new low!
-
Some of the Alamy believers were grasping at straws suggesting they were "Novel Use" sales... well, I'm opted out of that little gem of a system so it can't be that... and if it is, they're selling my work there without authorisation. No, this is just Alamy hitting a new low!
Luckily, I haven't had any of these micro-mini sales so far* (but all my sales this month have netted <$7), but if I had, I'd certainly be asking Alamy for an explanation. Some people have said that they've had NU sales despite being opted out (as I am) so I'd want that clarified.
*It could just be that the Chinese don't like my photos. I get very few of the c2c-to-China sales reported on iS.
-
Start bombarding them on Twitter and email I sent my email this morning.
I haven't been signed up to Chinese distributor sales in over two years yet I still got one this morning. >:(
Contact Alamy's Support; this would be against your agreement with Alamy.
There's no point complaining here they don't read it.
They do read here; but they only reply if they feel they can defend what's being complained about.
All they could do in this thread was point out that we agreed to this in our contract:
"6.4 Alamy has full authority to negotiate all terms of commissions, licences and reproduction rights of the Content including the fee, duration and scope of any Licence at its absolute discretion."
-
Wow same ,,great,, sale here today $0.04 Thank you Alamy and happy New Year. I will opt out in April all Option
-
Seems to be the "new Alamy"...
My last four sales : Summary for 01 December 2021 to 31 December 2021 ( 4 item(s) totalling $0.96 )
Three sales for 0.15 and one sale 0.51
I left Shutterstock when they started the 0.10 sales and now Alamy is following them....
That's terrible and an insult, maybe time to start taking away my images. When they cut to 20% in July there's no reason to stay. Maybe there's no reason now?
Just for the record: Amendments – 9th June 2021(will come into effect on 24th July 2021 for Contributors registered before 9th June 2021)
Alamy: "In July 2022 your revenue will be reviewed based on what you have earnt between July 2021 and July 2022. "
-
I just had a string of 20 distributor sales for 15 cents. So 60% to Alamy, 40% to distributor and I got .02 cents. YAY.
-
I woke up with 40 more of these $0.04 China sales. That makes about 60 in total, for the past 2 days!
Thank you so much, Alamy! Woohoo!
PS. "Just for the sake of balance" ;D
-
Also notice a bunch of 0.15 sale, but how do you tell it is for China?
And the commision is quite ridculous: 40% distributor and 60% (of net) alamy distribution commision, the net result is 76% commission
-
Add me to this proud list. I just netted 4 cents.
For a while this year I thought things were improving, as I had a few substantial sales. But that petered out. And now this.
The start of a new year is a good time to clean house. Alamy was my only remaining microstock; I kept some photos there because the sale prices didn't make me feel like a chump. But there's no way to spin 4 cents.
Sorry to be vindictive, but it would be a good lesson to Alamy if the response to this "exciting new opportunity" was a loss of a bunch of contributors.
-
Some of the Alamy believers were grasping at straws suggesting they were "Novel Use" sales... well, I'm opted out of that little gem of a system so it can't be that... and if it is, they're selling my work there without authorisation. No, this is just Alamy hitting a new low!
Check the TOS, if it's even in there but a lot these agency deals with global partners are under the table and off the record so it's hard to say but for example with video at Pond5, if you opt out of their global partner program your content stays with the partners around the world for at least three months before they get around to requesting it be delisted and is it ever deleted from servers at companies in places like China and Russia?, our laws don't apply there......
-
Is there any option to shut off this distributor channel?
If there isn't I will probably just close the account. I don't need to be insulted with 4 cent sales, I get enough putdowns in my daily life :-)
-
I am part of this club with 5 15-cent gross (4 cents net) sales sometime yesterday (Dec 30th). And I thought 8 cents royalty on a 21-cent sale was outrageous just last month!
If Alamy keeps this up - small bursts of totally unacceptable royalties with occasional "higher" value sales - it'll make it very easy to leave them. The last $50+ (gross) sale was in September 2021; it's just been nano-royalties since then
-
Is there any option to shut off this distributor channel?
If there isn't I will probably just close the account. I don't need to be insulted with 4 cent sales, I get enough putdowns in my daily life :-)
Yes but they only allow you to opt out once per year in April.
Doesn't make any difference as I was opted out of Chinese distributor sales years ago and they still have my images selling through a distributor.
-
Add me to this proud list. I just netted 4 cents.
For a while this year I thought things were improving, as I had a few substantial sales. But that petered out. And now this.
The start of a new year is a good time to clean house. Alamy was my only remaining microstock; I kept some photos there because the sale prices didn't make me feel like a chump. But there's no way to spin 4 cents.
Sorry to be vindictive, but it would be a good lesson to Alamy if the response to this "exciting new opportunity" was a loss of a bunch of contributors.
And if you made less than $250 gross by July 2022 they'll put you on the 20% royalty scheme instead of their generous 40% royalties. :'(
If they keep up with these penny sub micros sales we'll all struggle to make the $250 threshold.
Or perhaps thats the aim
-
I didn't notice that there were three pages of sales (never happened before for a month). So that's 83 sales for four cents each. Wow.
-
This "distributor" is just acquiring these for resale. It couldn't be more obvious.
I'm giving Alamy about a day to respond and then I'm closing the account. A sad end for a once great company.
-
This "distributor" is just acquiring these for resale. It couldn't be more obvious.
I'm giving Alamy about a day to respond and then I'm closing the account. A sad end for a once great company.
office staff are off until next week, so likely will not address it in a day
-
This "distributor" is just acquiring these for resale. It couldn't be more obvious.
I'm giving Alamy about a day to respond and then I'm closing the account. A sad end for a once great company.
office staff are off until next week, so likely will not address it in a day
What a perfect time, then, for them to hit us with this bucket of slime. Maybe this fine "partner" is deliberately making his move while the office is empty, and will buy as many as he can before Monday.
They don't need any office staff for this - just a public statement from one person, saying this isn't right and will be looked into. Or, a statement telling us to pound sand. I can live with either.
-
*
-
Very unlikely for resale. Most of my 81 were less than 1969px on the long edge and only 190KB compressed. Also, quite a few duplicates. If they're going to sell them after downloading one, why download one image 3-4 times?
Not sure what's going on... just I'm not making much out of it but I guess Alamy probably is!
-
Very unlikely for resale. Most of my 81 were less than 1969px on the long edge and only 190KB compressed. Also, quite a few duplicates. If they're going to sell them after downloading one, why download one image 3-4 times?
Not sure what's going on... just I'm not making much out of it but I guess Alamy probably is!
The duplicate downloads mean it's a script just mindlessly building an inventory of images, not a real buyer.
-
Adding my voice to the chorus. Just checked and sure enough a gaggle of downloads at .15. Looks like it’s site-wide. Hopefully a bug or a bot. If not Alamy is the one agency I won’t accept this from.
-
Some of the Alamy believers were grasping at straws suggesting they were "Novel Use" sales... well, I'm opted out of that little gem of a system so it can't be that... and if it is, they're selling my work there without authorisation. No, this is just Alamy hitting a new low!
Your work is probably still being sold even after opting out, probably wasn't deleted from the partner sites or there is a delay, same with pond5, you can opt out of the global partner program but the partners can sell your content for at least three months as per the TOS.
-
Happy New Year! I opted out of all Alamy Distributor Options in May 2021 so obviously this does not make a blind bit of difference.
Traced one of these wonderful Chinese sales to its use at http://maya.go2c.info/ (http://maya.go2c.info/) so it is not (at least at the moment) being resold. I’ve had whole websites copied by Chinese operators and they, like this site, generally claim the copyright also.
-
64 sales at 0.04 for me... :-X. Can't opt out before April. Alamy you are as disgusting as Getty...
-
Happy New Year :D Sale to China is going on. 8 more overnight >:(
-
Happy New Year.
Nothing for two months. Then even selling to China might be fun. :-\
And.. 20% this year. I don't know if it makes sense for me to spend a lot of time on Alamy. In any case, it is not among my New Year's resolutions for 2022.
-
What the absolute heck is going on here. Had hundreds of sales for 4 bleeping cents. * it.
-
Had another 20 sales for $0.04 on 31st Dec...
This drops my RPD for 2021 to: $1.71 ($5.08 in 2020)
-
What the absolute heck is going on here. Had hundreds of sales for 4 bleeping cents. * it.
I am not looking forward to 2022 at Alamy now that I see what has started to happen to others. This stinks.
-
What the absolute heck is going on here. Had hundreds of sales for 4 bleeping cents. * it.
I am not looking forward to 2022 at Alamy now that I see what has started to happen to others. This stinks.
I think what's happened is they've done a deal with a distribution company, perhaps in China or Russia or who knows where and massive amounts of work is being downloaded, probably to be resold or traded to other "global partners' and you're getting a little "incremental income" in the form of a few pennies.
Bigger problem with this is not the 2-4 cents but the content is now in the wild and that reduces it's chance to be sold for proper value later.
Think back to music piracy, wasn't a big deal until everything was out in the wild on servers around the world.......
-
No one at Alamy has had anything to say about this?
I'm ready to close my account, thought we'd get some response by now despite the holiday.
-
No one at Alamy has had anything to say about this?
I'm ready to close my account, thought we'd get some response by now despite the holiday.
Alamy has always come across to me as a very seedy dirty outfit.
Ya'll want to keep in mind that these are hundreds of items now out in the wild, they might end up on a new free stock site in Russia or China or even the US, knows but who is buying this much content suddenly and for what purpose?. is the buyer using it? reselling it?, making a free site?. distribution to other unnamed "trusted global partners".
Only way to look at anything these stock websites do is through the eyes of a criminal fraud investigator.
-
No one at Alamy has had anything to say about this?
I'm ready to close my account, thought we'd get some response by now despite the holiday.
They haven't responded on the thread on their forums either. Many contributors claim to be opted out of distribution and still see these 15 cent distributor sales. One user says she saw a 15 cent (gross) sale for an RM image
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15193-the-lowest-of-the-low/
They may be back in the office on Tuesday Jan 4th - Jan 3rd is a bank holiday in the UK
-
Just when I thought my port was immune, 15 cents (x .4 = 6 cents) China "sale" pops up on on Dec 31
(https://c7.alamy.com/comp/W28GJP/red-eared-slider-turtles-group-trachemys-scripta-elegans-resting-on-tree-log-in-calm-water-of-goodacre-lake-beacon-hill-park-victoria-bc-canada-W28GJP.jpg)
Race to the bottom gets whole new meaning
-
A new twist for me. This .17 sale didn’t go to China like my others. It was a UK sale, editorial, newspaper (national), perpetuity, full size (103 Mb). A touch more worrisome.
-
The stock agencies have become like a cartel, no matter what you do and try to sell your videos or photos you're playing by their rules and paying to come to work and lose money or you're not playing.
"This thing of ours" controls the industry.
as Sue said this is just everyday capitalism - most of the shareware industry was rendered redundant when windows came along. anyone remember 'ask jeeves' or netscape who were also 'bankrupted'. newspapers were 'bankrupted' by internet news sources. the market has caught up with an image distribution system that was over-valued - we made money while this existed, but the world moves on
-
They should have people in the office tomorrow. If they don't respond tomorrow, I'm closing the account.
-
The stock agencies have become like a cartel, no matter what you do and try to sell your videos or photos you're playing by their rules and paying to come to work and lose money or you're not playing.
"This thing of ours" controls the industry.
as Sue said this is just everyday capitalism - most of the shareware industry was rendered redundant when windows came along. anyone remember 'ask jeeves' or netscape who were also 'bankrupted'. newspapers were 'bankrupted' by internet news sources. the market has caught up with an image distribution system that was over-valued - we made money while this existed, but the world moves on
It moves on but finding a real job is so much harder than it used to be and not always just because there are so few jobs to be had but that's another essay.
You mentioned the newspapers being bankrupted by internet news sources, funny thing is many of those internet news sources happen to be our local radio, TV and print media rushing to give the product away for free on social media, story, pics and video and then they wonder why no one is watching the 6pm news or buying the paper and why the advertisers all left
They want to charge big bucks for ads on the 6pm news and the paper but are giving the product away for free online, the advertisers laughed.
I don't remember ask Jeeves but I remember Netscape, maybe it was replaced by a better product or a product the public liked better, BlackBerry invented the smartphone here in Canada and it had a good run until Apple came along with something the public liked better and the rest is history.
With stock footage I don't know, these startups, the agencies came about to disrupt an industry that paid well, this is what video used to sell for and this editorial producer still sells for those prices https://stormhighway.com/footage/rates.php but now the agencies tell us our work is worth a few dollars and we much accept a few pennies for our work but maybe that's because their race to the bottom business model isn't sustainable.
The stock agencies exist is due to millions in VC funding or raising capital via an IPO, the banks wouldn't lend them a penny and definitely not when their model is to disrupt a well paying industry and race prices to the bottom or free. I'm not sure it was over valued.....the agencies have us thinking digital media no longer has much value so we accept those penny sales but they're still doing ok, the office space at the Empire state building and the storage and transfer costs on AWS alone don't come cheap.
-
They should have people in the office tomorrow. If they don't respond tomorrow, I'm closing the account.
If it's anything like the partner program at pond5, they might still reserve the right to sell the content for a few months after you opt out, not sure if it's in the fine print but the other thing is once the content is on the servers in places like China, our laws and rules don't apply, it's "gone".
Wonder if the distribution company they've done a deal with is Bytedance, that outfit is into a lot of things, they also own TikTok.
-
They should have people in the office tomorrow. If they don't respond tomorrow, I'm closing the account.
Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday in the UK; I wouldn't expect any contributor support staff to be in the office.*
Tuesday is also a BH, (whoops, no that's just Scotland, doesn't apply to Alamy.)
I think in the past it has appeared that their staff in India got the British holidays around Christmas/New Year, but that might have changed with the new management.
*Also I suspect they'll have a big backlog of queries about this.
-
Also see the fourth post in this Alamy Forum thread for a previous reply by Alamy:
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15195-paid-015-for-a-photo (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15195-paid-015-for-a-photo)
-
Also see the fourth post in this Alamy Forum thread for a previous reply by Alamy:
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15195-paid-015-for-a-photo (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15195-paid-015-for-a-photo)
"Our sales teams work extremely hard to negotiate on deals..."
Yeah those guys are TOUGH. I want them to sell my house for me. Maybe I'll get $20!
Ok, "Bank Holiday". I'll wait til tomorrow but if there's no response by the end of the day, that's it, I'm leaving.
-
I like the part where they talk about market value.
-
I like the part where they talk about market value.
Yeah and just wait for July when most of us will go from 40% down to 20%? I can really see this being a real artist revolt as Alamy doesn't have the images that the Microstock places held when they screwed us. My favorite quote was when the agency was sold and we were told (February 2020 just for perspective)
CONTRIBUTORS
Does this acquisition change anything for me? In terms of commission rates/contracts/ processes, etc?
No, it doesn’t. Alamy continues to operate as usual.
Alamy prides itself on offering a better commission rate than most other agencies. Will PA Media Group continue to offer the same commission rates to Alamy’s existing contributors?
There are no plans to change that.
Read all the lies in one place: https://pamediagroup.com/faqs-pa-media-group-acquires-alamy/
(https://i.postimg.cc/288cGKYY/angrymob-composite-2012.jpg)
-
I like the part where they talk about market value.
Yeah and just wait for July when most of us will go from 40% down to 20%? I can really see this being a real artist revolt as Alamy doesn't have the images that the Microstock places held when they screwed us. My favorite quote was when the agency was sold and we were told (February 2020 just for perspective)
CONTRIBUTORS
Does this acquisition change anything for me? In terms of commission rates/contracts/ processes, etc?
No, it doesn’t. Alamy continues to operate as usual.
Alamy prides itself on offering a better commission rate than most other agencies. Will PA Media Group continue to offer the same commission rates to Alamy’s existing contributors?
There are no plans to change that.
Read all the lies in one place: https://pamediagroup.com/faqs-pa-media-group-acquires-alamy/
(https://i.postimg.cc/288cGKYY/angrymob-composite-2012.jpg)
I don't always agree with you but "Read all the lies in once place" is definitely the quote of the day!. Love it!.
-
I sent Alamy support email this morning requesting they start the 45-day clock to terminate my account.
I got an automated reply that they're back January 5th with some pointers to where I could find various information online.
The kicker for me was comparing my 2021 earnings for the whole year and the second half (July 1 to Dec 31). The second half of the year's gross sales revenue was one tenth of the total year's sales.
I would have left the account open if they had continued the royalty rate as before, but with the 15 cent and 21 cent sales and the prospect that those would result in my royalty rate dropping to 20% (something I'd never have even thought about from prior years as gross sales were way above that threshold) I've had enough.
When my royalty rate is cut because of an agency's inability to sell my content (which I know can sell because it does elsewhere), I will not reward them with an extra large slice of pie :)
-
Ok, enough with the holidays. I think it's a forgone conclusion that these 4 cent sales will continue, and that Alamy is no longer the business it was. I just sent them an email requesting closing of my account.
It would be nice if they asked they reason - but I get the feeling no one there would care.
Unfortunately we can't prevent them from handing our entire portfolios to these "distributors" in the days before the accounts actually close. Or even after that...
-
Unfortunately we can't prevent them from handing our entire portfolios to these "distributors" in the days before the accounts actually close. Or even after that...
That's really the smelliest of the many stink bombs here, isn't it?
Seems to me that an ethical company, or at least a semi-ethical company, would respond immediately when you say "I'm out." It just can't take 45 days for somebody to flip the switch.
-
Unfortunately we can't prevent them from handing our entire portfolios to these "distributors" in the days before the accounts actually close. Or even after that...
That's really the smelliest of the many stink bombs here, isn't it?
Seems to me that an ethical company, or at least a semi-ethical company, would respond immediately when you say "I'm out." It just can't take 45 days for somebody to flip the switch.
In hindsight I suppose we should have left when Alamy was sold in 2020. But who knew?
-
Unfortunately we can't prevent them from handing our entire portfolios to these "distributors" in the days before the accounts actually close. Or even after that...
[/quote]
You're thinking! and this is the problem with ALL these websites and unless the content, your videos and photos (the product) we sell is stored on our hard drives not theirs and only comes off those drives when there is a sale then anything can happen with it.
They set and change the terms as they like which they legally can, startups and tech companies love sending out notices that the terms of service have changed, got one today from a company, "no consent required" it said but you can leave and opt out but in the case of one agency it's three months before your global partner content is allegedly removed from the many unknown and unnamed partners.
With Alamy it's a company in China, if anyone thinks content is safe on a server run by a company in China they are delusional, different laws in those countries simple as that.
I was going to get into cybersecurity but I haven't gotten into a program yet, still applying but I do have a strong interest in it and you'd be amazed how much of our data is sold and trafficked to data brokers and "trusted third parties" you've never heard of.
As it stands now every one of these stock websites is doing "something", our pay is been cut dramatically and they keep repeating the same lies over and over again about how competitive the industry is and how we need to work hard to sell your work for pennies to keep customers.
-
Unfortunately we can't prevent them from handing our entire portfolios to these "distributors" in the days before the accounts actually close. Or even after that...
That's really the smelliest of the many stink bombs here, isn't it?
Seems to me that an ethical company, or at least a semi-ethical company, would respond immediately when you say "I'm out." It just can't take 45 days for somebody to flip the switch.
I don't think there is one ethical company left in this stock video and photo industry to be honest, there is one that's tried but they have VC investors as well so it's not what it used to be over there, I got "smoked" when they did a deal with Reuters, Newsflare and PAmedia. I have editorial content. I think it's the investors and shareholders, they call the shots not always the management of the company.
-
Unfortunately we can't prevent them from handing our entire portfolios to these "distributors" in the days before the accounts actually close. Or even after that...
That's really the smelliest of the many stink bombs here, isn't it?
Seems to me that an ethical company, or at least a semi-ethical company, would respond immediately when you say "I'm out." It just can't take 45 days for somebody to flip the switch.
In hindsight I suppose we should have left when Alamy was sold in 2020. But who knew?
Years ago, probably around 2010, I established a contributor's account at Alamy, but for some reason that I don't remember I never submitted anything to them. Now I'm glad of that.
After having contributed along the way to iS, SS, Envato, Corbis (Veer), and a few others I've forgotten about, I'm completely out of them all at this point. I don't regret leaving any of them.
Only the three remaining "honorable agencies" — Adobe, Pond5, and Dreamstime — still represent my work. I realize that I couldn't be so picky if I had to earn a living, as opposed to "spending money." Guess that's one of the (very few) advantages of getting older.
-
An Admin has answered on the Alamy forum: https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040)
Thank you for all of the information you have provided here, our CR team are just getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas break and this will be useful to help us look into what's happened in this case to give a clear answer. If you've got a specific question about your sales, please email [email protected] but be mindful that there may be a delayed response as we get back up to speed and work through the backlog from the festive period.
Reminds me of the bland, impersonal responses we got on the Shutterforum after the Shutterstock issues.
-
I like the way they combined all threads about it, then locked it and finally moved it to a quieter spot of the forum ;D
-
I like the way they combined all threads about it, then locked it and finally moved it to a quieter spot of the forum ;D
next step: Closing Forums altogether. all the same
-
Don't worry.... another thread has appeared in the quiet section
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/
Maybe we should all post there so it gains Google search attention ;D
It's actually under a section called "Suggestions and Ideas". They changed the original thread name to, "Selling for Pennies". Are they trying o make it look like someone created a thread too suggest they should "Sell for Pennies"?!? Amazing
-
I like the way they combined all threads about it, then locked it and finally moved it to a quieter spot of the forum ;D
next step: Closing Forums altogether. all the same
Yeah, I think you have something there. It was obvious that SS had to go through their usual meetings and groups and managers committees studies, because from the day they announced the 10¢ plan and the reset, the forum was mostly bad publicity. It just took that long because of the decision making paralysis in many corporate environments. Everyone is afraid to make a decision on their own and needs some group or research to back their butts.
Lets see, new owners at Alamy. Forum is bad press and exposes the absurd sales amounts, the even worse commissions and how that's going to get even worse in the future. (or maybe how the forum has exposed no future for contributors?) Answer kill the forum, silence the truth.
If anyone missed it, and has been reading the Alamy threads, this is in the TOS and why someone has already said, they have started the 45 day clock.
Termination
You may terminate this Contract:
on 45 days’ prior written notice to Alamy at any time;
https://www.alamy.com/terms/contributor.aspx (https://www.alamy.com/terms/contributor.aspx)
In addition to your rights to terminate the Contract, you may delete any item of Content after ninety (90) days’ notice to Alamy.
While licenses that are active and those that are in process will continue and remain, you can close your account with 45 day notice, you don't have to wait 90 days.
I haven't been hit yet, worst last year was $3 for $1.20 but I know after reading here that no one is safe and immune from the Microstock income pandemic that's eating away at all of us. Alamy = Another one bites the dust. And when this goes to 20% of almost nothing, things will be even worse?
-
I sent the "close account" request yesterday - how long till they even respond with the hoops I'll have to jump through?
I'd love to lock up my best photos somehow. What if I just deleted the keywords and titles? Would that at least waste their time?
-
I sent the "close account" request yesterday - how long till they even respond with the hoops I'll have to jump through?
I received a reply from support this morning. Other than asking if there was anything they could do to persuade me to stay, there were no hoops to jump through :)
-
I like the way they combined all threads about it, then locked it and finally moved it to a quieter spot of the forum ;D
next step: Closing Forums altogether. all the same
Yeah, I think you have something there. It was obvious that SS had to go through their usual meetings and groups and managers committees studies, because from the day they announced the 10¢ plan and the reset, the forum was mostly bad publicity. It just took that long because of the decision making paralysis in many corporate environments. Everyone is afraid to make a decision on their own and needs some group or research to back their butts.
Lets see, new owners at Alamy. Forum is bad press and exposes the absurd sales amounts, the even worse commissions and how that's going to get even worse in the future. (or maybe how the forum has exposed no future for contributors?) Answer kill the forum, silence the truth.
If anyone missed it, and has been reading the Alamy threads, this is in the TOS and why someone has already said, they have started the 45 day clock.
Termination
You may terminate this Contract:
on 45 days’ prior written notice to Alamy at any time;
https://www.alamy.com/terms/contributor.aspx (https://www.alamy.com/terms/contributor.aspx)
In addition to your rights to terminate the Contract, you may delete any item of Content after ninety (90) days’ notice to Alamy.
While licenses that are active and those that are in process will continue and remain, you can close your account with 45 day notice, you don't have to wait 90 days.
I haven't been hit yet, worst last year was $3 for $1.20 but I know after reading here that no one is safe and immune from the Microstock income pandemic that's eating away at all of us. Alamy = Another one bites the dust. And when this goes to 20% of almost nothing, things will be even worse?
Speaking of bad press, they can close forums but they can't close Twitter, Reddit and TikTok, don't even have to use your real name, just make up random usernames, get the message out and take the tech media outlets and others.
-
No response to my "close account" email.
I just went to my Image Manager page, selected all my photos, deleted all the tags, added the single tag "UNKNOWN" to satisfy the editor, and hit Save.
Hopefully that at least makes them less likely to be snagged by China Intellectual Property Inc. If I'm really lucky, someone will get angry and close my account on the spot.
-
No response to my "close account" email.
I just went to my Image Manager page, selected all my photos, deleted all the tags, added the single tag "UNKNOWN" to satisfy the editor, and hit Save.
Hopefully that at least makes them less likely to be snagged by China Intellectual Property Inc. If I'm really lucky, someone will get angry and close my account on the spot.
Good idea, it might preserve your ranking for a bit in case they reverse course but if penny sales to china still happen then it's no doubt their trusted partner in China is using a bot to scrape the site.
-
Another Agency that has taken the corporate shareholder greed route, now owned by PA Media, better known as the Daily Mail, wholly owned by Viscount Rothermere, a notorious family of tax avoiders, they have never paid tax in the UK, his father was a supporter of Adolf Hitler, I write this so you know the type of people who are sharfting you.
Alamy used to give it's profits to charity, they used to be a honourable agency.
-
I sent the "close account" request yesterday - how long till they even respond with the hoops I'll have to jump through?
I received a reply from support this morning. Other than asking if there was anything they could do to persuade me to stay, there were no hoops to jump through :)
I hope you told them 50/50 split and no sales under X amount, where X >$1
-
Another Agency that has taken the corporate shareholder greed route, now owned by PA Media, better known as the Daily Mail, wholly owned by Viscount Rothermere, a notorious family of tax avoiders, they have never paid tax in the UK, his father was a supporter of Adolf Hitler, I write this so you know the type of people who are sharfting you.
Alamy used to give it's profits to charity, they used to be a honourable agency.
So that's who PAmedia is, they just did that big deal with Pond5, Reuters and Newsflare for editorial video. brb. going to throw up
-
I got the email acknowledging my request to close my account; so the die is cast. I'm out of microstock for good.
Here's my exit interview:
These agencies went along in the belief that we had no selling price resistance; we'd complain, but in the end we'd take anything, even a few pennies, on any number of sales. And especially if there was always the possibility of a bigger sale tomorrow. It was always "a sale we'd have otherwise not gotten". Any sale is better than nothing.
What I think they never understood is how angering it can be to see your photo "sold" for a ridiculous token amount to someone who's obviously going to make quite a bit more money on it than you just did. It may not be rational, but it's a fact - these fake "sales" made many of us feel like chumps.
I'm glad I won't have that feeling again.
-
I got the email acknowledging my request to close my account; so the die is cast. I'm out of microstock for good.
Here's my exit interview:
These agencies went along in the belief that we had no selling price resistance; we'd complain, but in the end we'd take anything, even a few pennies, on any number of sales. And especially if there was always the possibility of a bigger sale tomorrow. It was always "a sale we'd have otherwise not gotten". Any sale is better than nothing.
What I think they never understood is how angering it can be to see your photo "sold" for a ridiculous token amount to someone who's obviously going to make quite a bit more money on it than you just did. It may not be rational, but it's a fact - these fake "sales" made many of us feel like chumps.
I'm glad I won't have that feeling again.
I see you registered here in 2009, for me it was 2008 when I got into this business. Not sure what part in the world you're in but hopefully you're able to find job now that this has ended as way to make a living.
In my case I am still leaving my video and photo content up on Pond5, if a sale or two happens then great.
Going forward it's job searching and learning day, swing and options trading as best I can before I end up like others in the film and video industry in Toronto. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/12/29/she-lost-her-job-his-building-sold-these-are-some-of-thousands-of-people-who-became-homeless-in-toronto-this-year.html (https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/12/29/she-lost-her-job-his-building-sold-these-are-some-of-thousands-of-people-who-became-homeless-in-toronto-this-year.html)
-
I regularly check whether there is any news on the Alamy forum. but except for a comment from an admin, that they are happy with the experiences sent and then close the topic ;D, I still don't read anything. There are also few new messages from the forum members.
After less good experiences on the Alamyforum, I don't post there. But is there any news about those mini sales?
-
I regularly check whether there is any news on the Alamy forum. but except for a comment from an admin, that they are happy with the experiences sent and then close the topic ;D, I still don't read anything. There are also few new messages from the forum members.
After less good experiences on the Alamyforum, I don't post there. But is there any news about those mini sales?
Well Well, look at that? This topic is now closed to further replies. I'll tell you what. You keep waling into the arena and poking the lions, dodging the forum gladiators, and I'll stay here and watch from the cheap seats?
Seriously does any one else think we're getting stonewalled and shut down?
Thank you for all of the information you have provided here, our CR team are just getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas break and this will be useful to help us look into what's happened in this case to give a clear answer. If you've got a specific question about your sales, please email [email protected] but be mindful that there may be a delayed response as we get back up to speed and work through the backlog from the festive period.
Must have been some "festive period" that they are still getting over it, no answers ten days later?
Just sitting here waiting for my lovely partner sales to come in. I haven't been victimized yet like so many others.
-
I got a usual pap response from my e-mail asking about them and if there was a way to avoid sales that low...
"These sales were made through one of our Distributors and they’ll charge what they think to be a competitive price in their market. It’s in everyone’s interest to get the highest price for each sale as the money is split three ways, but sometimes these prices look small when compared with similar licenses in the UK & US.
Remember these are customers we wouldn’t normally reach as it’s a sale through our Distribution scheme and an “Additional Revenue Option”.
You can only opt out or remove countries in April of every year; this is so we can give our distributors a consistent collection."
But in the interest of fairness, I must point out that so far this year Alamy is far ahead with 3 sales for which I will get $86.11 if I did my math right (it was so much easier when it was 50/50)
-
I got a usual pap response from my e-mail asking about them and if there was a way to avoid sales that low...
"These sales were made through one of our Distributors and they’ll charge what they think to be a competitive price in their market. It’s in everyone’s interest to get the highest price for each sale as the money is split three ways, but sometimes these prices look small when compared with similar licenses in the UK & US.
Remember these are customers we wouldn’t normally reach as it’s a sale through our Distribution scheme and an “Additional Revenue Option”.
You can only opt out or remove countries in April of every year; this is so we can give our distributors a consistent collection."
But in the interest of fairness, I must point out that so far this year Alamy is far ahead with 3 sales for which I will get $86.11 if I did my math right (it was so much easier when it was 50/50)
Thanks.
So it was, if I understand correctly, no mistake and they don't answer on the forum, where the questions were asked.
To avoid unrest? End of forum?
The high prices of course compensate a lot. But for the people who don't sell much, that compensation will also be lower if they get 20%.
-
But in the interest of fairness, I must point out that so far this year Alamy is far ahead with 3 sales for which I will get $86.11 if I did my math right (it was so much easier when it was 50/50)
Well done, I've just had my second sale of the year, taking my total net to $2.49.
BTW, (in case you don't know, and if you do know, it might help someone else) you can see what you've netted for each sale on the 'Net Revenue Sales Report', which is downloadable from your homepage via the 'Download Sales Report' button.
-
But in the interest of fairness, I must point out that so far this year Alamy is far ahead with 3 sales for which I will get $86.11 if I did my math right (it was so much easier when it was 50/50)
Well done, I've just had my second sale of the year, taking my total net to $2.49.
BTW, (in case you don't know, and if you do know, it might help someone else) you can see what you've netted for each sale on the 'Net Revenue Sales Report', which is downloadable from your homepage via the 'Download Sales Report' button.
Thanks, that is helpful once you check the right boxes. I actually didn't get that much from my 3 sales, there was $26.70 in ASCRL Nov 2021 payment included too. Still better than the sales at the end of December 2021.
I suspect that the official answer is that is what you get ($.04 per sale). Hopefully behind the scenes they are annoyed they are so low and do something to put a floor on sales. The way the market is going I wouldn't put any money on it though up to a hundred sales for an individual is only $4 but 10,000 for Alamy is $600. I also think that taking 80% from the sales for the ports that they are unable to sell well is lame. Another reason why I wouldn't recommend getting into this business anymore. The percentage of low sales is much less than SS, but the overall number of sales is much much less and I went years without a sale over $30 (for me) at SS. It is up to everyone to decide how much they are willing to put up with before they stop uploading or pull their ports entirely. For a long while I made much much more at SS than Alamy, I think it wasn't far off by 2019 - more because SS came down so much and Alamy didn't fall as much.
-
I had my account closed with Alamy in February last year after not one sale in 12 months and the last commission of about $3.00. When I started in 2019, my first sale paid me $30.00. Following sales were lower but enough to make what would be my first and only payout from them. I wasn't going to chase sales with Alamy given its poor performance with my port in the last year I had there and reading comments here, looks like it's even worse now.
-
A new thread on Alamy: https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15224-why-did-three-of-my-images-sell-for-15/?ct=1641891684 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15224-why-did-three-of-my-images-sell-for-15/?ct=1641891684) Let's see if there is an answer from an admin or if it is hidden again with a lock on it. :)
Curious how cozy it will be there in July when many of us get 20%. :(
-
I got a usual pap response from my e-mail asking about them and if there was a way to avoid sales that low...
"These sales were made through one of our Distributors and they’ll charge what they think to be a competitive price in their market. It’s in everyone’s interest to get the highest price for each sale as the money is split three ways, but sometimes these prices look small when compared with similar licenses in the UK & US.
Remember these are customers we wouldn’t normally reach as it’s a sale through our Distribution scheme and an “Additional Revenue Option”.
You can only opt out or remove countries in April of every year; this is so we can give our distributors a consistent collection."
But in the interest of fairness, I must point out that so far this year Alamy is far ahead with 3 sales for which I will get $86.11 if I did my math right (it was so much easier when it was 50/50)
Agree with you. I am doing fairly well on Alamy, in micro stock terms, anyway. But I will be opting out of distributor sales in April as the slue of 2 cent royalties does not appeal to me. it's a test, really. Will my overall revenue be significantly affected by opting out? Don't think so as most of my sales have been regular Alamy sales. It's unfortunate that Alamy has gone down this path. I just had about 15 sales from China. I made a couple of pennies. I'm outtie!!
-
Is everyone sure that these tiny sales are distributor sales, they do not show up as minus the distributor's cut on my account or don't they bother showing it when the amounts are so tiny.
I am only asking because I would like to be sure before I opt out of all distributor sales as I have had some reasonably large sales in the past (even after distributor and Alamy share have been deducted)
-
Is everyone sure that these tiny sales are distributor sales, they do not show up as minus the distributor's cut on my account or don't they bother showing it when the amounts are so tiny.
I am only asking because I would like to be sure before I opt out of all distributor sales as I have had some reasonably large sales in the past (even after distributor and Alamy share have been deducted)
If they aren't sales, what are they? I mean all sales have a deduction of some kind.
Balance of Account should show something similar to this:
31 May 2021 Sale 2BC2K81 Sale 28.73 11/2021
31 May 2021 Alamy Distribution Commission 2BC2K81 30% 8.62 11/2021
31 May 2021 Distributor Commission 2BC2K81 40% Distributor Commission 11.49
Alamy takes 30% of the original sale, The distributor gets 40% of the original sale, artist gets 30% of the original sale.
Sold for 28.73 Deductions are -20.11 I was credited 8.62 which ends up being 30% which is shown nowhere in the above.
Your sale report will show this:
1/9/2021 31/5/2021 11/2021 2BC2K81 RF 28.73 -20.11 8.62
I added the colors to hopefully make things match up easier? Last line of the sales report is what I got paid.
(https://i.postimg.cc/yYVfqNX2/Alamy-Sales-Report-Location.jpg)
Since I don't have one of those terrible sales yet, I can't show you a real example of 15 cents - .045 - .06 = .045 commission
Alamy doesn't make these things easy to see.
-
In my case they are clearly labelled as distribution sales (had four of them on Dec 30/31).
I did look at my sales numbers from last year, and (although there were these tiny sales at the end of the year) distribution sales make up 55% of my gross revenue at Alamy (and 44% of my net revenue).
I had four sales last year with a gross revenue above 100$, three of them via distributors.
For now I will not opt out of distribution sales, as much as I dislike selling for pennies...
-
BTW, (in case you don't know, and if you do know, it might help someone else) you can see what you've netted for each sale on the 'Net Revenue Sales Report', which is downloadable from your homepage via the 'Download Sales Report' button.
Thank you for the pointer.
Just as a note for others who want to see or download this table, the default organization of it is by Date Paid (drop down list by the date range). If you want to see the most recent "sales" - like the 15 cent nasties - you need to change that to date invoiced. That way things that haven't yet been paid will be in the list
And there are more reports in Alamy's forums of non distributor sales for small amounts - one woman said she had one for (gross)25 cents this week. Opting out of distributor sales will only address part of the problem in other words
-
In my case they are clearly labelled as distribution sales (had four of them on Dec 30/31).
Either mine was not a distributor sale or Alamy is disregarding the opt-out. I opted out of all distributor sales last April yet still had a $0.15 sale to China on 30 Dec with (unspecified) $0.11 deduction.
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
Ouch, I think Old Alamy usually rounded half cents in our favour.
Just another money scrape by PA. Mony a mickle maks a muckle.
Added: No, I've just noticed I had a (small value) sale this week which had the half cent credited to me.
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
it's actually 60% For Alamy of whatever is left after Distributor commission not 50%
-
For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.
For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. ;)
full time work is hard to find these days.
Actually it's the other way around: wherever I turn my head I see "we hire" signs.
There are not enough workers, these days, for all the jobs that are available.
Amount of jobs ads never shows the real status of the market. Huge layer of intermediates ("body shops") repost the same or slightly changed texts. Many employers cannot find employees being linked to aggressive contracts. Many job seekers cannot find a job because they cannot go through "culture" filters of intermediates (understand this as age-gender-origin-agree-with-everything-shut-up) or requirements without any practical base written by people "not in the subject". The things are more complicated. Look for the root cause.
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
it's actually 60% For Alamy of whatever is left after Distributor commission not 50%
Show me that math I can't see how you got 60%
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
it's actually 60% For Alamy of whatever is left after Distributor commission not 50%
Show me that math I can't see how you got 60%
15 x .4 = 6 cents to distributor leaving 9
9 x .6 = 5.4 they rounded down to 5 leaving 4 for me
-
In my case they are clearly labelled as distribution sales (had four of them on Dec 30/31).
Either mine was not a distributor sale or Alamy is disregarding the opt-out. I opted out of all distributor sales last April yet still had a $0.15 sale to China on 30 Dec with (unspecified) $0.11 deduction.
Wether it was a distributor sale or not you will see in your account balance (did they deduct a distribution commission?).
A possible explanation (just guessing) why some people get these sales although they opted out of distribution last year:
It could be that this distributor only reports sales on a yearly basis to Alamy (why else would all these sales appear at year end?).
Therfore sales could be from dates before the opt out...
-
Here are two examples from my (soon to be ex) Alamy account. The first is a direct sale for 21 cents gross and the second a distributor sale for 15 cents gross.
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
it's actually 60% For Alamy of whatever is left after Distributor commission not 50%
Show me that math I can't see how you got 60%
it's what the contract says.
-
I got a usual pap response from my e-mail asking about them and if there was a way to avoid sales that low...
"... but sometimes these prices look small when compared with similar licenses in the UK & US."
This is the funny part.
The prices do not only look small, they ARE small.
-
Sales through Alamy gets you 40% of gross, distributor sales gets you 30% of gross, so I you got 30% thats distributor sale in my opinion.
Yes and I made an example, but: 15 cents +(- .045) +(- .06) = +.045 commission - also makes me see that the .045 in the front is rounded up to .05 and the .045 for the contributor is rounded down to .04 ? They just picked up a half cent that way. Slick accounting in their favor?
it's actually 60% For Alamy of whatever is left after Distributor commission not 50%
Show me that math I can't see how you got 60%
No Distributor = Alamy takes 60% we get 40%
But the discussion was distributor sales, not the Alamy sales.
15 cent license:
Distributor 30% of 15 cents = .045
Alamy 40% of 15 cents = .06
Artist 30% of 15 cents = .045
total 100% = 15 cents
Alamy does not take 60% of a Distributor Sale?
Edit = Yes they do since June 2021
-
They changed that.
What it says on my statement (and I recall that is also what was in their changed terms):
- sale: 0.15
- Alamy distribution commission 60% of net: 0.05
- 40% distributor commission: 0.06
Only the order of the last two lines is confusing, as they first deduct the distributor commission and then take their own commission (60% of net, which ends up as 36% of the gross value).
So with distribution sales you end up with 24% of the gross value.
And in this case their 60% of net would be 60% of 0.09 = 0.054, but they did deduct 0.05, so they did round in our favour.
Not that it matters much, they should simply not allow sales at these low values.
-
They changed that.
What it says on my statement (and I recall that is also what was in their changed terms):
- sale: 0.15
- Alamy distribution commission 60% of net: 0.05
- 40% distributor commission: 0.06
Only the order of the last two lines is confusing, as they first deduct the distributor commission and then take their own commission (60% of net, which ends up as 36% of the gross value).
So with distribution sales you end up with 24% of the gross value.
And in this case their 60% of net would be 60% of 0.09 = 0.054, but they did deduct 0.05, so they did round in our favour.
Not that it matters much, they should simply not allow sales at these low values.
Oh, so my modern math isn't quite right? Even though the numbers add up? And that's the way they show it on my balance sheet?
31 May 2021 Sale 2BC2K81 Sale 28.73
31 May 2021 Alamy Distribution Commission 2BC2K81 30% 8.62
31 May 2021 Distributor Commission 2BC2K81 40% Distributor Commission 11.49
8.62 + 11.49 = $20.11
Net revenue sales report
Sale Deduction Due
28.73 -20.11 8.62
That sure looks like Alamy 30%, Distributor 40% and I get 30% ?
What am I doing wrong?
Contract changed and I haven't had a distributor sale since May, that's what's wrong.
-
They changed that.
What it says on my statement (and I recall that is also what was in their changed terms):
- sale: 0.15
- Alamy distribution commission 60% of net: 0.05
- 40% distributor commission: 0.06
Only the order of the last two lines is confusing, as they first deduct the distributor commission and then take their own commission (60% of net, which ends up as 36% of the gross value).
So with distribution sales you end up with 24% of the gross value.
And in this case their 60% of net would be 60% of 0.09 = 0.054, but they did deduct 0.05, so they did round in our favour.
Not that it matters much, they should simply not allow sales at these low values.
Oh, so my modern math isn't quite right? Even though the numbers add up? And that's the way they show it on my balance sheet?
31 May 2021 Sale 2BC2K81 Sale 28.73
31 May 2021 Alamy Distribution Commission 2BC2K81 30% 8.62
31 May 2021 Distributor Commission 2BC2K81 40% Distributor Commission 11.49
8.62 + 11.49 = $20.11
Net revenue sales report
Sale Deduction Due
28.73 -20.11 8.62
That sure looks like Alamy 30%, Distributor 40% and I get 30% ?
What am I doing wrong?
That was before the contract change. Can't remember exactly at what date they changed the contract, it was around middle of the year.
Everything on my account balance up to early June looks like you describe it (40% distributor, 30% Alamy, 30% for me).
The next distributor sale I got was on August 31, there it says what I wrote above (40% distributor, 60% of net Alamy, rest =24% for me).
-
dirkr is right, I remember having 2 bigger sales last year, and I was dissapointed, when I found out I don't get 30% but lest, I think it was 24% or sth.
gross my net
127.36 -96.79 30.57
-
They changed that.
What it says on my statement (and I recall that is also what was in their changed terms):
- sale: 0.15
- Alamy distribution commission 60% of net: 0.05
- 40% distributor commission: 0.06
Only the order of the last two lines is confusing, as they first deduct the distributor commission and then take their own commission (60% of net, which ends up as 36% of the gross value).
So with distribution sales you end up with 24% of the gross value.
And in this case their 60% of net would be 60% of 0.09 = 0.054, but they did deduct 0.05, so they did round in our favour.
Not that it matters much, they should simply not allow sales at these low values.
Oh, so my modern math isn't quite right? Even though the numbers add up? And that's the way they show it on my balance sheet?
31 May 2021 Sale 2BC2K81 Sale 28.73
31 May 2021 Alamy Distribution Commission 2BC2K81 30% 8.62
31 May 2021 Distributor Commission 2BC2K81 40% Distributor Commission 11.49
8.62 + 11.49 = $20.11
Net revenue sales report
Sale Deduction Due
28.73 -20.11 8.62
That sure looks like Alamy 30%, Distributor 40% and I get 30% ?
What am I doing wrong?
That was before the contract change. Can't remember exactly at what date they changed the contract, it was around middle of the year.
Everything on my account balance up to early June looks like you describe it (40% distributor, 30% Alamy, 30% for me).
The next distributor sale I got was on August 31, there it says what I wrote above (40% distributor, 60% of net Alamy, rest =24% for me).
Thank You for explaining! :) Now I have to look closer. Boy, thank you Alamy for finding another way to take more and pay us less. Just can't wait for the new contract levels to kick in in June.
Nope no distributor sales since May. But I'll be watching!
Thanks for correcting me.
dirkr is right, I remember having 2 bigger sales last year, and I was dissapointed, when I found out I don't get 30% but lest, I think it was 24% or sth.
gross my net
127.36 -96.79 30.57
Just can't wait?
-
This is what I got in January. I just think it's complicated. :o
So 23,91 - 8,61 - 9,56 = 5,74 for me. = about 24%
-
They changed that.
What it says on my statement (and I recall that is also what was in their changed terms):
- sale: 0.15
- Alamy distribution commission 60% of net: 0.05
- 40% distributor commission: 0.06
Only the order of the last two lines is confusing, as they first deduct the distributor commission and then take their own commission (60% of net, which ends up as 36% of the gross value).
So with distribution sales you end up with 24% of the gross value.
And in this case their 60% of net would be 60% of 0.09 = 0.054, but they did deduct 0.05, so they did round in our favour.
Not that it matters much, they should simply not allow sales at these low values.
Oh, so my modern math isn't quite right? Even though the numbers add up? And that's the way they show it on my balance sheet?
31 May 2021 Sale 2BC2K81 Sale 28.73
31 May 2021 Alamy Distribution Commission 2BC2K81 30% 8.62
31 May 2021 Distributor Commission 2BC2K81 40% Distributor Commission 11.49
8.62 + 11.49 = $20.11
Net revenue sales report
Sale Deduction Due
28.73 -20.11 8.62
That sure looks like Alamy 30%, Distributor 40% and I get 30% ?
What am I doing wrong?
That was before the contract change. Can't remember exactly at what date they changed the contract, it was around middle of the year.
Everything on my account balance up to early June looks like you describe it (40% distributor, 30% Alamy, 30% for me).
The next distributor sale I got was on August 31, there it says what I wrote above (40% distributor, 60% of net Alamy, rest =24% for me).
Thank You for explaining! :) Now I have to look closer. Boy, thank you Alamy for finding another way to take more and pay us less. Just can't wait for the new contract levels to kick in in June.
Nope no distributor sales since May. But I'll be watching!
Thanks for correcting me.
dirkr is right, I remember having 2 bigger sales last year, and I was dissapointed, when I found out I don't get 30% but lest, I think it was 24% or sth.
gross my net
127.36 -96.79 30.57
Just can't wait?
Wait wut?
-
Just can't wait?
Wait wut?
Can't wait for my first crappy distributor sale in 2022 and hopefully it's not one of the 7 cent kind.
-
Ah, ok, I thought it was meant for me.
Btw you can calculate cents too, hehe
-
Ah, ok, I thought it was meant for me.
Btw you can calculate cents too, hehe
My mistakes, bad math and everything else, is meant for everyone, I wouldn't leave you out. 8)
What I meant was, I haven't had any distributor sales since May, so I haven't seen this terrible situation first hand. I feel lucky, but I'm sure I'll join the club of minuscule distributor download licenses.
The other just can't wait, is for Alamy to answer the contributor questions instead of claiming to be catching up after the holiday season. I need the expected dodge of the truth, twisted reasoning, and ignoring the obvious facts, for some humor and entertainment.
-
Hi All,
I've just posted this message on our official forum so thought it would also be good to post here.
Apologies on the radio silence up to this point whilst we investigate what's been happening with these sales via a Chinese distributor. The detail is more complex than it appears and we are still picking through the data to ascertain what’s involved and how it has come to pass.
I'd also like to apologise for posting this on what is a Friday afternoon here in the UK. It's never the best time to post replies and I'm aware there will may be suspicions that this is some kind of deliberate tactic of waiting for a quiet period but I can assure you it isn't.
I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened with this flurry of sales through the Chinese distribution channel. For now though I wanted to confirm that this level of pricing is not some radical new approach that we've taken on that will be rolled out across all sales. I also want to be honest though and say that these types of deals are a requirement in todays market so you will see them from time to time, and we're not alone as an agency in having to provide such licence types.
Our average price for per licence remains remarkably stable and has done since 2017. 2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. On an individual level it was a record year for submissions and photographer registrations so that may naturally dilute the earnings for photographers who are facing more competition than ever. Our job is to continue to grow sales in order to grow as a business of course but also be a viable earning platform for this growing number of contributors. It's a tough, competitive market but we have some ambitious and exciting plans which we hope you can all be part of with us.
Low value sales like you've seen here are not encouraging of course and I'm not going to pretend they are, but taken in as part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable and higher than our key competition - and our plans for growth are very promising - I hope those who are dissuaded from contributing as a result may reconsider and continue to work with us as we grow.
James Allsworth
Head of Content
-
2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. ... ... part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable ...
That's strange, because on your current as-of-this-minute "Why should I sell stock imagery on Alamy?" page, which was written in May 2019*, it says, "The average image license fee on Alamy is $90".
https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4 (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4)
* <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2019-05-15T09:26:13+00:00" />
-
Thanks for the first explanation. Unfortunately, it still does not provide no clarity about what exactly those low amounts are.
What worries me a bit, that the topics on the Alamy forum is closed with the same announcement. https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/?ct=1642187191 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/?ct=1642187191) and https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040) . Maybe because until a full explanation of Alamy it doesn't make much sense to discuss it?
-
.
-
... these types of deals are a requirement in todays market so you will see them from time to time, and we're not alone as an agency in having to provide such licence types.
4 cent royalties for a contributor on any type of sale is a complete non-starter.
Unless the volume is through the roof (which is not a sustainable situation for a perpetual royalty-free license) single digit cents just doesn't cover anyone creating content for you, no matter how low they keep their costs.
I've already made my decision - I started my 45-day termination clock earlier this month - but no matter how hard you look into it, you have two major problems. One is the pittance for royalties, and it isn't just the Chinese distributor at the end of December - I had an 8 cent royalty on a direct sale from Alamy in November. The other is your change in royalty structure that cuts a contributor's royalty from 40% to 20% when the July 2021 - July 2022 gross sales total is less than $250.
Once, that tiny gross sales figure would have been a doddle to exceed, but with 21 cent gross direct sales and 15 cent distributor sales not meeting the threshold suddenly becomes much more likely. Alamy gets to grab a larger slice of the pie the worse the contributors' situation gets. In my book, that's not reasonable.
-
... these types of deals are a requirement in todays market so you will see them from time to time, and we're not alone as an agency in having to provide such licence types.
4 cent royalties for a contributor on any type of sale is a complete non-starter.
Unless the volume is through the roof (which is not a sustainable situation for a perpetual royalty-free license) single digit cents just doesn't cover anyone creating content for you, no matter how low they keep their costs.
I've already made my decision - I started my 45-day termination clock earlier this month - but no matter how hard you look into it, you have two major problems. One is the pittance for royalties, and it isn't just the Chinese distributor at the end of December - I had an 8 cent royalty on a direct sale from Alamy in November. The other is your change in royalty structure that cuts a contributor's royalty from 40% to 20% when the July 2021 - July 2022 gross sales total is less than $250.
Once, that tiny gross sales figure would have been a doddle to exceed, but with 21 cent gross direct sales and 15 cent distributor sales it suddenly becomes much more likely. Alamy gets to grab a larger slice of the pie the worse the contributors' situation gets. In my book, that's not reasonable.
I take your point on the lower value sales and as I said before, I’m not going to pretend that those lower values are an incentive for contributors - but big picture is that we are making more sales and our average price is very stable and has been for a number of years. It means that anyone making 7-8 sales per year on average will stay in the standard 60/40 split, and for any that don’t, you still get promoted to the 60/40 as soon as you hit $250 gross if you are on 80/20.
Best,
James
-
2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. ... ... part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable ...
That's strange, because on your current as-of-this-minute "Why should I sell stock imagery on Alamy?" page, which was written in May 2019*, it says, "The average image license fee on Alamy is $90".
https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4 (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4)
* <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2019-05-15T09:26:13+00:00" />
It’s not strange - just a miss on our part. This page is outdated, and I’ll make sure the correct info is added - I genuinely appreciate you flagging it.
We’ve been pretty consistent and open about the $30 average over the last few years in our comms with contributors and official forum and blog. This page should have been updated but was missed - no excuses.
James
-
Thanks for the first explanation. Unfortunately, it still does not provide no clarity about what exactly those low amounts are.
What worries me a bit, that the topics on the Alamy forum is closed with the same announcement. https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/?ct=1642187191 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/?ct=1642187191) and https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040) . Maybe because until a full explanation of Alamy it doesn't make much sense to discuss it?
They were combined and locked to try and keep confusion down whilst we are investigating.
I’ve just unlocked the main thread in the main section on the official forum and should be able to provide a further update next week.
We have no plans or desire to close down our forum or stifle any kind of discussion that is constructive.
Best,
James A
-
Thanks for the first explanation. Unfortunately, it still does not provide no clarity about what exactly those low amounts are.
What worries me a bit, that the topics on the Alamy forum is closed with the same announcement. https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/?ct=1642187191 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15214-not-selling-for-pennies/?ct=1642187191) and https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-307654&ct=1641383040) . Maybe because until a full explanation of Alamy it doesn't make much sense to discuss it?
They were combined and locked to try and keep confusion down whilst we are investigating.
I’ve just unlocked the main thread in the main section on the official forum and should be able to provide a further update next week.
We have no plans or desire to close down our forum or stifle any kind of discussion that is constructive.
Best,
James A
Thanks, I'll wait for further information.
It would have been clearer to post an explanation when closing the topics that it was temporary, until further explanation could be given.
-
I guess that the reason they are responding here means that sh*t is hitting the fan. I imagine panic is all around at the head office by now. Pulling out, by you and probably many others, has had a substantial impact. But then again Alamy was going nowhere anyways but rock bottom. Glad that I got out a few months ago. They will probably sell your photos for every bid at the end and they will end up as free picks somewhere. Last straws.
Bye, bye, Alamy.
-
Ten sales today in China for 15c, all vectors, when I signed up to sell vectors on this site they assured me that they would sell for $30.00 each.
They have over the last five or so years renaged on this contract, dropping the price over and over again, tell they have reached rock bottom of 15c.
Alamy used to give it's profits to Charity, but since it has sold it's soul to PA Media Group (which really is the Daily Mail newspaper, owned by Viscount Rothermere a notorious tax avoiding family, he and his father have never paid any tax in the UK, his father was a well known supporter of Adolf Hitler). I write this, so you know the type of people and the context of the situation.
What is basically going on is exploitation, personally I'm never uploading to them again.
The Microstock market is a money grab by the wealthy, one has to ask one self, don't these people have enough already?
I'm moving in to different creative markets and leaving Microstock behind, after 12 years of designing, illustrating and photographing along with thousands of hours keywording and uploading, I will just leave my portfolios to run their course and then when they stop making money, I will delete them, with the exception of Adobe.
Anyone who is sane will do the same.
Well said. I'll think twice about staying with alamy with t''' s like that now owning it & they've halved the commission as well but for me it's 20% of nothing as i've only had 3 DLs there in 2 years.
-
... but big picture is that we are making more sales and our average price is very stable and has been for a number of years. It means that anyone making 7-8 sales per year on average will stay in the standard 60/40 split, and for any that don’t, you still get promoted to the 60/40 as soon as you hit $250 gross if you are on 80/20
I had many more sales than your 7-8 annual average in just the second half of 2021, but the average (gross) sale was just $4.48. Compare that to the first half of 2021 (again multiple times your supposed annual average) where my average gross sale was $50.29. Or compare that to 2018 where my average gross sale was $49.66.
I obviously can't explain why your stable average price over time doesn't in any way match up with my own experience, but I think if Alamy were confident in the stability of sales it wouldn't be penalizing contributors by reducing their royalty split.
Edited to add that my numbers were just for sales (gross), not including the DACS and ASCRL payments (another post mentioned that their numbers included DACS, etc. thus boosting the average sale numbers
Edited Jan 31 to add that a sale showed up Jan 28th (not sure when during that 45-day-clock for termination sales actually stop) and that was for a whopping 93 cents gross/37 cents for me. Slightly less pathetic, but still light years away from 7-8 sales will get you over the $250 gross mark.
-
I guess that the reason they are responding here means that sh*t is hitting the fan. I imagine panic is all around at the head office by now. Pulling out, by you and probably many others, has had a substantial impact. But then again Alamy was going nowhere anyways but rock bottom. Glad that I got out a few months ago. They will probably sell your photos for every bid at the end and they will end up as free picks somewhere. Last straws.
Bye, bye, Alamy.
This is why representatives from most of the agencies never come here, or stopped after a small number of visits. People like you who find something wrong with everything. And when they do try to answer you find something wrong with that too? James has been here many times before and over many years. The least people here could do is act like adults and a little bit professional?
Posts:
173
Date Registered:
February 12, 2013, 04:25
-
2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. ... ... part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable ...
That's strange, because on your current as-of-this-minute "Why should I sell stock imagery on Alamy?" page, which was written in May 2019*, it says, "The average image license fee on Alamy is $90".
https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4 (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4)
* <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2019-05-15T09:26:13+00:00" />
It’s not strange - just a miss on our part. This page is outdated, and I’ll make sure the correct info is added - I genuinely appreciate you flagging it.
We’ve been pretty consistent and open about the $30 average over the last few years in our comms with contributors and official forum and blog. This page should have been updated but was missed - no excuses.
James
I'm afraid you should update the info from $90 average to $3 for 2022.
There's is another problem: many contributors who opted out from distributor sales got $0.04 from those Chinese distributor sales?
-
When someone is rapidly buying a ton of images for pennies, it's obviously for resale at much higher prices.
As soon as I got some of those 4 cent sales I closed my account. I see nothing to discuss.
-
I guess that the reason they are responding here means that sh*t is hitting the fan. I imagine panic is all around at the head office by now. Pulling out, by you and probably many others, has had a substantial impact. But then again Alamy was going nowhere anyways but rock bottom. Glad that I got out a few months ago. They will probably sell your photos for every bid at the end and they will end up as free picks somewhere. Last straws.
Bye, bye, Alamy.
This is why representatives from most of the agencies never come here, or stopped after a small number of visits. People like you who find something wrong with everything. And when they do try to answer you find something wrong with that too? James has been here many times before and over many years. The least people here could do is act like adults and a little bit professional?
Posts:
173
Date Registered:
February 12, 2013, 04:25
Well Pete, let's wait and see for a couple of months where Alamy will be at by then and then we'll talk again. Or are you still seeing a bright future for them? I don't but what do I know :)
-
2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. ... ... part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable ...
That's strange, because on your current as-of-this-minute "Why should I sell stock imagery on Alamy?" page, which was written in May 2019*, it says, "The average image license fee on Alamy is $90".
https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4 (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/why-alamy/how-much-money-can-i-make/?section=4)
* <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2019-05-15T09:26:13+00:00" />
It’s not strange - just a miss on our part. This page is outdated, and I’ll make sure the correct info is added - I genuinely appreciate you flagging it.
We’ve been pretty consistent and open about the $30 average over the last few years in our comms with contributors and official forum and blog. This page should have been updated but was missed - no excuses.
James
Glad to be of service. ::)
Still, in the interest of transparency, you should quote the average NET, which is the only realistic figure for contributors. And to inform newbies fairly, it should be the net since our share was cut. Because for sure while your image average may be stable, Alamy has ensured that ours certainly isn't. And make sure you're including all these tiny Chinese, and other, sales in that average.
-
we have some ambitious and exciting plans which we hope you can all be part of with us.
Oh, if we only had $10 for every time we've been promised that.
We know that the word exciting generally means "We're going to screw you even more".
It would be nice to be surprised this time; but I'm not holding my breath. "A cynic is a disappointed optimist". (George Carlin, paraphrased)
-
Thanks for coming here and talking too us. I still think you need to have a floor on what people can sell our images at - and anything that gets us single digit cents is too low. Especially if a distributor isn't delivering any higher prices sales, as far as I'm concerned, the contributors and Alamy are better off without them.
In the interest of average sales over the last few years - all are rounded...
year gross avg sale my avg take per sale
2016 34 18
2017 78 36 a good year
2018 50.5 26.5
2019 44.5 20
2020 39 17
2021 20 9
That said, I did make slightly more in 2021 than in 2020, but it wasn't the $1.50 or whatever I made from the 4 cent sales that did it.
edited to add my take includes DACS and ASCRL and so on, so is higher than the actual sale number,
-
Our average price for per licence remains remarkably stable and has done since 2017. 2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence.
- but big picture is that we are making more sales and our average price is very stable and has been for a number of years. It means that anyone making 7-8 sales per year on average will stay in the standard 60/40 split, and for any that don’t, you still get promoted to the 60/40 as soon as you hit $250 gross.
I think you are missing our point here. Our complaint is not that Alamy hasn't had a stable price per licence since 2017 till 2021, but that is about to change now that you have introduced tiny cent sales and commission cuts. We aren't complaining about the past, but about the current changes and what they mean for our future.
You say that anyone who makes 7-8 sales per year should make $250 gross and stay in the standard 60/40 split? I had 7 sales just in the past two weeks and you know what my gross for these 7 sales is? $36. That's an average of 5.1$ per image and something like 2-3$ after you take your share, a far cry from your $26 and $30 per licence, so it doesn't look like you will be able to offer stable prices per licence any longer.
-
this is not China!
Country: United Kingdom
Usage: Editorial, Use in syndicated editorial news features, single context only. Includes archive rights in-perpetuity.
Media: Newspaper - national
64 MB
4400 x 5071 pixels
759KB compressed
Print run: Unlimited
Placement: National
Image Size: up to full area
Start: 22 November 2021
Duration: In perpetuity
for 18 Cents minus 60 %.... do you want me to ad more examples????
-
Gross is highly misleading, I'll stick with net in my pocket on average per sale since 2017.
Our average price for per licence remains remarkably stable and has done since 2017. 2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020
Certainly not in my case :-[
-
I guess that the reason they are responding here means that sh*t is hitting the fan. I imagine panic is all around at the head office by now. Pulling out, by you and probably many others, has had a substantial impact. But then again Alamy was going nowhere anyways but rock bottom. Glad that I got out a few months ago. They will probably sell your photos for every bid at the end and they will end up as free picks somewhere. Last straws.
Bye, bye, Alamy.
This is why representatives from most of the agencies never come here, or stopped after a small number of visits. People like you who find something wrong with everything. And when they do try to answer you find something wrong with that too? James has been here many times before and over many years. The least people here could do is act like adults and a little bit professional?
Posts:
173
Date Registered:
February 12, 2013, 04:25
Well Pete, let's wait and see for a couple of months where Alamy will be at by then and then we'll talk again. Or are you still seeing a bright future for them? I don't but what do I know :)
If you don't know the difference between attacking James and being angry over 7 cents commissions, or low price sales, then it's no use explaining, grow up.
-
If you don't know the difference between attacking James and being angry over 7 cents commissions, or low price sales, then it's no use explaining, grow up.
Well Yada,
first of all I did not attack anyone. If so, please point out where I attacked James himself. I merely contemplated about a company called Alamy and what situation it is in. Secondly I am not with Alamy anymore for a few months now so I did not get the fun of getting frustrated over the low sales/commissions as others have had.
The microstock business is a very competitive one these days and I definitely think that if you are not one of the big three you will probably dissapear in a few years time. Selling assets for such low prices in China looks to me as an example of last straws. Alamy probably knew the risk they were taking with their contributors but maybe they did not have a choice and went ahead with it? It's just an opinion.
And try to relax, it's the weekend :)
-
Gross is highly misleading, I'll stick with net in my pocket on average per sale since 2017.
Our average price for per licence remains remarkably stable and has done since 2017. 2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020
Certainly not in my case :-[
Mine don't seem to support that claim either.
I doubt that I'll make enough for the 40% level between June and June. The problem being the same as others have noticed. Sales of license value has declined, so income has declined. I don't have novel use licenses and not any of the cheap distributor sales. Probably because I don't upload Microstock to Alamy.
(https://i.postimg.cc/P5DjmhG1/abby_something.jpg)
-
Remember that the Alamy average includes Live News sales, which typically sell for decent prices.
Though over the past few months, that seems not to be always so.
From what I read, and if I understand correctly, Alamy used to put Live News on sale immediately and push it out to its news buyers. Then after 48 hrs IIRC, the Live News images went into the general stock collection and could be bought at the buyer's usual stock rate.
It looks like now - presumably as well as the above - Live News images go straight into the general stock collection, and some previous LN buyers have cottoned on, so people are seeing their images, submitted as Live News, in use within even 24 hrs but later discover they sold at the stock rate, often heavily discounted, rather than at the Live News rate.
That will pull the average Alamy gross, as well as net, down.
-
another major reason to not submit is alamy's ridiculous policies of rejecting all batches in q if ONE image is rejected
-
another major reason to not submit is alamy's ridiculous policies of rejecting all batches in q if ONE image is rejected
Every disadvantage has it's advantage. Due to the less strict control, unlike Adobe and Shutter, I have never had anything rejected. Even when I accidentally uploaded a photo, which I had already uploaded just before (I will not upload photos rejected by both SS and AS). But I think you're uploading a lot more photos at once when I look at your amount of photos on Shutter. Then I can imagine that it is annoying.
I'll wait until July to decide what to do.
-
I have never had anything rejected. Even when I accidentally uploaded a photo, which I had already uploaded just before.
I guess that is a sign as well. Accepting almost anything to get their numbers up. I wonder how many of their 282,234,520 stock photos is really worth wile.
(Not intending there is something wrong with your specific photos offcourse, before I get misunderstood :) )
-
Sales of license value has declined, so income has declined.
Yepp- same over here.
In 2021 nearly twice as many sales as in 2020 but only 3/4 income of the 2020 figures....
More sales, less income.
-
unlike Adobe and Shutter, I have never had anything rejected.
But that´s also a very dangerous side of the Alamy business- they don´t care at all if you upload stuff with no permission or release and get in trouble later on.
Esp Shutterstock looks very closely to what is allowed and what not (and might better work as editorial). I always hated SS rejections and closed my account last year due to the .10 sales. But I did learn alot about laws and releases from them.
Alamy does not care at all about restrictions. If you get in trouble later on - it´s gonna be you to fight and pay the lawyer.....
I see an unbelieveable amount of pics on Alamy showing either people they have no release for, buildings I know which are strictly forbidden to capture and sale or taken in public areas with entrance fees which usually also deny taking pics for commercial use.
And we all have heard of those advocats searching the internet for "wrong" pics with no relase to sue the photographer...
That´s the weak side of Alamy.
-
unlike Adobe and Shutter, I have never had anything rejected.
But that´s also a very dangerous side of the Alamy business- they don´t care at all if you upload stuff with no permission or release and get in trouble later on.
Esp Shutterstock looks very closely to what is allowed and what not (and might better work as editorial). I always hated SS rejections and closed my account last year due to the .10 sales. But I did learn alot about laws and releases from them.
Alamy does not care at all about restrictions. If you get in trouble later on - it´s gonna be you to fight and pay the lawyer.....
I see an unbelieveable amount of pics on Alamy showing either people they have no release for, buildings I know which are strictly forbidden to capture and sale or taken in public areas with entrance fees which usually also deny taking pics for commercial use.
And we all have heard of those advocats searching the internet for "wrong" pics with no relase to sue the photographer...
That´s the weak side of Alamy.
You've got that right. I adhere to Shutterstock's rules when uploading to Alamy. Except gavity's. Because I think that at Shutterstock is still exaggerated.
-
another major reason to not submit is alamy's ridiculous policies of rejecting all batches in q if ONE image is rejected
Every disadvantage has it's advantage. Due to the less strict control, unlike Adobe and Shutter, I have never had anything rejected. Even when I accidentally uploaded a photo, which I had already uploaded just before (I will not upload photos rejected by both SS and AS). But I think you're uploading a lot more photos at once when I look at your amount of photos on Shutter. Then I can imagine that it is annoying.
I'll wait until July to decide what to do.
i usually only give alamy 15-20 at a time - they reject images already taken by SS & AS. i used to upload several batches at a time until I found out all batches were rejected if any of them had a rejected image. given their poor sales & much lowered avg sale price (often gobbled by multiple deductions), they're my lowest priority for uploadsuploads
-
Meanwhile, I now have five sales this month.
Gross average: $4.20, net average: $1.68.
My highest-value sale is a Personal Use sale.
That 'why sell with Alamy - what can I earn?' page should have two net averages quoted, from after the recent royalty heist:
- one for regular stock.
- and, separately, the Live News net average from after the policy change where some are sold as regular stock at deep discounts.
Otherwise, it's just false enticement (there's probably a legal term for it) as even the gross average will predictably be much lower going forward, and newbies won't average that much.
-
On Alamy's forums, a user posts two sales to UK national papers for 17 cents apiece (gross)
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/?do=findComment&comment=308550 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/?do=findComment&comment=308550)
The statement Alamy made that 7 to 8 sales annually would top the $250 threshold (https://www.microstockgroup.com/alamy-com/alamy-sale-for-7-cents/msg571747/#msg571747) to keep the 40% royalty rate seems like a joke paired with the above sale. To save anyone else doing the math, you would need 1,471 sales at that price to top $250 gross...
-
I looked at my sales figures in a year. Credit: 50.00 + 17.38 + 6.72 + 39.09 + 5.40 + 5.34 + 3.41 = 127.34 . For me it's nonsense (7 to 8 sales annually would top the $250 threshold).
I need at least 14 sales. But I know that at Shutterstock there are a lot of people who receive a much higher average price per photo than me. So it also depends on the quality/type of photo.
I don't know for how many people this statement is true (if the ... cents of sales are not included).
-
Checked my sales from 01.July 2021 until today:
-> 49 sales for a sum of $121,32 (this is the sum alamy got)
This is an average of $2,48 per sale - to get the $250 threshold (and the 40% rank), it would need 101 sales per year.
So 7 or 8 sales is just a very bad joke...
-
Another quote from a long-established Alamy contributor today:
"When the recent Storm Barra was due to hit the Irish coast I got to location really early to get live news shots as it arrived. From that shoot I got 7 images used fairly quickly. Licence fee's were 0.58, 0.58, 0.63, 0.58, 0.58, 0.66, 0.66. Which never mind my time, it would not even cover the fuel to get there and back. Live news for me now is a very hard look at effort v possible reward before the car gets started. "
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/7/#comments (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15213-selling-for-pennies/page/7/#comments)
-
...I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened ...
It's nearly the end of "next week" now - Thursday evening on the US West Coast and very early Friday morning in the UK. I looked in the Alamy forums and don't see any update (other than the previously locked threads have been mostly unlocked).
Even if the update is to give a new date for an update, something from Alamy would be appreciated.
-
Hi All,
I've just posted this message on our official forum so thought it would also be good to post here.
Apologies on the radio silence up to this point whilst we investigate what's been happening with these sales via a Chinese distributor. The detail is more complex than it appears and we are still picking through the data to ascertain what’s involved and how it has come to pass.
I'd also like to apologise for posting this on what is a Friday afternoon here in the UK. It's never the best time to post replies and I'm aware there will may be suspicions that this is some kind of deliberate tactic of waiting for a quiet period but I can assure you it isn't.
I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened with this flurry of sales through the Chinese distribution channel. For now though I wanted to confirm that this level of pricing is not some radical new approach that we've taken on that will be rolled out across all sales. I also want to be honest though and say that these types of deals are a requirement in todays market so you will see them from time to time, and we're not alone as an agency in having to provide such licence types.
Our average price for per licence remains remarkably stable and has done since 2017. 2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. On an individual level it was a record year for submissions and photographer registrations so that may naturally dilute the earnings for photographers who are facing more competition than ever. Our job is to continue to grow sales in order to grow as a business of course but also be a viable earning platform for this growing number of contributors. It's a tough, competitive market but we have some ambitious and exciting plans which we hope you can all be part of with us.
Low value sales like you've seen here are not encouraging of course and I'm not going to pretend they are, but taken in as part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable and higher than our key competition - and our plans for growth are very promising - I hope those who are dissuaded from contributing as a result may reconsider and continue to work with us as we grow.
James Allsworth
Head of Content
While I appreciate the feedback, the hard reality is Alamy is not worth the effort anymore.
I work full time at this and I need to make sure my time is used effectively. Those low value sales, which after Alamy takes their cut are nearly 3 times lower than the smallest payment I receive from Shutterstock.... which in itself is a disgrace. You are no where near AS in terms of income possibilities... not even the same universe.
However, add to that the low volume of sales at Alamy, as in less than 50 a day, you don't have the ability to make up for it in terms of volume of sales.
Then there is also the uploading and keyword system. I can't even upload all my images, hit submit and be done. No, not at Alamy... I then have to go through each and every one and select 10 top ranking keywords, select a number of drop downs spread over two pages and then save them (top 10 taken automatically at AS). It's not like submitting a large batch is any better because there are too many individual options for each and very easy to overwrite other files by mistake. I admit it's not the worst submission process.... looking at you iStock, but it's way too much for what is now a tiny amount of income compared to the main micros. I remember when $500 net was relatively easy... now $100 gross is an achievement some months even with 25 sales.
The top and bottom of it for me is your system is too much work for too little gain... you have priced yourself out the market in terms of new content and I don't, won't supply anything new to Alamy anymore.
Summary...
Low licence fees + Low volume of sales
Reduced commission
Higher levels of work to submit content
Long...long.....looooooong wait times to receive money from clients.
6 - 12 months after a sale.... still a chance for the item to then be refunded!
-
...I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened ...
It's nearly the end of "next week" now - Thursday evening on the US West Coast and very early Friday morning in the UK. I looked in the Alamy forums and don't see any update (other than the previously locked threads have been mostly unlocked).
Even if the update is to give a new date for an update, something from Alamy would be appreciated.
>>>>"I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened with this flurry of sales through the Chinese distribution channel. "
Yes. Looking forward to that update from Alamy.
-
...I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened ...
It's nearly the end of "next week" now - Thursday evening on the US West Coast and very early Friday morning in the UK. I looked in the Alamy forums and don't see any update (other than the previously locked threads have been mostly unlocked).
Even if the update is to give a new date for an update, something from Alamy would be appreciated.
>>>>"I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened with this flurry of sales through the Chinese distribution channel. "
Yes. Looking forward to that update from Alamy.
Me too
-
Hi All,
The data has been pulled and looked at for the distributor in question and we can confirm they have operated within our agreement.
The images were sourced from the pool of images opted into Chinese distribution and Novel Use. The usage confirmation report included a very small % of images that had opted out or had been deleted in the time between download and use, but the vast majority of images billed remain opted into both.
The images selected have been used as part of a small business / personal template style application where users can quickly create small designs. The novel use pool was used for this as it covers low value / high volume style licence packages and our agreement with this distributor continues to limit them to the novel use pool, although there still may be some additional billing associated with images downloaded whilst opted in, that are now opted out.
These deals are done based on the fact that they are additional streams of revenue that allow our reach to grow within the market and gain ground on competitors.
The average licence price we sell for remains a significant indicator as to our approach to pricing, and the fact that it has remained stable over the last 3 or 4 years at $26-$30 in a difficult market shows a level of robustness. Competition is fierce of course and last year saw record levels of contributor registrations and image uploads. The photographers who are growing revenue on Alamy and having continued success are supplying a steady stream of fresh and on-trend content and are seeing year on year growth in earnings.
Future growth opportunities are on the horizon across all areas of our business and we'll share them with you at the earliest opportunity.
Best regards
James Allsworth
Head of Content
-
Hi All,
The data has been pulled and looked at for the distributor in question and we can confirm they have operated within our agreement.
The images were sourced from the pool of images opted into Chinese distribution and Novel Use. The usage confirmation report included a very small % of images that had opted out or had been deleted in the time between download and use, but the vast majority of images billed remain opted into both.
The images selected have been used as part of a small business / personal template style application where users can quickly create small designs. The novel use pool was used for this as it covers low value / high volume style licence packages and our agreement with this distributor continues to limit them to the novel use pool, although there still may be some additional billing associated with images downloaded whilst opted in, that are now opted out.
These deals are done based on the fact that they are additional streams of revenue that allow our reach to grow within the market and gain ground on competitors.
The average licence price we sell for remains a significant indicator as to our approach to pricing, and the fact that it has remained stable over the last 3 or 4 years at $26-$30 in a difficult market shows a level of robustness. Competition is fierce of course and last year saw record levels of contributor registrations and image uploads. The photographers who are growing revenue on Alamy and having continued success are supplying a steady stream of fresh and on-trend content and are seeing year on year growth in earnings.
Future growth opportunities are on the horizon across all areas of our business and we'll share them with you at the earliest opportunity.
Best regards
James Allsworth
Head of Content
"Chinese distribution and Novel Use. "
I've opted out of Novel Use? In fact, I've been opted out for about 10 years. Or is this a new Novel Use, Novel Use?!?
"Future growth opportunities are on the horizon across all areas of our business and we'll share them with you at the earliest opportunity."
Giving images away where I receive approx £0.02 is not a growth opportunity!
-
The average licence price we sell for remains a significant indicator as to our approach to pricing, and the fact that it has remained stable over the last 3 or 4 years at $26-$30 in a difficult market shows a level of robustness.
And you don't think that introducing a mass of sales for cents will be the end of your stable pricing of 26-30$ per download?
Did you read anyone's conserns regarding this statement you keep repeating? With these tiny sales no one who posted here is even coming close to your average numbers.
-
The average licence price we sell for remains a significant indicator as to our approach to pricing, and the fact that it has remained stable over the last 3 or 4 years at $26-$30 in a difficult market shows a level of robustness.
Did you read anyone's consern regarding this statement you keep repeating?
Probably not... and for someone who stated he hates posting on a Friday afternoon just as they finish for the day... and how that comes over to us... he seems quite happy to do it... often!
-
I too have been opted out of novel use for as long as I was aware of it (before I ever had a sale on Alamy I think). I got these sales. And no - 4 cent sales are not a market I want to make any inroads into.
-
"These deals are done based on the fact that they are additional streams of revenue that allow our reach to grow within the market and gain ground on competitors."
Really sounds as looking for straws to hold on to, especially the gaining ground on competitors. And probably they mean "not losing more ground to competitors".
The future will reveal :)
Anyone has any numbers on Alamy like revenue, profit, number of sales, average revenue per sale and then for the last ten years or so?
-
I only have 200 images on Alamy. I just wanted to try there and gain experience. And my success is zero. But at the end of the year, my sales have increased by $1 for 7 sales. My earnings should be around $0.28 for those 7 Downloads.
I am very happy that everything went right with the Chinese buyer. That is very good news. He can probably earn really good money with the pictures now.
Personally, I'm also happy because I'm going to delete all the pictures and won't have to be annoyed in the future.
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
-
Really sounds as looking for straws to hold on to, especially the gaining ground on competitors. And probably they mean "not losing more ground to competitors".
Especially as Getty seems hell-bent on selling our images for peanuts to (or via?) a Chinese buyer / distributor.
-
Personally, I'm also happy because I'm going to delete all the pictures and won't have to be annoyed in the future.
Wilm, that's exactly how I feel watching this sad story play out.
Something or other turned me off on Alamy years ago. Not sure if I even submitted an image or two back then, but I'm glad I don't have to suffer through being annoyed at them now. Went through that already with iS and SS.
-
My English is probably not good enough, because I don't understand it. The only thing I understand is that people can use photos almost for free.
I'm going to 20% if no miracle happens. If these minimum sales are still around, I'd better stop with Alamy, whereas I chose Alamy because, although they sold less, at least they offered a fair price.
Nothing remains of your good name.
-
Hi All,
The data has been pulled and looked at for the distributor in question and we can confirm they have operated within our agreement.
The images were sourced from the pool of images opted into Chinese distribution and Novel Use. The usage confirmation report included a very small % of images that had opted out or had been deleted in the time between download and use, but the vast majority of images billed remain opted into both.
The images selected have been used as part of a small business / personal template style application where users can quickly create small designs. The novel use pool was used for this as it covers low value / high volume style licence packages and our agreement with this distributor continues to limit them to the novel use pool, although there still may be some additional billing associated with images downloaded whilst opted in, that are now opted out.
These deals are done based on the fact that they are additional streams of revenue that allow our reach to grow within the market and gain ground on competitors.
The average licence price we sell for remains a significant indicator as to our approach to pricing, and the fact that it has remained stable over the last 3 or 4 years at $26-$30 in a difficult market shows a level of robustness. Competition is fierce of course and last year saw record levels of contributor registrations and image uploads. The photographers who are growing revenue on Alamy and having continued success are supplying a steady stream of fresh and on-trend content and are seeing year on year growth in earnings.
Future growth opportunities are on the horizon across all areas of our business and we'll share them with you at the earliest opportunity.
Best regards
James Allsworth
Head of Content
James, first of all I think it is good that you explain the situation here on behalf of Alamy. Thank you for that.
On the other hand, it is of no use if you answer here only with empty phrases and do not respond to the questions and problems of the forum participants.
Nobody here can confirm the average license price of 26 - 30$. Where did you get your numbers from?
And if this deal, as you say, was so important for Alamy in this difficult business - who tells us that there won't be many more deals like this with Bonsai remuneration?
If you're going to the trouble of jumping into the shark tank here, you should try a little harder or just don't do it.
-
My English is probably not good enough, because I don't understand it. The only thing I understand is that people can use photos almost for free.
I'm near-enough English speaking, and it makes no sense to me either.
Don't worry about your English, it's just inexplicable madness.
-
My English is probably not good enough, because I don't understand it. The only thing I understand is that people can use photos almost for free.
I'm near-enough English speaking, and it makes no sense to me either.
Don't worry about your English, it's just inexplicable madness.
Same here. None of it makes any sense… in any language.
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
I'll never get the 28 cents anyway because my sales are only $51 and my resulting earnings (about $16) are below the payout limit.
But that doesn't bother me at all. Alamy doesn't seem to be doing well - so I'm happy to give them this small donation. It seems to be needed.
I hope that all agencies that think and act like this - because Alamy is not alone - are aware that they are digging their own grave. This pricing policy won't work for long. Not for us. But not for the agencies either. That much is certain!
-
Personally, I'm also happy because I'm going to delete all the pictures and won't have to be annoyed in the future.
Wilm, that's exactly how I feel watching this sad story play out.
Something or other turned me off on Alamy years ago. Not sure if I even submitted an image or two back then, but I'm glad I don't have to suffer through being annoyed at them now. Went through that already with iS and SS.
I probably would have uploaded a lot more because Alamy had a good reputation.
But with vector graphics it was very complicated there and the process of keywording and everything else was extremely time-consuming.
If the rhetorically well-written lines were even remotely true, I probably would have invested more time. But from my point of view, there are immense gaps between statements and reality.
Anyway, it's time to say goodbye. For me, anyway.
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
I'll never get the 28 cents anyway because my sales are only $51 and my resulting earnings (about $16) are below the payout limit.
But that doesn't bother me at all. Alamy doesn't seem to be doing well - so I'm happy to give them this small donation. It seems to be needed.
I hope that all agencies that think and act like this - because Alamy is not alone - are aware that they are digging their own grave. This pricing policy won't work for long. Not for us. But not for the agencies either. That much is certain!
Wilm, if you close your account with Alamy, they will pay it as they did mine which was around $3.
I don't know how long it will take though as mine was sitting there for a while so had probably made it through the accounting process which takes some weeks or months.
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
I'll never get the 28 cents anyway because my sales are only $51 and my resulting earnings (about $16) are below the payout limit.
But that doesn't bother me at all. Alamy doesn't seem to be doing well - so I'm happy to give them this small donation. It seems to be needed.
I hope that all agencies that think and act like this - because Alamy is not alone - are aware that they are digging their own grave. This pricing policy won't work for long. Not for us. But not for the agencies either. That much is certain!
Wilm, if you close your account with Alamy, they will pay it as they did mine which was around $3.
I don't know how long it will take though as mine was sitting there for a while so had probably made it through the accounting process which takes some weeks or months.
Thank you for this Information.
-
My English is probably not good enough, because I don't understand it. The only thing I understand is that people can use photos almost for free.
I'm near-enough English speaking, and it makes no sense to me either.
Don't worry about your English, it's just inexplicable madness.
Same here. None of it makes any sense… in any language.
Doesn't make any sense to me, either. What I too understand is that our work was distributed nearly free and we should be ok with it because
"Future growth opportunities are on the horizon across all areas of our business and we'll share them with you at the earliest opportunity."
Come on Alamy. Instead of empty promises, do something real. Like, get rid of this cheap Chinese distributor.
-
I wonder whether in the next Shutterstock 'Trends' report they will feature themselves as starting the trend to pay peanuts to contributors.
Or was that Getty?
-
I wonder whether in the next Shutterstock 'Trends' report they will feature themselves as starting the trend to pay peanuts to contributors.
Or was that Getty?
Getty tried to raise prices. At one point I was averaging just under $6 rpd, and others were reporting more, even over $7. But at the time SS insisted on holding their subs price right down.
-
Also, knowing that China does not see copyright as we in Europe and the US see it, why on earth do Alamy even want to disseminate our images there, far less in bulk at tiny prices.
There are many stolen images in China. For example, if my pics are used in a newspaper, they're showing on many Chinese sites before I even know of the sale. Alamy won't go after these image thefts, because they know they are unlikely to be successful.
There's a serious lack of joined-up thinking, reeking of some combination of desperation and/or greed. Or wanting to make a fast buck before ...?
(...and of course, that goes for Getty as well)
-
Also, knowing that China does not see copyright as we in Europe and the US see it, why on earth do Alamy even want to disseminate our images there, far less in bulk at tiny prices.
There are many stolen images in China. For example, if my pics are used in a newspaper, they're showing on many Chinese sites before I even know of the sale. Alamy won't go after these image thefts, because they know they are unlikely to be successful.
There's a serious lack of joined-up thinking, reeking of some combination of desperation and/or greed. Or wanting to make a fast buck before ...?
Those were my thoughts as well.
If someone in a country where copyright plays almost no role buys masses of cheap images, the probability is relatively high that nonsense is done with our images - without us noticing.
-
So maybe we are expecting too much - to get paid for our "passion". [ironic mode off]
On twitter Alamy claims the goal of a contributor on Alamy is "to bee seen" . Not paid.
Alamy Content Team
@AlamyContent
The place for inspiration, tips & trends. Join our contributor hub and give your passion a platform. Why? Because all photographers deserve to be seen.
-
Also, knowing that China does not see copyright as we in Europe and the US see it, why on earth do Alamy even want to disseminate our images there, far less in bulk at tiny prices.
Which will - in the long run - also mean less income for Alamy since nobody will then have to buy a licence from Alamy anylonger as pics are floating for free on the chinese market alreay....
-
And what are Alamy thinking, an UK/Europe based agency trying to compete with the Chinese prices in the Chinese market? What reality are they living in?
-
And what are Alamy thinking, an UK/Europe based agency trying to compete with the Chinese prices in the Chinese market? What reality are they living in?
worse, giving free reins to a Chinese company to do it for them, with what seems a pretty free going agreement.
-
Hi All,
The data has been pulled and looked at for the distributor in question and we can confirm they have operated within our agreement.
The images were sourced from the pool of images opted into Chinese distribution and Novel Use. The usage confirmation report included a very small % of images that had opted out or had been deleted in the time between download and use, but the vast majority of images billed remain opted into both.
The images selected have been used as part of a small business / personal template style application where users can quickly create small designs. The novel use pool was used for this as it covers low value / high volume style licence packages and our agreement with this distributor continues to limit them to the novel use pool, although there still may be some additional billing associated with images downloaded whilst opted in, that are now opted out.
These deals are done based on the fact that they are additional streams of revenue that allow our reach to grow within the market and gain ground on competitors.
The average licence price we sell for remains a significant indicator as to our approach to pricing, and the fact that it has remained stable over the last 3 or 4 years at $26-$30 in a difficult market shows a level of robustness. Competition is fierce of course and last year saw record levels of contributor registrations and image uploads. The photographers who are growing revenue on Alamy and having continued success are supplying a steady stream of fresh and on-trend content and are seeing year on year growth in earnings.
Future growth opportunities are on the horizon across all areas of our business and we'll share them with you at the earliest opportunity.
Best regards
James Allsworth
Head of Content
I totally enjoyed this blast of pure, incomprehensible corporate-speak. And it's exciting to hear that some forms of "novel use" are so innovative that they work as a business model even without paying the photographers anything.
My big hope for the future is that Alamy honors my request to close my account, which I sent as soon as I saw these so-called "sales".
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
I'll never get the 28 cents anyway because my sales are only $51 and my resulting earnings (about $16) are below the payout limit.
But that doesn't bother me at all. Alamy doesn't seem to be doing well - so I'm happy to give them this small donation. It seems to be needed.
I hope that all agencies that think and act like this - because Alamy is not alone - are aware that they are digging their own grave. This pricing policy won't work for long. Not for us. But not for the agencies either. That much is certain!
Wilm, if you close your account with Alamy, they will pay it as they did mine which was around $3.
I don't know how long it will take though as mine was sitting there for a while so had probably made it through the accounting process which takes some weeks or months.
How did you close your account? I can't find anything concerning this on their website.
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
I'll never get the 28 cents anyway because my sales are only $51 and my resulting earnings (about $16) are below the payout limit.
But that doesn't bother me at all. Alamy doesn't seem to be doing well - so I'm happy to give them this small donation. It seems to be needed.
I hope that all agencies that think and act like this - because Alamy is not alone - are aware that they are digging their own grave. This pricing policy won't work for long. Not for us. But not for the agencies either. That much is certain!
Wilm, if you close your account with Alamy, they will pay it as they did mine which was around $3.
I don't know how long it will take though as mine was sitting there for a while so had probably made it through the accounting process which takes some weeks or months.
How did you close your account? I can't find anything concerning this on their website.
https://www.alamy.com/contributor/faqs/leaving-alamy/ (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/faqs/leaving-alamy/) :)
As long as I don't have the idea that the photos on Adobe and Shutter are selling worse because of that, I'll leave them there. If earnings are even lower after July, I'll stop uploading photos.
-
and it will take around half a year til you the get your 28 Cents....
I'll never get the 28 cents anyway because my sales are only $51 and my resulting earnings (about $16) are below the payout limit.
But that doesn't bother me at all. Alamy doesn't seem to be doing well - so I'm happy to give them this small donation. It seems to be needed.
I hope that all agencies that think and act like this - because Alamy is not alone - are aware that they are digging their own grave. This pricing policy won't work for long. Not for us. But not for the agencies either. That much is certain!
Wilm, if you close your account with Alamy, they will pay it as they did mine which was around $3.
I don't know how long it will take though as mine was sitting there for a while so had probably made it through the accounting process which takes some weeks or months.
How did you close your account? I can't find anything concerning this on their website.
https://www.alamy.com/contributor/faqs/leaving-alamy/ (https://www.alamy.com/contributor/faqs/leaving-alamy/) :)
As long as I don't have the idea that the photos on Adobe and Shutter are selling worse because of that, I'll leave them there. If earnings are even lower after July, I'll stop uploading photos.
Thanks a lot, Thijs!
-
Shouldn't I get paid for this already?
-
Shouldn't I get paid for this already?
It depends? Did the payments clear? Did you make over $50 total in commissions?
You want someone to explain how cleared balance and payment threshold works? Or were you asking a different question?
It looks like your buyers paid what they owed and you were paid in August?
-
I'm asking about a sale that has empty row in "paid" section, as you can see, there are other sales in July that were cleared around the same month and paidin august, but not that particular sale.
EDIT: There are four sales, that were cleared in July and paid in August, but not that with an empty row in "paid" section". Shouldn't that sale been paid in august too?
-
I'm asking about a sale that has empty row in "paid" section, as you can see, there are other sales in July that were cleared around the same month and paidin august, but not that particular sale.
EDIT: There are four sales, that were cleared in July and paid in August, but not that with an empty row in "paid" section". Shouldn't that sale been paid in august too?
Alamy doesn't pay out a set amount of time after the sale shows up in your list (which is often a long time after the actual use occurs, which is also a while after the download occurs). They pay you when they get paid and apparently the blank line hasn't paid up. I've chased a number of these in the past when several months have passed and Alamy support always answers and say's they'll chase up the account people and (blah blah). I have always been paid though, in the end.
-
If I understand correctly "cleared" sale means, that a customer paid for that image to alamy. For example date of invoice shows, when sale was made, and then cleared section (usually it's cleared 1,5-2 months later) shows, when was money received for that sale. "Paid" section shows a month, when I was paid for that particular sale.
Now if 4 sales were cleared in July and paid to me in August, shouldn't that fifth sale, that was also cleared in July paid to me in August?
-
If I understand correctly "cleared" sale means, that a customer paid for that image to alamy. For example date of invoice shows, when sale was made, and then cleared section (usually it's cleared 1,5-2 months later) shows, when was money received for that sale. "Paid" section shows a month, when I was paid for that particular sale.
Now if 4 sales were cleared in July and paid to me in August, shouldn't that fifth sale, that was also cleared in July paid to me in August?
Generally Yes. what did Contributor support say?
-
Nothing, because I haven't contacted them yet, first I wanna make sure, I understand everything correctly.
-
I have uncleared sales from April 2021.... ::)
Had contacted support about this some weeks ago, but other than the standad "We'll hand this over to our credit control team" reply nothing has happaned. I had uncleared sales that took unusual long before and usually got my money shortly after contacting them, but it has never been as long as 7 months and I don't think I'll ever see my money.
-
Once I raise an issue with them, I nowadays keep following up. Make them earn their money.
Bad news is that even though a 'use' was before the contract change, you'll get paid under the new contract rate, even though you had to do all the work of reporting the unpaid use.
-
I'm asking about a sale that has empty row in "paid" section, as you can see, there are other sales in July that were cleared around the same month and paidin august, but not that particular sale.
EDIT: There are four sales, that were cleared in July and paid in August, but not that with an empty row in "paid" section". Shouldn't that sale been paid in august too?
Oh now I get it. I think everyone else answered. Good luck.
-
Its so f++++++ sad to see them going down the drain
-
Had another 8 cent sale yesterday.
Not one single sale for a decent price since october now - only 8 cent sales....
Guess I will leave Alamy soon and pull my portfolio.
Like I did with SS in 2020.
This is simply ridicolous.
-
I requested account closing as soon as I saw 4 cent sales. That was a couple of weeks ago. I got an email acknowledging my request, but nothing since. I'd like to wrap this up before China Inc. gets more of my photos.
Those of you who've recently closed - how long did it take?
-
I get a message that I can't opt out of the novel use until april. I don't recall opting into it. It says I opted in in 2017. Why do I have to wait until April 2022 to opt out?
-
I get a message that I can't opt out of the novel use until april. I don't recall opting into it. It says I opted in in 2017. Why do I have to wait until April 2022 to opt out?
That's always been the rule. It's their ball, they set the rules.
-
I believe their terms say 45 days. I just want to know if it will actually take some follow-up from me, or if just sending that email request to close the account will get the job done.
As soon as I saw the sales netting me 4 cents, I lost all trust in Alamy. Obviously, under their new ownership, they're now just like all the rest.
-
I believe their terms say 45 days. I just want to know if it will actually take some follow-up from me, or if just sending that email request to close the account will get the job done.
I put an alert in my calendar for February 21st - when my 45 day clock is (probably) up. There were two emails sent & I don't know when the clock started.
I have looked a few times since I started the clock to see if my portfolio is still visible (it is) and I had a sale show up at the end of January (for all of 93 cents!! That will net me 37 cents) but the download could have occurred a long time before the sale posted. In other words, I don't know if my work is still for sale during the 45 day clock, but I think it is.
Given the time it takes sales to clear, I don't know if there will be another month or two to wait after closure before I get paid. I've taken CSV files of everything for my own records.
I'll post here when the process is complete (or if it has any twists & turns I didn't expect)
-
Seeing my Alamy sales has been such a joy this year.
"Stable price per image at $26-$30" ::) Yeah...
I had a total of 28 sales this year - average price was 3.14 GROSS.
-
I can't opt out of the novel use until april.
Opt out for distributor and novel use does not make a difference,
contributors who have always been opted out, regardless get the cent sales
-
I used their nifty bulk editing tool to remove all the keywords from all my photos. That might not stop China Inc from acquiring images at random via an automated process , but maybe it puts me at the rear end of search.
-
It appears to be not just China. Just had a 20¢ sale to Germany.
-
It appears to be not just China. Just had a 20¢ sale to Germany.
Also from Germany. Now I get 8 cents. After the 20% regulation, that will be 4 cents.
It would be less of a problem if I sold more photos at a higher price as a result. But that is most definitely not the case. It is more likely that as a result we sell less at a normal price. And still no clarity is given by Alamy as to what they are doing. Not even on their own forum.
-
Alamy has such a bad system that it's really a crap shoot if you are paid correctly. I know I've had arm wrestling matches with them in the past. And the sizable refunds is also BS.
-
In my most recent case, it was neither Germany, nor China, but "the World":
-
IMHO the issue isn't really the low prices per se, but the fact that whoever is acquiring these images for basically nothing obviously intends to resell them in some form, for significantly higher prices.
By allowing giveaways like this, you're undercutting yourself and writing off future possibilities for those photos.
-
IMHO the issue isn't really the low prices per se,
For me it is. I'd rather not sell an image at all, instead of earning 4 or 5 cents for it - especially if this sale is for printed magazine with an unlimited print run, which would have been an extended licence sale on Shutterstock.
-
IMHO the issue isn't really the low prices per se,
For me it is. I'd rather not sell an image at all, instead of earning 4 or 5 cents for it - especially if this sale is for printed magazine with an unlimited print run, which would have been an extended licence sale on Shutterstock.
Totally agree.
What good is those few cents? At Shutterstock, those numbers (0,10) can help me level up. Not my favorite system of course, but these sales never help me level up at Alamy, so it's going to be 20%, while they're giving away my photos.
-
In all fairness to Alamy, in January the lowest sale I got was $1.20 (for me, $3 gross) average sale for me was a little below $25 and they were my highest earner for the month. Plus I got another 26.7 ASCRL payment.
I will definitely complain about the drop from 50% to 60% and even lower for distributor sales and I will complain even more about getting pennies for sales to China (or anywhere else) and I think the 20% is even crappier (but I made enough in January to avoid that for this year), but they also deliver some bigger priced sales and those are what matter. SS used to deliver those, but I think I made more bigger sales on Alamy in January than I did at SS from 2018 until I turned them off after the ~50% drop in RPD and RPI.
Like most of the business I think they are moving in the wrong direction, but they haven't gone as far in that direction as some places with initials like SS and IS/Getty.
I do agree that the super low sales - especially from so called distributors are pointless as far as contributors are concerned and I wish they wouldn't pursue those "exciting" opportunities but at the end of the day the bigger sales are what matters, and although they are not very steady at Alamy, at least for me they deliver them more often than anyone else does, at least since 2016 or so.
-
In all fairness to Alamy, in January the lowest sale I got was $1.20
Lucky you. My lowest in January was 0.07 and I even had the pleasure of 4 refunded sales. ::)
-
In all fairness to Alamy, in January the lowest sale I got was $1.20 (for me, $3 gross) average sale for me was a little below $25 and they were my highest earner for the month. Plus I got another 26.7 ASCRL payment.
I will definitely complain about the drop from 50% to 60% and even lower for distributor sales and I will complain even more about getting pennies for sales to China (or anywhere else) and I think the 20% is even crappier (but I made enough in January to avoid that for this year), but they also deliver some bigger priced sales and those are what matter. SS used to deliver those, but I think I made more bigger sales on Alamy in January than I did at SS from 2018 until I turned them off after the ~50% drop in RPD and RPI.
Like most of the business I think they are moving in the wrong direction, but they haven't gone as far in that direction as some places with initials like SS and IS/Getty.
I do agree that the super low sales - especially from so called distributors are pointless as far as contributors are concerned and I wish they wouldn't pursue those "exciting" opportunities but at the end of the day the bigger sales are what matters, and although they are not very steady at Alamy, at least for me they deliver them more often than anyone else does, at least since 2016 or so.
I think anyone who goes from 40% to 20% and then also has such low sales is not positive about Alamy at all. As long as you sell well, those low sales are of course less annoying.
-
Some of these low sales are subscriptions ("750 Bilder per Monat"). It would mean 0.2 x 750 = 150$ per month for 750 downloads. Did Alamy offer subscriptions before?
-
Some of these low sales are subscriptions ("750 Bilder per Monat"). It would mean 0.2 x 750 = 150$ per month for 750 downloads. Did Alamy offer subscriptions before?
Not as such, but they had bulk deals to UK newspapers, and some experimental bulk deals to some Eastern European distributors two or three years back. I don't know if the latter were intro deals, or if they weren't renewed, but I had a few at the time, but none since.
-
... but the fact that whoever is acquiring these images for basically nothing obviously intends to resell them in some form, for significantly higher prices. ...
I haven't seen any indication that images licensed from Alamy are destined for resale and I don't see anything "obvious" about that being why we we received lowball sales & royalties.
When you consider Unsplash, Pexels, Freepix (and Adobe Stock's 1 million+ free section) cheap and free images are a substantial part of today's marketplace - good luck to anyone trying to turn cheap Alamy purchases into high-value sales :) If the existing agencies are busy discounting and dropping prices to compete, the only avenue to higher prices I can see is exclusive images (which isn't a thing any more at Alamy anyway).
On a separate topic, I received another sale today at Alamy; slightly higher gross at $28.98, but even with that, my average sale Jul 1 2021 to now is only $5.31 (gross). The volume of sales is about the same as the last few years but the value is still just over one tenth of my prior "typical" total.
I agree that if my sales looked similar to the last several years, I would still be with Alamy and would slough off the royalty cut just as I did the 60% to 50% and then 50% to 40%. But there has been a very clear shift for me and the sales speak louder than the corporate "blah blah" about stable sales value.
-
Distributor sales and discounting for bulk-buyers is unfortunate and has changed Alamy into a gutter microstock agency but I had a 5-year RM sale today for $0.50 for ‘personal use’. Surely, by definition, a ‘personal use’ (advertised as £9.99) cannot be to a bulk buyer entitled to a huge discount?
-
Distributor sales and discounting for bulk-buyers is unfortunate and has changed Alamy into a gutter microstock agency but I had a 5-year RM sale today for $0.50 for ‘personal use’. Surely, by definition, a ‘personal use’ (advertised as £9.99) cannot be to a bulk buyer entitled to a huge discount?
There's talk about that on Alamy's forum.
Seems that it's a special education deal.
As in many countries, most educational uses are 'Fair use', maybe 50c is better than nothing (?)
The problem, as always is knowing that it really was an educational use, but we could say that about any sale from any agency.
-
So I don't like these cent sales either (actually i hate them >:( ), but this year I've already had (plus other nice sales in two digit range) a $200 and a $118 sale come in gross that makes some other small agencies look pretty bad.
I would therefore never shut down a portfolio, but just let it run, you never know. But everyone must know that for themselves.
-
Agree with Ralf. Only thing sure is that Alamy is now Microstock. I actually feel bad as I always considered Alamy beacon of light shining above micro swamp. Largest single DL I had anywhere was on Alamy ($292 gross). But signs were there; drop from 60% to 50% to 40% (20% looming for many), and now large subscription packages, not just in China. I really hope they find way to sustain business, keep serious photographers satisfied & prices respectful.
-
I sold 7 pics on 500PX all on the same day. For one cent each! A real profit :( :'(
-
I'm 0 sale since 2022 until now why? :'(
-
I'm 0 sale since 2022 until now why? :'(
It's a quite different market from the micros, in general.
Were you selling well before six weeks ago?
-
few months ago I had 20+ sales, each $0,15. :-\ :-\
They all went to China
-
I'm 0 sale since 2022 until now why? :'(
It's a quite different market from the micros, in general.
Were you selling well before six weeks ago?
Summary for 01 December 2021 to 01 January 2022 ( 28 item(s) totalling $7.35 ) :'(
-
That's a lot more sales, but even less money than I made.
In that case I've no idea why you've not had sales this year. :(
Might have been an algorithm reshuffle, but I haven't noticed any mention of it ...
I'm 0 sale since 2022 until now why? :'(
It's a quite different market from the micros, in general.
Were you selling well before six weeks ago?
Summary for 01 December 2021 to 01 January 2022 ( 28 item(s) totalling $7.35 ) :'(
-
I'm 0 sale since 2022 until now why? :'(
For me: "Summary for 01 December 2021 to 14 February 2022 ( 11 item(s) totalling $57.57 )"
That's better than your situation, but according to Alamy, I should be over $250 with that many sales and clearly, that's just not the case with all the recent low-ball sales.
I suspect Alamy as a business is struggling and that we're seeing lower value and more intermittent sales as a result. They've never been high volume (for me) but they were always better than in the last 8 months or so.
-
I guess I'm doing better there than I thought there then. I have 31 sales totalling $279.63 from Dec 1, 2021 to present. Most of those were the super small sales to China last month. I think there were 20 or so all at the same time.
-
For me: "Summary for 01 December 2021 to 14 February 2022 ( 11 item(s) totalling $57.57 )"
I also have 11 sales between Dec 1st 2021 and Februrary 14th and made stunning 76 cent (!!!) with those sales.
I really can´t bear those 4 cent sales anylonger. They hurt. Every single sale hurts.
-
I have asked Alamy to delete my account. According to their own statement, they need 45 days for this. I don't know why it takes so long.
Those sales to China were what got me to do that.
-
I have asked Alamy to delete my account. According to their own statement, they need 45 days for this. I don't know why it takes so long.
It's in the contract/agreement we signed up to.
And apparently your pics can be sold for quite some time after that (but you'll still get paid, FWIW).
-
I have asked Alamy to delete my account. According to their own statement, they need 45 days for this. I don't know why it takes so long.
It's in the contract/agreement we signed up to.
And apparently your pics can be sold for quite some time after that (but you'll still get paid, FWIW).
Thank you for this information, Sue!
-
It always has been feast or famine at Alamy. In January 2021, I had three licenses for $169 each. By comparison, my best license so far this year is $3.90 for an RM image licensed for perpetual use. Views and zooms are climbing but so many of my sales for the past few months have been single-digit. Yet in 2021 sales rebounded earning me nearly as much as back in 2015-2017, my strongest years there. I really don't know what to expect. I've been with Alamy since 2008 so I'm not pulling my portfolio but I'm not uploading anything new at this point.
It's so frustrating. I have a handful of images from 500px on Getty and get pennies whenever they are licensed.
Sad that the more traditional agencies have become microstock.
While writing this, an email popped up from Fine Art America that I sold a puzzle that was discounted 50% due to their Google Ad campaign. With the discount I earned $4.48, a trifle, but better than my most recent full size RM license on Alamy. Earnings on FAA last year blew away all my stock earnings by a mile, as they have for the past few years, even though most print sales were smaller sizes than my average pre-Covid. Why can the average person from places like Tennessee afford to pay more than large corporations for our work? Because places like shutterstock and Getty have given the big guys a tremendous break, at the expense of individual artists. And now Alamy is following suit.
-
It always has been feast or famine at Alamy.
That really sums it up. Whole December I had 1 sale for 0.15 gross (6 cents net!). Now in February 3 already of which last one popped up today - $104.
(https://c7.alamy.com/comp/2C8AMGN/lake-louise-ski-area-chairlift-with-alberta-summertime-landscape-scenic-aerial-mountain-tops-horizon-in-banff-national-park-canadian-rockies-2C8AMGN.jpg)
Country: United Kingdom
Usage: Editorial, Educational poster
Media: Educational wallchart/posters
30 MB
3953 x 2636 pixels
1 MB compressed
Start: 17 February 2022
Duration: Unlimited
So Alamy is worth uploading, but it's like Forest Gump Box of Chocolates. I really hope they find the way to nix large sub penny sales, it simply puts bad stamp on everything
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is already storming. In two hours it will really start storming here (red weather warning ).
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
Last week, gusts of over 75 kn were forecast for today. In the meantime, this has been reduced to 61 kn for Kiel Lighthouse.
That's not too dramatic, Thijs.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
I think I spoke too soon. We live in a 1930's house with the original roof. Some of the huge tile thingies (not sure what they are called) that hold the roof tiles in place have blown off and smashed through our neighbour's car.
Bit concerned now about the security of the roof, especially as we have very tall old chimneys.
Peaking at gusts of 122 miles an hour here.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
I think I spoke too soon. We live in a 1930's house with the original roof. Some of the huge tile thingies (not sure what they are called) that hold the roof tiles in place have blown off and smashed through our neighbour's car.
Bit concerned now about the security of the roof, especially as we have very tall old chimneys.
Peaking at gusts of 122 miles an hour here.
Really sorry to hear that.
Keep yourself safe, at least.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
I think I spoke too soon. We live in a 1930's house with the original roof. Some of the huge tile thingies (not sure what they are called) that hold the roof tiles in place have blown off and smashed through our neighbour's car.
Bit concerned now about the security of the roof, especially as we have very tall old chimneys.
Peaking at gusts of 122 miles an hour here.
Really sorry to hear that.
Keep yourself safe, at least.
Thank you. I believe you live in Scotland so must be used to much more extreme weather than us.
It must be our turn!
(Apologies to anyone wanting to read about Alamy)..
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
I think I spoke too soon. We live in a 1930's house with the original roof. Some of the huge tile thingies (not sure what they are called) that hold the roof tiles in place have blown off and smashed through our neighbour's car.
Bit concerned now about the security of the roof, especially as we have very tall old chimneys.
Peaking at gusts of 122 miles an hour here.
Oh dear! The storm also lasts quite a while. Hopefully the damage is not too bad for you.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
Last week, gusts of over 75 kn were forecast for today. In the meantime, this has been reduced to 61 kn for Kiel Lighthouse.
That's not too dramatic, Thijs.
We also had that storm Wilm :). Wind gusts of up to 130 km per hour are now expected at our coast.
-
Meanwhile, having risked my camera in stormy conditions, I sold a Live News photo and netted 68c.
I suspect that I can now also take nice storm pictures at the beach (a few kilometers away). But I'll stay home anyway.
In England it is now code red. In two hours it will really start storming here (also code red).
All the best for the storm Thijs.
We are in a code red area near the south coast.
At it's peak now, hopefully..
I won't be leaving the house to take photos.
Too dangerous.
Not as bad as 1987's Great Storm (so far)
🤞
Good to hear that it's not that bad Debbie. :)
We are somewhat used to the coast. But this is going to be one of the heavier storms. And that in the winter. More like a spring or autumn storm.
I think I spoke too soon. We live in a 1930's house with the original roof. Some of the huge tile thingies (not sure what they are called) that hold the roof tiles in place have blown off and smashed through our neighbour's car.
Bit concerned now about the security of the roof, especially as we have very tall old chimneys.
Peaking at gusts of 122 miles an hour here.
Then I keep my fingers crossed, Debbie that nothing more happens.
My girlfriend has from the storm before yesterday 2 thick trees lying across the garden and a destroyed garden shed. We are very tense, what happens today. For the cleanup tomorrow I have first organized a chainsaw.
-
Thank you Thijs and Ralf.
Ralf, sorry to hear about that storm damage.
We need a 'storm' thread :)
-
Oh crap, Debbie and Ralf.
I keep my fingers crossed for you. 122 miles is strong! Ouch!
-
Earnings on FAA last year blew away all my stock earnings by a mile
You are lucky with FAA. Because you signed up in 2010 and the FAA greatly favors the artists who signed up early. If we look at recent sales, 90% of them are made by artists registered before 2013-2014.
I have more than a thousand photos, but for their search engine I am practically invisible. I sold 9 prints in 2021, but 6 are from clients I personally referred to the FAA/Pixels from my website
With my 4 POD shops I only made 4% of my total earnings with microstock. PODs for photographers basically is a waste of time. It is difficult for photographers to sell prints, perhaps for a painter or illustrator it is easier.
-
Following up my earlier posts... it looks like Alamy has now closed my account, and it didn't take 45 days. I'm totally out of microstock and not looking back.
My final thought on microstock is that it was made possible by the web; but ultimately destroyed by it as well. The nature of web commerce allowed the market to be controlled by middlemen who added no value, and competed on nothing but price.
On to something new...
-
My Alamy portfolio shows 0 images today. My dashboard is still accessible though with a few strange items in the display - for example recent sales are gone. It says I have no recent sales, but they are there in the Sales History & account balance. I assume payment will be on March 1st at the earliest, but a number of recent sales haven't cleared, so they may wait until everything has cleared to pay me.
I had Monday marked in my calendar as the 45 day (ish) mark from when I asked my account to be closed, so it was about as Alamy said.
-
Following up my earlier posts... it looks like Alamy has now closed my account, and it didn't take 45 days. I'm totally out of microstock and not looking back.
My final thought on microstock is that it was made possible by the web; but ultimately destroyed by it as well. The nature of web commerce allowed the market to be controlled by middlemen who added no value, and competed on nothing but price.
On to something new...
Sorry to hear you have given up but fully understandable. Good luck with the something new!
-
I got an e-mail from Alamy on February 13 that my account will be closed within the next 45 days.
-
Earnings on FAA last year blew away all my stock earnings by a mile
You are lucky with FAA. Because you signed up in 2010 and the FAA greatly favors the artists who signed up early. If we look at recent sales, 90% of them are made by artists registered before 2013-2014.
I have more than a thousand photos, but for their search engine I am practically invisible. I sold 9 prints in 2021, but 6 are from clients I personally referred to the FAA/Pixels from my website
With my 4 POD shops I only made 4% of my total earnings with microstock. PODs for photographers basically is a waste of time. It is difficult for photographers to sell prints, perhaps for a painter or illustrator it is easier.
FAA is just a popularity contest and old people are favorites? Seems like the search engine everywhere always favors someone else, not people on this forum.
-
I got two more sales on Alamy today, $32 each ("Poland, calendar") which brings February to $182 (gross) on rather modest port size of ~2000 images. Everyone naturally needs to make their own decisions, but I'm happy to stay with Alamy & keep uploading.
-
If I get any of those on alamy I'll leave straightaway & sent a letter to the D mail. if they don't reply it will be all over social media. I've only had 3 sales on there in 2 years anyway, grand total $4. I hear quite a few people are leaving there with the commission cut to 20% for low earners not suprised Daily mail are a shareholder because they are always criticize the poor yet help cut the money for them.
-
Good news for me at Alamy:
. I haven't sold anything under $5 gross yet.
. Received my first $50 from Alamy in October. (started in June 2020)
Bad news: Nothing sold after that
Your specialised macro shots probably are popular on alamy. One of the 3 sales I had so far on alamy was a extreme close up of a flower. I only have 900 photos on there though. I think you need way over 1k photos on there to get any real sales.
-
Following up my earlier posts... it looks like Alamy has now closed my account, and it didn't take 45 days. I'm totally out of microstock and not looking back.
My final thought on microstock is that it was made possible by the web; but ultimately destroyed by it as well. The nature of web commerce allowed the market to be controlled by middlemen who added no value, and competed on nothing but price.
On to something new...
Yep summed it up realy and not just this industry. I used to sell a lot of 2nd hand items on ebay / amazon but they seem to have declined big time in the last few yrs.. I guess everyone's going to facebook marketplace to buy things even cheaper.
-
Earnings on FAA last year blew away all my stock earnings by a mile
You are lucky with FAA. Because you signed up in 2010 and the FAA greatly favors the artists who signed up early. If we look at recent sales, 90% of them are made by artists registered before 2013-2014.
I have more than a thousand photos, but for their search engine I am practically invisible. I sold 9 prints in 2021, but 6 are from clients I personally referred to the FAA/Pixels from my website
With my 4 POD shops I only made 4% of my total earnings with microstock. PODs for photographers basically is a waste of time. It is difficult for photographers to sell prints, perhaps for a painter or illustrator it is easier.
On all kinds of sites getting in earlier helps.
I re-enabled my port on ss last week after disgust at those 15 cent China sales on Alamy and more for pennies on Getty and my first license was an upload from 2010! I'm just sorry I uploaded most of my stock photos to Alamy rather than the micros back in the days (2008-2012?) when you could earn real money in microstock.
I remember when I joined Fine Art America in 2010, watching friends who joined in 2008 selling so much more than I did and wishing I'd joined sooner. Twelve years later, I'm now an old-timer there. But I still feel like I don't show up in searches as high as I'd like even for images that have been selling multiple times a year. I'm just glad most of my sales are prints, because otherwise I'd need to sell hundreds of puzzles LOL.
Keep selling on FAA and you will rise in the search ranks. From my understanding past sales are the best predictor of search rank and future sales there. Twelve years passes faster than you think. Although by then perhaps people will be licensing images for pennies to hang in a digital frame and you'll look back on the past year's sales with fondness. (I hope not - there's nothing like a beautiful photograph)
-
Earnings on FAA last year blew away all my stock earnings by a mile
You are lucky with FAA. Because you signed up in 2010 and the FAA greatly favors the artists who signed up early. If we look at recent sales, 90% of them are made by artists registered before 2013-2014.
I have more than a thousand photos, but for their search engine I am practically invisible. I sold 9 prints in 2021, but 6 are from clients I personally referred to the FAA/Pixels from my website
With my 4 POD shops I only made 4% of my total earnings with microstock. PODs for photographers basically is a waste of time. It is difficult for photographers to sell prints, perhaps for a painter or illustrator it is easier.
On all kinds of sites getting in earlier helps.
I re-enabled my port on ss last week after disgust at those 15 cent China sales on Alamy and more for pennies on Getty and my first license was an upload from 2010! I'm just sorry I uploaded most of my stock photos to Alamy rather than the micros back in the days (2008-2012?) when you could earn real money in microstock.
I remember when I joined Fine Art America in 2010, watching friends who joined in 2008 selling so much more than I did and wishing I'd joined sooner. Twelve years later, I'm now an old-timer there. But I still feel like I don't show up in searches as high as I'd like even for images that have been selling multiple times a year. I'm just glad most of my sales are prints, because otherwise I'd need to sell hundreds of puzzles LOL.
Keep selling on FAA and you will rise in the search ranks. From my understanding past sales are the best predictor of search rank and future sales there. Twelve years passes faster than you think. Although by then perhaps people will be licensing images for pennies to hang in a digital frame and you'll look back on the past year's sales with fondness. (I hope not - there's nothing like a beautiful photograph)
FAA's internal search is a chaotic mess - I'd call it broken. There was a thread about this on their forum a couple of days ago. Rampant keyword spamming, flooded with auto-generated similars - and big corporate sellers that go straight to the top of the results for searches that seem unrelated.
-
On all kinds of sites getting in earlier helps.
I re-enabled my port on ss last week after disgust at those 15 cent China sales on Alamy and more for pennies on Getty and my first license was an upload from 2010! I'm just sorry I uploaded most of my stock photos to Alamy rather than the micros back in the days (2008-2012?) when you could earn real money in microstock.
I remember when I joined Fine Art America in 2010, watching friends who joined in 2008 selling so much more than I did and wishing I'd joined sooner. Twelve years later, I'm now an old-timer there. But I still feel like I don't show up in searches as high as I'd like even for images that have been selling multiple times a year. I'm just glad most of my sales are prints, because otherwise I'd need to sell hundreds of puzzles LOL.
Keep selling on FAA and you will rise in the search ranks. From my understanding past sales are the best predictor of search rank and future sales there. Twelve years passes faster than you think. Although by then perhaps people will be licensing images for pennies to hang in a digital frame and you'll look back on the past year's sales with fondness. (I hope not - there's nothing like a beautiful photograph)
Thanks Worldplanet.
I agree with you that even on microstock the photos uploaded many years ago still sell well. But on all microstock sites there is a rotation in the first pages also for new contents. If there are 100 photos on the first page, probably 20 spaces are dedicated to new content ... but not in FAA.
If you type Paris in the search field you get 123,000 artworks ... but only the first 2500 are seen (35 pages). Others are invisible. Maybe it would take at least 10 sales of an image to get into the search. There is no rotation and in addition to those that sell a lot, the images of the big agencies are also awarded: Getty Images, Cavan Images, Image Professionals, 1X, Estock Photo Decor ... and many of these are very bad photos.
In the other PODs webistes this does not happen.
-
I'm going to try to bring this back to the subject of Alamy?
Last year I had the most downloads ever. No I didn't have any of those 7c specials. This year, and I'm a bit ahead but feel kind of safe on this one, I have NO SALES for the first two months. Always a surprise when sales are rather even, spread out across the year, and now, nothing? Not one?
How will I make the quota so I get 40% when they have lowered prices and in June will drop me to 20%? I don't see anything encouraging going on there right now.
-
Same here. I am still waiting for my first Alamy sale of 2022. At least I haven't had anymore of those tiny micro sales from China and Germany since Christmas.
-
I'm going to try to bring this back to the subject of Alamy?
Last year I had the most downloads ever. No I didn't have any of those 7c specials. This year, and I'm a bit ahead but feel kind of safe on this one, I have NO SALES for the first two months. Always a surprise when sales are rather even, spread out across the year, and now, nothing? Not one?
How will I make the quota so I get 40% when they have lowered prices and in June will drop me to 20%? I don't see anything encouraging going on there right now.
Remember that your rolling year for calculating your next year's percentage is from 1 July last year, and it's $250 gross sales, so you will probably stay on 40% (barring any further squeezes they might impose >:() until July 2023, but after that, it's not so certain. It's particularly egrecious to make it a $$ amount of sales, when they control the price of each sale, and seem to be handing out huge discounts like sweeties.
-
Just had 6th February sale. "Only" $20, but it brings monthly total over $200. This never happened before in 4yrs I've been with them. Port of ~2000 stills with 1-2 sales / month on average, but this month 6. Things like this just make you feel good, not because of $ but because of work that got recognized.
Like someone said above, Alamy is hit and miss & it is easy to loose faith when you don't get anything for awhile. My honest suggestion is to persist & not close your account; just keep uploading high-end unique content & it will pay off eventually.
-
I'm going to try to bring this back to the subject of Alamy?
Last year I had the most downloads ever. No I didn't have any of those 7c specials. This year, and I'm a bit ahead but feel kind of safe on this one, I have NO SALES for the first two months. Always a surprise when sales are rather even, spread out across the year, and now, nothing? Not one?
How will I make the quota so I get 40% when they have lowered prices and in June will drop me to 20%? I don't see anything encouraging going on there right now.
Remember that your rolling year for calculating your next year's percentage is from 1 July last year, and it's $250 gross sales, so you will probably stay on 40% (barring any further squeezes they might impose >:() until July 2023, but after that, it's not so certain. It's particularly egrecious to make it a $$ amount of sales, when they control the price of each sale, and seem to be handing out huge discounts like sweeties.
Yes, to the rolling totals but in my case, no. Many of the better sales were early half of the year last year, which will roll over. And correct, they have reduced the prices, so even if I should suddenly get some sales, I won't make the minimum. That and selling for less, I'll also make less even at 40%
Things don't look very bright right now.
-
I'm going to try to bring this back to the subject of Alamy?
Last year I had the most downloads ever. No I didn't have any of those 7c specials. This year, and I'm a bit ahead but feel kind of safe on this one, I have NO SALES for the first two months. Always a surprise when sales are rather even, spread out across the year, and now, nothing? Not one?
How will I make the quota so I get 40% when they have lowered prices and in June will drop me to 20%? I don't see anything encouraging going on there right now.
Remember that your rolling year for calculating your next year's percentage is from 1 July last year, and it's $250 gross sales, so you will probably stay on 40% (barring any further squeezes they might impose >:() until July 2023, but after that, it's not so certain. It's particularly egrecious to make it a $$ amount of sales, when they control the price of each sale, and seem to be handing out huge discounts like sweeties.
Yes, to the rolling totals but in my case, no. Many of the better sales were early half of the year last year, which will roll over. And correct, they have reduced the prices, so even if I should suddenly get some sales, I won't make the minimum. That and selling for less, I'll also make less even at 40%
Things don't look very bright right now.
Are you really sure?
I'm a low-volume seller there with low-value sales with a few low-medium sales occasionally, but I just summed my Jan-Feb gross on excel and the past two months alone have me at over $250 gross. Net, of course, is :'(
-
I'm going to try to bring this back to the subject of Alamy?
Last year I had the most downloads ever. No I didn't have any of those 7c specials. This year, and I'm a bit ahead but feel kind of safe on this one, I have NO SALES for the first two months. Always a surprise when sales are rather even, spread out across the year, and now, nothing? Not one?
How will I make the quota so I get 40% when they have lowered prices and in June will drop me to 20%? I don't see anything encouraging going on there right now.
Remember that your rolling year for calculating your next year's percentage is from 1 July last year, and it's $250 gross sales, so you will probably stay on 40% (barring any further squeezes they might impose >:() until July 2023, but after that, it's not so certain. It's particularly egrecious to make it a $$ amount of sales, when they control the price of each sale, and seem to be handing out huge discounts like sweeties.
Yes, to the rolling totals but in my case, no. Many of the better sales were early half of the year last year, which will roll over. And correct, they have reduced the prices, so even if I should suddenly get some sales, I won't make the minimum. That and selling for less, I'll also make less even at 40%
Things don't look very bright right now.
Are you really sure?
I'm a low-volume seller there with low-value sales with a few low-medium sales occasionally, but I just summed my Jan-Feb gross on excel and the past two months alone have me at over $250 gross. Net, of course, is :'(
Yes it's one of those mysteries. Best year for sales was last year, and enough income NET ;) to keep the 40% level, and suddenly, with more images and none removed, I've fallen into a dark pit of no sale. I'm not high volume, but I have some things that get sales, because they are unusual or topical. Of course one nice $250 download would be OK with me?
I'll wait and see, but this is kind of odd.
-
And 7th sale of Feb popped in on last day, $75 gross
(https://c7.alamy.com/comp/M3YXT6/visitors-watching-orca-killer-whale-encounter-show-in-san-diego-california-M3YXT6.jpg)
Which brings monthly total to $277 gross; 39.57 RPD gross, or 15.83 net. Might be anomaly that will be hard to repeat, but for the first time in over a year someone has beaten AS in terms of monthly earnings
-
The $75 fairy must have been busy February 28th :) I received one too. My portfolio is now invisible, so I assume the download happened a while back and the invoice just happened today.
Shame the $250 fairy didn't visit!
-
Ann, yes most sales I had this month were zoomed at some point of time; it is known sometimes it takes awhile between zoom/download and time when sale is posted (and then even more till sale is cleared; but this is because Alamy model is different from traditional subscription based microstock)
btw I find Alamy "measures" tool quite useful, specially in term of keywords used for search
-
Alamy sales seem fairly random to me. So far this month I've got way more than last month (which was pretty bad - 2 sales for ~7.50 for me). This month they also refunded a sale from January for ~129 gross, but then re-bought it with the same terms for ~130. I have had plenty refunded and re-bought at the same price or lower over the years, but this might be the first that went up if even only a little bit, and they didn't even drop the percentage I got.
My click through rate was pretty high for most of Feb, so maybe there were sales that will show up later.
-
My sales this month - net amount:
0.45
0.10
0.76
0.06
0.08
0.03
0.03
0.11
-
TODAY I got ridiculous many cents income from ALAMY >:(
Total 27 sales and my earning is only $1.46 for ALL, many of those were 0.03 / 0.06
In the past, there were occasional cents income from ALAMY I'm still ok with that. But today is totally too much....
-
TODAY I got ridiculous many cents income from ALAMY >:(
Total 27 sales and my earning is only $1.46 for ALL, many of those were 0.03 / 0.06
In the past, there were occasional cents income from ALAMY I'm still ok with that. But today is totally too much....
If you'd rather not have these tiny sales, consider opting out of Novel Use and perhaps out of some countries for distrubutor sales, depending onwhere your tiny sales are coming from (often China). You'll be able to opt out of all or some distributor sales during the month of April (only).
Not sure about Novel Use, maybe the same or maybe you can opt out any time (?)
-
TODAY I got ridiculous many cents income from ALAMY >:(
Total 27 sales and my earning is only $1.46 for ALL, many of those were 0.03 / 0.06
In the past, there were occasional cents income from ALAMY I'm still ok with that. But today is totally too much....
If you'd rather not have these tiny sales, consider opting out of Novel Use and perhaps out of some countries for distrubutor sales, depending onwhere your tiny sales are coming from (often China). You'll be able to opt out of all or some distributor sales during the month of April (only).
Not sure about Novel Use, maybe the same or maybe you can opt out any time (?)
Many people who opted out say they are still getting these tiny sales.
-
This penny avalanche might not be Novel, but large subscription deal with someone. After landing on single image, they went through whole port and picked up what they were interested in.
My Alamy experience this month is totally opposite: (Gross amounts, 2K port size)
75.00
1850.00
14.75
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
My RPD stats:
Adobe 1,06
Dreamstime 0,93
Istock 0,68
PantherMedia 0,58
WireStock 0,52
Deposit 0,42
Alamy 0,41
BigStock 0,38
Shutter 0,23
-
I got a raft of those sales the 28th, Most were 12 cent distributor sales so I got 3 cents each. Some were downloaded more than once - which must mean the distributor sold it to more than one entity? One image 12 X - that one gross was $1.29 -36 -42 leaves me with a whopping .31 I think (for 12 sales?). None of them list where the sale was, so I guess I need to opt out of distributor sales completely instead of just China and Russia or something like that. I have always been opted out of novel use.
Getting only 24% or whatever it works out to for low range sales means it probably won't make much difference to the bottom line.
My RPD is still probably around $9 for the month, although if you take out the refunded and rebought (for a $ more - go figure) image that would drop it down a lot.
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
My RPD stats:
Adobe 1,06
Dreamstime 0,93
Istock 0,68
PantherMedia 0,58
WireStock 0,52
Deposit 0,42
Alamy 0,41
BigStock 0,38
Shutter 0,23
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
It appears that the 3 cents/download fees are for a distributor in China, again.
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
I have an impression that the buyer plans to resell them somewhere
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
I have an impression that the buyer plans to resell them somewhere
I think that's obvious and it's a big reason I closed my account.
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
@UnclePete:
I just checked all the $0.12 sales (times the amount bought) again and there is no additional information about the sales in any form.
Just what my screenshot shows in the original post...
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
@UnclePete:
I just checked all the $0.12 sales (times the amount bought) again and there is no additional information about the sales in any form.
Just what my screenshot shows in the original post...
A response on the Alamy forum indicates this is a distributor sale in China. Just like back in December.
-
Thanks @ Reimar for the information :)
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
@UnclePete:
I just checked all the $0.12 sales (times the amount bought) again and there is no additional information about the sales in any form.
Just what my screenshot shows in the original post...
Thanks, that's interesting as the sales history usually shows more than "download"
https://www.alamy.com/alamycontributorreports/Reports.aspx?Rep=0&sdate=01-Mar-2022&edate=31-Mar-2022&r2checked=False&drpval=1&netType=1 (https://www.alamy.com/alamycontributorreports/Reports.aspx?Rep=0&sdate=01-Mar-2022&edate=31-Mar-2022&r2checked=False&drpval=1&netType=1)
But since I haven't been one of the lucky ones to get these 12c or $0.00 downloads I can't see what you see.
No matter, it's terrible to see.
A response on the Alamy forum indicates this is a distributor sale in China. Just like back in December.
Is this going to be a quarterly treatment? Not good!
I see the answer to my other question: “Our distribution team have confirmed the “downloaded 3 times” refers to the number of times it has been used. This image was paid for three times, but our billing team have combined them into 1 invoice, that’s why it’s added in the comments.”
-
I am just thinking what will happen if I do not reach the $250 at the end of june... this will mean dropping from 40% to 20%... actually I am at $176 gross sales.
On that $0,12 sales this would mean to get 20% of 60% -> 12%.
Taking 12% of $0.12 means we earn $0.0144 per sale, which is even below some "connect" view on IStock O_o
Definitly time to leave Alamy :-)
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
@UnclePete:
I just checked all the $0.12 sales (times the amount bought) again and there is no additional information about the sales in any form.
Just what my screenshot shows in the original post...
A response on the Alamy forum indicates this is a distributor sale in China. Just like back in December.
And the ability to be able to opt out of distribution sales in China (and anywhere else) is now live.
-
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
In my stats Alamy has an overall RPD in 2022 of $0,41 at 61 sales, which makes it place No. 7 for RPD.
It is time to leave them now :-)
Those downloads in the image, 14 of them are 1 time. Is that just for this report? Some show 4 times downloaded. It all looks like some big partner site that reported their first quarter uses.
No details on who and where, what kind of use?
@UnclePete:
I just checked all the $0.12 sales (times the amount bought) again and there is no additional information about the sales in any form.
Just what my screenshot shows in the original post...
A response on the Alamy forum indicates this is a distributor sale in China. Just like back in December.
And the ability to be able to opt out of distribution sales in China (and anywhere else) is now live.
Watch this one, as a number of people who were already out are still getting these cheapo commissions.
That and we won't know how well the Opt Out works until July because sales take time to be reported.
-
And the ability to be able to opt out of distribution sales in China (and anywhere else) is now live.
Watch this one, as a number of people who were already out are still getting these cheapo commissions.
That and we won't know how well the Opt Out works until July because sales take time to be reported.
Someone I know who got a distributor sale but isn't in any distro got the 100% when she complained. (Not one of the 5c sales).
I think to avoid the really tiny sales, it's best to be out of NU.
And complain heavily if your work is sold nder these schemes.
-
On February 14, I received an email confirming that my account would be deleted within the next 45 days.
I can no longer log in. I have not received my money either. Also a message about the completed deletion of my account has not been received.
-
On February 14, I received an email confirming that my account would be deleted within the next 45 days.
I can no longer log in. I have not received my money either. Also a message about the completed deletion of my account has not been received.
I would first go into image manager and delete the images. I am not sure what their policy is on whether you can delete only a certain amount of images but if you go to the image manager and select all from a batch, then click on "OPTIONAL" as opposed to "MANDATORY" there is a delete icon on the lower right. So that would verify image deletion without closing your account.
-
On February 14, I received an email confirming that my account would be deleted within the next 45 days.
I can no longer log in. I have not received my money either. Also a message about the completed deletion of my account has not been received.
I am in the process of deleting my Alamy account, and although my public profile was removed around the 45 day mark, I can still log in to the contributor dashboard. I have had several sales show up since the deletion - but as everything is billed long after the use, that isn't out of line (for Alamy).
I got paid this month for the current cleared balance, but there are more sales that haven't cleared yet, so I'm assuming my contributor account will stay active until the final payment (whenever that happens).
If I were you, I'd write to Alamy and ask what is going on with your final sales and balance.
-
On February 14, I received an email confirming that my account would be deleted within the next 45 days.
I can no longer log in. I have not received my money either. Also a message about the completed deletion of my account has not been received.
I would first go into image manager and delete the images. I am not sure what their policy is on whether you can delete only a certain amount of images but if you go to the image manager and select all from a batch, then click on "OPTIONAL" as opposed to "MANDATORY" there is a delete icon on the lower right. So that would verify image deletion without closing your account.
Thank you, Mantis!
My problem is that my account is deleted. I can no longer log in. I have no access anymore.
-
On February 14, I received an email confirming that my account would be deleted within the next 45 days.
I can no longer log in. I have not received my money either. Also a message about the completed deletion of my account has not been received.
I am in the process of deleting my Alamy account, and although my public profile was removed around the 45 day mark, I can still log in to the contributor dashboard. I have had several sales show up since the deletion - but as everything is billed long after the use, that isn't out of line (for Alamy).
I got paid this month for the current cleared balance, but there are more sales that haven't cleared yet, so I'm assuming my contributor account will stay active until the final payment (whenever that happens).
If I were you, I'd write to Alamy and ask what is going on with your final sales and balance.
Thank you too, Jo Ann.
Since I can't log in anymore, I guess the only way will be to e-mail Alamy - just as you advise.
By the way, I also had 8 sales in a row to Beijing today at shutterstock. But they brought at least 7 times $1.65 and one time $16.50. In contrast to these 3 cent net sales to China at Alamy.
-
For the sake of completeness, I thought I should post that my Alamy account access closed some time last week. My portfolio became invisible to buyers earlier, but several sales appeared afterwards. I was paid almost all I was owed on May 1st but one small sale (where my take was $2.08) hadn't cleared yet.
I wrote to support to ask if they could turn account access back on until the sale cleared, but this morning received email that it wasn't possible, but that they did see the $2.08 owed and that I'd receive it once it was cleared.
-
A new low even for Alamy
3 cent sales and I bet they were in China even though I have Chinese sales blocked >:(
-
After 15 years or so with Alamy it must be time to pull the plug and delete my port.
6 sales today netted me 9c! What the actual F&%k >:(
-
I opted out of all distributor sales all around the world. Had no 7 cent sales anymore. I am still getting $3 and $5 sales, though. I’m at 250 for this month before my cut.
-
22 sales yesterday mostly 5-31 cents gross. Strangely enough one was for $3.40 which was in China even though I opted out of sales to China. Wouldn't be surprised if this one gets refunded.
-
Had a lot of Alamy sales recently. After all deductions, what remains for me is 1 cent.
-
Yesterday I had two 12 cent sales. For images that have been deleted for ten months?
-
I had 20 sales or more of less than $0.10 and I'm not part of the novel use scheme and I've opted out of third part distribution to almost all countries but especially China etc and yet I still get these pathetic sales. This was after I told them a few months ago when I received 80 of these sales (which were Novel Use to China) that I wasn't parti of these schemes. Alamy monthly sales represent about 1-2 hours worth on AS so the time has come to delete the images I have there.
-
>:(
I opted out on first of April and, again, I had yesterday 10 distribution sales... I asked them couple of weeks ago why am I still having these sales...
Hi Sebastian,
The image was downloaded by our distributor before you’d opted out of the Distribution scheme in April. Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us.
Kind regards
Ellie
So, for how long I will still receive these "distribution" sales... I have no idea...
>:( >:( >:(
-
>:(
I opted out on first of April and, again, I had yesterday 10 distribution sales... I asked them couple of weeks ago why am I still having these sales...
Hi Sebastian,
The image was downloaded by our distributor before you’d opted out of the Distribution scheme in April. Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us.
Kind regards
Ellie
So, for how long I will still receive these "distribution" sales... I have no idea...
>:( >:( >:(
I was about to file a complaint when a saw your post. Let's see how many months it'll take to clear those pre-april sales.
0,01 out of 0,05 sale is simply outrageous. I have more than a hundred of those for june. Alamy really had our best interest in mind when they made a deal with those distributors, didn't they?
-
>:(
I opted out on first of April and, again, I had yesterday 10 distribution sales... I asked them couple of weeks ago why am I still having these sales...
Hi Sebastian,
The image was downloaded by our distributor before you’d opted out of the Distribution scheme in April. Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us.
Kind regards
Ellie
So, for how long I will still receive these "distribution" sales... I have no idea...
>:( >:( >:(
I was about to file a complaint when a saw your post. Let's see how many months it'll take to clear those pre-april sales.
0,01 out of 0,05 sale is simply outrageous. I have more than a hundred of those for june. Alamy really had our best interest in mind when they made a deal with those distributors, didn't they?
I still think it would be a good idea to send them all emails with our complaints...
-
How do I opted out ? This 0.01 sales are disgusting.
-
I also started receiving 12¢ sales despite being opted out of distribution and novel use. I wrote support to confirm my opt outs.
-
I had a bunch of $0.05 sales -- not worth uploading there anymore.
Worse than Istock and worse than SS now in terms of worthless sales.
-
I Have a lot of 0,05cts sales too. I opted out of sales to most country but can't opt out for all country before next April.
Some people at Alamy read this forum so big f..k you Alamy.
-
Another contributor (not me; I left Alamy earlier this year) reported that Alamy's answer to their query about how they could still be getting cheap distributor sales so long after opting out was that the sale was from much earlier (before opt out). Distributors take a long time to report sales to Alamy.
-
Another contributor (not me; I left Alamy earlier this year) reported that Alamy's answer to their query about how they could still be getting cheap distributor sales so long after opting out was that the sale was from much earlier (before opt out). Distributors take a long time to report sales to Alamy.
I believe Alamy has no control over their distributors. I too got this staple reply yesterday when I queried why I got lots of 0.01 sales.
FYI, got an identical reply sometime earlier too. They seem to do a lot of Copy+Paste.
Hi XXXX
The image was downloaded by our distributor before you’d opted out of the Distribution scheme in April. Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us.
Kind regards
-
Just checked my account, had 22 sales in last days which got me whooping 1.92$ all together.
I just hope sales wont pick up cause I wouldn't like to owe something to people in the next report.
This is becoming a parody.
-
Not long ago, alamy was imho one of the best,
now i get 0,02 for exclusive hq images
Always got a professional reply in a working day,
now no replying at all.
ALAMY DRIVING HULL LOSS
ALAMY forcing me to delete portfolio
-
It's getting worse with Alamy.
Not only did I receive a number of sinlge penny "sales" at the end of June.
Alamy also decided to downgrade me to silver.
But my total (gross) sales amount was clearly above $250 from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 (it was $427,63, according to their statistics).
I wrote to them asking them to correct that error.
Now I got the following response:
"Sorry in the delay in getting back to you. The calculations do not include distribution sales as they are not direct to Alamy’s site. So, you have made less than $250 overall from July 2021 to July 2022. However, if you made more than $250 in this year you will go back to Alamy Gold. "
Well, I disagree.
The contract talks about "license fees", not making any distinction between direct sales and distribution sales.
Here the exact wording from the contract:
12.12 At the end of each Revenue Year if your total License Fees for that year, net of any refunds:
12.12.1 are less than $250 then the Alamy Commission for sales of your Content in the following Revenue Year will automatically switch to Alamy Silver as outlined in the Alamy Commission Table; or
12.12.2 are greater than or equal to $250 then the Alamy Commission for sales of your Content in the following Revenue Year will remain on Alamy Gold for that year, as outlined in the Alamy Commission Table.
Of course I complained again, now let's wait for their response.
I think the contract is pretty clear, and their argumentation about distribution sales not being included does not hold up legally.
Anybody else with the same issue?
-
Few thoughts about on my blog...enjoy >:(
https://luisafumi-digitalart.com/blog/2022/07/05/grasp-all-loose-all/
-
If you've opted out, report it to Alamy. I did and ended up getting 100% commission. There was a fault (which has been corrected) but you'll need to check and get in touch with them
-
If you've opted out, report it to Alamy. I did and ended up getting 100% commission. There was a fault (which has been corrected) but you'll need to check and get in touch with them
Thank you for the tip! I've sent an email to Alamy just now. If it is a fault okay, it could happen... once >:(
-
I left Alamy a few months back over the bottom-of-the-barrel sales & royalties coupled with them cutting the royalty rate if their low-ball sales dropped you below $250. Excluding distributor sales just makes the new deal even worse - what's next; only count sales reported on Sundays??
Please let us know what they tell you after you argued the toss. It's possible their lawyers are as incompetent as their software people (the erroneous storage fee nonsense when they made the royalty rate changes) and they'll need to be more specific.
Tossers!
-
I posted the same thing in the Alamy forum.
Reply from Alamy:
" Hi All,
To update on the above, the calculations should include distribution sales.
We're working on this our end, to ensure that this is correct for all accounts and that no-one is out of pocket.
Thanks,
Alamy "
Maybe they should have told that the person answering my first email...
But I am relieved that it is just an error and not a policy...
-
I posted the same thing in the Alamy forum.
Reply from Alamy:
" Hi All,
To update on the above, the calculations should include distribution sales.
We're working on this our end, to ensure that this is correct for all accounts and that no-one is out of pocket.
Thanks,
Alamy "
Maybe they should have told that the person answering my first email...
But I am relieved that it is just an error and not a policy...
Good news! Happy for you :D
-
If you've opted out, report it to Alamy. I did and ended up getting 100% commission. There was a fault (which has been corrected) but you'll need to check and get in touch with them
Congrats :)- good for you but what did you say, and who did you email to?
I reported my 0.01 sales and all I got back the usual "long lead times" BS. And yes I've opted out both NU and distribution.
-
If you've opted out, report it to Alamy. I did and ended up getting 100% commission. There was a fault (which has been corrected) but you'll need to check and get in touch with them
Congrats :)- good for you but what did you say, and who did you email to?
I reported my 0.01 sales and all I got back the usual "long lead times" BS. And yes I've opted out both NU and distribution.
I knew I'd opted out of Distribution sales in China back in April this year and that I'd opted out of novel use scheme back in 2013. That's all I told them and that I'd already complained about receiving 100 of these sales at the end of last year. I was told that there had been an error (now corrected) and that they'd refund 100% commission. That was it.
-
If you've opted out, report it to Alamy. I did and ended up getting 100% commission. There was a fault (which has been corrected) but you'll need to check and get in touch with them
Congrats :)- good for you but what did you say, and who did you email to?
I reported my 0.01 sales and all I got back the usual "long lead times" BS. And yes I've opted out both NU and distribution.
I knew I'd opted out of Distribution sales in China back in April this year and that I'd opted out of novel use scheme back in 2013. That's all I told them and that I'd already complained about receiving 100 of these sales at the end of last year. I was told that there had been an error (now corrected) and that they'd refund 100% commission. That was it.
Thank you, HalfFull for posting this.
Basically, my situation was the same - opted out distribution April this year, been out of NU for many years. Though my ultra-low net sales were measured in tens, did not reach 100, but that shouldn't be the issue.
All I was told was the "long lead times" BS:
"These images were downloaded and used before you opted out of distribution in April this year. Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us. We've instructed the distributor that the image is now no longer available for licensing"
Anybody else contacted Alamy about the 0.01 net sales? What kind of respose did you get?
-
If you've opted out, report it to Alamy. I did and ended up getting 100% commission. There was a fault (which has been corrected) but you'll need to check and get in touch with them
Congrats :)- good for you but what did you say, and who did you email to?
I reported my 0.01 sales and all I got back the usual "long lead times" BS. And yes I've opted out both NU and distribution.
I knew I'd opted out of Distribution sales in China back in April this year and that I'd opted out of novel use scheme back in 2013. That's all I told them and that I'd already complained about receiving 100 of these sales at the end of last year. I was told that there had been an error (now corrected) and that they'd refund 100% commission. That was it.
Thank you, HalfFull for posting this.
Basically, my situation was the same - opted out distribution April this year, been out of NU for many years. Though my ultra-low net sales were measured in tens, did not reach 100, but that shouldn't be the issue.
All I was told was the "long lead times" BS:
"These images were downloaded and used before you opted out of distribution in April this year. Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us. We've instructed the distributor that the image is now no longer available for licensing"
Anybody else contacted Alamy about the 0.01 net sales? What kind of respose did you get?
I contacted Alamy about the 0.01 sales and you'll find their answer and my comments on my last blog post "De profundis"
https://luisafumi-digitalart.com/blog/2022/07/07/de-profundis/ Enjoy :(
-
Thank you, Luisa, for the link.
What a maddening reply you got. You have opted out, and yet C says "you are opted in".
In another words, you opted out 1st April but THEY opted you in.
And then they have the audacity to advertise the "sizable revenues" of the distributor scheme?
To a contributor who writes in due to 0.01 sales??
Unbelievable.
This is Alamy, the most EVIL stock photo agency on this planet: First they break the contract, give our images for 0.01, and finally, insult us.
What surprises me though is that there is no movement against Alamy (like there was against Shutterstock). Why? 0.10 was bad but 0.01 is alot worse.
-
In another words, you opted out 1st April but THEY opted you in.
She doesn't mention ever opting out, unless I am misunderstanding something here?
-
In another words, you opted out 1st April but THEY opted you in.
She doesn't mention ever opting out, unless I am misunderstanding something here?
I opted out the Novel use and they told me that I should have to opt out distributor,ha, ha. Since I am so many years in distributor without problem, I thought the Novel (the new use) was the cause of the few cents sales. The real problem is they do not inform you (on purpose?) what exactly do you opt in/out
-
Not uploading any more images. All I am getting is $0.05 sales or less. If there are no decent sales like I once had soon I will close acct.
-
Not uploading any more images. All I am getting is $0.05 sales or less. If there are no decent sales like I once had soon I will close acct.
Maybe I've found a more terrorist defense. I have begun to 'freeze' some images I don't want to give away for nothing deleting all the keywords except one. Is a very easy thing to do with the image manager, as you can quick delete with one mouse click the keywords of a big bunch of images together and then upload a single one keywords to all. They insist a lot to put 45-50 keywords to make the image discoverable. You can always upload your keywords again if the situation changes.
-
Where do we see our rank, gold, silver?
-
Where do we see our rank, gold, silver?
Go to your dashboard and click on the "Account settings" tab. On the right side in the second square from above you will see a text saying "your commission model is XY".
-
Thanks, got it.
-
In another words, you opted out 1st April but THEY opted you in.
She doesn't mention ever opting out, unless I am misunderstanding something here?
Oh, OK, sorry!
However ---
Those June China 0.05 sales, AFAIK, belong to the same NU pool than the infamous December China sales. In January, Alamy reassured that images not belonging to that pool have been removed by their distributor.
Well, that's not true. The only thing they did now is selling at the lowest price ever.
I'm out distribution (all) since April 1 this year and out NU for years.
Doesn't help.
All I got was this Long Lead Times crap.
I mean, humans fly to the space and robots perform surgeries every day, and a stock agency can't get their act together in a few months??? Hello??
-
Those June China 0.05 sales, AFAIK, belong to the same NU pool than the infamous December China sales. In January, Alamy reassured that images not belonging to that pool have been removed by their distributor.
I would not know about that. I have opted out of distributor sales from China - However, I got a lot of sales in June for which I will be getting the amazing amount of 0.03$. Alamy doesn't tell me where they are coming from though. It only says the image size and how often it has been downloaded, no information about usage, licence or location, so I don't even know what to opt out from to avoid these in the future.
-
I wrote asking about getting 1 cent for sales and got some pap about getting a low percent based on the distributor taking a cut and then alamy taking a cut - no mention about why the sale was so low, so I asked again, the second time I got more pap about how distributors charge what they think is competitive in their market and how wonderful that they are a market that we wouldn't normally reach - I asked what market that was and haven't heard back.
The average return is still pretty good, but going from 50% of sales to 20-40% and these super low sales is pretty discouraging.
-
Yikes.
10 cent sale.
4 cents went to Alamy.
4 cents went to Distrubutor.
2 cents came to me.
That doesn't even pay for the 5 seconds of cable to look into my balance!
-
Alamy asked me twice if I would agree to make a distribution sale. The answer is no, thanks for asking.
-
I opted out of all distributor sales all around the world. Had no 7 cent sales anymore. I am still getting $3 and $5 sales, though. I’m at 250 for this month before my cut.
Same here. I opted out of Alamy's entire Distribution scheme years ago. If I've missed a few "penny stock" sales due to being opted-out so be it. I managed to make the threshold to the new contract's Gold level this year with a small portfolio and no Distribution sales so it doesn't appear to have hurt me much if any being opted-out of their Distribution deals.
Alamy's web site is available to anyone, anytime. and anywhere with internet service. BS about Distributor's "local" assistance and language barriers etc. IMO is just that - BS. For me their skim and low prices is just not worth the paltry returns to contributors.
-
See also these threads on the Alamy forum:
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15757-bizarre-situation/#comment-320159 (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15757-bizarre-situation/#comment-320159)
and
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15747-syndication-by-pa-media (https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15747-syndication-by-pa-media)
It's getting beyond a joke.
-
I don't understand why Alamy has to nickle-and-dime the contributors so much.
Today is the 13th, or the end of the ninth working day. my pittance has not arrived yet.
We used to get paid in the first week of the month, now it moves to the middle of the month.
-
I don't understand why Alamy has to nickle-and-dime the contributors so much.
Today is the 13th, or the end of the ninth working day. my pittance has not arrived yet.
We used to get paid in the first week of the month, now it moves to the middle of the month.
I got my payment yesterday. But for me it's always coming at the latest day possible. They say payment will be processed "within 9 working days" and it's always on the 9th day for me (yesterday was the 13th and 4 of these days were saturdays and Sundays), never a day earlier, so the "within 9 working days" should rather be called "after 9 working days".
-
I got my payment on the 14th, the 10th working day.
-
I opted out May last year, I just now received a distribution sale of 12 cents, of which I got to keep 3 cents... How can they still sell my stuff through distribution 13/14 months after opt-out? I know Alamy sales often have long payout times, but THIS long?
-
I opted out May last year, I just now received a distribution sale of 12 cents, of which I got to keep 3 cents... How can they still sell my stuff through distribution 13/14 months after opt-out? I know Alamy sales often have long payout times, but THIS long?
If you haven't done so already, email them and ask for an explanation.
-
I opted out May last year, I just now received a distribution sale of 12 cents, of which I got to keep 3 cents... How can they still sell my stuff through distribution 13/14 months after opt-out? I know Alamy sales often have long payout times, but THIS long?
If you haven't done so already, email them and ask for an explanation.
Their 'explanation':
"Many of our distributors have long lead times and the sale has only just been reported to us. We’ve instructed the distributor that the image is now no longer available for licensing."
-
This is how 2 cent sales via distributor ends up.
My fabolous share is 0,00!
I will opt out of distibutor sales whenever I get the chance.
-
I had 5x0.02 cents today :-\. How and where can you opt out? I have not heard about this deal.
-
I have opted out in april and still had more than 60 of these today. There's even two sales with only distributor deductions so the total is less than before the sales :o
This madness has to stop. They don't even respect their own rules
-
I had 5x0.02 cents today :-\. How and where can you opt out? I have not heard about this deal.
Under the graph on your dashboard there is a field with Additional Revenue Options. My dashboard says that I can opt out in April. And that is what I will do - if it actually works.
-
This is how 2 cent sales via distributor ends up.
My fabolous share is 0,00!
I will opt out of distibutor sales whenever I get the chance.
Same here, see attached, most of them, ~1080p size sold in China on Sept 20th (I will ask them to restrict my sales in China, the same way they restricted sales in Russia)
-
The same happened to me! I had three sales there yesterday, two for 2 cents and the third for 8. On the first two Alamy got 1 c and the distributor got one leaving me with zero - literally zero! How can they do this and think people will continue to contribute? On the 8-center they left me with two cents so I ended up earning two measly pennies for three sales. All were in China, where I assume they are assembling a collection of essentially legally stolen images to resell elsewhere. Pathetic. If there is a way of excluding all sales to China and definitely these zero-sum sales I want to sign up. Or will have to terminate my Alamy account. Scumbags.
-
I am already opted out and still had 17 sales to a "Chinese editorial site" for a grand total of $0.72 gross. Given the mix of images the phrase "legally stolen" did spring to mind as it would be hard to imagine any of them being used for editorial purposes. Needless to say I have emailed Alamy but not sure it will achieve anything.
Given how few decent priced sales I get these days I may have to delete my portfolio entirely if this continues.
-
4.1.5. except for any rights that have previously been licensed or granted in relation to the Content, there is not and will not be during the term of this Contract, be any limitation or restriction on Alamy’s ability to license the Content; Part of the latest amendments contained in an email response from Alamy.
I don't have time to read the full T&Cs so I could be misunderstanding it but this would seem to suggest that they can ignore opt outs and license when, where and to whom they like.
-
Its contagious, today I had a sale for $0.02, $0.06 & $0.07, all on Alamy......though the laughter this gave me was priceless
-
Same here....
>:(
-
over on the Alamy forum they posted
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15988-sales-to-china/page/2/
"
Hi All,
We're very sorry that due to a technical error on our part some of you who have opted-out of distribution are seeing image sales on your account via distribution sales.
We are aware of the issue that these sales shouldn't have happened for those opted-out of distribution, and we're investigating to establish what happened so we can resolve this as soon as possible. We'll be paying all contributors 100% of the commission from these sales. If you think you shouldn't have seen these distribution sales on your account, you can email [email protected] however we will be getting in touch with everyone affected once we have a clearer picture on the matter.
Thanks,
Alamy
"
I got a bunch of distro sales from China for 22 to 2 cents for which I get 5 to 0 cents. I'm opted out of China this year. Plus 2 cent sales for which the photographer gets 0 is never ok. They need to put a floor on the amount the photographer gets. It doesn't have to be very high, but it should definitely not be 0.
-
Fk i had 96 2 cent sales from China. I def emailed them. What a sham.
-
over on the Alamy forum they posted
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/15988-sales-to-china/page/2/
"
Hi All,
We're very sorry that due to a technical error on our part some of you who have opted-out of distribution are seeing image sales on your account via distribution sales.
We are aware of the issue that these sales shouldn't have happened for those opted-out of distribution, and we're investigating to establish what happened so we can resolve this as soon as possible. We'll be paying all contributors 100% of the commission from these sales. If you think you shouldn't have seen these distribution sales on your account, you can email [email protected] however we will be getting in touch with everyone affected once we have a clearer picture on the matter.
Thanks,
Alamy
"
I got a bunch of distro sales from China for 22 to 2 cents for which I get 5 to 0 cents. I'm opted out of China this year. Plus 2 cent sales for which the photographer gets 0 is never ok. They need to put a floor on the amount the photographer gets. It doesn't have to be very high, but it should definitely not be 0.
I just received the same answer from them.... >:(
-
Gosh, you guys will soon be paying the customers and Alamy a fee each for downloads you get from these deals. ;D
-
I got the confirmation from Alamy that now I am opted out of distribution and sales in China (... and Russia, of course).
-
I got a reply from them saying I am now opted out as well. Hope they hold to it.
-
I got the same e-mail saying it was an error etc. This would be more acceptable if it didn't keep happening, but is sort of the minumum they can do for such a mess up. Also they haven't removed all the deductions so the 100 percent commission hasn't happened yet - it is also unclear if that means for a 2 cent sale I get a whole 2 cents, or if I only get one cent because the distributor who didn't have permission to sell (or give away) the image still gets their cut. The actual money is negligable, but maybe if they get nothing for their thieving they won't do it as often.
More worrisome is why they ever allow any distributors to sell images for 2 cents - or 10 cents or whatever that low.
-
Wow I can opt-out again only in APRIL >:( >:( >:(
-
>:( >:( >:( >:(
I've 3 sales of 0.00 !!!!
So it's really impossible to opt out before April ?
How can we arrive to a such absurd situation and a so disrespect of people ???
-
>:( >:( >:( >:(
So it's really impossible to opt out before April ?
Beware! When April finally arrives, they may change their contributor agreement over night so that we should have opted out in March!
-
I've sent an email yesterday, they replied that they're aware of the problem and they proposed me to opt out now for me with China and Novel use. I've checked the site and it's done.
-
Got that answer
"We're very sorry that due to a technical error on our part you are seeing image sales on your account via distribution sales.
We are aware of the issue that these sales shouldn't have happened for those opted-out of distribution in China, and we're investigating to establish what happened so we can resolve this as soon as possible."
as well and still wonder what this will mean or what will happen...
-
Wow I can opt-out again only in APRIL >:( >:( >:(
they have allowed people to out opt early if you write
-
also this only seem to happen to RF image with Alamy, so maybe only upload RM there
-
Edit: never mind. The new contract is active since 2021.
If I close my account, will they pay any outstanding royalties below $50?