MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Sites that no longer exist => Veer => Topic started by: RT on May 16, 2012, 02:47

Title: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 16, 2012, 02:47
In case you haven't seen the other thread please view http://www.microstockgroup.com/alamy-com/alamy-creativity/msg255358/?topicseen#new (http://www.microstockgroup.com/alamy-com/alamy-creativity/msg255358/?topicseen#new) for info on how Veer are putting your portfolio on Alamy, I've also added details of how you can delete your portfolio from Veer if they don't allow opting out from this collection.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lagereek on May 16, 2012, 02:50
In case you haven't seen the other thread please view [url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/alamy-com/alamy-creativity/msg255358/?topicseen#new[/url] ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/alamy-com/alamy-creativity/msg255358/?topicseen#new[/url]) for info on how Veer are putting your portfolio on Alamy, I've also added details of how you can delete your portfolio from Veer if they don't allow opting out from this collection.


Thanks RT,  just a question, why are you opting out? is it a bad deal or what?

best.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 16, 2012, 03:01
Is it a bad deal  :o :o

Alamy pay you 60% commission - Veer will pay you a fraction of that. For anybody that already has their content on Alamy it would appear that (from peoples posts in the thread above) that content is being removed under your own Alamy psuedonym.

In other words this is a scheme that could potentially lose you huge amounts of money.

I make on Veer less than 1% of what I make on Alamy - bad deal is an understatement!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: hjalmeida on May 16, 2012, 03:29
This is not acceptable.
I want to opt out Veer!!!
I prefere to clean my photos from Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rubyroo on May 16, 2012, 03:44
Wow.  I didn't know anything about this.  Thanks RT.

If the keywords were left intact, and the commission didn't drop below 50%, I'd actually be quite happy for the Veer arrangement to save me from the relatively arduous upload process at Alamy.     

Wishful thinking I know...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on May 16, 2012, 03:48
I see one of mine on there $245 for the largest size.
Hope I'm not getting a couple of dollars if it sells.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 16, 2012, 03:48
Wow.  I didn't know anything about this.  Thanks RT.

If the keywords were left intact, and the commission didn't drop below 50%, I'd actually be quite happy for the Veer arrangement to save me from the relatively arduous upload process at Alamy.     

Wishful thinking I know...

But that'd be 50% of the 60% Alamy would give you for the exact same image, and of course we don't actually know what percentage Veer pay for a 'partner sale', either way you'd lose a shed load of money.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 16, 2012, 03:52
Just realised -  I'm flying out of the country in a few hours so won't be able to reply to any of your responses till next week.

And on that note I've just emailed Veer asking them to close my account unless they allow me to opt out of their partner API.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rubyroo on May 16, 2012, 03:53
Ah yes... of course I meant if the return to me was 50% rather than 60% (i.e. if Veer took only 10%).

Better still... Alamy could make the upload process less long-winded, and I'll just keep the 60%.

(Forgive me for screwy logic... I only just got out of bed).
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 16, 2012, 04:16
what! OMG! This is the end of Veer for non-exclusives!

Where is Brian? We need answers about this!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on May 16, 2012, 05:01
Brian,  he's moved onto other stuff than answering here.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Microbius on May 16, 2012, 05:12
Thanks to RT for letting me know about this. Looks like I have a random couple of dozen images that have gone across. Pretty sure they are from Veer as it is under a user name I only use on a couple of sites, Veer being one.
I am also going to get onto Veer about this and will consider pulling my port from Veer if not given a choice to opt out.
Don't see why I should allow Veer to take a cut of my money for putting up images that I already have on Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: fotografer on May 16, 2012, 05:20
We need to find out if Alamy will accept images through Veer if they already have them on the Alamy site.  If not then I will just make sure that I always upload to Alamy first.
Has anybody got any images on line through Veer that were first uploaded to Alamy?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 16, 2012, 05:25
Has anybody got any images on line through Veer that were first uploaded to Alamy?

Yes so far just short of 500, hence I've terminated my Veer account. I hate all these 'partner' type agreements, and there's no way I'm going to let Veer or anyone else make money off me by uploading my images to a site I'm already on, I uploaded to them because I wanted them to market my images, not take the lazy approach and take a cut from a sale on another site that does actually do marketing.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Microbius on May 16, 2012, 05:28
Also yes, there are now two versions of the files up there, one under the  "Alamy Creativity / Alamy" banner (through Veer I am assuming) and one under my Alamy pseudonym
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: fotografer on May 16, 2012, 07:04
Has anybody got any images on line through Veer that were first uploaded to Alamy?

Yes so far just short of 500, hence I've terminated my Veer account. I hate all these 'partner' type agreements, and there's no way I'm going to let Veer or anyone else make money off me by uploading my images to a site I'm already on, I uploaded to them because I wanted them to market my images, not take the lazy approach and take a cut from a sale on another site that does actually do marketing.
Thankyou.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 16, 2012, 07:19
Has anybody got any images on line through Veer that were first uploaded to Alamy?

Yes so far just short of 500, hence I've terminated my Veer account. I hate all these 'partner' type agreements, and there's no way I'm going to let Veer or anyone else make money off me by uploading my images to a site I'm already on, I uploaded to them because I wanted them to market my images, not take the lazy approach and take a cut from a sale on another site that does actually do marketing.

Exactly! Completely agree!
Veer is making money on our work without marketing expenses...
I will wait next several days,then I'll decide...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lagereek on May 16, 2012, 07:34
Is it a bad deal  :o :o

Alamy pay you 60% commission - Veer will pay you a fraction of that. For anybody that already has their content on Alamy it would appear that (from peoples posts in the thread above) that content is being removed under your own Alamy psuedonym.

In other words this is a scheme that could potentially lose you huge amounts of money.

I make on Veer less than 1% of what I make on Alamy - bad deal is an understatement!

Oh alright then, I asked because I havent followed this one bit and.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Fred on May 16, 2012, 07:45
Does Veer generally keep money in your account that is under the payout limit if you quit?   I would just remove the images from Veer that they have transferred to Alamy Creativity but that does not seem to be possible.

fred
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 16, 2012, 07:51
it would appear that (from peoples posts in the thread above) that content is being removed under your own Alamy psuedonym.


I don't think that's what they meant. I think the point was that Alamy don't try to determine whether or not images are duplicates. It still leaves you competing against yourself with Veer hoping to take a slice of your earnings.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 16, 2012, 07:57
Brian,  he's moved onto other stuff than answering here.

Hm!

Once before he was answering here with a big pleasure, or anybody else from Veer...
Maybe now they earn much more with our Alamy sales, so answering here can be beneath their dignity now, or what...?
 I doubt...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 16, 2012, 08:14
I've send them the following:

"I see that you are now rerouting content to Alamy, which potentially puts me in the curious position of competing against myself in order to pass a slice of my commissions to you.

Given the level of sales here, it seems quite possible  that my loss in commission share  from Alamy will exceed any extra I make from sales through your own site.

Obviously, a situation where I risk losing money as a consequence of allowing you to represent my work makes no sense at all.  For the time being I will cease uploading. I won’t close my account yet as only about 4% of my portfolio is currently in your hands and so far my work does not appear to have been transferred to Alamy, so I can wait on events.

Please let me know if you decide to offer an opt-out from this scheme or to scrap the tie-in with Alamy, in which case I will be able to resume uploading,"

Hopefully, if they get enough protests it will persuade them to alter the arrangement.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 08:56
I've send them the following:

"I see that you are now rerouting content to Alamy, which potentially puts me in the curious position of competing against myself in order to pass a slice of my commissions to you.

Given the level of sales here, it seems quite possible  that my loss in commission share  from Alamy will exceed any extra I make from sales through your own site.

Obviously, a situation where I risk losing money as a consequence of allowing you to represent my work makes no sense at all.  For the time being I will cease uploading. I won’t close my account yet as only about 4% of my portfolio is currently in your hands and so far my work does not appear to have been transferred to Alamy, so I can wait on events.

Please let me know if you decide to offer an opt-out from this scheme or to scrap the tie-in with Alamy, in which case I will be able to resume uploading,"

Hopefully, if they get enough protests it will persuade them to alter the arrangement.

Excellent letter!

I'm so tired of all these partner programs.  Here's a messed up story for you guys: There's a woman here at MSG who has only posted once about how she terminated her account at StockXpert 2-3 weeks prior (early October 2011) and was wondering if she'd get paid whatever money was left in her account.  Since she couldn't access her account anymore, she couldn't check to see if she had been paid.  Anyway,  I found her post as she neared StockXpert's 90-day image removal deadline, and when I searched Thinkstock and Photos.com, I discovered her StockXpert images were still online...five of them, to be exact.

Fast forward to today, and not only are all five images still online...StockXpert has since added 151 images to Thinkstock (two have been removed from Photos.com, so she's down to three).  Think she's been getting paid these past seven months??  I doubt it.  I consulted an attorney about StockXpert's contract, which says they have 90 days to use "reasonable efforts" to get images removed from the partner sites, and he said she cannot sue for copyright infringement, because "reasonable efforts" is such a broad definition that favors StockXpert.  So not only is StockXpert keeping her money, she can't even sue for blatant copyright infringement.  It's ridiculous!!!  
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lagereek on May 16, 2012, 09:07
Yep!  these PP, programs are killers and totally unpredictable. A large Swedish RF agency places pics with both Getty, Alamy and Corbis. They sell quite well actually, only the original Swedish agency has been in deep financial troubles, so no photographer have been paid for ages, in spite of their material selling well.
This is all a bunch of garbage really, ofcourse someone is making money exept the ones created the images.
Somebody I know threatened to take them to court, sure enough he was paid within 2 weeks.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 16, 2012, 09:09
This is alarming.  But I am still confused on one point.  Are Alamy, or are they not, removing the images we've uploaded ourselves, when a duplicate is uploaded through another channel? 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 16, 2012, 09:10
... Has anybody got any images on line through Veer that were first uploaded to Alamy?
Yes I do and those images have been removed from my standard Alamy pseudonym and moved over to the Veer Creativity collection.

I wrote to Member Services about this.

Alamy is not 100% innocent here either as they manage their collections and therefore allow the removal of duplicates which means in our case removal of content that brings us higher commissions (and Alamy). Therefore Alamy appears to prefer exposure over actual commission.

I don't understand why there wasn't any announcement neither from Alamy nor Veer about this. Or was there?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 16, 2012, 09:11
This is alarming.  But I am still confused on one point.  Are Alamy, or are they not, removing the images we've uploaded ourselves, when a duplicate is uploaded through another channel? 
That's what I wanted to know from Alamy when I wrote to Member Services. Still waiting for a reply.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 09:13
This is alarming.  But I am still confused on one point.  Are Alamy, or are they not, removing the images we've uploaded ourselves, when a duplicate is uploaded through another channel? 

+1
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 16, 2012, 09:14
... Has anybody got any images on line through Veer that were first uploaded to Alamy?
Yes I do and those images have been removed from my standard Alamy pseudonym and moved over to the Veer Creativity collection.

I wrote to Member Services about this.

Alamy is not 100% innocent here either as they manage their collections and therefore allow the removal of duplicates which means in our case removal of content that brings us higher commissions (and Alamy). Therefore Alamy appears to prefer exposure over actual commission.

I don't understand why there wasn't any announcement neither from Alamy nor Veer about this. Or was there?

That's worse than I thought. At one point I had another agent upload some files there for me and by accident one of them was a duplicate. The two files were left online together.

If Alamy are deleting our direct uploads then I will have to close my Veer account regardless of it being only a small part of my portfolio.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 09:20
So far I'm finding duplicates.  I haven't found anything that's been removed. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 16, 2012, 09:23
If veer does not offer any opting out I delete my Portfolio there. Period.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on May 16, 2012, 09:50
I use different names at Veer and Alamy.  638 (searched with Veer account name) images are showing up on Alamy ... all of them are duplicates of my existing Alamy files. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 16, 2012, 09:55
So I don't see any of my (800 or so) Veer Images on Alamy - are they only moving over some?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 10:05
So I don't see any of my (800 or so) Veer Images on Alamy - are they only moving over some?

It looks like it.  I have 240 Veer images on Alamy and 506 total images at Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 16, 2012, 10:06
So I don't see any of my (800 or so) Veer Images on Alamy - are they only moving over some?

It looks like it.  I have 240 Veer images on Alamy and 506 total images at Veer.

Same here.  3400 on Veer, but only 65 of those (so far!) in the Alamy Creativity collection. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: fotografer on May 16, 2012, 10:13
So I don't see any of my (800 or so) Veer Images on Alamy - are they only moving over some?

It looks like it.  I have 240 Veer images on Alamy and 506 total images at Veer.

Same here.  3400 on Veer, but only 65 of those (so far!) in the Alamy Creativity collection. 
I think a lot of older images won't be on Alamy because of sizing retrictions.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 10:15
So I'm going through Veer's FAQ and come across this little ditty...

Quote
What is the royalty structure for images sold through Veer’s API?

When a buyer downloads your Veer image from a partner site, you earn the same royalty you would if the image was downloaded directly from veer.com. For full details about royalties, see the Veer Contributor Rate Card ([url]http://www.veer.com/more/media/62936/veer_contributor_rate_card__090811_.pdf[/url]).


So I check the rate card, and provided Alamy is considered an API partner (which I don't know), we're only going to earn Veer's standard rate, not our usual 40% Alamy partner rate.   >:(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 16, 2012, 10:19

I think a lot of older images won't be on Alamy because of sizing retrictions.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case, the images I have on Veer are all my newer images.  I've been uploading there in reverse chronological order.  So if there are only 65 on Alamy so far, then it is because they haven't finished transferring them over. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: peresanz on May 16, 2012, 10:21
So I don't see any of my (800 or so) Veer Images on Alamy - are they only moving over some?

It looks like it.  I have 240 Veer images on Alamy and 506 total images at Veer.

Same here.  3400 on Veer, but only 65 of those (so far!) in the Alamy Creativity collection. 
I think a lot of older images won't be on Alamy because of sizing retrictions.

they are not applying the standard restrictions, at least for me. I have 544 images on Veer and 290 in the Alamy CC. Most of these images are smaller than 24M which is the minimum size at Alamy. Beside this, none of my (duplicated) images already existing on Alamy have been deleted.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: fotografer on May 16, 2012, 10:24
So I don't see any of my (800 or so) Veer Images on Alamy - are they only moving over some?

It looks like it.  I have 240 Veer images on Alamy and 506 total images at Veer.

Same here.  3400 on Veer, but only 65 of those (so far!) in the Alamy Creativity collection. 
I think a lot of older images won't be on Alamy because of sizing retrictions.

they are not applying the standard restrictions, at least for me. I have 544 images on Veer and 290 in the Alamy CC. Most of these images are smaller than 24M which is the minimum size at Alamy. Beside this, none of my (duplicated) images already existing on Alamy have been deleted.
That's interesting, in which case maybe I will just upload my old images to Veer that don't make the size restriction at Alamy
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 16, 2012, 10:31
Just an update, I wrote to both Veer and Alamy to express concern over this and find out:

1.  If redundant images will be removed from my Alamy portfolio, and
2.  If there will be any way to opt out of this through Veer, short of removing my images from the site. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: WarrenPrice on May 16, 2012, 12:41
I'm not on Veer nor Alamy but was wondering about the part played by RF vs RM?

Are you all talking about strictly RF images?

 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: pancaketom on May 16, 2012, 12:43
They have only ported 4 of mine over . All are middle aged images, all over the 24 mb size - I have no idea how they picked those 4. The duplicates are still under my account. I have a different username at Alamy.

I wrote to Veer asking about the commission I would get for a sale of the Veer-Alamy content and if there was a way to avoid it or if I would have to remove my account to avoid this competition.

This should have been communicated to us in a better manner. Then again there are many things in this business that should be different.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 16, 2012, 13:42
If Alamy do delete your images once Veer has duplicated them it raises the question of whether closing your Veer account will lead to those image no longer appearing on Alamy at all.

The apparent assumption that they will magically reappear under the original account looks very questionable to me.

I've got about 100 images pending on Alamy now which are also at Veer and I am doubtful about whether I should bother completing the Alamy upload if it means hours spent struggling with the keyword system just to have them flushed down the toilet.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 16, 2012, 13:51
I've sent this to Alamy, if I get a sensible reply I will let you know:

"I see reports that you are deleting images we have uploaded if they also arrive at your site via your new arrangement with Veer. Is this correct? If so, there is no point in my completing most of my pending uploads.

If you are deleting submitters’ images in favour of an arrangement with Veer, can we keep images pending in our upload account for however long it takes to close our Veer accounts so that there is no clash, which might take a good many weeks?

If you are deleting images in favour of Veer and we close our Veer accounts, will those images be automatically restored or will we need to resubmit, assuming that we have any idea of what it is that has been deleted?

A clear statement about what is happening and what we can do to prevent Veer taking a cut of our commissions would be welcome,

Regards"
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cthoman on May 16, 2012, 13:59
I think it would be funny to just start filing DMCA takedown notices to Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 16, 2012, 14:03
Wow! This is for court!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: jm on May 16, 2012, 14:10
Their approach is crazy. Why they just can't use same system of partner management like Zoonar or Yay - let us decide what API-partners we want to license our images through.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on May 16, 2012, 14:11
So I'm going through Veer's FAQ and come across this little ditty...

Quote
What is the royalty structure for images sold through Veer’s API?

When a buyer downloads your Veer image from a partner site, you earn the same royalty you would if the image was downloaded directly from veer.com. For full details about royalties, see the Veer Contributor Rate Card ([url]http://www.veer.com/more/media/62936/veer_contributor_rate_card__090811_.pdf[/url]).


So I check the rate card, and provided Alamy is considered an API partner (which I don't know), we're only going to earn Veer's standard rate, not our usual 40% Alamy partner rate.   >:(


So with certain NU sales Veer could end up out of pocket!  :-[
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on May 16, 2012, 14:12
Wow! This is for court!
I guess you'd need to go through the Veer user agreement with a fine toothcomb first.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 16, 2012, 14:17
Wow! This is for court!
I guess you'd need to go through the Veer user agreement with a fine toothcomb first.

Yes! Of course! But how Alamy can deactivate same image in our Alamy's portfolios?

Also, does is mean that we can receive commission only through Veer for any duplicate image?

P.S.

I found 773 of my images in "Creative Images" under my Name and Surname...  >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on May 16, 2012, 14:30
Wow! This is for court!
I guess you'd need to go through the Veer user agreement with a fine toothcomb first.

Yes! Of course! But how Alamy can deactivate same image in our Alamy's portfolios?

Also, does is mean that we can receive commission only through Veer for any duplicate image?

P.S.

I found 773 of my images in "Creative Images" under my Name and Surname...  >:( >:( >:(

It does all sound like a shady deal. Luckily this particular one isn't a headache for me, but I do see that it would be if I had images on Veer, and on Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 16, 2012, 14:34

I guess you'd need to go through the Veer user agreement with a fine toothcomb first.

It might be an idea to use a fine-tooth comb, unless the agreement has furry teeth!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 16, 2012, 14:39
Found same image in two collections!
Under my pseudonim and in "Alamy creativity"...

So Alamy hasn't deleted duplicates yet!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on May 16, 2012, 14:48

I guess you'd need to go through the Veer user agreement with a fine toothcomb first.

It might be an idea to use a fine-tooth comb, unless the agreement has furry teeth!
<Chuckle> You're right, of course.  :-[  :D
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 16, 2012, 15:00
Found same image in two collections!
Under my pseudonim and in "Alamy creativity"...

So Alamy hasn't deleted duplicates yet!
Well for me they did. I know that at least 3 images that I uploaded straight to Alamy were "moved" to their creativity pseudonym. These three images don't show up in my pseudonym anymore.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: dreamstock on May 16, 2012, 15:16
i found 301 of mine, out of 2000 images on veer. but most of them now on alamy only have one keyword, lol, can't image how the imagine will get sold with only one keyword!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: brm1949 on May 16, 2012, 15:25
I have 162 images there as RF that I did not upload to alamy. No idea what this means. With SS going public, Fotolia selling half it's business, istock doing what it has done and now this, I think we are screwed. We have no control or say about our images except to close shop and leave microstock which I can not afford to do.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 16, 2012, 15:58
Here's the thing...Veer has to follow the same TOS and individual photographers (as far as I know).  Based on that information, if Veer already has the image on Alamy, and you requested that it be taken down today, that image would still be active for 45 more days per the terms of service.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: PeterChigmaroff on May 16, 2012, 16:29
I don't have images with Veer anymore but would find this a real PO if I did.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: dirkr on May 16, 2012, 16:35
I find 475 of my images on Alamy under "Alamy Creativity", out of slightly above 1000 I have on Veer. Nothing has been removed from my Alamy Pseudonym yet.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: xst on May 16, 2012, 16:41
everybody has to send e-mail to Veer.
They have to know the extent of dissatisfaction.


Unlike other sites - we do have more leverage with Veer because Veer is relatively low-earner. And for most of us it won't be big financial damage to drop them.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 16, 2012, 16:49
Found same image in two collections!
Under my pseudonim and in "Alamy creativity"...

So Alamy hasn't deleted duplicates yet!
Well for me they did. I know that at least 3 images that I uploaded straight to Alamy were "moved" to their creativity pseudonym. These three images don't show up in my pseudonym anymore.
I don't believe alamy would delete images that you've uploaded without informing you.  There have been some glitches lately.  I had problems using the old manage images section with Firefox, it works OK with chrome.  Perhaps this is just a glitch and nothing to do with this Veer/alamy situation?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 16, 2012, 16:59
If alamy are going to accept mass uploads from the microstock sites, they have to ensure that duplicates of images already uploaded by their contributors aren't accepted.  Otherwise, 20 microstock sites could upload the same image and there would be 21 of them on alamy.  So I do think that alamy are partly responsible for this mess.  Other sites have managed to block images that they already have in their collection.  They also remove images from 3rd parties when a contributor uploads directly to them.  There's no reason why alamy can't do this.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Perry on May 16, 2012, 17:06
Yep!  these PP, programs are killers and totally unpredictable. A large Swedish RF agency places pics with both Getty, Alamy and Corbis. They sell quite well actually, only the original Swedish agency has been in deep financial troubles, so no photographer have been paid for ages, in spite of their material selling well.
This is all a bunch of garbage really, ofcourse someone is making money exept the ones created the images.
Somebody I know threatened to take them to court, sure enough he was paid within 2 weeks.

Care to tell the name of this agency? I have my guesses but I would like to know for sure...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: brm1949 on May 16, 2012, 17:36
File Size   Inches* | Cm* | Pixels   Price
68 KB   0.5 x 0.6   US $ 5.00
184 KB   0.7 x 0.9   US $ 15.00
330 KB   1.0 x 1.3   US $ 49.00
1.6 MB   2.2 x 2.8   US $ 95.00
6.8 MB   4.6 x 5.7   US $ 190.00
27.0 MB   9.2 x 11.5   US $ 245.00
*Dimensions at 300 dpi

Here is the pricing on one of my images there. How will we know of a sale? Will it post on Veer or Alamy?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 16, 2012, 17:52
It may be helpful to get some thoughts from Veer itself.

If the situation does not change I will doubtlessly remove my Portfolio from their site by next week.
I am sick and tired of this "business/partnership/lets screw contributors to the max" BS. Pure arrogancy that they do not give any option to opt out. And they are really not that important that I would care about the income.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 16, 2012, 17:54
It may be helpful to get some thoughts from Veer itself.

If the situation does not change I will doubtlessly remove my Portfolio from their site by next week.
I am sick and tired of this "business/partnership/lets screw contributors to the max" BS. Pure arrogancy that they do not give any option to opt out. And they are really not that important that I would care about the income.
If Veer would make more than Alamy for me, we can talk about it but that's not the case (for me at least).

So the decision is clear.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 16, 2012, 18:18
File Size   Inches* | Cm* | Pixels   Price
68 KB   0.5 x 0.6   US $ 5.00
184 KB   0.7 x 0.9   US $ 15.00
330 KB   1.0 x 1.3   US $ 49.00
1.6 MB   2.2 x 2.8   US $ 95.00
6.8 MB   4.6 x 5.7   US $ 190.00
27.0 MB   9.2 x 11.5   US $ 245.00
*Dimensions at 300 dpi

Here is the pricing on one of my images there. How will we know of a sale? Will it post on Veer or Alamy?

In likelihood, Alamy would take their 40% cut, and then Veer would take their cut.  So on that 1.6mb image - expect this...

$95 gross

$38.00 to Alamy (40%)
$45.60 to Veer (80% of what's left over)

Leaving you $11.40 net....out of that $95 gross Alamy sale.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on May 16, 2012, 18:25
File Size   Inches* | Cm* | Pixels   Price
68 KB   0.5 x 0.6   US $ 5.00
184 KB   0.7 x 0.9   US $ 15.00
330 KB   1.0 x 1.3   US $ 49.00
1.6 MB   2.2 x 2.8   US $ 95.00
6.8 MB   4.6 x 5.7   US $ 190.00
27.0 MB   9.2 x 11.5   US $ 245.00
*Dimensions at 300 dpi

Here is the pricing on one of my images there. How will we know of a sale? Will it post on Veer or Alamy?

To manage your expectations, even without Veer's cut, note the posts above in this thread which indicate that the 'rack rate' often isn't the rate actually paid.  :( Big discounts are often negotiated.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: GrantP on May 16, 2012, 18:56

Hi all-

we're aware of this issue, and we are working with Alamy on addressment.  We will report back with more detailed information soon.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 19:01
File Size   Inches* | Cm* | Pixels   Price
68 KB   0.5 x 0.6   US $ 5.00
184 KB   0.7 x 0.9   US $ 15.00
330 KB   1.0 x 1.3   US $ 49.00
1.6 MB   2.2 x 2.8   US $ 95.00
6.8 MB   4.6 x 5.7   US $ 190.00
27.0 MB   9.2 x 11.5   US $ 245.00
*Dimensions at 300 dpi

Here is the pricing on one of my images there. How will we know of a sale? Will it post on Veer or Alamy?

In likelihood, Alamy would take their 40% cut, and then Veer would take their cut.  So on that 1.6mb image - expect this...

$95 gross

$38.00 to Alamy (40%)
$45.60 to Veer (80% of what's left over)

Leaving you $11.40 net....out of that $95 gross Alamy sale.

If I understood Veer's FAQ correctly, we only receive Veer's standard royalty and sales are reported on Veer as "standard" Veer sales.  They don't report PP sales as PP sales, only Veer sales.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 16, 2012, 19:01

Hi all-

we're aware of this issue, and we are working with Alamy on addressment.  We will report back with more detailed information soon.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 16, 2012, 19:16

Hi all-

we're aware of this issue, and we are working with Alamy on addressment.  We will report back with more detailed information soon.

Thanks for the Info Ryan. Good to know that something is moving over there :-)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 16, 2012, 19:33

Hi all-

we're aware of this issue, and we are working with Alamy on addressment.  We will report back with more detailed information soon.
This doesn't tell us how this partner deal with Alamy was originally intended to work out...

Is there a chance of providing more information about how our content is being submitted to Alamy in terms of just a small selection of a portfolio being submitted to Alamy from Veer and whether duplicates are supposed to stay on Alamy?

It would be great to hear Veer's original thoughts about this partnership with Alamy.

Most likely though, we (the contributors) will never hear those things...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sc on May 17, 2012, 01:05

Hi all-

we're aware of this issue, and we are working with Alamy on addressment.  We will report back with more detailed information soon.

Is that even a word?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Microbius on May 17, 2012, 03:25
http://www.wordnik.com/words/addressment (http://www.wordnik.com/words/addressment)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 17, 2012, 03:43
If alamy are going to accept mass uploads from the microstock sites, they have to ensure that duplicates of images already uploaded by their contributors aren't accepted.  Otherwise, 20 microstock sites could upload the same image and there would be 21 of them on alamy.  So I do think that alamy are partly responsible for this mess.  Other sites have managed to block images that they already have in their collection.  They also remove images from 3rd parties when a contributor uploads directly to them.  There's no reason why alamy can't do this.

It's weird to me that Alamy want to delete our  bigger enlarged photos, that have passed their QC, and then they will accept smaller version of same photos from some microstock site... :P

Both agencies have been correct so far, will see...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Perry on May 17, 2012, 03:46
I think Veer crossed the line here. Especially if they are going to receive full RF prices from Alamy and give us only peanuts. This is ROBBERY!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 17, 2012, 06:08
If alamy are going to accept mass uploads from the microstock sites, they have to ensure that duplicates of images already uploaded by their contributors aren't accepted.  Otherwise, 20 microstock sites could upload the same image and there would be 21 of them on alamy.  So I do think that alamy are partly responsible for this mess.  Other sites have managed to block images that they already have in their collection.  They also remove images from 3rd parties when a contributor uploads directly to them.  There's no reason why alamy can't do this.

It's weird to me that Alamy want to delete our  bigger enlarged photos, that have passed their QC, and then they will accept smaller version of same photos from some microstock site... :P

Both agencies have been correct so far, will see...
I don't think alamy want to delete anything.  There's lots of duplicate images.  If it was their policy to delete images we've uploaded ourselves and painstakingly keyworded, it would be a very unpopular move and they usually go out of their way to be contributor friendly.  When I emailed them, they didn't say anything about deleting the images I had uploaded.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 17, 2012, 07:17

Reply so far from Alamy to my message below:

We will check this with the person concerned as he is currently out of office and will get back to you as soon as we have an update.

I've sent this to Alamy, if I get a sensible reply I will let you know:

"I see reports that you are deleting images we have uploaded if they also arrive at your site via your new arrangement with Veer. Is this correct? If so, there is no point in my completing most of my pending uploads.

If you are deleting submitters’ images in favour of an arrangement with Veer, can we keep images pending in our upload account for however long it takes to close our Veer accounts so that there is no clash, which might take a good many weeks?

If you are deleting images in favour of Veer and we close our Veer accounts, will those images be automatically restored or will we need to resubmit, assuming that we have any idea of what it is that has been deleted?

A clear statement about what is happening and what we can do to prevent Veer taking a cut of our commissions would be welcome,

Regards"
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 17, 2012, 07:20
this will be interesting from veer...

An alamy licence allows unlimited print run, multi-user and product for resale irrespective of the size bought.

So the commission from veer should be $35+$17.5+$43.75 = $96.25 (I've had sales on veer that included all three hmm...)
that's pretty good if someone buys one of the first four sizes on alamy (which are all under $95), but not good for $365 etc.

somehow I am thinking we are getting standard commissions $5.25 on a $365, but I sure hope not...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: etienjones on May 17, 2012, 07:33
I too have had this sale from a single image, similar to Phil but not exactly:

Unlimited reproduction       $35.00

Standard    Extended    Multi-user license    $17.50

Standard    Standard    XSmall    $0.35

Maybe though Alamy, not really sure . . . . . . .
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 17, 2012, 07:45
Obviously, they did not think one second in any conflicts or consequences for contributors. It is good news that Ryan responded here on the Forum, but time is running for me. I literally count days to my personal deadline to delete images. I have no more tolerance for companies that treat OUR images like THEIR assets.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: andresr on May 17, 2012, 09:21
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: S. on May 17, 2012, 10:10
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on

ditto
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Blammo on May 17, 2012, 10:16
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on

Sad but the only option for me as well.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ayzek on May 17, 2012, 10:29
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on

Same here.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 17, 2012, 11:00
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on
Andres you have much more leverage than most of us here.

Would you mind (if you haven't done so already...) contacting Veer directly to let them know about your stance in regards to this issue?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gostwyck on May 17, 2012, 11:13
Veer developers are probably working on inserting an opt-out button right now __ either that or the entire scheme will have to be abandoned. Did Veer really not consider the consequences of their 'big idea'? Or did they just try to slip it under the radar and hope nobody would notice? Ridiculous.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 17, 2012, 11:19
... Or did they just try to slip it under the radar and hope nobody would notice? Ridiculous.
I'm sure they tried that. There was no info upfront (that I know of) so it appears that this was supposed to be some night operation.

Look at Fotolia, they have tons of partners some of them are really dubious. It wouldn't surprise me if other agencies want to get a bigger piece of the pie by increasing exposure through more channels. Why tell us, since we will also "massively profit" from that... Heard that more than one time...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 17, 2012, 11:22
Veer is in a very weak position (IMO) at the moment. Their sales aren't all that great, the big hoo-ha over the introduction of subscriptions - and the fact that it worked out that a huge majority of the small volume of subs sales were at 25 cents, something they said wouldn't be the case - a clunky upload process, tiny weekly upload limit, very slow review times....

It would be very easy to just drop them (although I'm 71 cents away from the next payout, so I'd like to get that first).

I don't even have an RF portfolio at Alamy to protect - just a small pile of RM images from 2008 when I went exclusive with IS and could only do RM elsewhere. But I've considered uploading my files to Alamy and in spite of their tedious upload process would rather do that and keep the extra cash than let Veer have it. It just p!sses me off that there's such awful communications with contributors and such readiness even from an also-ran agency to rip us off.

Your "addressment" needs to be pretty darn good Veer, 'cause you don't have a lot of residual goodwill.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: devon on May 17, 2012, 11:31
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on

same here!!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 17, 2012, 11:37
I have 26 images on Veer  :D

My account balance is 35 cents.

I have over 1600 images on Alamy.  I sent a message to Veer yesterday evening asking them to close my account.  Not worth the bother for me.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: antistock on May 17, 2012, 12:17
i'm a great fan of Alamy but where are the sales ?

they keep adding millions of images per month, views and zooms keep going down, sales are ok but nothing to be write home about apart some lucky cases.

their keywording system is pure rubbish and the only positive factor is they take almost anything in as their QC is the easiest in the industry.

now what ...including Veer stuff as well ... what's next ? bringing in every other micro agency as well ?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: antistock on May 17, 2012, 12:20
Indeed if Veer is going to submit our photos to Alamy without giving us the choice to opt out it is good bye for Veer from my side as well ....

This is just not on

and by the way, how are they going to keyword the images considering the insane and stupid way alamy manages main/primary/secodary keywords ?
unless all these images are crafted to be keyworded for alamy they've no chance to make many sales there.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: traveler1116 on May 17, 2012, 12:20
i'm a great fan of Alamy but where are the sales ?

they keep adding millions of images per month, views and zooms keep going down, sales are ok but nothing to be write home about apart some lucky cases.

their keywording system is pure rubbish and the only positive factor is they take almost anything in as their QC is the easiest in the industry.

now what ...including Veer stuff as well ... what's next ? bringing in every other micro agency as well ?
That's my guess.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 17, 2012, 12:36

Reply so far from Alamy to my message below:

We will check this with the person concerned as he is currently out of office and will get back to you as soon as we have an update.


I got the same response to my e-mail. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 17, 2012, 12:44
Alamy has steady sales for me. Although it is just about 20% of what I make on shutterstock I consider Alamy as a more reliable and stable Agency in the future than any of the Micros. I currently build up a huge exclusive Portfolio there (Editorial, RM, RF). I cannot hear those negative people anymore who only want to move if something promises immediate Profit.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: tab62 on May 17, 2012, 13:24
I might have to contact Bill directly on this matter...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: deepdreamer on May 17, 2012, 13:36
I just found my photos on agency www.profimedia.com (http://www.profimedia.com).
I do not contribute to them, but I do contribute to Alamy and Veer etc.
I found most of my images in 3 copies for 3 different prices on Profimedia.
Same photos from Alamy + same photos from Veer + same photos from - don’t know.  :-\

5M photos from – Alamy : Collection: Alamy
web 170px      5 €
web 280px      15 €
web 400px      49 €
web 800+px   90 €
A6 (300 dpi)   180 €
A5 (300 dpi)   235 €
A4 (300 dpi)   305 €
A3 (300 dpi)   360 €
http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/2 (http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/2)

2M photos from - Veer : Collection: MS Value
web 400px      2 €
web 800+px   4 €
web 1600px   7 €
A5 (300 dpi)   12 €
A4 (300 dpi)   17 €
A3 (300 dpi)   24 €
http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/618 (http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/618)


10M photos from - don’t know – Collection : Stock Budget
web 400px      2 €
web 800+px   3 €
web 1600px   4 €
A5 (300 dpi)   6 €
A4 (300 dpi)   7 €
A3 (300 dpi)   8 €
http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/622 (http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/622)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: xst on May 17, 2012, 13:55
Same here. That's mess!
And BTW Collection : Stock Budget (Most likely 123rf) - all my images there listed as "No release" ???
 
I just found my photos on agency [url=http://www.profimedia.com]www.profimedia.com[/url] ([url]http://www.profimedia.com[/url]).
I do not contribute to them, but I do contribute to Alamy and Veer etc.
I found most of my images in 3 copies for 3 different prices on Profimedia.
Same photos from Alamy + same photos from Veer + same photos from - don’t know.  :-\

5M photos from – Alamy : Collection: Alamy
web 170px      5 €
web 280px      15 €
web 400px      49 €
web 800+px   90 €
A6 (300 dpi)   180 €
A5 (300 dpi)   235 €
A4 (300 dpi)   305 €
A3 (300 dpi)   360 €
[url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/2[/url] ([url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/2[/url])

2M photos from - Veer : Collection: MS Value
web 400px      2 €
web 800+px   4 €
web 1600px   7 €
A5 (300 dpi)   12 €
A4 (300 dpi)   17 €
A3 (300 dpi)   24 €
[url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/618[/url] ([url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/618[/url])


10M photos from - don’t know – Collection : Stock Budget
web 400px      2 €
web 800+px   3 €
web 1600px   4 €
A5 (300 dpi)   6 €
A4 (300 dpi)   7 €
A3 (300 dpi)   8 €
[url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/622[/url] ([url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/622[/url])
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on May 17, 2012, 18:18
@deepdreamer: One is Panthermedia ( is on the search list ). I've checked my images there and i'm sure that 123RF is there too...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 18, 2012, 03:40
hmm must be a big addressment  ;D

I feel a 5pm friday us time announcement coming
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 18, 2012, 08:48
Nothin' new ha?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Brian O'Shea on May 18, 2012, 09:19
Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 18, 2012, 09:20
I used one of my images to find my "portfolio" at Profimedia (http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/photographer/PC-0116195706) and it shows 2,307 images. That can't be Veer as I have only 800+ images uploaded. It can't be 123rf as I have only 1,795 uploaded.

Best guess is CanStock - I have 2,471 images there, but perhaps they don't update all the time?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 18, 2012, 09:23
...For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com....

In addition to communicating with contributors up front about these things, I would expect that a simple rule that would keep you out of trouble is not to form partnerships with distributors to which Veer contributors can submit directly. Otherwise you're just trying to take a cut out of our income instead of actually increasing the places our images can sell
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 18, 2012, 09:24
...For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com....

In addition to communicating with contributors up front about these things, I would expect that a simple rule that would keep you out of trouble is not to form partnerships with distributors to which Veer contributors can submit directly. Otherwise you're just trying to take a cut out of our income instead of actually increasing the places our images can sell
+1
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 18, 2012, 09:29
Some sites have a list of their partner sites with the option for us to opt out.  I think that's the way to deal with this.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 18, 2012, 09:32
Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian

Thanks for the update Brian...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 18, 2012, 09:37
I'll rescue you from the unbearable trauma of all those committee meetings .... provide an opt-out button.

There is clear difference between feeding content into obscure agencies that have few artists supplying directly and in supplying agencies that are a major channel for direct sales by artists.

What next? Will you be uploading our work to iStock and Shutterstock and having our existing portfolios deleted in a middle-men's pact to split almost the entire income between each other, cutting the artist out entirely? This situation is ridiculous.

Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gostwyck on May 18, 2012, 09:47
I'll rescue you from the unbearable trauma of all those committee meetings .... provide an opt-out button.

Better still __ provide an opt-IN button. The default should be 'Veer only' for those who upload to you.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 18, 2012, 09:49
... For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com. ...

Here we go. More exposure does not necessarily mean happier contributors - the agency will be happy about additional sales yes, but we contributors are pushed around, left out in the decision process and find ourselves in situations like this one.

Now, as I upload both to Veer and Alamy it turns out I'm undercutting myself!!! Why would I want to do that?

I could care less about duplicates (which is confusing enough...) but I'm more interested about losing sales through Alamy.

VEER: Offer an opt-out function for partners and you will save your face and that will make ALL contributors happy (maybe not everyone at Veer/Corbis management though) but please don't forget that none of you would be working there if it wasn't for our content...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 18, 2012, 09:55
I'll rescue you from the unbearable trauma of all those committee meetings .... provide an opt-out button.

Better still __ provide an opt-IN button. The default should be 'Veer only' for those who upload to you.

I stand corrected.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 18, 2012, 10:29
... For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com. ...

I could care less about duplicates (which is confusing enough...) but I'm more interested about losing sales through Alamy.


Same here!  Cannibalizing my sales at Alamy will end up putting me out of business, and that isn't good for me, Alamy or Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 18, 2012, 10:34
Same here!  Cannibalizing my sales at Alamy will end up putting me out of business, and that isn't good for me, Alamy or Veer.
Shouldn't that be common sense for the agencies to provide better "breeding" ground for its contributors to maintain and increase the flow of good content rather than blindly increasing "exposure" etc.

I can't hear it anymore exposure here, exposure there. God *, I have a web site, Twitter, Google+ and what not it doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to market yourself in the first place.

Look at Shutterstock, they don't need an armada of partners to get our content sold. All it takes is a well thought out business model...

Ugh, what a drag.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 18, 2012, 10:50
I used one of my images to find my "portfolio" at Profimedia ([url]http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/photographer/PC-0116195706[/url]) and it shows 2,307 images. That can't be Veer as I have only 800+ images uploaded. It can't be 123rf as I have only 1,795 uploaded.

Best guess is CanStock - I have 2,471 images there, but perhaps they don't update all the time?


It looks like they are a mixture.  The first of your images coming up have a Veer watermark.  Later images have a generic "©Copyright" watermark.

Looking at the list of partners, I see Profimedia partners with Alamy, Corbis and Panthermedia.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 18, 2012, 11:39
I'll rescue you from the unbearable trauma of all those committee meetings .... provide an opt-out button.

Better still __ provide an opt-IN button. The default should be 'Veer only' for those who upload to you.

I'd say +1 but I would like to add that there should be individual opt in buttons for each partner, not an all or nothing choice. Some agencies might be fine, others not - depends on where other people have, or want to have their portfolio.

And as far as the anticipated complaint that it's too hard to program a partner by partner opt in - go find some decent software engineers and do the work to make that happen.

The unvarnished truth, as I see it, is that Veer doesn't produce enough income for contributors for us to put up with the kind of shabby, take-it-or-leave-it treatment that we have from agencies such as iStock. If you don't care that lots of people leave your site, then feel free to blow us off on this.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 18, 2012, 12:03
... I'd say +1 but I would like to add that there should be individual opt in buttons for each partner, not an all or nothing choice. Some agencies might be fine, others not - depends on where other people have, or want to have their portfolio. ...

A perfect world is what you describe. Love it.

However, I can't see any partner agreeing to cooperation/negotiations with a stock agency NOT knowing how much content will actually be supplied. It's like opening a store without knowing how much cheese you will sell (or how much you have in stock - no pun intended!).

I can see the agencies' problem but some sort of compromise has to be found.

A general opt-out of partner programs should be the minimum.

A opt-in/out for individual partners would be terrific but I don't expect it.

No opt-out is the worst case scenario and in the case of Veer I would expect them to drop Alamy and also publish a list of their partners so we can verify if we don't shoot ourselves in the foot.

As much as the agencies need to cover their assets, we certainly have to cover ours. In the end, we the suppliers and the agencies do sit in the same boat...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: dirkr on May 18, 2012, 12:20

However, I can't see any partner agreeing to cooperation/negotiations with a stock agency NOT knowing how much content will actually be supplied.

Zoonar and Yaymicro come to my mind. They offer exactly that - explicit opt in / out per partner.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 18, 2012, 12:32

However, I can't see any partner agreeing to cooperation/negotiations with a stock agency NOT knowing how much content will actually be supplied.

Zoonar and Yaymicro come to my mind. They offer exactly that - explicit opt in / out per partner.
That's good.

I'm not with either of the two and I don't know their collection size but I would think that is Veer (backed by Corbis) goes into negotiations with Alamy or any other significant player in the industry will have a harder time to have those requirements met.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Fran on May 18, 2012, 13:07
If they don't want to give an opt-out (which would be the most transparent and profitable solution in the long term), they should at the very least write an automatic system to check for duplicates and NOT transfer them.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: peresanz on May 18, 2012, 13:15
Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon
.


 -  Brian

Brian, duplicates should never have been deleted from Alamy. They shouldn't be transferred to Alamy instead, which is way different.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 18, 2012, 14:15
If they don't want to give an opt-out (which would be the most transparent and profitable solution in the long term), they should at the very least write an automatic system to check for duplicates and NOT transfer them.

That's not really feasible because of different approval times and different uploading practices when approaching different sites. Just because a file is on Veer today but not on Alamy doesn't mean that tomorrow it won't have been uploaded directly to Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Fran on May 18, 2012, 15:39
That's not really feasible because of different approval times and different uploading practices when approaching different sites. Just because a file is on Veer today but not on Alamy doesn't mean that tomorrow it won't have been uploaded directly to Alamy.

That's a good point. Doing an automatic check when moving old images would still be at least a step forward from the present scenario that is less than ideal.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 18, 2012, 16:52
Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian

Thanks Brian, glad to hear that something is happening about duplicates. I am sure you'd understand that I'd rather have the images I placed direct on alamy as the one retained.

What hasn't been answered though is what is the commission that we have been receiving on these sales to date? Are these coming through as standard veer sales?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 18, 2012, 17:33

Thanks Brian, glad to hear that something is happening about duplicates. I am sure you'd understand that I'd rather have the images I placed direct on alamy as the one retained.

What hasn't been answered though is what is the commission that we have been receiving on these sales to date? Are these coming through as standard veer sales?

Agreed.  Thanks for stepping in, Brian, and working on a solution to this.  I would also like to know what we have been getting paid at various partner sites, and how we can identify partner sales vs. Veer sales. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Beach Bum on May 18, 2012, 20:18
...For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com....

In addition to communicating with contributors up front about these things, I would expect that a simple rule that would keep you out of trouble is not to form partnerships with distributors to which Veer contributors can submit directly. Otherwise you're just trying to take a cut out of our income instead of actually increasing the places our images can sell

Exactly!  The word "predatory" comes to mind.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on May 18, 2012, 21:28
Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian

Thanks Brian, glad to hear that something is happening about duplicates. I am sure you'd understand that I'd rather have the images I placed direct on alamy as the one retained.

What hasn't been answered though is what is the commission that we have been receiving on these sales to date? Are these coming through as standard veer sales?

+1

You should be able to tell us the commissions we would get for a sale immediately (or is it we wouldn't like the answer)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: antistock on May 19, 2012, 02:02
For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

good, but so why not including the best images from Veer in CORBIS rather than begging at Alamy ?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 19, 2012, 03:26
For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

good, but so why not including the best images from Veer in CORBIS rather than begging at Alamy ?

Ah, now, I wouldn't want to opt out of Corbis if they put them there. No chance of duplicates, either (unless I've got some there through some other deal I don't know about).
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: borg on May 19, 2012, 10:42
For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

good, but so why not including the best images from Veer in CORBIS rather than begging at Alamy ?

Right question!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Tabimura on May 19, 2012, 16:27
For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

good, but so why not including the best images from Veer in CORBIS rather than begging at Alamy ?

Very good question. And like all very good and incomode questions, it will be left unanswered.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: traveler1116 on May 20, 2012, 22:04
Has it been confirmed that Veer caused files on Alamy to be deleted?  I have friends that submit to both but don't keep up too much on this, I've already told them to close their accounts with Veer but want to make sure that their Alamy portfolios haven't been affected.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 21, 2012, 06:43
Has it been confirmed that Veer caused files on Alamy to be deleted?  I have friends that submit to both but don't keep up too much on this, I've already told them to close their accounts with Veer but want to make sure that their Alamy portfolios haven't been affected.

I asked that my account be closed at Veer and received a reply from Brian that he's working on the issue with Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 21, 2012, 07:02
OFFICIAL ALAMY REPLY:
We do not have a policy to delete duplicates as Alamy is a non exclusive market place.

If there are duplicates with images already on Alamy that does not have any effect whatsoever on the AlamyRank, exposure, etc of either image as the two have no link between them.
 
Ultimately it is up to the contributors how they distribute their imagery.





I think it is about time that my straightforward questions were answered, since it is hard to imagine "the man dealing with it" hasn't got back into the office for the best part of a week.

The main questions were:

Are our images being deleted if Veer uploads them on its account?
If we shut a Veer account after images have been deleted, will they be restored or will we have to reupload?

The problem with the latter being that since everything is being done sneakily behind our backs. we won't even know what images we have lost - which would  make it imperative that accounts are closed as soon as poss before they get everything pushed across, potentially destroying thousands of hours of work in uploading/keywording on Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 21, 2012, 08:42
OFFICIAL ALAMY REPLY:
We do not have a policy to delete duplicates as Alamy is a non exclusive market place.

If there are duplicates with images already on Alamy that does not have any effect whatsoever on the AlamyRank, exposure, etc of either image as the two have no link between them.
 
Ultimately it is up to the contributors how they distribute their imagery.


Yep.  Exactly the same reply here.  Must have been cut and pasted to all of us who wrote with concerns. 

Well, I consider it good news that none of my images have been, nor will be removed from my account.  That still leaves us with the competing with ourselves issue though.  Seems like we will have to work that out through Veer.  Hopefully Brian comes back with an opt out. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ayzek on May 21, 2012, 10:17
This month Alamy earning passed already My last 12 month total Veer earnings.

Waiting for an opt out option from Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 21, 2012, 10:41
This month Alamy earning passed already My last 12 month total Veer earnings.

Waiting for an opt out option from Veer.

+1
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: eyecandy on May 21, 2012, 11:30
Wow! I was considering uploading to Veer.... Really glad I didn't!  :o
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: S. on May 21, 2012, 14:19
This month Alamy earning passed already My last 12 month total Veer earnings.

Waiting for an opt out option from Veer.

+1

+2 ;)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on May 21, 2012, 14:41
Call me naive but I expected better from Alamy.  I thought they were the good guys who claim to donate 89% of profits to medical research.  I had hoped they would rise to a higher standard (than other sites).  They should give us an opt out button.  Not just for Veer duplicates but for all third parties who may try to insert themselves as middlemen.   
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 21, 2012, 14:45
Call me naive but I expected better from Alamy.  I thought they were the good guys who claim to donate 89% of profits to medical research.  I had hoped they would rise to a higher standard (than other sites).  They should give us an opt out button.  Not just for Veer duplicates but for all third parties who may try to insert themselves as middlemen.   

Huh?  It isn't Alamy's responsibility to keep you from uploading multiple photos. They are a photolibrary, they are not a photo agency.  There is a difference.

I contribute to other Macros that also upload to Alamy on my behalf (what Veer is attempting to do) with the ability to opt out of the additional distribution.  The issue is with Veer - not Alamy.

For what it's worth...you shouldn't have duplicates on Alamy but some contributors do mostly because they work with other agencies that do their own keywording...essentially, it's more exposure to the photographer under different searches.

Alamy does not delete images unless they find later that they violate the contributor agreement.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 21, 2012, 16:34
I agree that there does not appear to be an issue with Alamy's behaviour but the library/agency dichotomy seems to me to be entirely false. I don't know of any libraryies that sell licenses to reprint books. It's no different from iStock or Getty (or Shutterstock?) or the majority of other agencies that allow both direct sales and resales from other collections and started out by taking individual submissions.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 23, 2012, 08:56
Brian, any news on this?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Maui on May 24, 2012, 10:08
Veer is obviously moving over more and more images to Alamy - I can see more of them in my portfolio than a few days before.

So is there anything being done to give us an opt-out option?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Perry on May 24, 2012, 10:23
And how much are we going to get paid?

If it's going to be Veer's standard royalties, then it's bye-bye Veer. I will propably lose more by Veer "cannibalizing" my Alamy sales than I will earn at Veer as a whole :(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 24, 2012, 11:40
And how much are we going to get paid?

If it's going to be Veer's standard royalties, then it's bye-bye Veer.

That's what Veer's FAQ says.  And if that's true, then I'll be saying bye-bye right along with you!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: traveler1116 on May 24, 2012, 11:49
My friend just cancelled their account at Veer.  Good thing it was reported here or they never would have known.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 24, 2012, 13:39
It's six days since Veer issued their non-commital comment. I think we are entitled to hear something more definite before the week is finished.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 24, 2012, 14:14
Well a week has gone by since I emailed Veer asking them to terminate my account and remove my images from Alamy, guess what no reply whatsoever - guess after 30days I'll have to take the legal route.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 24, 2012, 15:13
Well a week has gone by since I emailed Veer asking them to terminate my account and remove my images from Alamy, guess what no reply whatsoever - guess after 30days I'll have to take the legal route.

Very bad news. Send them a DMCA in 23 days :-) I still wait (hope?) for a solution.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 24, 2012, 17:40
I asked that my account be removed.  Brian mentioned he would prefer if I waited.  I had 26 images on Veer - virtually no skin in the game.  I asked again if they would just go ahead and remove my account and received a response this morning that they would go ahead and do that for me and they have.  No problems here and I hope things work out for everyone else.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 24, 2012, 18:09
Just a suggestion to those asking that their Veer accounts be closed.  You might want to ask them to deactivate your images, rather than removing them.  This situation will probably be resolved favorably and it would be a bummer to have to start over uploading again. 

I closed my account a couple of years ago and they removed my images.  Later things improved there, and the process of uploading at 50/week is so slow and arduous that it took me over a year and a half just to get back to where I had been before closing my account. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 25, 2012, 12:29
Just a suggestion to those asking that their Veer accounts be closed.  You might want to ask them to deactivate your images, rather than removing them.  This situation will probably be resolved favorably and it would be a bummer to have to start over uploading again. 

Thanks Lisa but I'd rather be rid of them, they've been aware of this issue for 7 days and yet they're still transferring images form my portfolio onto Alamy, that doesn't indicate to me that they are going to offer an opt out because it would have made sense if they just stopped the uploading till they sorted things out.

Sales aren't brilliant on Veer and losing that income isn't something I'm going to sweat about.

Incidentally I PM'd Brian here asking him to make sure my account is closed as per the email I sent to Veer support - guess what no reply from him or anyone else at Veer! Another good reason for me to be rid of them.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 25, 2012, 15:26
...looks like veer is doing its best undermining its own credibility by not responding anymore here on the board. Too bad, one less on the upload cycle :D
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on May 25, 2012, 16:33
Sent another email and got the response I wanted at last - good luck to those that stay.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Fran on May 25, 2012, 16:45
...looks like veer is doing its best undermining its own credibility by not responding anymore here on the board. Too bad, one less on the upload cycle :D

Absolutely, this behavior is too dodgy, I'll wait until I get my next pay cycle and then I'll close my account there if there's no change.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Brian O'Shea on May 25, 2012, 19:03
Hi All -

We behind the scenes at Veer strive for clear and proactive communication with our contributor community. And that has not been the case here. At all.

Our apologies. We understand your frustrations at not only the situation, but the poor communication. We are working towards resolution - we are still in the process of considering and implementing options. We plan to provide more solid details on the solution to this next week.

Those that are sticking it out  – thanks for bearing with us: we greatly appreciate your patience.

-   Brian
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 25, 2012, 19:27
Just a suggestion to those asking that their Veer accounts be closed.  You might want to ask them to deactivate your images, rather than removing them.  This situation will probably be resolved favorably and it would be a bummer to have to start over uploading again.  

I closed my account a couple of years ago and they removed my images.  Later things improved there, and the process of uploading at 50/week is so slow and arduous that it took me over a year and a half just to get back to where I had been before closing my account.  

EDIT: Brian has posted while I was typing, so hopefully will get an answer soon :)

The fact we haven't got answers as yet suggests to me that we are not going see a great outcome on this. The collection on Alamy has grown by over 100000 images since I first looked (about when the thread was started).

As I said the other day the Alamy licence is an EL, at the smallest size it is about $5, obviously Veer are not going to pay us for an EL on this as it would be about $95.
If they ignore the fact it is EL sale at this size I think it is fair enough to assume that they will ignore the fact it is an EL sale at any size and just pay for a standard licence?
I looked through the info on veer, there is no percentage commission just a set amount earned per sale, and it is same amount for api / partner sales.

So when my images sell on Alamy through veer at the largest size. The sale is $365, Alamy get $146, Veer get $219 and I get $5.25! This equates to whopping 1.4% commission on the whole sale and about 2.4% of what veer gets in!

I was hoping Veer would come back with some nice answers but they havent as yet so I went through the partners list on veer (havent looked at the others found in the thread on msg). Of those listed, one is now partnered with 123rf not veer, another with alamy and a third with yay instead of veer. I could actually only find my images from veer on 3 of their listed sites (and one of those only had a few images).

Anyway clickphotos - $45 basic licence so 11.6% commission and Pocketstock.com.mx where I found my images with the veer id number on the site and gigante size - standard licence - mxn$840 = us$60 my cut is $5.25 about 8 percent commission.

(EDIT: Despite carefully checking everything that I could, I still missed the fact that pocketstock is in mexican pesos not US$ so have made changes to the original post. Thanks Dirkr for pointing it out and apologies to everyone else).
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 25, 2012, 19:35
oops the other one I forgot to ask. Veer has a 60 day lag for takin down an image, Alamy has 180 day. What happens when an image is taken down? Does it stay on Alamy for the other 120 days?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Mantis on May 25, 2012, 19:36
Hi All -

We behind the scenes at Veer strive for clear and proactive communication with our contributor community. And that has not been the case here. At all.

Our apologies. We understand your frustrations at not only the situation, but the poor communication. We are working towards resolution - we are still in the process of considering and implementing options. We plan to provide more solid details on the solution to this next week.

Those that are sticking it out  – thanks for bearing with us: we greatly appreciate your patience.

-   Brian

I didn't have good luck with Veer a few years ago and I had a hell of a time closing my account.  I had to threaten legal action.....after months went by with my images still active.  So I am not affected by this.  But I love the "we are still in the process of considering and implementing options".  What are you considering? How much you will lose by closing this gap or what is the best way to protect the interests of our contributors? Based on my personal experience it is all WIIFM.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Wim on May 26, 2012, 03:46
Well, since they started this cooperation with alamy my sales are dead at Veer (oddly) so if this stays I have no reason to stick around anymore.
Too bad though since sales were pretty good before, better then all the middle tiers, excluding 123RF.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Eco on May 26, 2012, 04:08
This Alamy issue just added to my growing irritation of Veer. I have yet to make up in sales this month what they have taken from me during the last round of credit card fraud, and all that I see lately is subscription sales as $0.25. Add to that their slow reviews and dwindling sales and very little remain to keep me from cancelling my account.   
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Wim on May 26, 2012, 05:02
Very nice port Eco!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: XPTO on May 26, 2012, 05:47
Alamy earns me 30% of my stock income, and Veer represent only 3% 2% being the lowest micro earner I submit to, with the exception of Bigstock.

If this situation is not solved quickly and in a satisfactory way I will delete my Veer portfolio in a blink if an eye. I will not accept having my highest earner sales cannibalized by a micro paying pathetic commissions.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Eco on May 26, 2012, 06:04
Very nice port Eco!

Thank you Wim.  :)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cathyslife on May 26, 2012, 07:20
i will be very surprised if they provide an opt out button for partner program. the day they announced they were introducing partners with no opt out, i believe it was discussed here. i removed my port from veer because of it. the whole partner program on all the sites is just a big mess. no one wants to separate out your earnings so you have no clue what works or what you are making.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gemmy12 on May 26, 2012, 07:58
Alamy has steady sales for me. Although it is just about 20% of what I make on shutterstock I consider Alamy as a more reliable and stable Agency in the future than any of the Micros. I currently build up a huge exclusive Portfolio there (Editorial, RM, RF). I cannot hear those negative people anymore who only want to move if something promises immediate Profit.

+1
thank god that i tried in veer recently and only few pix there. No contributor would like to become a part of Veer's this programme. Thanks to Op,other members and msg i could know about this otherwise i had no idea about veer gonna do lol. I wont contribute to veer anymore.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 26, 2012, 09:25
So my whole Veer portfolio is at PocketStock, at prices from $70 to $840 - as opposed to $2 to $30 at Veer itself.

The reason it's especially remarkable that is that the entire 839 images I've had approved appear at PocketStock, where only 593 images appear on Veer's own site.

Think about that for a minute. They can get all the images displayed on a partner site where they can rip me off (if in fact we get paid the Veer royalty only should they make a sale through this other site) but not at "home"?

Incompetence, naked greed and almost total non-communication - Brian, saying it's "that has not been the case here" doesn't begin to cover it - is a really toxic brew.

We need some immediate clarification of how many sites you've sent our work to, what our royalty is for each of those, how those partner sales are recorded and why you don't display approved works on Veer's site when you do on the "partner" sites.

Talk about ways to instantly demolish trust...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lbarn on May 26, 2012, 09:26
Quote
So when my images sell on Alamy through veer at the largest size. The sale is $365, Alamy get $146, Veer get $219 and I get $5.25! This equates to whopping 1.4% commission on the whole sale and about 2.4% of what veer gets in!

      I just can't believe that Veer thinks this type of arrangement is OK, and that simply "portfolio exposure" is the good part for us.   ??? ???
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: luissantos84 on May 26, 2012, 10:12
So my whole Veer portfolio is at PocketStock, at prices from $70 to $840 - as opposed to $2 to $30 at Veer itself.

The reason it's especially remarkable that is that the entire 839 images I've had approved appear at PocketStock, where only 593 images appear on Veer's own site.

thats curious, I am in Veer since the start and I have no files on PocketStock..
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on May 26, 2012, 10:15
So my whole Veer portfolio is at PocketStock, at prices from $70 to $840 - as opposed to $2 to $30 at Veer itself.

The reason it's especially remarkable that is that the entire 839 images I've had approved appear at PocketStock, where only 593 images appear on Veer's own site.

thats curious, I am in Veer since the start and I have no files on PocketStock..

+1

And it looks like the numbers discrepancy on Veer is a glitch.  I checked my portfolio twice: first time there was 461 images, second time there were 516 as expected.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: luissantos84 on May 26, 2012, 10:31
So my whole Veer portfolio is at PocketStock, at prices from $70 to $840 - as opposed to $2 to $30 at Veer itself.

The reason it's especially remarkable that is that the entire 839 images I've had approved appear at PocketStock, where only 593 images appear on Veer's own site.


thats curious, I am in Veer since the start and I have no files on PocketStock..


+1

And it looks like the numbers discrepancy on Veer is a glitch.  I checked my portfolio twice: first time there was 461 images, second time there were 516 as expected.


try and find them at http://www.pocketstock.com.mx (http://www.pocketstock.com.mx)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 26, 2012, 10:43

+1

And it looks like the numbers discrepancy on Veer is a glitch.  I checked my portfolio twice: first time there was 461 images, second time there were 516 as expected.

Not for me - no matter how many times I check, the smaller number is the same. I refresh the page, click See all - nothing changes. And it was that way a week or two ago when I first posted here about files not appearing in my public portfolio.

If you try your full name in double quotes on PocketStock, do you find anything that way? There's no link to an artist's portfolio from one image, so after I found one of mine through I search I tried the double quoted name, and that worked - for me anyway.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Maui on May 26, 2012, 11:21
If you try your full name in double quotes on PocketStock, do you find anything that way? There's no link to an artist's portfolio from one image, so after I found one of mine through I search I tried the double quoted name, and that worked - for me anyway.

Yes, that works for me, too.

I think Veer has got a lot to explain by now.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: dirkr on May 26, 2012, 11:37
Just a little remark about the prices. That site is from Mexico and the prices are in mexican Pesos, one being worth about 7 US cents.
I fully agree about the lack of transparancy and the urgent need for Veer to clear things up (and provide opt out per partner).
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 26, 2012, 12:46
Just a little remark about the prices. That site is from Mexico and the prices are in mexican Pesos, one being worth about 7 US cents.
I fully agree about the lack of transparancy and the urgent need for Veer to clear things up (and provide opt out per partner).

I saw a $ and didn't think about it being another currency - you're probably right though as I guess $ is used for pesos too. It says from 3 to 71 credits, wheras on Veer it's from 1 to 20 credits.

On Veer, 50 credits will cost you $67.50 and on PocketStock, 50 points will cost you 959 pesos, so it looks as though the per credit prices are roughly comparable. IOW Pocket stock is charging almost 3 times as much as Veer
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: XPTO on May 26, 2012, 12:46
deleted
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 26, 2012, 16:28
Just a little remark about the prices. That site is from Mexico and the prices are in mexican Pesos, one being worth about 7 US cents.
I fully agree about the lack of transparancy and the urgent need for Veer to clear things up (and provide opt out per partner).

I saw a $ and didn't think about it being another currency - you're probably right though as I guess $ is used for pesos too. It says from 3 to 71 credits, wheras on Veer it's from 1 to 20 credits.

On Veer, 50 credits will cost you $67.50 and on PocketStock, 50 points will cost you 959 pesos, so it looks as though the per credit prices are roughly comparable. IOW Pocket stock is charging almost 3 times as much as Veer

oops sorry I did the same saw $ and assumed $US will see if I can edit original post
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 27, 2012, 01:34
Well, Pocketstock has got heaps of my pictures that I never sent to Veer, so I reckon it is getting them from somewhere else.

I've got doubts about the commission calculations that are being suggested. Perhaps Veer meant they will pay their normal commission percentage, rather than that they will pay pennies on a file that sells for hundreds.  It's still not acceptable for them to upload duplicates to Alamy, though they don't seem to have got round to my files yet.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gemmy12 on May 27, 2012, 03:07
omg, I have only 14 images with veer as i joined them recently. and all of 14 images are in pocketstock lol
btw is www.pocketstock.com (http://www.pocketstock.com)  different from www.pocketstock.com.mx (http://www.pocketstock.com.mx) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx

Well, Pocketstock has got heaps of my pictures that I never sent to Veer, so I reckon it is getting them from somewhere else.


As i said pocketstock has "only those 14 images of mine" what i had submitted to Veer. so its certainly Veer who has submitted my images to pocketstock
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on May 27, 2012, 04:44
omg, I have only 14 images with veer as i joined them recently. and all of 14 images are in pocketstock lol
btw is [url=http://www.pocketstock.com]www.pocketstock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com[/url])  different from [url=http://www.pocketstock.com.mx]www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url]) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx

Well, Pocketstock has got heaps of my pictures that I never sent to Veer, so I reckon it is getting them from somewhere else.


As i said pocketstock has "only those 14 images of mine" what i had submitted to Veer. so its certainly Veer who has submitted my images to pocketstock


Yes, I see that Veer, Matton Images, PocketStock and Visualphotos all have the same file number on the same image for one of mine. It looks as if someone has taken some very similar shots to mine and supplied them to Veer, that's what confused me.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on May 27, 2012, 06:26
With all the partner programs Veer seems to be involved with I'd expect more sales.

http://www.imagedirekt.com (http://www.imagedirekt.com)    watermarks show veer
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on May 27, 2012, 09:24
I upload my RF images to 12 sites including Veer and Alamy.  Alamy has 9% market share.  Veer has 5%.  About 680 images from my Veer portfolio are now at Alamy Creative.  Everyone of these images is already in my Alamy port.

The Veer/Alamy duplicity situation creates a financial incentive to stop uploading to Veer and begin the process of removing the "Alamy Creative" images from my Veer portfolio.  

I sincerely hope Veer does the right thing and lets us opt out.  
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 28, 2012, 09:46
So Brian....how is the solution going?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: stormchaser on May 28, 2012, 10:25
So Brian....how is the solution going?

Yes Brian, inquiring minds want to know.

Actually I don't know how Veer could even think of doing this, especially when it's known that a lot of microstockers are double stuffing, meaning Alamy and the micros. Didn't anyone over there realize that there was going to be a conflict by submitting dupes? And if Veer didn't know that, then they don't know the business.

Also interesting is is that images are some images do not meet Alamy's size requirements. They're just being arbitrarily shoved up there.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on May 28, 2012, 10:34
Also interesting is is that images are some images do not meet Alamy's size requirements. They're just being arbitrarily shoved up there.
That is interesting in itself, as too-small files usually just get sifted out automagically at upload.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: briciola on May 28, 2012, 10:36
I was always under the impression that it was bad form to submit micro images to Alamy, but if they will accept ms images via Veer then I suppose I should just submit them directly - thanks Veer for the idea.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: WarrenPrice on May 28, 2012, 11:00
I was always under the impression that it was bad form to submit micro images to Alamy, but if they will accept ms images via Veer then I suppose I should just submit them directly - thanks Veer for the idea.

I had similar assumptions.  I guess my ideas are from "assuming" that RF was microstock.  If RF and RM are being licensed for the same price ... what is the differentiation?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: kingjon on May 28, 2012, 11:15
Alamy accepts RF. You shouldn't be uploading the same images as RF and RM.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: briciola on May 28, 2012, 11:18
Alamy accepts RF. You shouldn't be uploading the same images as RF and RM.
yeah I knew that - I'm pretty sure I read in Douglas Freer's book that while some people put the same images on Alamy as the micros, it's frowned upon because of the different price points, so it's better to have seperate ports
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rubyroo on May 28, 2012, 12:06
I asked Alamy years ago if it was OK to upload microstock images to them, and they said it was fine.

IMO, when in doubt, it's always better to ask the agency directly, rather than listen to other voices in the industry or inaccuracies perpetuated in forums.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gostwyck on May 28, 2012, 12:17
IMO, when in doubt, it's always better to ask the agency directly, rather than listen to other voices in the industry or inaccuracies perpetuated in forums.

Exactly. Douglas's book was published over 4 years ago and quite a lot has happened since then. Most specifically the Alamy license (which is what the customers are actually buying) is different to most microstock licenses so it is not the same product.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: XPTO on May 29, 2012, 05:45
My Veer portfolio on Alamy continues to grow, and it's almost the double than it was on last Friday.

This is not good, not good at all!

Someone from Veer needs to come here and answer what's our cut in a sale made through alamy.

It's inadmissible if an image sells there for $245 and we get $5, losing a sale through alamy that would earn us about $147.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: tab62 on May 29, 2012, 09:29
how can you tell if a sale from Veer was taken from our alamy portfolio?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 29, 2012, 09:35
As noted the files are still being transferred, and now 44 of mine show up.

In addition to doing very odd things with the keywords - it looks like the "main" keywords are just taken from the title - what they've done on some images to the descriptions is downright bizarre. Many images have no descriptions, but those which do have some jumble of words - nothing I ever put

For example, for an image of lounge chairs on Grace Bay Beach, the Alamy description is "activity businesses Central Americas seat seating furnishing".

On Veer, the title is "Lounge chairs on tranquil Grace Bay Beach" and the description is "Beach chaises at water's edge on the soft white sands of Grace Bay Beach, Turks & Caicos" Where did they get business and Central Americas out of that?

And the credit line doesn't include our name - just © Alamy Creativity/Alamy. I think that's fairly standard for these re-distribution deals, but I don't like seeing my images with someone else's copyright on them
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Pixart on May 29, 2012, 09:58
They cannot put their copyright on them. They DO NOT OWN THE COPYRIGHT.  YOU DO!!!  Is this not a crime?????
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on May 29, 2012, 11:30
On March 12 Veer support delete 10 of my photos (at my request).  The photos were removed from my Veer port in a timely fashion.  These photos have reemerged and are being sold at Alamy Creative.  Anyone else having this problem?  I'm really hoping we get the opt out button soon. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rimglow on May 29, 2012, 11:57
I just tried to contact support but when I hit "send" I'm informed that [email protected]/ is not a valid email address. How do you contact them?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 29, 2012, 12:03
Take the trailing slash off the e-mail address. I've already contacted support about this coding error on their part
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cathyslife on May 29, 2012, 12:54
They cannot put their copyright on them. They DO NOT OWN THE COPYRIGHT.  YOU DO!!!  Is this not a crime?????

Of course it's a crime, it's copyright infringement. It's big companies taking advantage of contributors who are trying to make a buck.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 29, 2012, 13:14
It will be a shame if Veer ruin their reputation over this.  They should ask alamy to remove the collection until they have an opt out.  Otherwise lots of people will leave Veer and they're going to have a tough task convincing people that they're trustworthy again.  Mud sticks, microstock contributors have a lot of sites to use and dropping one with relatively low sales isn't going to be a problem.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: jm on May 29, 2012, 14:12
I was so naive that I took for granted that transfer of images to Alamy is stopped until "the process of considering and implementing options" is over. Another 100+ of my images has been transferred in few last days. It must be some kind of black humor.  :-\
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on May 30, 2012, 04:04
Just a suggestion to those asking that their Veer accounts be closed.  You might want to ask them to deactivate your images, rather than removing them.  This situation will probably be resolved favorably and it would be a bummer to have to start over uploading again. 

I closed my account a couple of years ago and they removed my images.  Later things improved there, and the process of uploading at 50/week is so slow and arduous that it took me over a year and a half just to get back to where I had been before closing my account. 

Hi, new Microstock Group member here. Absolutely astonished at this policy from Veer. Following the advice above from Lisa I just emailed them this:

"I am writing to request that you deactivate (rather than delete) my images on Veer until such time that Veer offer an opt-out to the distribution scheme that includes Alamy.

Whilst I have no evidence that my Veer images have been distributed via Alamy I suspect that it is only a matter of time. I find your policy of forcing content producers to compete against and undercut themselves as reprehensible, underhand and totally unacceptable business practice. I'm sure that you don't need me to tell you of the reputational damage that this policy is doing to the Veer brand amongst Microstock contributors."

Once I have a reply from Veer I'll share it here.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gostwyck on May 30, 2012, 04:13
It will be a shame if Veer ruin their reputation over this. 

I doubt it. I already had a very low opinion of them. Corbis's attempt to break into the microstock market has always been lukewarm, probably underfunded and ultimately doomed to fail. IMHO they will never be 'a player'.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 30, 2012, 04:44
It's frustrating because they're close to being "a player" but every time they make some progress, something like this sets them back.  It would be easier for them to succeed than find the ways they have to fail.  It's a bit like a football team of expensive players that under perform year after year.  Someone there needs the Alex Ferguson hairdryer :)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: andresr on May 30, 2012, 07:30
Agree, they are so desperate to become "someone" in the market that it leads to something like putting our images on Alamy without telling us!
It's like people who are deep in debt trouble starting to steal .... sad very sad!

I just wrote to support asking them too remove my images from Alamy or remove my account from Veer, this is just ridiculous ... Alamy makes me 6 to 10 times more than Veer so it is definately not worth having my images from Veer there AT ALL!

Hope there is a solution soon
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rimglow on May 30, 2012, 07:35
Agree, they are so desperate to become "someone" in the market that it leads to something like putting our images on Alamy without telling us!
It's like people who are deep in debt trouble starting to steal .... sad very sad!

I just wrote to support asking them too remove my images from Alamy or remove my account from Veer, this is just ridiculous ... Alamy makes me 6 to 10 times more than Veer so it is definately not worth having my images from Veer there AT ALL!

Hope there is a solution soon

+1  I wrote support asking the same thing.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 30, 2012, 07:43
... btw is [url=http://www.pocketstock.com]www.pocketstock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com[/url])  different from [url=http://www.pocketstock.com.mx]www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url]) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx


My images only show at pocketstock.com.mx and not at pocketstock.com

I am with Veer so should I expect them to show up on pocketstock.com as well?

This is a huge mindf$*&.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 30, 2012, 11:24
Brian, it would be good to get some definitive word on how this is being handled.  I remain hopeful that Veer will do the right thing here and remove the Alamy Creativity images of contributors that don't want them there, but as time passes with no word, it is becoming more of a concern. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on May 30, 2012, 15:20
... btw is [url=http://www.pocketstock.com]www.pocketstock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com[/url])  different from [url=http://www.pocketstock.com.mx]www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url]) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx


My images only show at pocketstock.com.mx and not at pocketstock.com

I am with Veer so should I expect them to show up on pocketstock.com as well?

This is a huge mindf$*&.


And me. All my Veer images show at pocketstock.com.mx but none at pocketstock.com.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 30, 2012, 15:28
I caution Veer (Brian) to make this statement as public as possible.

By that I mean that Veer should send out the statement via email to all contributors and not just post in this thread here.

I'm sure that still a large number of contributors (who aren't members of MSG) have no clue what is happening. Everyone needs to be informed.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: traveler1116 on May 30, 2012, 15:33
I caution Veer (Brian) to make this statement as public as possible.

By that I mean that Veer should send out the statement via email to all contributors and not just post in this thread here.

I'm sure that still a large number of contributors (who aren't members of MSG) have no clue what is happening. Everyone needs to be informed.
I don't think their scheme would work if they told everyone about it.   Maybe they are gauging the response now to see if they need to change anything.  If 99% of the contributors don't notice then maybe it's best just to push it under the rug and continue like nothing happened.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 30, 2012, 16:05
I caution Veer (Brian) to make this statement as public as possible.

By that I mean that Veer should send out the statement via email to all contributors and not just post in this thread here.

I'm sure that still a large number of contributors (who aren't members of MSG) have no clue what is happening. Everyone needs to be informed.
I don't think their scheme would work if they told everyone about it.   Maybe they are gauging the response now to see if they need to change anything.  If 99% of the contributors don't notice then maybe it's best just to push it under the rug and continue like nothing happened.
It's possible but I think unlikely.

Brian would lose a lot of credibility if he won't post a response, despite promising that he would.

Still, I think a few heavy weights Like Andres might pull the plug and that is something that will hurt Veer.

However, Veer never made the impression to me to be a priority at Corbis (regarding the microstock area), so maybe they just want to let this thing bleed out anyway and take whatever (little) money they can make with it.

All the issues (reviewing times, collection update delays, communication problems etc.) speak for themselves.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: xst on May 30, 2012, 17:23
Last reply from Ryan, 5 days ago:

Quote
"I haven’t received an update as to the details of the Alamy situation as of yet, sorry for the delay."
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sc on May 30, 2012, 17:54
... btw is [url=http://www.pocketstock.com]www.pocketstock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com[/url])  different from [url=http://www.pocketstock.com.mx]www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url]) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx


My images only show at pocketstock.com.mx and not at pocketstock.com

I am with Veer so should I expect them to show up on pocketstock.com as well?

This is a huge mindf$*&.


Those two sites aren't related.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: luissantos84 on May 30, 2012, 18:25
... btw is [url=http://www.pocketstock.com]www.pocketstock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com[/url])  different from [url=http://www.pocketstock.com.mx]www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url]) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx


My images only show at pocketstock.com.mx and not at pocketstock.com

I am with Veer so should I expect them to show up on pocketstock.com as well?

This is a huge mindf$*&.


Those two sites aren't related.


it does look like they aren´t but its so weird having the exact same company name
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sc on May 30, 2012, 18:47
... btw is [url=http://www.pocketstock.com]www.pocketstock.com[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com[/url])  different from [url=http://www.pocketstock.com.mx]www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url] ([url]http://www.pocketstock.com.mx[/url]) ? as my images are not in pocketstock.com but in pocketstock.com.mx


My images only show at pocketstock.com.mx and not at pocketstock.com

I am with Veer so should I expect them to show up on pocketstock.com as well?

This is a huge mindf$*&.


I asked them and they claim not to be related.
I guess thats the problem of having so many url extensions - you can't buy up all the possibilities.


Those two sites aren't related.


it does look like they aren´t but its so weird having the exact same company name
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on May 30, 2012, 19:01
I guess I'm gonna register gettyimages.com.mx then  ::)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Sadstock on May 30, 2012, 22:42
Just updated the partner program list to reflect the various newly identified Veer partners.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/a-list-of-partner-programs/msg194802/#msg194802 (http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/a-list-of-partner-programs/msg194802/#msg194802)

Also noticed Pocketstock.com file numbers are based on the name of the contributor, (for example files that start with "MYA" are Yuri files).  Don't know what that means, but there it is.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Wim on May 31, 2012, 01:55
Are sales dead for everyone else too the last couple of weeks? my last sale was May 16.
Sales were fine before, number 6 on my best earning sites list.

What the h..l is going on there lately? all because of this Alamy partnership which was a huge mistake anyway.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 31, 2012, 04:09
Are sales dead for everyone else too the last couple of weeks? my last sale was May 16.
Sales were fine before, number 6 on my best earning sites list.

What the h..l is going on there lately? all because of this Alamy partnership which was a huge mistake anyway.

last month and this month each about 50% of normal months.

Its now 15 days since Ryan said they working on an addressment... Really how hard is it?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on May 31, 2012, 04:24
deleted double post
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on May 31, 2012, 05:40
I wonder if they're under staffed and over worked or if it's just bad management?  Things have changed from the days when they were quite active here and would sort problems out reasonably quickly.  It's not encouraging for contributors.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on May 31, 2012, 06:07
It should be pretty easy to tell us how much we get paid for sales on Alamy from our veer portfolio.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Perry on May 31, 2012, 06:10
It should be pretty easy to tell us how much we get paid for sales on Alamy from our veer portfolio.

+1
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on May 31, 2012, 06:25
Bah... first images I've upload to Veer already appear duplicated ( Alamy and Creative Collection ).  

Already emailed them to disable all images and remove them  from Alamy creative collection.  
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on May 31, 2012, 06:41
For me does not bother me so much this partnership if:

- Veer placed only the pictures that I do not have on Alamy.
- Opt-Out option by agency. Alamy is Macro... end of conversation. I don't bother work with PP of micro stock agency's with another micro stock ones ( less for even less... but not  with my beloved Alamy )

 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Elenathewise on May 31, 2012, 10:07
This is absolutely unacceptable. After emails to Brian requesting removing my Veer portfolio from Alamy, the number of my files in "alamy creativity" keeps increasing! It seems that their "we are looking into it" is just a simple delay tactics. There is no explanation both in public or in private on why files are still being transferred to Alamy, and I am not taking this bullsh*t anymore. I am going to request cancelling my account on Veer today, immediately.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Brian O'Shea on May 31, 2012, 10:57
We will be working with Alamy to halt loading, and remove all content loaded to Alamy from Veer.

We apologize for the frustration this has caused our community, and the undue delays and lack of clarity in communication while we untangle this.  More details to come.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rimglow on May 31, 2012, 11:05
Hooray!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 31, 2012, 11:11
Halting, removing and more details sounds good.

Any idea on how soon these "more details" will be available? And will we get information about how we are compensated on sales via PocketStock where prices are 3x the prices on Veer's own site - and any other partner sales sites?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on May 31, 2012, 11:14
Great news!  Thanks a lot, Brian, for responding to our concerns.  :)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 31, 2012, 11:20
We will be working with Alamy to halt loading, and remove all content loaded to Alamy from Veer.

We apologize for the frustration this has caused our community, and the undue delays and lack of clarity in communication while we untangle this.  More details to come.


You are my hero of the day Brian!  ;D
Thank you so much for your support!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on May 31, 2012, 11:33
Hi Brian,

That is clearly the right thing to do. Thanks for listening to your contributors concerns. Can I suggest that in future Veer are more open and up front with their policy plans? Perhaps even consulting with contributors where possible? It's generally accepted as good business practice to consult and listen rather than work behind a smoke screen!

Kind regards,
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: etienjones on May 31, 2012, 11:40
Thanks Brian
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cathyslife on May 31, 2012, 11:44
Hi Brian,

That is clearly the right thing to do. Thanks for listening to your contributors concerns. Can I suggest that in future Veer are more open and up front with their policy plans? Perhaps even consulting with contributors where possible? It's generally accepted as good business practice to consult and listen rather than work behind a smoke screen!

Kind regards,

It's always easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission and agencies follow this "rule" to a T.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: traveler1116 on May 31, 2012, 11:47
We will be working with Alamy to halt loading, and remove all content loaded to Alamy from Veer.

We apologize for the frustration this has caused our community, and the undue delays and lack of clarity in communication while we untangle this.  More details to come.


You are my hero of the day Brian!  ;D
Thank you so much for your support!
That seems like a very loose use of the word hero, it was a terrible decision to put the files up on Alamy in the first place and just as bad that they did it secretly and then took a week to give a response that in the future it will be fixed.  I think they saw how many people were closing their accounts permanently (two of my friends did) because of this and were forced to make the change.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: velocicarpo on May 31, 2012, 11:50
We will be working with Alamy to halt loading, and remove all content loaded to Alamy from Veer.

We apologize for the frustration this has caused our community, and the undue delays and lack of clarity in communication while we untangle this.  More details to come.


You are my hero of the day Brian!  ;D
Thank you so much for your support!
That seems like a very loose use of the word hero, it was a terrible decision to put the files up on Alamy in the first place and just as bad that they did it secretly and then took a week to give a response that in the future it will be fixed.  I think they saw how many people were closing their accounts permanently (two of my friends did) because of this and were forced to make the change.

Yeah, sure, you are right..therefore the enormous title "hero" is jsut deserved for a day ;-)
Although a mistake was made before I highly value People who are able to correct their decisions instead of playing the kids "Power game"....and this imho deserves a big "thanks"...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: pancaketom on May 31, 2012, 12:24
This is good to hear, thank you.

I see 604 of my images show up under "Creative Images" right now. Hopefully that number will now start going down instead of up.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Elenathewise on May 31, 2012, 14:53
We will be working with Alamy to halt loading, and remove all content loaded to Alamy from Veer.

We apologize for the frustration this has caused our community, and the undue delays and lack of clarity in communication while we untangle this.  More details to come.


Thanks for posting an update Brian. However, what puzzles me here is this:  why do you have to "work with Alamy to halt loading"? How come it's so complicated - isn't it enough to give them a call and say - stop loading for now, at least while we sort out some problems? Seems very straightforward to me, and very common sense, in any business environment. It is surprising in the least than such simple task - just halting uploads for God's sake! - can not be worked out between the two companies....
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Equus on May 31, 2012, 15:06
I think we'd all like to know why you preferred to remove all that content from Alamy, rather than offer an opt out? Is it because you didn't want to say how much commission you were planning to pass on to contributors, and how much keep for yourselves?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cidepix on May 31, 2012, 15:34
Even though I didn't previously post on this thread, I was anxiously following the issue and was on the verge of removing my images from veer..

Still keeping an eye on it for more details..
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Ed on May 31, 2012, 20:17
Brian, how can folks be assured that the content is being removed as opposed to simply being assigned to a new pseudonym on Alamy which doesn't reflect the Veer brand (as was done initially before folks figured out what was going on)?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on May 31, 2012, 20:34
Brian, how can folks be assured that the content is being removed as opposed to simply being assigned to a new pseudonym on Alamy which doesn't reflect the Veer brand (as was done initially before folks figured out what was going on)?

They use my name on the Veer files - which happens to be my Alamy pseudonym anyway. So if they left the files there, I'd find them unless they really pulled a fast one and removed our identifying information - which I doubt they could do given the troubles they've had transferring keywords, descriptions, etc.

I'd make a bookmark using the Pseudonym you currently see of all your Veer-derived files, and keep checking that.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: luissantos84 on May 31, 2012, 20:37
nice job!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Tabimura on June 01, 2012, 04:28
Actually today there are several hundreds more of my images on Alamy from Veer  ???
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: pancaketom on June 01, 2012, 10:06
While not as large a jump, I went from 604 yesterday to 617 today. It is going in the wrong direction.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on June 01, 2012, 12:42
I'm relieved, I didn't want to pull out of Veer.

That said, I wonder why I haven't had the information sent via e-mail, since I put a complaint in about it.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: brm1949 on June 01, 2012, 12:57
Went from 164 to 213. Hope this gets fixed soon. Haven't sold anything there though.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on June 01, 2012, 14:01
Went from 164 to 213. Hope this gets fixed soon. Haven't sold anything there though.

Well, you can't be sure of that because reporting is so slow - but so are sales, so the chances are that you haven't.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on June 01, 2012, 15:16
I'm relieved, I didn't want to pull out of Veer.

That said, I wonder why I haven't had the information sent via e-mail, since I put a complaint in about it.

I've not had a reply to my email either. I suspect the staff at Veer have been too busy unpicking their agreement with Alamy these last few days. For their part, Alamy are today proposing increased forays into commercial photography - so I don't imagine that this is the last of the Microstock Libaries to explore some form of distribution model with them....
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on June 01, 2012, 16:25
I'm pleased Veer is going to correct the "Alamy Creative" situation.  However, I'm going to wait until my images are actually removed before uploading anymore to them. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on June 01, 2012, 16:35
I wouldn't mind veer putting them on alamy if
 
1) no duplication of existing content
2) we got the % royality of the sale price not normal veer royality
3) option for opt out if you wanted
Title: Veer portfolio on Alamy deleted
Post by: XPTO on June 04, 2012, 12:34
I've checked and at this moment my Veer portfolio on Alamy has been deleted.

Thanks Brian, but I'll keep a close eye on this issue since as someone living from the stock income I cannot trade +30% of my income for 2% of it.
Title: Re: Veer portfolio on Alamy deleted
Post by: Ed on June 04, 2012, 13:07
I've checked and at this moment my Veer portfolio on Alamy has been deleted.

Thanks Brian, but I'll keep a close eye on this issue since as someone living from the stock income I cannot trade +30% of my income for 2% of it.

There is a technical issue going on at Alamy where recent uploaded images are not showing up in searches...I had a batch of 146 images that went live on Friday that are missing from the search but are still listed in Manage Images.  May or may not be related to you not seeing things in your search.
Title: Re: Veer portfolio on Alamy deleted
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on June 04, 2012, 14:22
I've checked and at this moment my Veer portfolio on Alamy has been deleted.

Thanks Brian, but I'll keep a close eye on this issue since as someone living from the stock income I cannot trade +30% of my income for 2% of it.

There is a technical issue going on at Alamy where recent uploaded images are not showing up in searches...I had a batch of 146 images that went live on Friday that are missing from the search but are still listed in Manage Images.  May or may not be related to you not seeing things in your search.

The few images from Veer Portfolio that I got on Alamy "Creative Colection" were removed. And they more than year old on both agency's, so I doubt that is related to that search issue.

Before that I sent an email requesting Veer to suspend all my images. Got an answer after one day or less, on June 1, saying that images would be removed from Alamy.

One of two things:

- Or they are removing in reverse order ("LIFO").
- Or they are remove smaller batch's first

Anyway, they promise and are doing it. I'm still interested if they control duplicates and/or have opt-out option.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Maui on June 04, 2012, 15:39
My images are gone as well. Very good.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: brm1949 on June 04, 2012, 15:42
Yep, all 213 taken down. That's good.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on June 04, 2012, 17:13
They were still there this morning but seem to be gone now.
Title: Re: Veer portfolio on Alamy deleted
Post by: XPTO on June 05, 2012, 07:31
I've checked and at this moment my Veer portfolio on Alamy has been deleted.

Thanks Brian, but I'll keep a close eye on this issue since as someone living from the stock income I cannot trade +30% of my income for 2% of it.

There is a technical issue going on at Alamy where recent uploaded images are not showing up in searches...I had a batch of 146 images that went live on Friday that are missing from the search but are still listed in Manage Images.  May or may not be related to you not seeing things in your search.

Unfortunately you are right. All my images are on Alamy again.
Title: Re: Veer portfolio on Alamy deleted
Post by: Maui on June 05, 2012, 07:53
I've checked and at this moment my Veer portfolio on Alamy has been deleted.

Thanks Brian, but I'll keep a close eye on this issue since as someone living from the stock income I cannot trade +30% of my income for 2% of it.

There is a technical issue going on at Alamy where recent uploaded images are not showing up in searches...I had a batch of 146 images that went live on Friday that are missing from the search but are still listed in Manage Images.  May or may not be related to you not seeing things in your search.

Unfortunately you are right. All my images are on Alamy again.

True  :'( It was only a bug. Sigh.  >:(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ingesche on June 05, 2012, 08:27
Argh, you're right.  They're all back.  Not happy about this...  >:(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on June 05, 2012, 08:48
Argh +1
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: rimglow on June 05, 2012, 09:02
Argh +1

Mine are back too.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 05, 2012, 09:11
Mine are back, but no additional images - IOW it does appear they've stopped adding files.

I think it's time for Brian to step in and give us an update on how long it will be before the images are removed.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Wim on June 05, 2012, 12:22
lol, kinda funny reading through this thread.
I'm in the same boat as you guys though but I'll let the big fish work it out first ;)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on June 05, 2012, 12:59
In my case, some are back, others not... none new. Anyway something is going on.. let's hope  ;D
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: etienjones on June 05, 2012, 14:24
For me,  the images in the Alamy Creativity Collection have been reduced by half so far.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 05, 2012, 15:39
For me,  the images in the Alamy Creativity Collection have been reduced by half so far.


I just checked, and the total count for the collection is 678,268, which is the same as it was this morning. Here's a link (http://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?CreativeOn=1&qt=Alamy+Creativity&all=1&creative=&adv=1) to check periodically to see if it's going down on up.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: brm1949 on June 05, 2012, 16:15
Mine are all back also.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: XPTO on June 06, 2012, 09:58
My Veer collection on Alamy continues to GROW!

I have several hundred more images on-line this afternoon than this morning.

Answers needed ASAP, or I won't hesitate to delete my portfolio from Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 06, 2012, 11:24
Indeed, the count this morning for Alamy Creativity is 901,435 - it's grown by almost 50% since yesterday
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on June 07, 2012, 13:52
Now at 910,644 - so it's still going up despite their latest promise of putting it on hold.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ingesche on June 08, 2012, 04:25
Yes, they are still adding Veer content to Alamy.  I see more and more of my Veer images on Alamy, including duplicates.  I am now seriously considering pulling the plug on Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 08, 2012, 09:36
Up to 918,070 this morning - Brian, can you please explain what's going on?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on June 08, 2012, 13:44
What a fiasco.  I still don't want to have to leave Veer but we at least need more updates on what's being done about this.

Veer should pay us 100% of the money they receive from alamy for any sales of our images until they're all removed.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: redo on June 08, 2012, 16:28
How can I delete images in my veer-portfolio ?
Or have I contact support for this ?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: donding on June 08, 2012, 17:58
How can I delete images in my veer-portfolio ?
Or have I contact support for this ?

Yes you have to contact them to remove your port.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on June 11, 2012, 04:05
It would seem that they're not taking this issue seriously, as they are clearly continuing to increase the Alamy Creativity collection I can only presume that not enough contributors have complained about this issue and they have decided to go back on their word as posted on this forum 11 days ago:

We will be working with Alamy to halt loading, and remove all content loaded to Alamy from Veer.

We apologize for the frustration this has caused our community, and the undue delays and lack of clarity in communication while we untangle this.  More details to come.


I guess from their point of view they stand to make a lot of money selling their contributors work on Alamy whilst only paying them a fraction of the commission they would have received by going direct.

Either way their lack of communication and u-turn over this move shows how much they value their contributors.

When I emailed them to ask to have my account terminated I got a personal reply asking whether it was over the Alamy issue and whether I would stay if they provided a solution, looks like I'll continue with my termination then.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ingesche on June 11, 2012, 04:15
I emailed support last week and stated that I wanted my images removed from Alamy, quoting the last post by Brian on MSG.  I also mentioned that, if the only way to do that would be to close my account, that's what I would do.  Still waiting for a reply...  They definitely do not appear to be taking this seriously.  I know I am only a very small contributor, especially compared to people like RT.  But it's also a matter of principles.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on June 11, 2012, 05:41
I received this reply from Veer on the 1st June in response to my email requesting deactivation of my images pending a distributor opt-out option:

"We are in the process of working with Alamy to halt loading of Veer content onto their site. In addition we will be working with Alamy to remove all Veer files loaded to Alamy.  We will ensure that if any sales were recorded, that they will be paid equitably.
 
We apologize profusely that this occurred in the first place, and that it has taken much longer to untangle than we would have liked.
We will have further details soon."

It seems that at the very least Veer are being inconsistent and unreliable. Not a good way to run a business...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 11, 2012, 09:30
The number hasn't grown over the weekend - but it hasn't gone down either. I am having a hard time coming up with  a scenario where this kind of delay could be possible (where delay isn't even really accurate as the numbers grew by 50% after Veer said they'd halt uploading) if this was really a priority for Veer and they had reasonable control over their IT systems.

And I'm also not happy that having done a "mea culpa" over poor communications with contributors, Brian has been absent and silent since. I think a reasonable person might have thought that "More details to come" meant within a few days - and if you can't get all the answers right away, you at least come here and say that. You'd be surprised how far an explanation and apology will go - we're reasonable folk.

Over a week's silence is just plain rude.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on June 11, 2012, 10:42
We will ensure that if any sales were recorded, that they will be paid equitably.
Where "equitably" = ...?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sharpshot on June 11, 2012, 10:48
Perhaps Veer sent alamy a hard drive with all the images they wanted in the collection and the message hasn't got through to stop putting them on alamy?  If Veer are still sending alamy our images, this is an appalling situation.

I'll give them to the end of the month but then my patience will run out.  We should at least get an explanation of how more images have been added to alamy after being told they were removing them.  The lack of communications make me wonder if people care there anymore?  There's enough sites with a bad attitude towards contributors, I thought Veer were better than that but this has been very disappointing.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on June 11, 2012, 16:27
Does it all really matter?

Brian is just someone who takes the heat for this whole thing.

Veer simply doesn't care who or how many of us quit contributing to them either.

Why? Because there are simply too many contributors who gladly take the peanuts they can get because they live in countries where literally any amount is appreciated and worth a lot.

iStock has proven to a very large number of contributors that they can do whatever they want without having to fear severe consequences to their operation.

Sure some angry big shot will pull his/her port and a few mid-size contributors but it's really just a drop in the bucket.

Even if Veer is trying get things right, it's just an act. Their actions to this point have proven perfectly well, that they simply don't give a rat's a$$.

What else is there to say?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on June 11, 2012, 17:10
iStock has proven to a very large number of contributors that they can do whatever they want without having to fear severe consequences to their operation.

Sure some angry big shot will pull his/her port and a few mid-size contributors but it's really just a drop in the bucket.

Whatever iS have done is nothing in comparison to what Veer is doing, Veer is directly taking money away from contributors who already have their portfolio on Alamy by making you compete against yourself, and by the very fact that they will eventually climb the search rankings through sales volume lead by the sheer number of images in their 'collective portfolio' it means that soon all your images you uploaded directly will be buried behind your same images that they uploaded, meaning that most likely the buyer will see and get your image at the same cost to him/her but you'll get a fraction of the commission you would have done before this move.

And from the 'big shots' I've been in touch with I think you'll find it's going to be more than a drop in the bucket.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on June 11, 2012, 17:52
iStock has proven to a very large number of contributors that they can do whatever they want without having to fear severe consequences to their operation.

Sure some angry big shot will pull his/her port and a few mid-size contributors but it's really just a drop in the bucket.


Whatever iS have done is nothing in comparison to what Veer is doing, Veer is directly taking money away from contributors who already have their portfolio on Alamy by making you compete against yourself, and by the very fact that they will eventually climb the search rankings through sales volume lead by the sheer number of images in their 'collective portfolio' it means that soon all your images you uploaded directly will be buried behind your same images that they uploaded, meaning that most likely the buyer will see and get your image at the same cost to him/her but you'll get a fraction of the commission you would have done before this move.

And from the 'big shots' I've been in touch with I think you'll find it's going to be more than a drop in the bucket.

I think a bunch of contributors agree that IS has done A LOT to upset us over the course of SEVERAL years and not just by screwing us with a partner agency like Veer does right now.

As many recall, IS has not only decided to constantly cut our commissions but also, and that's the more important part (to me), lied to our and the buyers' faces promising stable prices when they had no such intent of keeping those promises.

I don't say that to devalue the importance of what's happening here with Veer but I think I can make a valid comparison after all.

I couldn't afford to leave IS but I could afford to leave Veer. However, I don't plan on doing so because I will still lose out money in the long run (anyone can argue on this one to death so let's not go there). I think only very large portfolios actually experience a drop in their regular Alamy's sales because of this. I have 2.5k with Alamy and consider it small and I don't see a dent in my sales because of Veer.

Of course I hate to see duplicates of mine as much as Alamy does. Alamy will protect their own interests by removing duplicates as soon as possible. I could not see why Alamy would do that to themselves - that alone has nothing to do with Veer (or at least Veer's decision process).

I personally believe it's a myth that Alamy's customers prefer to shop at Alamy despite finding the same images at the micros. The big 4 have probably 90% of all microstock content - so all big Alamy customers most likely also have microstock buyer accounts. If they can't find an image on the Micros they bite the bullet and buy from Alamy. So the route of going to Alamy first to find micro images doesn't appear to me to be very likely.

Of course, I may very well be wrong on that one...

Sorry for the confused way of making my point (English is not my native tongue and I truly believe that the damage through this Veer/Alamy is relatively small).

I just think that Veer missed the opportunity to make things right. Even if no results are available, communication is key and for that,

they get an F

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXslOHU4wt4[/youtube]
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: gostwyck on June 11, 2012, 18:54
I truly believe that the damage through this Veer/Alamy is relatively small.

I truly believe that you are totally wrong and unless Veer engage reverse gear PDQ they might as well shut up shop.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cathyslife on June 11, 2012, 19:09
snip
I think a bunch of contributors agree that IS has done A LOT to upset us over the course of SEVERAL years and not just by screwing us with a partner agency like Veer does right now.

As many recall, IS has not only decided to constantly cut our commissions but also, and that's the more important part (to me), lied to our and the buyers' faces promising stable prices when they had no such intent of keeping those promises.

I don't say that to devalue the importance of what's happening here with Veer but I think I can make a valid comparison after all.

I think you have made a valid comparison too.

But I agree with gostwyck, this thing with Veer/Alamy is just as despicable. I bailed on Veer when they would not provide an opt out for Partner Programs, so none of this affects me personally. That seems like a petty "nothing" compared to this snafu. I can imagine that many of you are feeling very betrayed right about now.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: XPTO on June 12, 2012, 01:18
I truly believe that the damage through this Veer/Alamy is relatively small.

I truly believe that you are totally wrong and unless Veer engage reverse gear PDQ they might as well shut up shop.

I also believe click_click is totally wrong on this one. All it takes is for you to lose a couple of sales on alamy for Veer and instead of receiving $200 you'll get $5 for example.

You don't need to lose a lot of sales on alamy to take a considerable hit considering, not only the price difference between the agencies, but especially the commission alamy pays you - 60% through the alamy portal / 40% through a distributor.

This whole situation is despicable and I'm starting to see A LOT of bad faith from Veer's part.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: NeverSayNever101 on June 12, 2012, 04:33
Very interesting discussion Re: Veer contributors images on Alamy under 'Alamy Creativity' pseud. But worth noting that the 'Alamy Creativity' pseud does not only contain Veer images! If you look closely and dig around a bit you'll see that there are lots of other Microstock agencies work in that pseud too - the most obvious being 123RF. Maybe that's why the count keeps rising? It's not Veer images it's images from loads of other Microstock sites :o. Check it out!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on June 12, 2012, 05:03
Very interesting discussion Re: Veer contributors images on Alamy under 'Alamy Creativity' pseud. But worth noting that the 'Alamy Creativity' pseud does not only contain Veer images! If you look closely and dig around a bit you'll see that there are lots of other Microstock agencies work in that pseud too - the most obvious being 123RF. Maybe that's why the count keeps rising? It's not Veer images it's images from loads of other Microstock sites :o. Check it out!

Are we going to see triplicates ?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: NeverSayNever101 on June 12, 2012, 05:27
It's not impossible that the plan is to take feeds from ALL the Microstock outlets - every single one & turn Alamy Creativity into the new Creative Collection. Works for the Micro agencies - they get bigger fees & contributors age same cents on the dollar they get if they sell from the Micro. If Alamy already has agreements in place with most of the non-exclusive Micros already then it's likely that the count on that pseud will rise rapidly in the new few months. Then we'll be looking at much more than triplicates! 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Blammo on June 12, 2012, 05:43
 :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 12, 2012, 09:44
Very interesting discussion Re: Veer contributors images on Alamy under 'Alamy Creativity' pseud. But worth noting that the 'Alamy Creativity' pseud does not only contain Veer images! If you look closely and dig around a bit you'll see that there are lots of other Microstock agencies work in that pseud too - the most obvious being 123RF. Maybe that's why the count keeps rising? It's not Veer images it's images from loads of other Microstock sites :o. Check it out!

How did you decide that there was other agency's work in that group - do you have images of your own that are not on Veer and are only on 123rf that were included? The count has stayed stable again this morning, so for the moment, it appears someone has halted uploads.

I would check things out if I knew how you were identifying other agency work there.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on June 12, 2012, 09:56
I truly believe that the damage through this Veer/Alamy is relatively small.

I truly believe that you are totally wrong and unless Veer engage reverse gear PDQ they might as well shut up shop.

I also believe click_click is totally wrong on this one. All it takes is for you to lose a couple of sales on alamy for Veer and instead of receiving $200 you'll get $5 for example.

You don't need to lose a lot of sales on alamy to take a considerable hit considering, not only the price difference between the agencies, but especially the commission alamy pays you - 60% through the alamy portal / 40% through a distributor.

This whole situation is despicable and I'm starting to see A LOT of bad faith from Veer's part.
I'm not a big shot by all means - however do make a living in micro (living in the US).

Alamy, for me, has taken dump over the course of the last 18 months or so by offering massive discounts "to certain buyers" plus the "usual" distributor sale that leaves us with peanuts micro-style.

I can only speak from my experience and the little others are willing to share here in the forums regarding sales at Alamy but my last $350 (my cut) RF sale happened a loooooong time ago.

Alamy royalties represent 15% of my monthly total so it's not something to go completely wonky about. Of course if anyone makes $20,000 a month from the micros - Alamy's portion would be $3,000 and it wold definitely rub me the wrong way too. I'm (luckily) not in that situation though.

Alamy's CEO will NOT like the fact that duplicates are floating around their library, for whatever reason. As soon as this hits the management level I'm 100% sure Alamy will take care of the problem asap, regardless if this is caused by some dodgy partner agreement or whatever.

Veer on the other hand really screwed this one up, but in all "fairness" (in this crap$torm) this doesn't make things right whatever IS did to us in the past.

After doing this micro thing for 7 years now, I've come to the insight that we always will be confronted with such annoyances like IS, Veer etc. - something we have to deal with or sit through, take your pick.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on June 12, 2012, 10:54

Alamy's CEO will NOT like the fact that duplicates are floating around their library, for whatever reason. As soon as this hits the management level I'm 100% sure Alamy will take care of the problem asap, regardless if this is caused by some dodgy partner agreement or whatever.



I certainly hope you're right about this.  If Creativity has collections from multiple different micros then that will be one massive clusterf@ck in Alamy's search.  Like others, I got the e-mail from Alamy saying they don't delete redundant images, but if this becomes widespread they may be forced to deal with it.  If so, I hope they delete the Creativity ones and leave my self-uploaded ones alone...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on June 12, 2012, 11:36
Alamy's CEO will NOT like the fact that duplicates are floating around their library, for whatever reason. As soon as this hits the management level I'm 100% sure Alamy will take care of the problem asap, regardless if this is caused by some dodgy partner agreement or whatever.

Have you actually been following this thread at all?

From page 6:

OFFICIAL ALAMY REPLY:
We do not have a policy to delete duplicates as Alamy is a non exclusive market place.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: loop on June 12, 2012, 12:03
Actually, If I have understood well (and not being affected, bacause I'm not at Veer) that could set a new record: getting about 1 or 2% for a, let's say, 150-200 $ sale!
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on June 12, 2012, 12:07
Alamy's CEO will NOT like the fact that duplicates are floating around their library, for whatever reason. As soon as this hits the management level I'm 100% sure Alamy will take care of the problem asap, regardless if this is caused by some dodgy partner agreement or whatever.
We might think so, but I've seen up to five identicals from different sources at times, i.e. presumably same tog, different 'partners'.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: XPTO on June 12, 2012, 12:54
I'm not a big shot by all means - however do make a living in micro (living in the US).

Alamy, for me, has taken dump over the course of the last 18 months or so by offering massive discounts "to certain buyers" plus the "usual" distributor sale that leaves us with peanuts micro-style.


I also live exclusively from my micro earnings and in my case I live in Europe. The worst part is that Alamy represents more than 30% of all my income and that's why I'm so worried with this issue.

And yes, the alamy average sale has suffered a huge fall after all the commissions. From 2008 to 2011 there was a drop of more than 70% of my average sale value.  From 3 digits to about an EL value on micro. :o

Not only the sales have fallen but alamy cut the commission form 65 to 60%in 2009.

2011 was the first year my income in alamy dropped despite having about 80% increase in the number of images sold.

Nevertheless alamy shows some respect for their contributors and have given up on some decisions in the past after the discontentment hit their foruns and mailbox. Let's hope they do it in this case.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on June 12, 2012, 12:56
Have you actually been following this thread at all?
From page 6:
OFFICIAL ALAMY REPLY:
We do not have a policy to delete duplicates as Alamy is a non exclusive market place.
Thanks RT - I do actually have an issue with MSG's notification emails - I don't receive them anymore for several weeks now (Tyler is informed).

I have a very hard time keeping up with all the threads, believe me.

Well, I cannot force Alamy to remove duplicates but in this instance it borders to insanity to not remove the duplicates. I hope they will come to their senses.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: pancaketom on June 12, 2012, 13:10
Well, Veer at least said they would make things right - which is a lot better than some of the other sites who just say take it or leave it or make up some sort of "unsustainable" BS.

I just checked and I can't find my images on Alamy Creative now - it might be another bug, or maybe they have been removed for real this time.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: click_click on June 12, 2012, 13:14
Actions do speak louder than words...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 12, 2012, 14:05

I just checked and I can't find my images on Alamy Creative now - it might be another bug, or maybe they have been removed for real this time.

The total hasn't changed, and my images are still there. Were yours using your real name? I can only see your own stuff using your name whereas with mine I have both my own and the "Agencies"
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on June 12, 2012, 14:15

I just checked and I can't find my images on Alamy Creative now - it might be another bug, or maybe they have been removed for real this time.

Mine are there.  When I search under "creative" images they don't show up, but when I search in the regular "images" category under lisafx, the name I use at the micros, there are 74 of them there.  My stuff at Alamy is under my actual name.

ETA:  In my case, I'm certain they came from Veer because the oldest images in the AC collection are the first five test images I submitted to Veer.  I didn't submit those same five first to any other sites.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: pancaketom on June 12, 2012, 14:29

I just checked and I can't find my images on Alamy Creative now - it might be another bug, or maybe they have been removed for real this time.

Mine are there.  When I search under "creative" images they don't show up, but when I search in the regular "images" category under lisafx, the name I use at the micros, there are 74 of them there.  My stuff at Alamy is under my actual name.

Ahh, yes, they aren't under "creative images" anymore but searching "pancaketom" more than before are under the general search... rats.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: peresanz on June 12, 2012, 15:09

I just checked and I can't find my images on Alamy Creative now - it might be another bug, or maybe they have been removed for real this time.

Mine are there.  When I search under "creative" images they don't show up, but when I search in the regular "images" category under lisafx, the name I use at the micros, there are 74 of them there.  My stuff at Alamy is under my actual name.

Ahh, yes, they aren't under "creative images" anymore but searching "pancaketom" more than before are under the general search... rats.

I didn't notice that! I thought that my images where removed from the 'Creativity Images' because they didn't show after searching in this particular set, but now i searched under 'images' and found all my images coming from Veer duplicated along with my existing images on Alamy. Very dirty play, if you ask me...

 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Phil on June 12, 2012, 16:21
username is same on both so I searched for "username creativity" and brought up 2621 images :(

918000+ images, wonder how much they are are making out of this, that's got to be some some serious $

Almost a month since the first more details to come, good to see communication is a priority  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on June 12, 2012, 17:08
Ugh.  Just noticed that Alamy's search is prioritizing all 255 of my Veer images ahead of my 942 Alamy images.  I've been pretty patient with this latest agency fiasco, because I'd like to stick with Veer, but this discovery at Alamy has now pushed my anger button.   >:( 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on June 12, 2012, 17:54
Mine disappear again. I've searched with all options ( creative, non-creative, with my name, my uncle name, etc ).
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on June 12, 2012, 20:28
800 of my images with my Veer only name are showing in the "Alamy Images" search... not "Alamy Creative Images".  Totally sucks.  I was a happy Veer contributor... and believed them when they said they would correct the "Alamy Creative Images" issue.  Did they think we wouldn't notice?  I would like an explanation from Veer.  I do not want to close my Veer account but I will if this duplicity is permanent. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 13, 2012, 11:31
Total up slightly - now 918,091. Not a big change, but still the wrong direction Veer...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on June 13, 2012, 14:06
Just received this from Veer:

"Alamy has informed us that the removal process has begun, but they have told us it may take several weeks to complete.
 
Regards,
Ryan
Contributor Service"
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: cathyslife on June 13, 2012, 14:10
Just received this from Veer:

"Alamy has informed us that the removal process has begun, but they have told us it may take several weeks to complete.
 
Regards,
Ryan
Contributor Service"

Hours to upload, weeks to offload?  ::)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on June 14, 2012, 17:11
Just received this from Veer:

"Alamy has informed us that the removal process has begun, but they have told us it may take several weeks to complete.
 
Regards,
Ryan
Contributor Service"

Interesting.  I got the exact same note.  Hope they follow through. 
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 14, 2012, 17:34
And Brian - or anyone else from Veer - is completely MIA with respect to updates or assurances via the forum. I appreciate that he acknowledged earlier that they'd messed up the communications, but I assumed that meant they were going to change that, not continue with the mushroom management techniques
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: WarrenPrice on June 14, 2012, 17:45
And Brian - or anyone else from Veer - is completely MIA with respect to updates or assurances via the forum. I appreciate that he acknowledged earlier that they'd messed up the communications, but I assumed that meant they were going to change that, not continue with the mushroom management techniques

 ;D
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: ShadySue on June 14, 2012, 19:31
And Brian - or anyone else from Veer - is completely MIA with respect to updates or assurances via the forum. I appreciate that he acknowledged earlier that they'd messed up the communications, but I assumed that meant they were going to change that, not continue with the mushroom management techniques
A little trick learned from another agency.  :(
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 14, 2012, 19:48
And Brian - or anyone else from Veer - is completely MIA with respect to updates or assurances via the forum. I appreciate that he acknowledged earlier that they'd messed up the communications, but I assumed that meant they were going to change that, not continue with the mushroom management techniques
A little trick learned from another agency.  :(

It's a bit like kids - they rarely copy one another's good behaviors, only the reprehensible ones :)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: RT on June 15, 2012, 03:59
Well I'm pleased to say I'm out of there, my account has been terminated and images removed from Alamy.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: NeverSayNever101 on June 15, 2012, 06:24
Well, well. Looks like Alamy has deleted the pseudonym "Alamy Creativity" and all Veer (& others?) images are now off the site. Unless they've changed the pseudo?! A victory!  :o
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: dirkr on June 15, 2012, 06:28
Looks good, can't find any of my images on Alamy anymore other than those under my regular Alamy pseudo...
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 15, 2012, 09:25
I don't see my Veer images there any more either. So that's good.

Aren't we still waiting for some word on the compensation model for partner agencies (like pocketstock.com.mx) and some policy on opting out of partnerships like the Veer/Alamy one?
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Brian O'Shea on June 15, 2012, 11:10
Looks good, can't find any of my images on Alamy anymore other than those under my regular Alamy pseudo...

We've confirmed with our contacts at Alamy that all Veer content has indeed now been pulled. Thanks for your patience.

 - Brian
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: sc on June 15, 2012, 11:34
Looks good, can't find any of my images on Alamy anymore other than those under my regular Alamy pseudo...

We've confirmed with our contacts at Alamy that all Veer content has indeed now been pulled. Thanks for your patience.

 - Brian

Thank you
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: trek on June 15, 2012, 12:06
Thanks Brian
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: pancaketom on June 15, 2012, 12:15
Looks good, can't find any of my images on Alamy anymore other than those under my regular Alamy pseudo...

We've confirmed with our contacts at Alamy that all Veer content has indeed now been pulled. Thanks for your patience.

 - Brian

Thanks,

While I would have preferred more communication and faster action, the fact that you did come on here and say you would remove them and then later they were removed was good.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Karimala on June 15, 2012, 14:10
Thank you!  I really didn't want to leave Veer.
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: Monty-m-gue on June 15, 2012, 16:06
A good result. Hopefully some important lessons learned....
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: lisafx on June 16, 2012, 12:08
Looks good, can't find any of my images on Alamy anymore other than those under my regular Alamy pseudo...

We've confirmed with our contacts at Alamy that all Veer content has indeed now been pulled. Thanks for your patience.

 - Brian

Brian, thank you very much for making this happen.  Veer's listening to contributors on this has gone a long way in my view.  :)
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: qwerty on June 16, 2012, 18:55
What worries me more is that we never got a clear explaination on what royalities we were going to make for a sale on alamy. This makes me think I was going to get 5% or something like that of the sale price. (i.e same royality as selling on Veer)

Surely it would have been in Veers interest to make an opt in / opt out type of thing as some contributors don't have an alamy portfolio. Makes it seem like they've been caught out and have made a hasty back peddle with the threat of losing their major contributors
Title: Re: Your Veer portfolio on Alamy
Post by: StockCube on August 21, 2012, 08:12
I have been away so only just come upon this thread.  While it is good to see the Alamy matter being addressed, Brian has not answered other concerns re Pocketstock etc.  I have now found all my Veer images on Pocketstock.mx  Can you tell me what my commission is from any sales I have there, how I can track my sales there and will I be given the opportunity to decide not to sell there?

When I sell through CanStocks partners for example, I can see the sale commission clearly marked as 'distribution sale'.  These are often very welcome as they can be for $20-30 per sale, more than I make in six months regular sales at Canstock.  I don't mind if it is going to make me more money, but it needs to be transparent please.