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Author Topic: Alamy sale for 7 cents  (Read 69178 times)

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« Reply #250 on: February 07, 2022, 11:30 »
+6
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.


thijsdegraaf

« Reply #251 on: February 07, 2022, 11:42 »
+2
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.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2022, 11:45 by thijsdegraaf »

« Reply #252 on: February 07, 2022, 11:45 »
+2
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.

« Reply #253 on: February 07, 2022, 12:26 »
+1
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.  ::)

thijsdegraaf

« Reply #254 on: February 07, 2022, 13:21 »
+2
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.

zeljkok

  • Non Linear Existence
« Reply #255 on: February 07, 2022, 15:17 »
0
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?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #256 on: February 07, 2022, 15:20 »
0
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.

« Reply #257 on: February 07, 2022, 18:21 »
+2
... 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.

« Reply #258 on: February 09, 2022, 12:47 »
+4
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?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #259 on: February 09, 2022, 13:49 »
+2
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.

« Reply #260 on: February 09, 2022, 16:37 »
+1
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.

zeljkok

  • Non Linear Existence
« Reply #261 on: February 09, 2022, 23:02 »
+2
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.

« Reply #262 on: February 10, 2022, 15:20 »
+1
I sold 7 pics on 500PX all on the same day. For one cent each! A real profit :( :'(

« Reply #263 on: February 14, 2022, 05:18 »
0
I'm 0 sale since 2022 until now why? :'(

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #264 on: February 14, 2022, 06:32 »
+2
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?

« Reply #265 on: February 14, 2022, 06:34 »
+1
few months ago I had 20+ sales, each $0,15.  :-\ :-\
They all went to China

« Reply #266 on: February 14, 2022, 11:46 »
0
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 ) :'(

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #267 on: February 14, 2022, 14:42 »
+2
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 ) :'(

« Reply #268 on: February 14, 2022, 15:15 »
+3
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.

« Reply #269 on: February 14, 2022, 16:01 »
+1
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.

« Reply #270 on: February 15, 2022, 12:49 »
+2


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 cant bear those 4 cent sales anylonger. They hurt. Every single sale hurts.

« Reply #271 on: February 15, 2022, 15:53 »
+5
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.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #272 on: February 15, 2022, 16:16 »
+1
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).

« Reply #273 on: February 15, 2022, 16:44 »
0
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!

« Reply #274 on: February 16, 2022, 17:34 »
0
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.




 

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