It's official- 50% for exclusive - (JW response video to commission change)

[William Caram 97]

1 hour ago, JeffGreenberg said:

 

Maximizes net $$.

Can produce more than just hobby money.

Have never been anything but nonexclusive.

Some don't see how they're closing in the walls of their future potential, IMO, but...

Only my images not selected by other agencies will continue on at 50/50 here.

No plans to surrender the rest to 40/60.

 

CHOICES choices choices...Alamy have given us another choice and it's up to us to make the best choice we can available to us, and at that time..What works for one contributor will not work for another...So for the big players and smaller players alike whether you're motivated by monetary return or principles and or both..just do what's best for you in these times of uncertainty....Jeff you've seen plenty of changes in this industry and like many of us who have been around for awhile we know change is a certainty....I am doing what i think is best for me, and that's my choice..And for the walls closing in on us...well walls come down and walls go up lol....Hope you can find the best route around or over or through the walls that try and close you in..

[Paul Mayall 145]

I am sure somebody will correct me on this.

 

From my understanding from the past, exclusive images were sought after by exclusive buyers, e.g. i am a publisher wanting to licence a image for a book cover, not wanting this image to be licensed elsewhere for any other purpose for a period of 5 years, so Alamy  offers me a higher fee than non exclusive from $300 to $500, the deal is done. 

 

The contributor gets $250 but the image cannot be re-licensed "locked away for 5 years" along time before the image is back on the market.

 

Well that is how i understood the game from many years ago, perhaps it's changed.

[John Mitchell 5,331]

54 minutes ago, Paul Mayall said:

I am sure somebody will correct me on this.

 

From my understanding from the past, exclusive images were sought after by exclusive buyers, e.g. i am a publisher wanting to licence a image for a book cover, not wanting this image to be licensed elsewhere for any other purpose for a period of 5 years, so Alamy  offers me a higher fee than non exclusive from $300 to $500, the deal is done. 

 

The contributor gets $250 but the image cannot be re-licensed "locked away for 5 years" along time before the image is back on the market.

 

Well that is how i understood the game from many years ago, perhaps it's changed.

 

That was the case in the "old days" before the Internet. These days, I think that some stock agencies are simply hoping that because the walls of the Web are now plastered with the same images, exclusive ones might be more appealing to some buyers. Whether or not that is the case -- and whether they will bring higher prices -- remains to be seen.

Edited December 19, 2018 by John Mitchell

[John Mitchell 5,331]

3 hours ago, Paul Mayall said:

Exclusive, been there done that!

locking images into exclusive just to get 10% back dose not work for me, i prefer to have my images out there being seen and licensed by many others.

 

 

Yes, there is a lot to consider. I'm not going to rush into deleting images from other stock agencies. Mind you, I don't have that many images out there.

[dlmphotog 87]

James,

 

Thank you for reconsidering your position and then making an offer I can enthusiastically accept.

 

That said there are other issues that also need your attention such as refunds, RM licenses that are actually in effect RF in terms of use and duration. Abuse of personal and presentation licenses by unscrupulous clients...

 

Thank you for reestablishing my trust in Alamy and I look forward to a continued profitable relationship.

 

Best regards and a Merry Christmas,

 

David L. Moore

[Colblimp 2,769]

2 hours ago, dlmphotog said:

That said there are other issues that also need your attention such as refunds, RM licenses that are actually in effect RF in terms of use and duration. Abuse of personal and presentation licenses by unscrupulous clients...

 

For me, this is just as important as the commission debacle.  Once these issues have been sorted, I think we can all then settle down and concentrate on providing exceptional images.  As for the trust - well, that's completely gone and will take a long time to come back.  I realise, with my tiny port, I am but a minuscule fish in the Alamy ocean, but I make regular sales so I contribute a little to the bottom line.

 

Keeping the split at 50% for exclusive pics is, I think, a desperate attempt to shut us up.  As others have said, non-exclusivity is the only way to earn a decent income.  I did join another agency after the initial announcement, but I have no pictures on there, I'm not sure what road to go down.  As David states, all those issues need to be addressed before exclusivity can be decided upon.  Selling my pics for $1, $5 etc is just insulting, as is the presentation thing (I opted out of personal in my first year I think).

 

Happy Christmas...

 

 

[Skyscraperfan 101]

Changes made in the image manager seem to come into effect much quicker than the mentioned 48 hours. Yesterday evening after the video In unrestricted all may images and afterwards had a sale on the same day - so within less than four hours. It's nice that we can have sales again without selling our soul by accepting an unfair commission.

[Starsphinx 437]

1 hour ago, Colblimp said:

For me, this is just as important as the commission debacle.  Once these issues have been sorted, I think we can all then settle down and concentrate on providing exceptional images.  As for the trust - well, that's completely gone and will take a long time to come back.  I realise, with my tiny port, I am but a minuscule fish in the Alamy ocean, but I make regular sales so I contribute a little to the bottom line.

 

Keeping the split at 50% for exclusive pics is, I think, a desperate attempt to shut us up.  As others have said, non-exclusivity is the only way to earn a decent income.  I did join another agency after the initial announcement, but I have no pictures on there, I'm not sure what road to go down.  As David states, all those issues need to be addressed before exclusivity can be decided upon.  Selling my pics for $1, $5 etc is just insulting, as is the presentation thing (I opted out of personal in my first year I think).

 

Happy Christmas...

 

 

As important possibly more important.  Without these issues sorted the 50% exclusive is pointless - 40c or 50c is just not something to get excited about.

In fact, I think I have been more impressed, and certainly, it would have had a bigger effect on my trust, if these issues had been sorted first - or at least a big solid announcement that they would definitely be tackled and how.

As it is I see a place where prices are falling, abuses are rampant, there seem to be several unnecessary ways contributors can be diddled, that in response to some sort of challenge, responds with taking 20% of contributors, and when this produces a totally foreseeable response, decide to toss contributors a cookie which is only half the size of the one just taken off them, but which makes absolutely no attempt to fix some of the clear foundational issues which are going to be responsible for a significant amount of the issues in the first place.

[OnlyFabrizio 14]

I will not accept this exclusivity. Simply because I don't trust Alamy like I trusted it before, there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed before cutting our commission and giving us "a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down". To have my RM images exclusive I want full transparency: I want to know how my pictures are priced, I want to know that my royalty is not lost somewhere because someone didn't notify the download. 

 

If they can fix all their problem it will be amazing otherwise I'll just treat Alamy like another micro stock agency that occasional sells also RM. 

 

Sorry for my bad English, I hope that I managed to convey my message!

 

[ChrisC 163]

11 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

James specifically said on the video that we'd be able to sell via our own personal websites.

Cheers, I missed that bit, but we still need to see the detail, it's a step back in the right direction, but prices need to increase and maybe not let "Exclusive" images available for cheap fees

Chris

[spacecadet 4,317]

9 hours ago, Sultanpepa said:

Providing James has seen sense, and I'm sure he has, I will re allocate all of my images to Alamy exclusive. By selecting 500 images at a time it shouldn't take long but I'll leave it till the new year just to make sure. As for trust, well that may take longer to rectify. Knee jerk reactions don't inspire confidence in the company either.

Just ask MS to do it. They're getting plenty of practice atm.

[John Walker 272]

I'm possibly in a better position than many other contributors.  Being retired this isn't now my main income.  I have a small private pension which tops up my state pension and I can manage on that.  My monthly payments from Alamy allow me some spending money and is most welcome (but well earned).

 

Alamy is the only agency that I supply to so opting for 'Exclusive' is no problem to me.

I spend a lot of time checking and editing every image before it's submitted so like many of you, I am not happy at the very low prices that some images are sold for.  To have a full resolution image available for a few pence is not really acceptable.  Once it's out there unwatermarked it's open to abuse.  Maybe a variable image size option could be a better way of controlling prices.

 

John

[FRP 6]

5 hours ago, dlmphotog said:

James,

 

Thank you for reconsidering your position and then making an offer I can enthusiastically accept.

 

That said there are other issues that also need your attention such as refunds, RM licenses that are actually in effect RF in terms of use and duration. Abuse of personal and presentation licenses by unscrupulous clients...

 

Thank you for reestablishing my trust in Alamy and I look forward to a continued profitable relationship.

 

Best regards and a Merry Christmas,

 

David L. Moore

I join David. Thanks James and the Alamy team for reconsidering the situation. 

Looking forwards to positive  issues to be (higher prices?...personal use..;etc) improved in the very near future.

Happy Christmas to all 

F

[Russell 1,942]

I just did a little experiment. I'm gradually adding all of my Alamy images into Alamy/LR bridge (I started uploading to Alamy before I found the Bridge). Anyway if you change one or more images in LR to Alamy exclusive and then export using the "Alamy Set defaults" option in the Bridge, the exclusive flag is set in Alamy IM.

 

So it will be the work of a moment to select all the images that are only on Alamy (I have flags in LR to identify those with other agencies) and update them all in one go.

 

The Alamy/LR bridge is a great piece of software.

[Tony 161]

13 hours ago, JeffGreenberg said:

Some are saying non-exclusives could be ranked above

exclusives & boost non-exclusive licensing activity!

Maybe THAT will overcome 20% loss of $$$ !

 

Who's saying that?

 

If anything it should be just the opposite... Exclusive (I,e loyalty) gets a higher ranking & non exclusive pushed to the bottom of the pile.

[Phil Robinson 1,344]

Great. Now I just need to work my way through my 36,000 images and find which are exclusive.

[Phil Robinson 1,344]

10 minutes ago, Tony said:

 

Who's saying that?

 

If anything it should be just the opposite... Exclusive (I,e loyalty) gets a higher ranking & non exclusive pushed to the bottom of the pile.

Exclusivity isn't about loyalty, it's about business decisions. At least, it should be

[Duncan_Andison 551]

1 minute ago, Phil Robinson said:

Exclusivity isn't about loyalty, it's about business decisions. At least, it should be

 

Exactly.... and Alamy wouldn't be the first to push an option that results in more $'s for them.

[andremichel 346]

11 minutes ago, Tony said:

 

Who's saying that?

 

If anything it should be just the opposite... Exclusive (I,e loyalty) gets a higher ranking & non exclusive pushed to the bottom of the pile.

You've mentioned loyalty a few times in your posts. Yet your best images go to boutique agencies leaving the leftovers for Alamy. Is that really loyalty? 

[Skyscraperfan 101]

What should remain clear: If the commission will drop below 50% again (even with exclusivity), we should all quit Alamy. 50% should still be a red line for all of us. The photographer should always get at least half of the sale price.

So everyone of use should at least have an emergency plan for the next price drop. Nobody should be in the situation to just stay here because it would be too much work to move to another agency.

[Skyscraperfan 101]

PS: And of course exclusivity should not have any negative effect on the ranking, because if Alamy wants our photos exclusive, it has to deliver a benefit for exclusivity.

[William Caram 97]

34 minutes ago, John Walker said:

I'm possibly in a better position than many other contributors.  Being retired this isn't now my main income.  I have a small private pension which tops up my state pension and I can manage on that.  My monthly payments from Alamy allow me some spending money and is most welcome (but well earned).

 

Alamy is the only agency that I supply to so opting for 'Exclusive' is no problem to me.

I spend a lot of time checking and editing every image before it's submitted so like many of you, I am not happy at the very low prices that some images are sold for.  To have a full resolution image available for a few pence is not really acceptable.  Once it's out there unwatermarked it's open to abuse.  Maybe a variable image size option could be a better way of controlling prices.

 

John

 

My sentiments exactly John, well said...Like you i am now retired and on a pension and i would like to build my image portfolio..One can only hope with such an outpouring of anger and dismay at Alamy's recent 60/40 directive, and now this offer that they can think of their contributors as people with legitimate concerns for fairer outcomes...You can build a better Alamy by looking after your contributors as well...Sure Alamy can say..."My way or the highway" and there are a lot of agencies out there that say basically that..but i give credit to Alamy for at least listening and giving us a choice....We can only do what's best for us within our means, but we still have a choice..

[Sultanpepa 1,080]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

Just ask MS to do it. They're getting plenty of practice atm.

I asked them to remove exclusive status from them all, I guess they were busy at the time because it took them a few days to get back to me by which time I had figured out how to do it myself. Just passing on the method for anyone who's not sure. But yes (MS) Contributor services will do it I'm sure and will be best for those with many thousands of images.

[Tony 161]

30 minutes ago, andremichel said:

You've mentioned loyalty a few times in your posts. Yet your best images go to boutique agencies leaving the leftovers for Alamy. Is that really loyalty? 

 

All my images here on Alamy are exclusive, apart from 6, I don't tout the same images on microstock sites, etc. I regard that as being loyal.

 

As I've said previously, the rewards here are now so small it's no longer worth going out of my way to shoot specifically for Alamy, but my portfolio will stay, it gives me a steady if diminishing income for many years even If I don't upload much in the future.

 

However, my main focus is producing images that are highly creative with very specific themes exclusively for other agencies, they are not at all suitable as general stock images.

[KevinS 170]

2 hours ago, ChrisC said:

...but prices need to increase and maybe not let "Exclusive" images available for cheap fees

Great suggestion, but you'll never see Alamy agree to this in writing, IMO