Snapwire images for sale on Alamy?

[KerinF]

I noticed for the first time this morning that Snapwire have started distributing images through Alamy.  There are 4 or 5 of mine that are also already for sale directly through Alamy, which I am not exactly thrilled about.  ***Snapwire do have a "premium" collection which are exclusive and, in that case, I might be OK about the arrangement (I think I remember reading an old thread along these lines about AGE Fotostock?).  But now I am effectively competing against myself by having the same images available for sale twice on Alamy (which must also be annoyng for customers seeing duplicates) 

 

I appreciate that Snapwire's terms allow them to distribute through partner channels.   However, I am surprised that they have not communicated anything to contributors about distributing through an agency as big as Alamy.  It seems highly likely that there would be a reasonable number of people who contribute images to both, resulting in duplicated images.  Personally, I would just like to be able to opt out of Snapwire's Alamy arrangement, but will remove the overlap images from Snapwire if that's the only option (assuming that they will then also be removed from Alamy)

 

Anyhow, I don't know how many others this might effect, but thought I would flag it.  I suspect it will mostly impact Stockimo contributors more than standard Alamy contributors, since Snapwire also strongly targets mobile photographers.

 

***EDIT - well, I'll be darned.  Should have investigated more before posting. It seems that the images I am concerned about have at some stage been designated "Premium" at Snapwire, weeks or sometimes even months after initially uploading.  In the meantime, or maybe even before submitting to Snapwire, they had already been loaded elsewhere. Or (bizarrely) there seems to be one copy non-exclusive (Select) and one exclusive (Premium).  Since I had turned off notifications, because I just can't abide any more email spam, I hadn't noticed.  So I guess this means that it must just be Premium images only, which removes my initial gripe. Still inconvenient and irksome to have to go back through images many weeks later and work out where there might be an exclusivity conflict.  Think I will be going through and removing all "Premium" images from Snapwire and stick with Alamy.  

 

[Joe Gaul]

Thanks for the heads up on this one KerinF. I've been too busy doing things I'd rather not be doing to keep my finger on the pulse recently but will definitely be checking my Snapwire subs.

 

On a related note, Snapwire often appear to have the same or similar briefs to Imagebrief at lower prices.

[KerinF]

 

I know this is an old post, but I just noticed in the last week that more images from Snapwire have crept across to Alamy.  This time, I am very sure that they are not "Premium" (i.e. exclusive) images with Snapwire, but their ordinary "select" images.  I have removed all "Premium" images after I sent an unanswered email to Snapwire pointing out that they often designate images as "premium" (and exclusive) weeks or months after uploading, and that there ought to be an opt-in / opt-out process if contributors don't want exclusivity.  So far there is just a handful, but I wonder if Snapwire intend to mirror all their marketplace images here, exclusive or otherwise?  If so, its back to the original post, i.e. my images are going to appear twice, and effectively be competing against each other.  Anyone else seeing the same thing?

[MircoV]

Besides Snapwire i know this problem very good.

 

Agencies are sending to agencies so it gets very difficult to keep track on „double images”.  I had on some Alamy distributors few duplicate photos from different agencies.

 

That’s why I am slowly planning to submit to just one established agency and in this case Alamy. Since every Agency is using distribution it makes for me more sense to submit only to Alamy and having everything “clean” and saving lots of time that I can use to take more photos. This means also more photos to all the distributors. Better to submit 5000 images to all one agency including distributors than 3000 on two agencies  and having images double at the distributor side.

 

Since I changed like that I feel much more relaxed and also know that infringements are better to track for the new images. 

 

Mirco

[Robert Brook]

Deleted - misread the post

[KerinF]

 

well, what do you know, Alamy's latest blog post today is all about "task" sites and special mention that they are getting the "losing" images through Snapwire.  

 

I generally agree with you Mirco, and the overwhelming majority of my images are on Alamy.  But the other side of that is having all the eggs in one basket.  What bothers me is that I have been looking closely at the images again.  I think some of them were Premium (exclusive) on Snapwire at some point but I disable them from being licensed precisely because I didn't want to be locked out of submitting to Alamy directly.  However, the same images now appear to be available in Snapwire as their ordinary "select" category.  I don't blame Alamy here, whatever their arrangement with Snapwire may be, but Snapwire seem to be all over the shop in managing their own database.  And they simply don't respond at all to email queries.

 

The other thing that is interesting about the post, and Alamy promoting Snapwire, is what it means for Stockimo.  Many of the images on Snapwire (and EyeEm also mentioned in the post) are mobile images and I expect there would be overlap.  Is Alamy's interest in Stockimo waning in preference to picking up other collections through distribution arrangements? 

[Arletta]

I asked SW if they will let me choose about exclusivity, this is the reply:

 

At this time, there is not a way to opt out of that exclusivity. Most of our request photos are not purchased with exclusivity, but we're working on a way for buyers to tell photographers that they'd like to purchase with exclusivity. For our marketplace photos, you have full control over what's available for sale or not in the Manager.