Contract Change 2021 - Official thread

[Nathaniel Noir]

35 minutes ago, hotbrightsky said:

 

You'll have to do it in batches of 500 I'm afraid.

 

Alternatively email Contributor Support and request they add Restrictions to your entire portfolio.

 

You will need to leave at least one category open. I suggest 'Consumer goods' as the category least likely to sell.

 

Ok thanks!

 

Well I've already opted out of distribution and also in the process of opting out for all sales apart from consumer goods as you advised (i have 10k images that I laboriously submitted over 7 years!), but it looks like it's going to take up to 48 hrs to take affect. I'm joining the protest and eagerly await what Alamy will have to say in response to contributor comments on the changes.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Nathaniel Noir

[Ognyan Yosifov]

4 hours 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

 

 

Back then I was the first one to put a comment on the video. My comment was so opinionated that I made a few top contributors and Alamy itself to look closer to my port ( I guess for them just to see who they're dealing with). Later, quite ashamed, I put sincere apologies to the forum. It's long gone, but I'm still ashamed of myself.

I don't know...

Excuse me for my not-that-good English!

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Ognyan Yosifov

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Valid question wrong forum. This is and always has been for Alamy only. Is there not a forum in existence for S------------o?

 

Allan

 

Well, yes, but you know what? I'm not sure I give a monkey's anymore. Alamy can police its own forum. Guess what we get for doing it for free?

[Michael Ventura]

I think what bothers me most is the nearly unattainably high threshold of $25,000 per year in order to get a 50/50 split.   I bet less than 1% of the contributors can do that.  This reminds me too much of what is happening in America (probably Europe too) where the top 1% continue to gain wealth while the other 99% have to carry the water.  Here in the U.S. the tax structure rewards the wealthiest and dings the rest of us harder.  While still not right, maybe a more reasonable $10,000 threshold might give some people more incentive to upload more and continue the hard work.  There just isn't incentive now.

[geogphotos]

3 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

I think what bothers me most is the nearly unattainably high threshold of $25,000 per year in order to get a 50/50 split.   I bet less than 1% of the contributors can do that.  This reminds me too much of what is happening in America (probably Europe too) where the top 1% continue to gain wealth while the other 99% have to carry the water.  Here in the U.S. the tax structure rewards the wealthiest and dings the rest of us harder.  While still not right, maybe a more reasonable $10,000 threshold might give some people more incentive to upload more and continue the hard work.  There just isn't incentive now.

 

 

I think you would be better off to accept the 40% and find other places to sell your images non-exclusively. 

 

I have a large batch being edited elsewhere right now. When I sent them in I requested that they edit hard and only take the very best so that the majority of images could be exclusive on Alamy.

 

I sent an urgent update yesterday saying please take as many as you can as it is 40% on Alamy whatever! 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by geogphotos

[Roadrunner]

Hmm.. I was just wondering if someone over at PA Media is going to *(get) an extra bonus in their pay packet at Christmas for increasing profits this fiscal year? 🤔

Need coffee 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Rico

[Nathaniel Noir]

I'm literally in a talk right now which is part of Brookes University The Creative Industries Festival 2021 and this Alamy pay drop for photographers was just mentioned  

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, Michael Ventura said:

I think what bothers me most is the nearly unattainably high threshold of $25,000 per year in order to get a 50/50 split.   I bet less than 1% of the contributors can do that.  This reminds me too much of what is happening in America (probably Europe too) where the top 1% continue to gain wealth while the other 99% have to carry the water.  Here in the U.S. the tax structure rewards the wealthiest and dings the rest of us harder.  While still not right, maybe a more reasonable $10,000 threshold might give some people more incentive to upload more and continue the hard work.  There just isn't incentive now.

 

 

i agree.  I also have some concern with the thresholds being only dollars which we do not control.

 

Looking at the $250 one, i think it should be either:

 

1)$250

2) Number of license equivalent to $250/average license.  So if current average is $25, 10 licence would also qualify.

 

 

 

same for the other upper levels. 

[geogphotos]

1 minute ago, Rico said:

Hmm.. I was just wondering if someone over at PA Media is going to an extra bonus in their pay packet at Christmas for increasing profits this fiscal year? 🤔

 

 

What we are looking at is an almost effortless way of quickly boosting profits in the short term.

 

My guess would be that Alamy is a stepping stone for our CEO and this rapid 'transformation' of the company is an attractive and easy step upwards. 

[hotbrightsky]

59 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I will not be taking any drastic action at this time

 

This action is entirely reversible. Show Alamy we're serious if you want anything to change.

[Harry Harrison]

1 hour ago, Sally R said:

The woman running it asked us dramatically at the beginning, "What is the biggest room in the world?". We stared at her blankly. She replied enthusiastically, "The room for improvement". Beyond cringeworthy.

Thank you for that, pure Ricky Gervais, but spine-chilling in its awfulness

[wilkopix]

20 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

I think you would be better off to accept the 40% and find other places to sell your images non-exclusively. 

Totally agree.

Sadly it is Alamy that are going to lose out and other agencies will gain. I will be writing to Alamy to ask them to deselect all exclusive images from July 1st and bulk upload to several other outlets. My new material is now going elsewhere first.

We are in business after all and now need to make up the shortfall.

I don't want to do this and have always been a supporter of Alamy but unfortunately this is a one sided relationship!

[Marcin Rogozinski]

It’s clear now that last time Alamy was preparing for takeover by PA

This time PA might be preparing for takeover by ...

 

 

[Thyrsis]

I’ve just gone into Image Manager and selected ‘download your data’. An up to date excel file of all our keywords might be handy quite soon if we decide to place images elsewhere! We only have about 2000 images but folk with large portfolios will have a job on their hands.....

[gardenbush]

11 minutes ago, Marcin Rogozinski said:

It’s clear now that last time Alamy was preparing for takeover by PA

This time PA might be preparing for takeover by ...

 

 

Tesco?

[geogphotos]

8 minutes ago, Olivier Parent said:

 

I did that yesterday, just before I started deleting images. 

As of today, 5% of my images here are already awaiting deletion.

 

 

I've deleted all my recent film 'digital' scans. I intend to host them on my own website exclusively. I might do the same with my original film images because few sell and they are now vintage material.

 

I'd recommend taking action like this which is constructive and has a long-term intention. Cutting off one's nose may have an instant satisfaction but it soon fades and leaves an awful mess.

 

We need to be calm and business-like in how we react to this assault. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by geogphotos

[gardenbush]

9 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

I’ve just gone into Image Manager and selected ‘download your data’. An up to date excel file of all our keywords might be handy quite soon if we decide to place images elsewhere! We only have about 2000 images but folk with large portfolios will have a job on their hands.....

Cracking tip 🙂 thanks!!!

[wilkopix]

10 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

I’ve just gone into Image Manager and selected ‘download your data’. An up to date excel file of all our keywords might be handy quite soon if we decide to place images elsewhere! We only have about 2000 images but folk with large portfolios will have a job on their hands.....

That's a very good point.

Luckily a large proportion of mine are keyworded before submission but still well worth downloading the file.

[geogphotos]

1 minute ago, wilkopix said:

That's a very good point.

Luckily a large proportion of mine are keyworded before submission but still well worth downloading the file.

 

 

If for no other reason than to see which are Exclusive and which are Non-Ex and to have the Alamy file refs to hand so that they can be easily sorted in a spreadsheet.

Edited May 18, 2021 by geogphotos

[Tomtomtom]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

Sadly we agreed to the existing contract which stated that amendments to it, this is technically an amendment not a new contract, are effective as long as there is a 45 day notice.   

Pursuant to  subsection 20,1,3 you may give a termination notice at any time during those 45 days which would be effective on the amendment date from my reading. 

 

 

section 20.1.3

 

You may terminate this Contract:

1. where Alamy gives 45 days’ notice to vary the Contract pursuant to clause 19.1, by written notice to Alamy at any time during that 45 day period expiring at the end thereof.

Thank you! But does that mean, when I cancel my contract - let’s say on the last day before the new contract starts - the next 45 days the selling runs under the old conditions or the new? 

[Jansos]

Quelle surprise but very sad nonetheless. Feels like a slap in the face with a wet fish, especially so as Alamy appeared to be one of the better agencies. Fortunately, for me anyway, Alamy is not my main source of income but it must be gutting if you have been slowly working through your portfolio making everything exclusive only to find out that it has been 100% counterproductive, mostly. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, it was on the cards ever since the acquisition by PA. PA has no history or bond with Alamy photographers. They purchased Alamy to make a profit and presumably the business model at Alamy hadn't been working out, which is why they sold out. Time for the vast majority of us to go non-exclusive and good luck to those few who make >$25k! 😞

[formerly snappyoncalifornia]

During lock down I decided to "waste some time" by copying and pasting all my keywords into photoshop metadata. Wasn't that clever? 

[hotbrightsky]

31 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

An up to date excel file of all our keywords might be handy quite soon

 

Always do keywording offline on your own computer before uploading to agencies. Anything else is madness.

[Dave Colman]

I'm still new to all this stock photography so I am not sure about how much these changes will affect me. 
What I do know is that Alamy has 0 sales for me since jan 21, another site has got me 24 sales in 2 months and another 1 sale within a week of joining with an initial 18 images. 
Of course they are all selling for peanuts and Alamy has to compete with that but it seems as though the agencies seem to want to offload the 'little' guys and not bother with their small amounts of images. 

[formerly snappyoncalifornia]

Here's a crazy idea.  A properly keyworded image should be considered a more valuable asset than a poorly one. Since we do all the work, acknowledge it by paying us. Measure how well you keyword by your CTR. Retain the 50/50 split regardless of your sales volume if your CTR is higher than the average. Just spit balling here.