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Do you want to ask our CEO a question? updated. All parts (1-3) now live! Your questions answered (video)


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just to keep it float...

 

The deadline has been missed now and the response to questions recorded. We will be posting a link to the video response answers soon.

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Just watched the first video.  I don't understand why alamy isn't going for it with video clips.  How will you get buyers interested before opening it up to all contributors?  If you want to grow it slowly, open it up to everyone but have an upload limit each month.  If you don't build it, the buyers wont come.

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It was great to hear some good news about the American office, it is easy to think it's all doom & gloom in the stock industry.

 

It was disappointing that Alamy isn't going to make changes to unreported uses.

 

How many images get used that the photographer never sees?

 

Alamy could automatically check 3 months after a customer downloads an image to see if it was used.

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I too was disapointed that there is no prospect of video submissions being opened up. I also think that there is probably a critical mass required in terms of the library size which will make buyers realise that Alamy is serious about video and worth visiting to see what is available. That critical mass is probably a library numbered in millions rather than a couple of hundred thousand, so success in video sales seems to me unlikely to happen here unless a significant change takes place in Alamy's approach.

 

However I do want to thank James for opening up to us, even if the answer is often 'no' or 'maybe'. I find it a refreshing change and a stark contrast to the attitude of management in some other agencies I've contributed to. I appreciate the effort and am therby encouraged to carry on focussing my efforts here. Cheers!

Joe

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However I do want to thank James for opening up to us, even if the answer is often 'no' or 'maybe'. I find it a refreshing change and a stark contrast to the attitude of management in some other agencies I've contributed to. I appreciate the effort and am therby encouraged to carry on focussing my efforts here. Cheers!

Joe

 

I'll second this. It's rare to see this kind of openness on the part of a CEO these days. Now I remember why I chose Alamy over that other big agency.

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Thanks James for taking the time to answer my question about US business. If I heard it right, US contributes 60% total revenue. That is pretty amazing in short period of time. Maybe it's just me, but I feel US sales are generally higher priced, more prompt in payment. No chicken sh!t $7 newspaper scheme. It's the land of law afterall.  :P .  

 

Keep them coming!

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Yes, thanks for the update James, looking forward to the next two.

 

Just as an aside, and I speak as a consumer, not as a producer, I can't be bothered watching video clips on the internet. The ONLY ones I ever watch are those sent in by the public, who just happened to be there with their cellphone when something happened, such as the one today from China where a group of people caught a young child falling from the fifth floor.

 

The professionally produced videos that advertisers try to ram down my throat when I'm reading the news, I've got blocked.

 

Maybe people who might buy videos have realised that they don't work.

 

Does anyone else feel like this? Do you watch videos on the internet?

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>  I don't understand why alamy isn't going for it with video clips.

Listen to JW again, mate.  Beta revealed there's not enough $$ in it.

Alamy's priority is generating $$, not opening paths to pursue hobbies.

What evidence is there that video clips are profitable?

I've been told even full time videographers dont bother

with video stock because there's not enough $$ in it to

make it worth their time -- same NOT true for "stills" stock.

Your information is wrong.  Go and look at the stock footage forums out there and you'll see that there's a lot of $$ in stock footage.  Many people make a living from it.  Do you think the other stock sites have a footage section just for the fun of it?  They like making $$ as well.  The difference is that the sites that are doing well have more to offer buyers than alamy does.  Go and compare the sites and its glaringly obvious.  If alamy aren't going to make a big effort with video, why are they bothering at all?  They might as well be a stills only site.

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"Video has been slightly disappointing… "  James Allsworth


 


 


I suspect that the reason video sales have been disappointing, i.e. nonexistent, on Alamy is because the video here is hopelessly overpriced. Similar, or in fact identical, clips are available on multiple other sites for a fraction of what they cost here. Even in relation to the pricing for Alamy's existing catalogue of still images, the video pricing seems to make no sense at all. For example, I can get a lovely still of Princess Diana for $149-, but a 13 sec. clip of a mallard doing nothing in particular on a pond tops out at $999-. A still of Johnny Rotten in all his glory tops out at $149-, a nondescript dog walking on the beach tops out at $1499-. I can get Mick Jagger and John Lennon both together for $149-, or I can get an unidentified hand playing an upright piano for $1499- 


 


Where is the logic in this?

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Jeff, I've made from video sales over the past year than I have here on Alamy.

 

The stuff I've done is up on Pond 5 and although it is royalty free you can at least set your own price. They give you 50% of sales. 

 

In addition, I've also had some footage sales through Shutterstock.

 

Personally, I think if your DSLR has the capability of HD Video and you're not using it then you are losing a potential income stream.

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> Go look at stock footage forums...and you'll see that there's a lot of $$ in stock footage.  Many people make a living from it.

Links to forums or sales data please!

Correct the other sites successfully sell footage. Alamy has enough trouble trying to get market share with photos, so they may have been better served not touching footage at all

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Re the Exclusivity bit...

 

Would it not be better to make a positive move: ie a search filter that only brings up images that are exclusive in any given search, then we would have an incentive to give Alamy exclusivity?

 

It would also make our life easier when trying to find out where an image came from when we find it in use if we knew it could only have come from Alamy.

 

Phil

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