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Contract Change 2021 - Official thread


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"We are budgeting for growth in 2021 . We have no plans to alter our commission rates...."

 

Did Emily have her fingers crossed when she said this?

 

04.53

 

 

Edited by geogphotos
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8 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

While what you say is correct, Alamy/PA doesn't care.

They know from the experience of other agencies who have trodden this well-worn path already, what will happen.

1. This thread will carry on for a couple of days.

2. Then it will run out of steam.

3. Some people will leave Alamy altogether.

4. Some people will stay, but not upload any more.

5. Some people will stay, but put restrictions on their sales.

6. 4 & 5 ^^^ are not mutully exclusive.

7. Some people will give up exclusivity and cast their images to the winds.

8. Some people will keep going as before.

9. New innocents will come on board, not feeling disgruntled as they weren't here when terms and conditions were more contributor-friendly.

And they have factored all the above into their decisions.

But...

10. As more contributors become non-exclusive and move their images to other outlets more customers will find they can find the same content elsewhere and so shop around and so Alamy's sales revenue per image falls more quickly

11. The ball continues to roll downhill....

 

IMHO Alamy changed (or lost?) direction years ago. Instead of maintaining their "premium" collection, they;

1. Focussed on growing the quantity of images and contributors as the primary way to grow their business, and started to ignore the quality of both*.

2. Reduced the minimum image size requirement

3. Included significantly lower quality (at the time) mobile phone images

4. Never implemented a system to check keyword caption accuracy

5. Adding in a stupid discoverability indicator that encourages keyword spamming

6. Continued to be evasive about the operation of their contributor and image ranking systems - thereby missing an opportunity to more actively encourage contributors to submit tightly edited, accurately captioned and keyworded images.

 

*There's no way Alamy can compete with SS (for example) head-on. Alamy's "download now, pay later" may be popular with customers but costs a lot to run, so they have to maintain premium pricing by using their quality and Editorial USP's, and not following a pile em high sell em cheap model. To see how much more efficient SS are than Alamy take a look at the sales and profit per image hosted.

 

Mark

 

Edited by M.Chapman
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14 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

"We are budgeting for growth in 2021 . We have no plans to alter our commission rates...."

 

Did Emily have her fingers crossed when she said this?

 

04.53

 

 

Excuse me if I'm being dim, but does that qualify as a lie, which makes her a liar?  Just asking...

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27 minutes ago, gardenbush said:

Lovely day here in Dorset - sun is shining, broad beans are growing, spuds planted 🙂

I may get the lawnmower out and engage in the battle of wits trying to get it to run. 

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2 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

There's a look in the eye

When one tells a lie

About love, stock commissions, or pie

 

Haha, "or pie"

Have you considered microstock poetry? lol

Edited by AlexG
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12 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

Excuse me if I'm being dim, but does that qualify as a lie, which makes her a liar?  Just asking...

 

 

Maybe they started planning the commission cuts and contract change the next day so what she said was absolutely true when she said it. 

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I am an amateur and someone who contribute regular images but have limited sales so at some stage I will be on 20%. I enjoy the challenge on contributing bu at that rate is makes no sense. For me the minimum % commission should be 30% for anyone who has taken the time to take the shot and offer it for sale. Offering commission as low at 17% is an insult to professional and amateur alike. Race to the bottom and a shame.

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22 hours ago, geogphotos said:

My prediction to calm you all down?

 

Same as last time.

 

They will reconsider and hit non-exclusives even harder  ( 30% maybe) and you will all be relieved and go along with it. 🙃

 

Ian's thoughts here (greogphotos) seem plausible, the only logic that I can find for punishing those, like me, who have been loyal and exclusive with Alamy. What is the phrase? No good deed goes unpunished. 

Edited by Ed Rooney
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12 minutes ago, Sally R said:

 

Very poetic Ed. My Dad's cousin talks about "telling a porky" which is rhyming slang  - porky pie for lie.

Cockney rhyming slang lol

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13 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

Maybe they started planning the commission cuts and contract change the next day so what she said was absolutely true when she said it. 

"Nobody has the intention to build a wall" ( east german democratic leader Walter Ulbricht, 15. June 1961). Was valid for less then two month (13. August 1061).

 

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24 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

I may get the lawnmower out and engage in the battle of wits trying to get it to run. 

I would have been captioning and keywording about 40 new images today, but I'm going to jump on the ride on mower 2 hours early as part of my regular job instead, and, I will be paid extra money for the extra effort.
Very disillusioned today.
Don't encourage your kids to do photography or journalism at University, it's a cesspit.

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2 hours ago, Sally R said:

I fully agree. Given that Alamy are licensing our images for tinier and tinier amounts, at times almost giving them away for free, it stacks the odds completely against us making it impossible to get ahead basing the tier system on $. The number of sales would be a fairer measure to use and a more real reflection of the efforts made by contributors. 

 

I had had planned to shoot some stock this afternoon but now question what I am doing. Alamy, please use a moral compass and rethink what you are doing.

 

I think that's the idea - to create an unattainable system

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1 minute ago, Foreign Export said:

surprised there are no negative comments posted on YouTube about this video

There are very few hits for Alamy related videos on youtube, I'd be surprised if one would even stumble upon it by searching.

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1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

The new contract will apply to all images on the site.

 

Your only choice is to accept it or not.

 

You can cancel your contract and that will mean all images being removed.

 

Or you can 'accept' the new contract conditions and your images will stay on Alamy with the new terms and conditions. 

Yes, Thank you! But what about the delay in taking off the pictures? Regulary, when you end the contract on your side, Alamy has 45 days to take down the pictures. If you dont cancel but delete pictures, they will stay for 180 days. What if the contract is changed by alamy? I dont want to accept the changes. So we dont have a contract? So the pictures have to be taken down immediatly (thats how it goes in germany - I dont know how that works here)

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1 hour ago, Sally said:

I was perfectly happy with Alamy as my only stock library outlet. Not any more. This feels like a kick in the teeth and I’m not happy with some of the other clauses. 
 

As a relative newbie and a live news contributor, my gross sales have increased 50% year on year to over $10,000 in 2020. You’d have thought that Alamy would like to encourage someone like me. The $25,000 limit, as so many others have said, is completely ridiculous. 
 

I will certainly be reconsidering my options.

 

I agree Sally- its entirety logical that Alamy or indeed any business would want to focus on and encourage contributors like yourself - the fact that they clearly don't only adds to this baffling decision and lack of foresight from Alamy

 

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Nathaniel Noir said:

 

I think that's the idea - to create an unattainable system

The platinum level is there primarily so Alamy can still make the claim "sell via Alamy and get up to 50%".

 

I note the thresholds required to reach each level are very buried in the T&Cs. They should be right next to the table.

 

Mark

Edited by M.Chapman
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The remove images part of the contract means it is almost impossible to cancel Alamy selling images.

 

The payment part of the contract means it is not worthwhile uploading new (newsworthy) images here.

 

My alamy archive has just become just that - a static archive that brings in a monthly income...

 

 

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7 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

I have an idea, If Alamy's average license fee drops below a certain amount per image during a calendar year Alamy

would receive a reduced commission?  

 

 

I'll vote for that. Make Alamy work for their wages.

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