Alamy

Hello, We've passed this on to the news team so they can check if there are any issues. Many thanks, Alamy

Hi Starsphinx, We've checked and can confirm that this email was sent to you as well. However, when sending emails to a large number of people there is always a risk that some emails end up in peoples spam folders and so on. All the best Alamy

Hi Kevin, We've checked our records and can confirm the email was sent to you on the same day as everyone else. We can see that you've unsubscribed from our usual mailing list but in this case as the email was a contract change you still should have received the email to the address you registered with (we notice this is different from the one you are emailing us from) We can see you emailed us on Friday evening after the CR team had left for the day, but James W did respond to you saying the team have quite the backlog at the moment and would be able to reply back to you on Monday morning at the earliest. The CR team are working through each response in turn but response times are longer than usual at the moment so we ask you to please bear with us. Thanks, Alamy

We'd just like to confirm that this is not the case. Only around 10 single posts have been removed, all of which were clearly in breach of forum rules around profanity and/or direct promotion of competition. Best regards, Alamy

Hi Kevin, We only delete threads or topics that are against the forum rules. In the thread you were originally referring to it was even mentioned within the posts that the topic was not appropriate and the thread would be removed. All discussion of the commission change should continue within the correct threads - this keeps it easier for all who want to keep up with the posts. For any questions relating to Stockimo they should be directed to support@stockimo.com or via Twitter @stockimo. Many thanks, Alamy

We moderate the forum as lightly as possible. We don’t allow insults and profanity to stay online though and we will remove posts that actively promote the use of other forums or indeed other agencies / libraries. This is laid out clearly in the forum rules - we have no intention of stifling debate, feedback and questions here and we hope that’s clear from the two threads currently running as well as the open comments on the YouTube video. For those who have seen the video until the end you’ll also have noticed that James is completely open to receiving emails directly. We absolutely recognise this commission change is difficult news to receive and we will continue to read all your feedback on this matter. Thanks, Alamy

Exclusivity button is to inform us that the image is not elsewhere - can be useful for price negotiations or tracking infringements. We don't insist on it.

Yep definitely a risk. It's on us (Alamy) to deliver better returns to contributors asap.

It's not unsustainable if the plan works. Last time we did it, it worked. Option 1: Keep things as they are and net royalties to contributors will either stay as they are or fall. Option 2: Keep trying new stuff and hope that the additional cost of doing that works out better than option 1. J

Hi James West here I've posted some further thoughts in a new thread above this one. James

Thank you for all of your comments and emails. I think I have replied to everyone who emailed me directly, but before I sign off for the evening here’s a bit more info on the reason for the change. Apologies for typos (the grown-ups who police my work have left the building). 2018 will be a high-water mark in revenue at Alamy. Normally this would be cause for celebration, but growth has flattened off this year. It's up only 2% on last year after a period of super high growth. If things continue to be flat, which I think is the base case scenario, then revenues to our contributors will either stay flat or worse, start to fall. So we're taking action now: - Significantly reducing Alamy's operational costs (to put it in context - 2018 to 2019 will represent the biggest cost reduction we have ever attempted) - Moving the royalty split to 60:40 - Big focus on international expansion, local language support from website to customer service to account management, re-engineering our core customer experience from search to checkout, upgrading our datacenters to latest technology, better content insights, new products, updated design and marketing etc. If I thought we could continue to grow without moving the royalty split, I'd definitely rather do that. The choice is basically between continuing as we are, with revenue stalling and hoping for the best, or invest and get working on things that will move the needle. Our larger competitors are currently out-investing us but they are not invincible. Shutterstock has reached market saturation and is vulnerable to a moody stock market that forces them to consider things that keep either the revenue or operating profit growing - if they have reached near saturation in revenue then they'll start to turn to their contributors for more operating profit. They are already paying out 30% on average and 20% to new contributors. Getty also average around 30% and are facing a $2.35 billion debt repayment. Alamy's sole focus is continuous improvement of the customer experience and the long term value to our contributing photographers. I think we can continue to take market share from our larger rivals and pay our contributors a higher royalty. If things go really well then maybe we can revisit the royalty split in future or look at some of the suggestions that have come from contributors for some kind of contributor dividend. I'm genuinely open to this as it effectively locks out or less efficient larger competitors. We deliberately built our business around a contributor contract that is a rolling 45 days long, with no exclusivity, to keep us honest. If contributors become unhappy with us they can vote with their feet anytime. This keeps us focussed on doing right by them in the long run. 2018 is also our high-water mark for royalty payments to contributors. This is a direct result of the cost savings, investments, and royalty changes we made between 2012-2015. I want us to repeat that and return the company to high growth and higher royalties to you. James

Hi everyone We appreciate your comments on this, but any posts that are targeting other forum members, are abusive or are including swear words will be deleted. Thanks Alamy

Hi everyone *Please add any comments about the new commission structure to this thread only. Any other threads on this topic will be merged with this thread. In February 2019 the Alamy contract will be changing to reflect a new commission structure. The commission contributors receive for direct sales will change from 50% to 40%. This post is to give you advanced warning of this upcoming contract change. You will receive another email in January 2019 signalling the beginning of the standard 45 day notice period before the new contract comes into effect in February 2019. Our CEO James West has explained the reasons behind the commission change in a video which you can view here: As James are mentioning in the above video, you can email him with your questions (james@alamy.com). Our contributor team (contributors@alamy.com) will also be able to help. All the best, Alamy

Yes - we still want to improve mobile functionality on AIM. Portfolios should work nicely on mobile. Cheers Alamy

If enough users request this we can look at it but as it stands this current design with a profile picture will remain. You can have a blank picture there if you so choose though. Thanks