MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Sites that no longer exist => Albumo.com => Topic started by: Eco on March 16, 2011, 12:00
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Some time ago I joined a site “Buy Stock Sound” to sell my sound effects. Now they have changed their name to “Fantero” and here is the interesting part: Albumo is now part of their network. Very surprising. I though they disappeared from the face of the earth. I still have bad memories from Albumo. Probably the worst site that I have ever contributed to and I remember all the effort it required to get my account closed. Now they emerged from the dead. Wonder what is the source of the image that they have online? Here is the newsletter that I received:
“Our main news is that the new brand name of our network is Fantero. We will work hard to make Fantero.com one of the best sites for your digital needs. Fantero.com is a positive, young company, constantly brimming with new ideas, and our goal is to make life easier for the online world by providing a one-stop shop for all your digital needs.
We are glad to inform you that site for stock photos Albumo.com is now a part of Fantero creative network. As new owners of Albumo.com we`ll do our best for promoting and improving this site.
Everybody who already has account on Albumo now can visit the site and find photos, withdraw earned money and submit new photos.”
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They actually paid for Albumo? I was so pleased to get my portfolio out of there. Seems hard to believe they bought it, perhaps they swapped it for an old pair of socks :)
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Just took a brief look at "Latest Photos". They seem to have no approval proccess they just take anything.
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Elena's portfolio (http://www.albumo.com/User/Elenathewise) is still there. I checked a few other known names and didn't find anything.
I have very, very bad memories of Albumo and trying to close my account (after my time commitment was up). They were bad news - I think anyone buying the assets would want to change the name
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wow.
I was one of those to tried to ride albumo to the end and the site ended with my port still there. So I go to albumo.com and see a shiny new site (it was down for a while - I haven't been there in ages). I hit login and 2997 images & $72 earnings, but I have $0 in my account (so it could be total sales $72, but my records say I earnt $272 but then they paid upload so who knows). My last sale was on 6 July 2008.
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I wonder if the contract we sign allows our images to be moved to another company like this. The agreement may be different with another company. If Eco hadn't noticed and reported it, then they would be selling our images without our knowledge, and we would not know of any earnings. ::)
PS: I've just logged in and my US$36 also appear in "earnings" but "balance" says zero. I never had a payout there.
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Has anyone contacted the new owners and asked them what's going on? I had my account deleted but if I still had a portfolio there, I would want the new owners to keep me informed.
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I emailed them and asked to remove my images,I had 98 that never got removed from albumo. I don't want to deal with them.
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Did everyone get a message from them tonight? Welcome to the Fantero Network? Everyone above who sent them e-mails must have poked them into sending an update.
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hmm doublepost, wonder how I did that
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yes, couldnt read it on email (dark grey text on black??) but has a link to view in browser
[url]http://www.blog.fantero.com/Fantero-Network-News/Welcome-from-the-fantero-creative-network/Blog-2329.html[/url] ([url]http://www.blog.fantero.com/Fantero-Network-News/Welcome-from-the-fantero-creative-network/Blog-2329.html[/url])
I know some people dont like traffic stats but
[url]http://www.cubestat.com/www.fantero.com[/url] ([url]http://www.cubestat.com/www.fantero.com[/url])
959 daily pageviews (scanstock 3404, featurepics ~ 40k)
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I wonder if these images are still there from the last closing? :D
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9084/givememymoney.jpg)
I emailed them and asked to remove my images,I had 98 that never got removed from albumo. I don't want to deal with them.
Does anyone worry that their photos have been sold by a closed agency to someone new, which means every time you submit to one of these fly-by-night ventures, all of your photos are forever, on someones back-up or a storage system, which is uncontrolled and susceptible to resale without your knowledge.
Doesn't think scare anyone?
Does it make you wonder what's going to happen when the next "pay for uploads" site, closes it's doors and has millions of images, straight from the authors, all keyworded and inspected?
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hmm, any size $1
most sold photo is 4 sales of myson the 'holly' land
http://www.albumo.com/MY-SON-HOLLY-LAND/stock-photo-842452.html (http://www.albumo.com/MY-SON-HOLLY-LAND/stock-photo-842452.html)
(yep I have typos too), when we were there a few months back, people thought me and my kids were weird as we spent half and hour following and photographing an absolutely gorgeous snake :)
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hmm, any size $1
Seems prices have taken a tumble, they were not exactly expensive at 2 dollars for 3MP, now it seems you get the full resolution of the original photo for $1
It all looks nice, but it remains to be seen if this is just a nice re branding or if there will be any serious marketing/benefit from becoming part of this "network"
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the $1 anysize licence allows web template use (although it does specify not to be the main image the theme in centered upon)
just sent email asking to delete my account and images, see how it goes
edit: less than hour later got the message "we'll do it asap!"
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Maybe some of you can get a payout. Here is the information on their payment page:
If you are old Albumo.com user you can request your first payment at any time when your "Earnings" or "Affiliates" is $70 or more and $50.00 for the next payments.
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the $1 anysize licence allows web template use (although it does specify not to be the main image the theme in centered upon)
just sent email asking to delete my account and images, see how it goes
edit: less than hour later got the message "we'll do it asap!"
Dont know when they did it, but I just brought up their page and tried to login and cant. I also cant find any of my images so it definetly looks like I'm gone. Didnt hear from them at all to say it has been done and certainly didnt get any money owed (but I never expected to)
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Elena's portfolio ([url]http://www.albumo.com/User/Elenathewise[/url]) is still there. I checked a few other known names and didn't find anything.
I have very, very bad memories of Albumo and trying to close my account (after my time commitment was up). They were bad news - I think anyone buying the assets would want to change the name
Wow I thought they just closed their doors and disappeared, just like Lucky Oliver did. I was able to login with old info and found that my balance there shows 8 dollars:)
Now what to do - demand this big money?... :-\
This is the weirdest one ever - we've seen them closing doors officially, being sold, fading quietly into non-existence, but I never saw one re-emerge from the dead! Kinda cool actually:)
But you know what, I think I should remove my images from there. It's a bit too weird...
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Two things come to my mind when I read these kind of news:
1. I have no direct experience with them but - with all the bad things that have been said - why did the new owner bother to resurrect that brand instead of starting anew?
2. On a general note - while many of us (not all) are whining about the crisis of microstock - more and more new agencies are opening every day - are they just plain crazy or the microstock model is not declining and there's space for further developments?
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Two things come to my mind when I read these kind of news:
1. I have no direct experience with them but - with all the bad things that have been said - why did the new owner bother to resurrect that brand instead of starting anew?
2. On a general note - while many of us (not all) are whining about the crisis of microstock - more and more new agencies are opening every day - are they just plain crazy or the microstock model is not declining and there's space for further developments?
my first thought was that it was the same owners, and I still wonder as I struggle to imagine anyone paying for the site and collection.
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I suppose very few people are likely to make a payout there, so they can keep nearly all the money from sales. They take a persons balance when they close an account. I also wonder if some businesses get government grants and they make some money from that? There could just be a lot of really bad business people that are making losses.
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But you know what, I think I should remove my images from there. It's a bit too weird...
yes, I did exactly that though I was pleasantly surprised how much easier it was to do - shocking site to navigate when it was last on line.
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They actually paid for Albumo? I was so pleased to get my portfolio out of there. Seems hard to believe they bought it, perhaps they swapped it for an old pair of socks :)
Someone just sold all of your photos for a price and you or anyone else with pictures still on Albumo, had no notice, warning or control. Spooky!
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They actually paid for Albumo? I was so pleased to get my portfolio out of there. Seems hard to believe they bought it, perhaps they swapped it for an old pair of socks :)
Someone just sold all of your photos for a price and you or anyone else with pictures still on Albumo, had no notice, warning or control. Spooky!
Yeah that's pretty scary. I'll never forget that place. I ended up having to do the "delete the 1 photo per day max" until my photos were gone. What a nightmare. I wonder how many buyers got hosed from Albumo v1. The place seemed to implode and disappear. Kinda like the house toward the end of Poltergeist.
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deleted
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Just noticed the 1$ any size. 6000x4500 illustrations for $1.Yeah right . I'm removing my photos.
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Cool today the reviewed my images I uploaded more than one year ago.....
I don't trust the site.
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One thing has definitely changed since the old albumo, at least for me. Yesterday I sent a request (using Contact Us) to take my images offline and to delete my account. It took them less than 24 hours to do so. And I got a confirmation email from them as well. I remember contacting the old albumo a long time ago, and never hearing from them.
So even though I no longer want to sell my images through that channel, I think they do deserve a thumbs up for the quick response.
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Yup my request to delete the files also went through very quickly.
Soon they won't have any images to sell though - I don't know who'd be ok with offering high-res images for 1 buck.
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Interesting. I just checked Albumo's WHOIS info, and as of August 2010 the domain is still registered to the same company. Looks like it's still being run out of some guy's apartment.
Thread from August 2009 with WHOIS info: http://www.microstockgroup.com/albumo-com/albumo-whois-and-contact-info/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/albumo-com/albumo-whois-and-contact-info/)
Current info:
Registrant:
Not Required
4941 Stamas Ln. #3
Fair Oaks, California 95628
United States
Domain Name: ALBUMO.COM
Created on: 18-Oct-06
Expires on: 18-Oct-12
Last Updated on: 18-Aug-10
Administrative Contact:
LLC, Home Mines,
4941 Stamas Ln. #3
Fair Oaks, California 95628
United States
9169671301 Fax --
Technical Contact:
LLC, Home Mines,
4941 Stamas Ln. #3
Fair Oaks, California 95628
United States
9169671301 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SERVERHOSTPROJECTS.COM
NS2.SERVERHOSTPROJECTS.COM
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fantero is based in the Czech Republic. Strange phone numbers and address numbers that look fake:
Domain Name: fantero.com
Registered at http://www.dynadot.com (http://www.dynadot.com)
Registrant:
BuyStockNetwork
BuyStockNetwork
hastalska 11
#1
Prague , Prague 11000
Czech Republic
Administrative Contact:
BuyStockNetwork
BuyStockNetwork
hastalska 11
#1
Prague , Prague 11000
Czech Republic
+111 111111111
Technical Contact:
BuyStockNetwork
BuyStockNetwork
hastalska 11
#1
Prague , Prague 11000
Czech Republic
+111 111111111
Record expires on 2011/07/05 UTC
Record created on 2007/07/05 UTC
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.serverhostprojects.com
ns2.serverhostprojects.com