Exclusivity

[losdemas]

Deleted

[losdemas]

Deleted 

[Alamy]

2 hours ago, Avpics said:

Alamy, while you're on, could you give the database wheels a kick to get them up to date as updates seem to have a 48 hour or so delay. Do you give out food vouchers?

 

Hi Avpics

 

Sorry about the delay, our IT team is doing some work at the moment which means we have to hold back today's search update. We will be updating it as soon as possible!

 

Thanks

Alamy  

 

[spacecadet]

Additionally, this morning's update was incomplete. I have on sale images missing from it.

[Avpics]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Additionally, this morning's update was incomplete. I have on sale images missing from it.

I've noticed that too. It's as if there is a cut-off point in the afternoon (maybe when the update-wallah goes home at 5?)

[John Mitchell]

3 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

Yes I was told that they do.

 

So images on my PhotoShelter website cannot be marked as exclusive on Alamy because my site has e-commerce. That makes sense.

 

But doesn't just about every photographer who "displays" images on his/her website do so in hopes that someone will want to license them? You don't need an e-commerce setup in order to sell images. Buyers can just contact you directly, which most do anyway.

[spacecadet]

9 minutes ago, Avpics said:

I've noticed that too. It's as if there is a cut-off point in the afternoon (maybe when the update-wallah goes home at 5?)

Could be that. But the exclusive tag has been set on mine and I didn't send the email till 6 yesterday.

[Avpics]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Could be that. But the exclusive tag has been set on mine and I didn't send the email till 6 yesterday.

Is that a database thing though? If they added a tag to all your images it would show in your AIM but wouldn't be searchable until an update.

[John Mitchell]

9 hours ago, spiegel said:

I received a mail from Alamy recommending the exclusive offer of pictures.

So far I offer my pictures at many different agencies. 

 

Does exclusivity make sense? Does this increase sales opportunities?

Are exclusive images placed higher in search results? 

 

Does anyone have any experience in this case?

Thank you very much!

 

Good questions.

 

I would think that exclusivity might provide more sales opps for commercial images -- e.g. a commercial client might want an Alamy exclusive image for an ad  campaign. It would lessen the chances somewhat of someone else using it for a similar project. As far as editorial images go, I'm not sure how exclusivity would make much difference, except with news images perhaps. They might be (?) more attractive if exclusive. Same situation for book and magazine covers, I suppose.

[John Mitchell]

How about images also available on POD websites? Where do they stand?

 

After all, Alamy now offers prints as well as stock images.

[Avpics]

35 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

How about images also available on POD websites? Where do they stand?

Ask them?

[John Mitchell]

6 minutes ago, Avpics said:

Ask them?

 

Thought I just did.

[vpics]

There is no "exclusive to Alamy" button for buyers, is there?

Or am I (or Alamy) missing something?

[Cryptoprocta]

3 minutes ago, vpics said:

There is no "exclusive to Alamy" button for buyers, is there?

Or am I (or Alamy) missing something?

Not so far.

[Cryptoprocta]

I haven't had the email, most of my files are 'exclusive to Alamy' (a few on a pod site), but I haven't had any uptick of sales since marking them thus, nor have any of my sales indicated any exclusivity. I've been approached a couple of times by Alamy asking if a particular file had sold before elsewhere, or was available elsewhere; the answer in each case was no and no, but nothing happened.

[Bill Kuta]

I asked Customer Service if exclusivity gives me any advantages in placement or sale price. The answer is:

 

    At the moment there are no benefits to your images being exclusive, it’s just useful for us to know whose images are exclusive or not.

 

Now I'll ask about POD sites, as I have a few hundred images on one.

 

[John Mitchell]

20 minutes ago, Bill Kuta said:

I asked Customer Service if exclusivity gives me any advantages in placement or sale price. The answer is:

 

    At the moment there are no benefits to your images being exclusive, it’s just useful for us to know whose images are exclusive or not.

 

Now I'll ask about POD sites, as I have a few hundred images on one.

 

 

Thanks, Bill. Please let us know what Alamy says about POD sites. I've got a lot of images on them as well.

[Bill Kuta]

They said that an image on a POD site would be considered on sale elsewhere. 

 

I have about 600 images on a POD site, and might want to put more there, so I don't think I'll go the exclusivity route. Unless some benefit to it arises.

[Cryptoprocta]

19 minutes ago, Bill Kuta said:

They said that an image on a POD site would be considered on sale elsewhere. 

 

I have about 600 images on a POD site, and might want to put more there, so I don't think I'll go the exclusivity route. Unless some benefit to it arises.

You can designate individual files as exclusive, should you wish to do so.

[spiegel]

Is there such a thing as a validity period for exclusivity (For individual files) ?
Can photos, that have been set to "exclusive" but not sold, be declared non-exclusive again at any time?

 

 

[John Mitchell]

10 hours ago, Bill Kuta said:

They said that an image on a POD site would be considered on sale elsewhere. 

 

I have about 600 images on a POD site, and might want to put more there, so I don't think I'll go the exclusivity route. Unless some benefit to it arises.

 

Thanks. I don't think that exclusivity will work for me either.

[CHP]

There are many good unanswered questions in this discussion, and lots of speculation (understandably).  I think a clearer communication on the definition of "available for sale elsewhere" and "why" we should mark images as exclusive (i.e. the benefits to contributors and/or Alamy now, or in the future) would have made sense in the initial email communication.  Having said that, the situation can be easily rectified by providing this information now .

 

Each of us can then determine whether the effort required to mark each image (easy if this is the only place one contributes to; not so easy if some images are sold/licensed in other places and some are not) is justified based on the benefits.  Just my 2 cents.

 

Clarence

[vpics]

On 10/5/2018 at 00:01, Bill Kuta said:

    At the moment there are no benefits to your images being exclusive, it’s just useful for us to know whose images are exclusive or not.

 

Should get a better ranking than non-exclusive ones. If it doesn't make a difference, I might just not bother in the future. 

[Bill Brooks]

On 10/6/2018 at 08:40, vpics said:

 

Should get a better ranking than non-exclusive ones. If it doesn't make a difference, I might just not bother in the future. 

 

Better ranking would be hard for photographers  to track, and could be adjusted by management at any time.

 

How about paying 55% royalty to photographers on sales of exclusive images. That way photographers could have a mix of exclusive and none exclusive.

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

Hmmm...... there used to be a couple of photographers with non-exclusive RM images on Alamy and the same ones as exclusive RF images elsewhere.

 

I'm not sure how much you can rely on trust if one option offers more money. 

 

One agency I talked too gave up exclusivity because there was no way of checking and some of their photographers played the system.

 

I tend to agree. Hate to say it, but relying on trust these days is a bit naive. It`s an e-jungle out there now. Offering a higher royalty or better ranking to contributors who mark their images as exclusive would just make things worse in that it would offer incentive for further playing of the system. It would also risk being unfair to those whose images really are exclusive to Alamy. I`d put ``exclusivity`` in the same category as ``discoverability`` -- i.e. both sound good on paper but are pretty meaningless (even counter productive) in practice.