Reimar Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, Allan Bell said: I must be getting old. I opted OUT of "Distribution" sales back in May 2021. I am also out of "Novel use" (left back in 2013) and "Image options" (left in 2017). Allan I think Alamy has some 'splainin to do. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 (edited) Perhaps after you opt out of distribution, it's up to the distributors in China (or wherever) to remove your images from their websites, and in this case it didn't happen. Just a thought... P.S. I encountered this problem when I was requesting removal of images from other agencies in order to make them exclusive to Alamy (what a waste of time that was). One particular agency still hadn't removed my images after six months, so I had to contact them on at least two occasions. Edited January 4, 2022 by John Mitchell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Myford Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Let's see... Alamy announce that the infringement team are going to be more proactive in chasing unreported uses. Several months later there's a flood of licences for token amounts, with no usage details, backdated to 1900 (which would automatically cover any previous unauthorised use, whenever it occurred). 2 + 2 = 4(cents)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 3 hours ago, Allan Bell said: I am also out of "Novel use" (left back in 2013) and "Image options" (left in 2017). Allan What's downside of "Image Options" use? I'm in - but have never had any sales under it. Anyone else? Have never seen any mention of it in contributor forums threads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 23 minutes ago, Phil said: What's downside of "Image Options" use? I'm in - but have never had any sales under it. Anyone else? Have never seen any mention of it in contributor forums threads. Once upon a time, licensing details included the phrase "Novel Use," but apparently that is no longer the case. I opted out of NU a long time ago. I did have a few very low sales (in the 0.50 to 1.50 range) that looked like regular editorial ones to me -- i.e. I couldn't see anything "novel" about them except the mini prices (at that time, anyway). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeleMakro Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 What strikes me is the fact those sales only happened on Dec 30 and Dec 31st- or did anyone have 4 cent China sales on other dates? This is really odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 15 minutes ago, John Mitchell said: Once upon a time, licensing details included the phrase "Novel Use," but apparently that is no longer the case. I opted out of NU a long time ago. I did have a few very low sales (in the 0.50 to 1.50 range) that looked like regular editorial ones to me -- i.e. I couldn't see anything "novel" about them except the mini prices (at that time, anyway). Thanks John. I've been out of NU for long time also. My query was regarding the separate Image Options feature: https://www.alamy.com/image-options.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Phil said: What's downside of "Image Options" use? I'm in - but have never had any sales under it. Anyone else? Have never seen any mention of it in contributor forums threads. I don't think Image Options has ever been operational. Edited January 4, 2022 by geogphotos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 5 minutes ago, Phil said: Thanks John. I've been out of NU for long time also. My query was regarding the separate Image Options feature: https://www.alamy.com/image-options.aspx I see. I'm in "image options" as well. It sounded good but nothing has ever become of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 2 minutes ago, John Mitchell said: I see. I'm in "image options" as well. It sounded good but nothing has ever become of it. Like so many other Alamy 'promising' innovations. 😞 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 2 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said: Like so many other Alamy 'promising' innovations. 😞 That seems harsh to me. Participation continues to be optional. I have looked around a lot and not seen anything better than Alamy. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, John Mitchell said: Perhaps after you opt out of distribution, it's up to the distributors in China (or wherever) to remove your images from their websites, and in this case it didn't happen. Just a thought... P.S. I encountered this problem when I was requesting removal of images from other agencies in order to make them exclusive to Alamy (what a waste of time that was). One particular agency still hadn't removed my images after six months, so I had to contact them on at least two occasions. i had found my images on an African distributor, the day after i removed all of Africa, my images were gone, so i could still have had sales in following weeks based on reporting lag, but they were off line. I am still convinced all these sales are from the last 12 months, and there has been 0 reporting throughout the year, it makes no sense that they would have all been sold in last month or so, and we can be sure 4 cents sales net would have been mentioned, and this is why those of us who went out mid-year still have some sales. and even if my guess is right, to quote Reimar "Alamy has some 'splainin to do" : 1)these sales should have been under the old contract 2)this is a major issue with their new tiers. Someone could have sales today, that would not be reported until December, so if there is a Level drop that's unfair, and worse if these sales would have put someone over threshold.... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ilya Genkin Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 A few years back I said here that Alamy is becoming a microstock agency (both in terms of quality of the images and in $$$) like SS etc.. Here we go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Kyhn Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Well, it isn't only distributor sales to China that are affected – here's a $0.25 sale with a $0.15 deduction: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Hi all, Thank you for all of the information you have provided here, our CR team are just getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas break and this will be useful to help us look into what's happened in this case to give a clear answer. If you've got a specific question about your sales, please email contributors@alamy.com but be mindful that there may be a delayed response as we get back up to speed and work through the backlog from the festive period. All the best Corin 3 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen S Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 I've just spotted 8 or so of my images that have sold for $0.15 each. Can anyone suggest how I find out what's going on please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Shaw Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Like many, I too have recently had some sales for pennies. All are to China, and amazingly most are in perpetuity - quite incredible. Just WHY are Alamy selling these at ridiculously low rates. As someone who has been to Tibet for ethical reasons I do not want my photographs sold to China. If Alamy persist in treating us photographers like idiots then there is one simple solution - I will not be uploading any more material to Alamy. Robbie Shaw 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Good question. See discussion here. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreign Export Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 I haven't been on the receiving end of these sales - yet I have skim read the thread that John has linked to though I certainly won't be increasing my RF images as this seems to be a part of the problem- will be sticking to RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 6 minutes ago, Foreign Export said: I haven't been on the receiving end of these sales - yet I have skim read the thread that John has linked to though I certainly won't be increasing my RF images as this seems to be a part of the problem- will be sticking to RM Agreed, puts me off RF for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 29 minutes ago, Foreign Export said: I haven't been on the receiving end of these sales - yet I have skim read the thread that John has linked to though I certainly won't be increasing my RF images as this seems to be a part of the problem- will be sticking to RM still not 100% proof, one of my Chinese Distributor "sale" was RM 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Alamy Posted January 14, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted January 14, 2022 Hi All, Apologies on the radio silence up to this point whilst we investigate what's been happening with these sales via a Chinese distributor. The detail is more complex than it appears and we are still picking through the data to ascertain what’s involved and how it has come to pass. I'd also like to apologise for posting this on what is a Friday afternoon here in the UK. It's never the best time to post replies and I'm aware there will may be suspicions that this is some kind of deliberate tactic of waiting for a quiet period but I can assure you it isn't. I'll be back in touch next week to share more detail of what has happened with this flurry of sales through the Chinese distribution channel. For now though I wanted to confirm that this level of pricing is not some radical new approach that we've taken on that will be rolled out across all sales. I also want to be honest though and say that these types of deals are a requirement in todays market so you will see them from time to time, and we're not alone as an agency in having to provide such licence types. Our average price for per licence remains remarkably stable and has done since 2017. 2021 had the average licence price in the same bracket as 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 - namely, an average of between $26 and $30 per licence. On an individual level it was a record year for submissions and photographer registrations so that may naturally dilute the earnings for photographers who are facing more competition than ever. Our job is to continue to grow sales in order to grow as a business of course but also be a viable earning platform for this growing number of contributors. It's a tough, competitive market but we have some ambitious and exciting plans which we hope you can all be part of with us. Low value sales like you've seen here are not encouraging of course and I'm not going to pretend they are, but taken in as part of a bigger picture where our average price remains stable and higher than our key competition - and our plans for growth are very promising - I hope those who are dissuaded from contributing as a result may reconsider and continue to work with us as we grow. James Allsworth Head of Content 4 5 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avpics Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 James @Alamy would you also consider giving us an update on, and advise us of future plans for the database and associated systems as per the issues that are highlighted here and elsewhere at times. Last weekend's freeze could potentially have lost Alamy a large number of sales. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 (edited) 15 hours ago, Alamy said: Hi All, It's a tough, competitive market but we have some ambitious and exciting plans which we hope you can all be part of with us. ...............and our plans for growth are very promising - I hope those who are dissuaded from contributing as a result may reconsider and continue to work with us as we grow. James Allsworth Head of Content Thanks for the update James. I'm sure that we would all feel more motivated if you could add some details ( as and when) so that we can feel involved in this excitement and ambition. We need something! Edited January 15, 2022 by geogphotos 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 James and Ian -- two of my heroes. I just checked my sales for the past year and I see no sales to China and no sale under a US $. I get a lot of PU sales that I value since they are mostly for the full $19.99. I admire the Chinese, lived just above Chinatown in NYC. They are focused and hardworking with a loyalty in the community. I used to go down early in the morning and do Tai Chi. The master never questioned or objected to my being there. (I do hate their music and their stock prices though.) Damn it! Can someone please tell me how to find the terms of my contract with the options in or out? Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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