pancakes

MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Author Topic: Alamy White Paper, Image Licensing: Time for a change?  (Read 14532 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« on: June 29, 2012, 07:36 »
0


« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2012, 08:18 »
0
after reading all that bla bla bla anybody got to any conclusion? does that mean we will get a cut in a near future?

http://www.alamy.com/pressrelease/releases/archive/2012/06/28/154.aspx?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=click%20here&utm_campaign=White%20paper%20contributor%20mail%20out&utm_term=Contributors


Alamy is still leader in this industry, so I expect better days with them...

« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2012, 08:18 »
0
That's all it was.  'Could it be...?'. 'Are buyers thinking...?'. 'is this the way... ?'

Nothing in there but the same stuff we all know and 3 pages of bios.

« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2012, 08:31 »
0
I believe they will lower pricing but they could have said that in just a few words, at least it looks like they are willing to share what they talk in their brunches :D

saw the bios pages too on the pdf version, those guys will never be without a job with all that background ;D

rubyroo

« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2012, 09:31 »
0
I may be a lone voice here, but I think this a great thing to do and I really appreciate it.

Any solutions to these problems will take time and intelligent thought + collaboration.  Laying out the issues in a white paper is a good first step, and I'm sure they'll be very thorough in their deliberations.  If they get this right, it will benefit all of us, so it's three cheers from me.

antistock

« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2012, 15:01 »
0
i say too little too late !

they keep blaming RM but the issue here is HOW they make a mess selling RM !
Alamy itself, very cumbersome, crap platform, confusing pricing and options.

i'm gonna laugh my ass watching them "simplify" all this.

oh and now they finally recognize micros are kicking RM's ass that youngsters simply refuse to pay for anything digital and that piracy is rampant and will get worse and that RM agency risk to be screwed and forgotten.

this is all pure B-S !
there's only one problem here, the traditional buyers have simply no money left, many publishers are closing doors, others are scratching the barrel and using microstock or user generated content and unless things change quickly there's NO way back and no way to raise prices in this scenario.

moreover, publishers can only blame themselves for all this, what . where they thinking giving away their content for free on their web site ? and now they wonder why people don't buy newspapers anymore ? how come in Japan all the top news mags are behind a paywall and they're all doing fine online and on paper ?

moral of the story : prices will be slashed and they will try to make a sort of midstock offering, can't see a single reason for why photographers are going to benefit from all these rants and raves, no matter how many round tables they do, publishers worldwide have cut photo budgets big time and designers are already working for a pittance, where exactly the flow of money is supposed to come from to allow photographers produce expensive shoots ?

nowhere, and no surprise about that.
their talk about piracy is ok but the value of an exclusive photo is still there, the issue is publishers sticking the photo in high res all over their web sites allowing freetards to steal the images and share them worldwide in a few clicks.

nothing is exclusive anymore on the web unless it's behind a paywall.
it's time to stop this freetard madness.

youngsters steal because they're allowed to do it in full impunity.
if the pics are only available on the paper edition they can simpply stick a finger in their a-s-s.

« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2012, 16:19 »
0
For the contributors' benefit, I would like to see Alamy deal with unreasonably delayed reporting and payment.

« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2012, 20:19 »
0
I would like to see Alamy create a editorial RF option.  Currently I have to choose between SS,IS,DT,123 or Alamy RM for my editorial shots.  They should adapt to compete in this area. 

antistock

« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2012, 21:18 »
0
I would like to see Alamy create a editorial RF option.  Currently I have to choose between SS,IS,DT,123 or Alamy RM for my editorial shots.  They should adapt to compete in this area. 

it's agencies making RM so cumbersome.
what about just 2-3 options for usage type ?

i mean how they can control anyway if a buyer is honest about printing run, country, time, etc ?
will they ever sue the infringers ? no, they already stated many times that it's up to the photographer to settle the mess with buyers.

and indeed buying RM is a pain in the ass as long as it's done this way, i don't blame publishers for this.

everybody is complaining about this since ages, alamy now is just sh-it scared of catching up with Getty.

« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2012, 21:00 »
0
Alamy's White Papers = a step in the right direction

I may be a lone voice here, but I think this a great thing to do and I really appreciate it.

Any solutions to these problems will take time and intelligent thought + collaboration.  Laying out the issues in a white paper is a good first step, and I'm sure they'll be very thorough in their deliberations.  If they get this right, it will benefit all of us, so it's three cheers from me.

« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2012, 12:58 »
0
I'd like to see an editorial RF option on Alamy too. I put my best editorial there but I license many more editorial images through the micros than I do through Alamy.
And I make way more from my RF images on Alamy than I do from my RM images.
So, for many reasons, the RF editorial route would be the way to go. They're practically doing it anyway with 15 year licenses for a lot of their editorial content. And that would let you keep the stuff you want to license as RM truly RM.
You have to be glad at least they are thinking and trying to come to grips with the current reality. Not sure anyone has the answer. You can't turn back the clock. Maybe they should just open an office in Japan?
Oh well, at least midstock pricing is better than NU.

« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2012, 04:11 »
0
I would like to see Alamy create a editorial RF option.  Currently I have to choose between SS,IS,DT,123 or Alamy RM for my editorial shots.  They should adapt to compete in this area. 

+1
I'd really like that option. All my (mainly editorial) port is out as RF on the micro sites and, therefore, excluded from uploading to Alamy. Regards, David.

« Reply #12 on: July 03, 2012, 04:41 »
0
Looking at the June alamy earnings thread in their forum, some people seem to still be doing very well with RM sales.  I'm carrying on putting all my editorial on alamy as RM.  It's a lot of work to get sales going but I prefer it to being too dependent on the micros.  I'm from the UK, so that seems to be an advantage but there's also a lot of competition there.  If the microstock sites showed signs of stopping the commission cuts, I might try them for editorial but I don't see any point when they look like reducing my commission for years to come.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2012, 05:37 »
0
Looking at the June alamy earnings thread in their forum, some people seem to still be doing very well with RM sales.  I'm carrying on putting all my editorial on alamy as RM.  It's a lot of work to get sales going but I prefer it to being too dependent on the micros.  I'm from the UK, so that seems to be an advantage but there's also a lot of competition there.  If the microstock sites showed signs of stopping the commission cuts, I might try them for editorial but I don't see any point when they look like reducing my commission for years to come.
I also noticed the more-bouyant than normal sales figures.
What really disturbs me about Alamy is how they market. When I was teaching (UK), I used to look at the credits at the back of textbooks, a market for which Alamy would seem to be ideally suited, and surprisingly few photos were credited to Alamy (but a remarkable number of sales came from agencies I've never heard of) and some publishers don't seem to use them at all. That's a market where there can be hundreds of images in one book and at least until I left, (19 months ago) they weren't using the micros - which at that time weren't selling editorial, so that might have changed. Alamy should really be monopolising UK educational textbooks: I get Alamy sales for textbooks from all over the world (few in number, wide in distribution!), and the UK should be a core market for them.

antistock

« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2012, 10:45 »
0
I also noticed the more-bouyant than normal sales figures.

don't trust too much the figures quoted in the alamy forum, some of the guys there boast amazing revenues just to laugh at the microstockers.

there's one guy with over 15000 images and he makes less than 1000$ net per month, he's also one of the most vocal in the forum.

jeff greenberg has 70000+ images and he wrote his monthly checque from alamy is around 5-6000$.

« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2012, 10:57 »
0
jeff greenberg has 70000+ images and he wrote his monthly checque from alamy is around 5-6000$.


$8510 gross from 79 net licenses

Month's results: above average, strongest in ~5 months

Collection size: misleading to compare, IMO

Percentage of my salable images on Alamy: ~98.5%
(better apples to apples comparison, IMO)


actually 86,367 pictures
« Last Edit: July 04, 2012, 11:08 by luissantos84 »

antistock

« Reply #16 on: July 11, 2012, 01:03 »
0
jeff greenberg has 70000+ images and he wrote his monthly checque from alamy is around 5-6000$.


$8510 gross from 79 net licenses

Month's results: above average, strongest in ~5 months

Collection size: misleading to compare, IMO

Percentage of my salable images on Alamy: ~98.5%
(better apples to apples comparison, IMO)


actually 86,367 pictures

impressive to say the least.
how much time it would take to properly keyword 90K images ?? considering also Alamy needs more time with their main/primary/secondary keywording BS setup.

i'm not a fan of his mediocre images but indeed they get the job done it seems.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2012, 01:08 by antistock »

Lagereek

« Reply #17 on: July 11, 2012, 01:39 »
0
The Alamy forum!  gosh!  its full of die hard people, just mention the word, micro or macro, and you get flamed to bits. Alamy is VERY much a typically British institution, which is good, BUT, it means its very hard for them to change anything, takes a loooooooooooong time before anything gets done or any new ways accepted.
Its traditionally an RM library for British scenery and travel and the guys earning the most are ofcourse the ones specializing in this. Thats the areas with the most RM sales as well.
In comparing the Getty-RM, its interesting to note, scenery, travel, landscapes, are what they sell the very least of, as RM. Just a few months back, I sold an engineering pic of ball-bearings, four-figured amount while at Alamy, they probably would have rejected it.

I like Alamy, its one of the classics really and its very nice people sitting in the admin. As far as the White-Paper?  I wont hold my breath, there are plenty of ultra conservative contributors that really dont know anything else then the trad ways.

« Reply #18 on: July 11, 2012, 10:49 »
0
how much time it would take to properly keyword 90K images ??

I would say a lifetime, its a lot of work, I believe he must have his work in a few other agencies, making it more worth

antistock

« Reply #19 on: July 12, 2012, 00:13 »
0
the alamy forum .. hahaha ... that's more like a men's club with grumpy old RM film shooters ranting and raving and the pittance they got paid by alamy.

and indeed, most of the sales on alamy are about UK stuff, that's their best kept secret.

antistock

« Reply #20 on: July 12, 2012, 00:16 »
0
how much time it would take to properly keyword 90K images ??

I would say a lifetime, its a lot of work, I believe he must have his work in a few other agencies, making it more worth

yes he's with getty RM, AGE, and many others.

i think he's using alamy as a dump actually, he said the keywording is done by his wife but even if true it would really take a lifetime considering he shoots pretty much anything including lots of obscure subjects.

« Reply #21 on: July 12, 2012, 04:41 »
0
If my calculations are correct, I think it would take me at least 4,500 hours to keyword 90k images with alamy.  So that's 100 weeks, doing 45 hours a week.  A solid 2 years of doing nothing but keywording.  I'm sure some people could do it much quicker.  Doing 1 a minute for 8 hours a day, it would take 188 days.

antistock

« Reply #22 on: July 12, 2012, 06:39 »
0
If my calculations are correct, I think it would take me at least 4,500 hours to keyword 90k images with alamy.  So that's 100 weeks, doing 45 hours a week.  A solid 2 years of doing nothing but keywording.  I'm sure some people could do it much quicker.  Doing 1 a minute for 8 hours a day, it would take 188 days.

i think he batch keyword a lot, it's impossible he does one-by-one !

besides, considering his return per image per ANNUM is maybe 1$ it wouldn't be financially sustainable.

« Reply #23 on: July 12, 2012, 09:24 »
0
If my calculations are correct, I think it would take me at least 4,500 hours to keyword 90k images with alamy.  So that's 100 weeks, doing 45 hours a week.  A solid 2 years of doing nothing but keywording.  I'm sure some people could do it much quicker.  Doing 1 a minute for 8 hours a day, it would take 188 days.

divide that by 2 or 3 because he does have tons of similars, still it is a massive work

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #24 on: July 12, 2012, 09:27 »
0
If my calculations are correct, I think it would take me at least 4,500 hours to keyword 90k images with alamy.  So that's 100 weeks, doing 45 hours a week.  A solid 2 years of doing nothing but keywording.  I'm sure some people could do it much quicker.  Doing 1 a minute for 8 hours a day, it would take 188 days.

divide that by 2 or 3 because he does have tons of similars, still it is a massive work
He does it in an odd way. His captions are just keywords, not written in sentences, and often the caption and 'essential' fields have the last word truncated. So he isn't doing it in the same time-consuming way that I do, but then I still have fewer than 2000 images up there.


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
4 Replies
3523 Views
Last post December 04, 2006, 15:14
by madelaide
23 Replies
7858 Views
Last post November 22, 2007, 14:33
by vonkara
8 Replies
7201 Views
Last post August 21, 2008, 11:14
by RT
4 Replies
3572 Views
Last post January 26, 2011, 14:48
by dnavarrojr
Alamy Licensing

Started by Rick D « 1 2  All » Alamy.com

27 Replies
22687 Views
Last post August 04, 2016, 14:31
by ShadySue

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors