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Author Topic: Alamy sale for 7 cents  (Read 67636 times)

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Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #75 on: January 01, 2022, 06:48 »
+3
What the absolute heck is going on here. Had hundreds of sales for 4 bleeping cents. * it.


« Reply #76 on: January 01, 2022, 08:00 »
+1
Had another 20 sales for $0.04 on 31st Dec...

This drops my RPD for 2021 to: $1.71 ($5.08 in 2020)

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #77 on: January 01, 2022, 09:53 »
+7
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.


Level6

« Reply #78 on: January 01, 2022, 12:18 »
+4
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.......



« Reply #79 on: January 01, 2022, 19:50 »
+4
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.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2022, 19:52 by stockastic »

Level6

« Reply #80 on: January 01, 2022, 20:11 »
+1
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.









« Reply #81 on: January 01, 2022, 20:25 »
+9
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

zeljkok

  • Non Linear Existence
« Reply #82 on: January 02, 2022, 02:25 »
+3
Just when I thought my port was immune,  15 cents (x .4 = 6 cents) China "sale" pops up on on Dec 31


Race to the bottom gets whole new meaning

« Reply #83 on: January 02, 2022, 09:05 »
+3
A new twist for me. This .17 sale didnt go to China like my others. It was a UK sale, editorial, newspaper (national), perpetuity, full size (103 Mb). A touch more worrisome.

« Reply #84 on: January 02, 2022, 13:45 »
+2

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

« Reply #85 on: January 02, 2022, 14:54 »
+3
They should have people in the office tomorrow.  If they don't respond tomorrow, I'm closing the account.

Level6

« Reply #86 on: January 02, 2022, 14:58 »
0

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.





Level6

« Reply #87 on: January 02, 2022, 15:01 »
+1
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.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #88 on: January 02, 2022, 15:29 »
+4
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.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2022, 15:33 by ShadySue »

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #89 on: January 03, 2022, 06:39 »
+2
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

« Reply #90 on: January 03, 2022, 11:07 »
+6
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

"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. 


   
« Last Edit: January 03, 2022, 11:11 by stockastic »

« Reply #91 on: January 03, 2022, 11:38 »
+6
I like the part where they talk about market value.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #92 on: January 04, 2022, 13:57 »
+4
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 doesnt. 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 Alamys 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/



Level6

« Reply #93 on: January 04, 2022, 14:04 »
+1
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 doesnt. 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 Alamys 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/



I don't always agree with you but "Read all the lies in once place" is definitely the quote of the day!. Love it!. 

« Reply #94 on: January 04, 2022, 16:22 »
+10
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 :)

« Reply #95 on: January 04, 2022, 19:31 »
+5
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...

« Last Edit: January 04, 2022, 19:33 by stockastic »

marthamarks

« Reply #96 on: January 04, 2022, 19:39 »
+3
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.

« Reply #97 on: January 04, 2022, 19:54 »
+5
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?

Level6

« Reply #98 on: January 04, 2022, 20:05 »
+1
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.








Level6

« Reply #99 on: January 04, 2022, 20:08 »
+1
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.


 

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