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Author Topic: Users reporting falling incomes at Alamy ... from 20 to 50% in 2011 !  (Read 62758 times)

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antistock

« on: December 30, 2011, 12:25 »
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It seems also Alamy is struggling to make ends meet ... some contributors with huge portfolios are reporting falling incomes up to 50% compared to last year despite having greatly increased their portfolios.

http://alamy.com/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=12031




"The quantity of my images on Alamy has increased by 40%. The number of sales (allowing that one or two may pop up today) is up 28%. My income has however gone down by 14% and the average price per sold image has decreased by 33%. "



"Increased my quantity by approx 20%
Sales increased by approx 28%
Income from sales almost identical to last year........RUNNING TO STAND STILL springs to mind."



"Number of licenses sold: +40%
Total sales income (GROSS): -23%
Total sales income (NET): -24%
Average licence price (GROSS): -45%
Average licence price (NET): -46% (more distributor sales with low value)

So, despite a huge increase in the amount of licenses sold, my income has dropped. And the average license price is in free-fall being in 2011 just 33% of what it was in 2008. A +-66% drop. "



"On average in 2008 (10K images online) I was getting a net unit price of 40-00 per editorial sale. In 2011, my average net unit price is 20-00."


« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2011, 15:41 »
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I don't know if that info means Alamy is struggling to make ends meet. It would appear to be having to give in to pricing pressure, which isn't surprising.

In the last three months my sales there have been good and my earnings this year are 50% up on last year (which I wasn't expecting three months ago - but a fairly small sales volume is easily skewed).

lisafx

« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2011, 17:38 »
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I've had a BME at Alamy this month.  It was due mostly to a large number of 35.00 sales.   I am sure that this would be upsetting to one of the Alamy contributors who were seeing several hundred dollars per sale, but for me, considering it is my micro portfolio, I am content to get the higher volume and lower prices (not novel use prices, just sub $100 sales).  End result was very good in my case. 

« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2011, 20:27 »
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My experience is similar to Lisa's above. My one "big" - not all that big, but the biggest I've had- sale is for an image that was rejected by most micros... yay Alamy.

I uploaded a lot more there this year than before, so hopefully they are finally starting to get some visibility and sales.

« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2011, 22:09 »
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I've had a BME at Alamy this month.  It was due mostly to a large number of 35.00 sales.   I am sure that this would be upsetting to one of the Alamy contributors who were seeing several hundred dollars per sale, but for me, considering it is my micro portfolio, I am content to get the higher volume and lower prices (not novel use prices, just sub $100 sales).  End result was very good in my case. 

Hey, I had half-a-dozen $35 sales, all on the same day at the start of the month. It sounds like some big project.

lagereek

« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2011, 03:03 »
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Alamy is a very "traditional" British agency. I like them a lot! and pics seem to sell reasonably well. I think you find that the big-guns at Alamy have incredibly big portfolios, lots of landscape, scenics, travel, etc. Thats what seem to sell the best.

In general ( counting all RM and RF agencies)  I can see a big step up actaully. I have had a very good year, especially in the RM sector.

CarlssonInc

« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2011, 03:32 »
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Alamy is holding up very well and of course the 60% royalty level is very reasonable.

Don't know if you are 100% right about "landscape, scenics, travel" being the ones selling the best. My own experience is 2nd hand editorial, which is also reportedly being the best selling segment. However, all areas are very well represented, the competition is fierce and keywording is crucial, not too many and not too few!

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2011, 06:40 »
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Alamy is holding up very well and of course the 60% royalty level is very reasonable.

Don't know if you are 100% right about "landscape, scenics, travel" being the ones selling the best. My own experience is 2nd hand editorial,
                                                                                                                                                                              ^^^^^^ !!!
Sorry, couldn 't resist!

Ed

« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2011, 10:40 »
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Take a look at his portfolio....

http://www.alamy.com/search/searchresults.aspx?CreativeOn=1&qt=Richard+Wareham&all=1&creative=&adv=1&dtfr=&dtTo=&et=0x000000000000000000000&ag=0&vp=0&loc=0&lic=6&lic=1&hc=&selectdate=1&txtdtfr=&txtdtto=&size=0xFF&ot=1&ot=2&ot=4&ot=8&archive=1&chckarchive=1&aqt=&epqt=&oqt=&nqt=

He's an editorial shooter with most of the images being sports and celebrities.  Both are tough markets to break into and the celebrity market has recently become the latest area with a flood of images.  Being sports or newsworthy, a lot of his stuff has a shorter shelf life than traditional commercial stock.

RacePhoto

« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2011, 23:11 »
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While I don't disagree that Alamy income is dropping for many people, because prices are dropping, lets all not go crawl into a hole and pull the dirt in after. Here's another users report on the same thread. Some may be seeing an income drop, even though sales are up. How many files are there competing for the same buyers?  (27.06 million images - the world's largest stock photo site) Holy Cow!

In comparison 2010 - 2011,

40% increase in number of images;
51% increase in number of images sold
54% increase in gross income

2010- average sale $75 (gross)
2011 average sale $77 (gross)

Thanks Alamy - So far so good!

From a still wintry and cold Suffolk

Kumar Sriskandan


As people have pointed out above and many times before. It's not how many files, it's what are those files. Yes volume helps with Microstock, if you don't have 400 of the same shot, but on Alamy, individual file content is more important.

wut

« Reply #10 on: January 01, 2012, 12:33 »
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I really don't know much about Alamy, but it seems to me, that the majority of ppl, at least on MSG, are selling photos as RM. I can understand that most of those are selling editorial and why they choose RM (lots of them are exclusive at IS), what I want to know is why? Is RF not selling well enough for mid/macro stock prices? Is it better to sell them at micros? If you do, you probably won't sell as much on Alamy. And also, many ppl in the "your plans for 2012" thread are saying they'll focus more on RM (which of course don't necessarily mean at Alamy, since a lot of them are at Getty)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #11 on: January 01, 2012, 12:37 »
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^^ One obvious reason is that it's so much easier to spot image thieves if you sell RM.

lisafx

« Reply #12 on: January 01, 2012, 12:40 »
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I really don't know much about Alamy, but it seems to me, that the majority of ppl, at least on MSG, are selling photos as RM. I can understand that most of those are selling editorial and why they choose RM (lots of them are exclusive at IS), what I want to know is why? Is RF not selling well enough for mid/macro stock prices? Is it better to sell them at micros? If you do, you probably won't sell as much on Alamy. And also, many ppl in the "your plans for 2012" thread are saying they'll focus more on RM (which of course don't necessarily mean at Alamy, since a lot of them are at Getty)

Can't speak for anyone else, but my Alamy port is entirely RF - the same images I have in micro.  Doing very well there.  As I posted above, most of my sales are not the big dollar sales, but a lot of <$100 sales add up to decent money.

wut

« Reply #13 on: January 01, 2012, 12:56 »
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I really don't know much about Alamy, but it seems to me, that the majority of ppl, at least on MSG, are selling photos as RM. I can understand that most of those are selling editorial and why they choose RM (lots of them are exclusive at IS), what I want to know is why? Is RF not selling well enough for mid/macro stock prices? Is it better to sell them at micros? If you do, you probably won't sell as much on Alamy. And also, many ppl in the "your plans for 2012" thread are saying they'll focus more on RM (which of course don't necessarily mean at Alamy, since a lot of them are at Getty)

Can't speak for anyone else, but my Alamy port is entirely RF - the same images I have in micro.  Doing very well there.  As I posted above, most of my sales are not the big dollar sales, but a lot of <$100 sales add up to decent money.

I have just 40 or so images there, I couldn't talk myself into posting more, since their UL process is just so insanely time consuming, I really don't exaggerate if I say I enjoy ULing to IS when I compare the two. But your previous post about good Dec sales made me check mine and I got a couple of 35$ DLs. I got just 1 in six months before that and I only got something over 6$. So now I've decided to upload 500 more and see what happens. It'll take a couple of months of hard work to work through all that content (it's funny when I think about MS sites, it takes me a day to UL as much, finish the process at a few sites too). And yes, I'd like to get a 150$+ sale at least once, it must be a great feeling :) . Do these happen every once and a while (say every 50 sales or so like they do at IS - I'm talking about XXXL files)? What's the most you can get there selling as RF?

lisafx

« Reply #14 on: January 01, 2012, 13:07 »
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In the last year my largest sale at Alamy was $419, and I got 60% of that, so nice.   Only 11% of my total number of sales were >$100 though, and most of those were in the $100-$250 range. 

wut

« Reply #15 on: January 01, 2012, 13:15 »
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I've just one more question; what's the size of your alamy port, is it as big as on MS sites, or do you leave certain content out?

antistock

« Reply #16 on: January 02, 2012, 09:41 »
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my port at Alamy is mostly RM but i definitely see a decline in RM sales and a rise in RF sales.

i would not be surprised if soon alamy will start selling "editorial RF" as well, i've the frightening feeling that buyers are getting more and more tired of RM as a whole, no matter if in most of the cases RM is cheaper than RF !

they simply don't want to mess anymore with all the RM limitations.

secondly, alamy can have all the milllion photos they like but if we talk about travel stock i see more and more excellent photos sold for a pittance on the micros, how long before buyers will notice that they can get "good enough" imagery for 300% less or more at IS, SS, DT, FT ?

 

Ed

« Reply #17 on: January 02, 2012, 12:33 »
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my port at Alamy is mostly RM but i definitely see a decline in RM sales and a rise in RF sales.

i would not be surprised if soon alamy will start selling "editorial RF" as well, i've the frightening feeling that buyers are getting more and more tired of RM as a whole, no matter if in most of the cases RM is cheaper than RF !

they simply don't want to mess anymore with all the RM limitations.

secondly, alamy can have all the milllion photos they like but if we talk about travel stock i see more and more excellent photos sold for a pittance on the micros, how long before buyers will notice that they can get "good enough" imagery for 300% less or more at IS, SS, DT, FT ?


The thing about RM is Alamy is adjusting it's licenses to be more attractive.  There are many RM sales that are for a 10 year period for very liberal uses.  They are also selling RF licenses for very specific uses - many of the $35 sales that are showing up are for one day usage...one such image was tracked to a photo gallery at The Guardian where images are rotated once per day.  Alamy responded to a thread indicating the image was licensed for use once (under a RF license).

Alamy has always had one of the biggest travel libraries around.  When many of us started there, it was mostly editorial (heavy on travel) with little creative.  While it's true, there are many RF buyers, there are just as many RM buyers looking for the *right* image as opposed to an image that's "just good enough".

Alamy has stated many times it will not be selling editorial RF - this has been brought up many times over the past years.

XPTO

« Reply #18 on: January 02, 2012, 13:27 »
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I've had a BME at Alamy this month.  It was due mostly to a large number of 35.00 sales.   I am sure that this would be upsetting to one of the Alamy contributors who were seeing several hundred dollars per sale, but for me, considering it is my micro portfolio, I am content to get the higher volume and lower prices (not novel use prices, just sub $100 sales).  End result was very good in my case. 

My last December was also my BME in alamy.

Still, averaging about 20 sales per month the income per image is very low compared to what it used to be. So low that, like other people reported, I ended up earning less than when I sold less images.

The problem is that most of the sales are below Micro prices, because alamy's license would require an extended license in Micro. And even then, alamy's license allows more usages than any EL in Micro.

Alamy is selling images cheaper than any Micro I'm in, if we exclude the subscriptions. I have almost a hundred sales below $28 and a lot for $3 or $4 (my cut).

So, I cannot agree with your view that these images could sell for less just because they are in Micro. The license given to the client is the key, and in that sense we a losing a lot in alamy for some sales.

antistock

« Reply #19 on: January 02, 2012, 22:44 »
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Alamy is selling images cheaper than any Micro I'm in, if we exclude the subscriptions. I have almost a hundred sales below $28 and a lot for $3 or $4 (my cut).


they already have subscriptions too, for instance their deal with UK newspapers like Daily Mail, Guardian, Telegraph, etc .. that means 5$/photo if you're lucky for web size (RM or not).

XPTO

« Reply #20 on: January 03, 2012, 03:41 »
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Alamy is selling images cheaper than any Micro I'm in, if we exclude the subscriptions. I have almost a hundred sales below $28 and a lot for $3 or $4 (my cut).


they already have subscriptions too, for instance their deal with UK newspapers like Daily Mail, Guardian, Telegraph, etc .. that means 5$/photo if you're lucky for web size (RM or not).

That's true. I've got about 50 sales under $10 (gross), being half of them about $3 (gross). In these latest I get $1.85 / $1.90 per sale.

And being the RM images included in the deal is just awful. Some of the RM licenses given to clients are so broad in spectrum and duration that they basically RF.

And I'm not even in the NU program.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2012, 03:43 by XPTO »

wut

« Reply #21 on: January 03, 2012, 03:47 »
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What's the NU program?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #22 on: January 03, 2012, 04:31 »
0

wut

« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2012, 05:12 »
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Tnx. Is this RM only?

Wim

« Reply #24 on: January 03, 2012, 06:01 »
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Alamy is selling images cheaper than any Micro I'm in, if we exclude the subscriptions. I have almost a hundred sales below $28 and a lot for $3 or $4 (my cut).


they already have subscriptions too, for instance their deal with UK newspapers like Daily Mail, Guardian, Telegraph, etc .. that means 5$/photo if you're lucky for web size (RM or not).

That's true. I've got about 50 sales under $10 (gross), being half of them about $3 (gross). In these latest I get $1.85 / $1.90 per sale.

And being the RM images included in the deal is just awful. Some of the RM licenses given to clients are so broad in spectrum and duration that they basically RF.

And I'm not even in the NU program.

I specifically avoided the NU program for the low price, I guess we can enable it now anyway?


 

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