Not Selling for Pennies

[meanderingemu]

With Alamy's new realignment of posts now putting all my comments under the title:

 

"Suggestions and ideas: Selling for Pennies"

 

which clearly was never part of any of my comments, I would like to make sure it is clear, that i did not in any matter suggest that Alamy should sell images for pennies, nor should they distribute my images through a distributor in a Country i opted out for said pennies.

 

Hope this clarifies my suggestion.  Happy 2022.

[Phil Crean]

And they've unreasonably closed the topic with no proper explanation!

Not good form Alamy🤔

Phil

[Hanna_Fate]

They don't want a stampede of good photographers.  It has happened to other sites.

[Jo Ann S]

I've been with Alamy for years and it's always been a small seller for me, but it was a good add-on. When Alamy announced their newest royalty reduction, I paid no attention to the $250 gross threshold for staying at my current 40% royalty rate because I'd never had such low earnings and it wasn't an issue.

 

After the pathetically low sales at the end of 2021 - and I had a number in November at 21 cent gross, 8 cents for me as well as the 15/4 cents sales from December 30 & 31 - I looked at my 2021 gross sales for first half and second half. The second half sales were one tenth of the total year sales.

Yesterday I send email to Alamy requesting they start the 45 day clock on terminating my account. 8 and 4 cent royalties are unacceptable, but piling those on to enable reducing my royalty rate to 20% was a final straw.

I'm guessing Alamy won't even ask why I'm closing my account because they don't care. 

[kreygscott]

5 minutes ago, Jo Ann S said:

I've been with Alamy for years and it's always been a small seller for me, but it was a good add-on. When Alamy announced their newest royalty reduction, I paid no attention to the $250 gross threshold for staying at my current 40% royalty rate because I'd never had such low earnings and it wasn't an issue.

 

After the pathetically low sales at the end of 2021 - and I had a number in November at 21 cent gross, 8 cents for me as well as the 15/4 cents sales from December 30 & 31 - I looked at my 2021 gross sales for first half and second half. The second half sales were one tenth of the total year sales.

Yesterday I send email to Alamy requesting they start the 45 day clock on terminating my account. 8 and 4 cent royalties are unacceptable, but piling those on to enable reducing my royalty rate to 20% was a final straw.

I'm guessing Alamy won't even ask why I'm closing my account because they don't care. 

I wouldn't suggest closing your account. Instead I would advise that you NOT upload any new content given the fact that this seems to be a growing trend among Stock Photography Agencies to undervalue the work of Stock Photographers.

[Duncan_Andison]

I'll be paying close attention to the sales over the next month or so with the view of pulling my port here. Once you work out the net inc here, it's tiny compared to the rest so I've no problem in shutting it down to protect other sales elsewhere from the mass $0.04 China sales.

[meanderingemu]

really pushing the narrative.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sultanpepa]

On 05/01/2022 at 15:23, Jo Ann S said:

I've been with Alamy for years and it's always been a small seller for me, but it was a good add-on. When Alamy announced their newest royalty reduction, I paid no attention to the $250 gross threshold for staying at my current 40% royalty rate because I'd never had such low earnings and it wasn't an issue.

 

After the pathetically low sales at the end of 2021 - and I had a number in November at 21 cent gross, 8 cents for me as well as the 15/4 cents sales from December 30 & 31 - I looked at my 2021 gross sales for first half and second half. The second half sales were one tenth of the total year sales.

Yesterday I send email to Alamy requesting they start the 45 day clock on terminating my account. 8 and 4 cent royalties are unacceptable, but piling those on to enable reducing my royalty rate to 20% was a final straw.

I'm guessing Alamy won't even ask why I'm closing my account because they don't care. 

 

It's so sad that Alamy has come to this. I predict many will leave this year once it's clear how much they are loosing to the combination of rock bottom pricing and commission decreases. There's only so much one can stomach. I don't expect we've seen the last of changes either. #Tipoftheiceberg

[SamanthaO]

Thought this issue was only a China, end of year issue - not so. Just checked my account and I had a sale on the 5th Jan:

Country: Worldwide
Usage: Editorial, Single use across website and/or digital publication such as E-book or PDF, any size, any placement, in perpetuity.
Media: Editorial website
57 MB
5472 x 3648 pixels 
7 MB compressed
Start: 05 January 2022
End: 05 October 2022

 

for $0.25!!!!!

 

I left SS in order to make sure I was selling exclusively to Alamy. I won't spend hours uploading and keywording for a couple of cents. If this continues I too will be pulling my account and my over 18,000 images! Would like to see Alamy address this growing uproar from their contributors ASAP.

[Rebecca Ore]

On 08/01/2022 at 17:43, SamanthaO said:

Thought this issue was only a China, end of year issue - not so. Just checked my account and I had a sale on the 5th Jan:

Country: Worldwide
Usage: Editorial, Single use across website and/or digital publication such as E-book or PDF, any size, any placement, in perpetuity.
Media: Editorial website
57 MB
5472 x 3648 pixels 
7 MB compressed
Start: 05 January 2022
End: 05 October 2022

 

for $0.25!!!!!

 

I left SS in order to make sure I was selling exclusively to Alamy. I won't spend hours uploading and keywording for a couple of cents. If this continues I too will be pulling my account and my over 18,000 images! Would like to see Alamy address this growing uproar from their contributors ASAP.

 

I pulled out last year in June or July.  The thing is, as I realized, I'd done the work and didn't see anyone recommending any other agency at this point, so the photos that sold for not that much were selling for zero.   What a number of people seem to be doing is leaving their portfolios in place and either adding to them sparingly or not at all.  You've got significantly large portfolio.  Why not just leave it in place pending further developments? 

 

[geogphotos]

On 08/01/2022 at 23:43, SamanthaO said:

 

I left SS in order to make sure I was selling exclusively to Alamy. I won't spend hours uploading and keywording for a couple of cents. If this continues I too will be pulling my account and my over 18,000 images! Would like to see Alamy address this growing uproar from their contributors ASAP.

 

 

Unfortunately individuals leaving SS does not change the overall situation in which stock photography now exists.

 

Alamy is not in a sheltered parallel universe. Buyers know perfectly well that micro stock exist and that they are in the driving seat. 

 

We have had 20 years of micro stock pricing now. But it isn't only that. 

 

All these 'ridiculous' fees will most likely be for internet use only - a slide shows of 25 images of the best places to visit in Abingdon and the like. Free to view, here today gone tomorrow, and archived forever.

 

I buy one newspaper every few weeks, no magazines, very few books which contain images. I spend half my life on the internet browsing websites most of which are image rich - but I don't have to pay a penny to access them. 

 

I think we have to accept where we are even if we don't much like it. 

Edited January 10, 2022 by geogphotos

[SamanthaO]

Quote

Unfortunately individuals leaving SS does not change the overall situation in which stock photography now exists.

 

Alamy is not in a sheltered parallel universe. Buyers know perfectly well that micro stock exist and that they are in the driving seat. 

 

 

Very true, however as creators we can choose how much time and money we invest into creating quality images, filling gaps in the market, and accurate keywording. I left SS to enhance my Alamy returns and to make a statement that 25 cents an image was not worth my time. I know 18,000 images is not much overall, however I have in my collection some niche images that are not covered elsewhere on the internet.

 

Alamy has up until the end of 2021, provided a platform that allowed an acceptable return on investment (ROI). When enough creators decide that their ROI is not being met, they too will have a decision to make on whether to be adding fresh new content, not adding any new content, or removing all their images (like I did in SS) to make a statement.

[SamanthaO]

6 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

I pulled out last year in June or July.  The thing is, as I realized, I'd done the work and didn't see anyone recommending any other agency at this point, so the photos that sold for not that much were selling for zero.   What a number of people seem to be doing is leaving their portfolios in place and either adding to them sparingly or not at all.  You've got significantly large portfolio.  Why not just leave it in place pending further developments? 

 

I will wait until I see an explanation from Alamy to the discontent that has been voiced over this forum. If this was a one off or there is some sort of reasonable explanation then I will definitely continue with Alamy. I eagerly wait for their response to this issue.

[Rebecca Ore]

19 minutes ago, SamanthaO said:

I will wait until I see an explanation from Alamy to the discontent that has been voiced over this forum. If this was a one off or there is some sort of reasonable explanation then I will definitely continue with Alamy. I eagerly wait for their response to this issue.

The discontent has been consistent since the contract change this past summer, but Geophotos pointed out that free photos and web content tend to be what we expect, and in the past, readers were paying for print content, including photographs, and newspapers had more advertisers.   Some people have had better years than others, and I've noticed that most of those have had five figure collections, as you do.  Unless photographers organize something like Science Fiction Writers of America and get all professionally published photographers to join and fund a grievance committee (SFWA got Disney to back down for one Star Wars novel writer and cough up the royalties), taking photos away from here, or any other agency with similar pay outs, doesn't really do much of anything other than eliminating an admittedly variable income stream.  Alamy does grant more control to its agency partners.

 

Joining one of the agencies might be useful, or not since I suspect the agencies also take their cuts.  I haven't looked into it.   One photographer' coop is diversifying from pure stock to print sales and lessons, with sales on prints offered on line from time to time: 5x5 or 6x6 to 8x10 black and white photos from their archives.

 

Hand selling individual photos has to have a significant payoff for everyone.  Selling bulk subscriptions probably is more profitable for Alamy and its parent company.  Selling several hundred or thousand reduced-size files for an end of year use of a bulk subscription seems to be what's going on with the recent Chinese purchases.  Other clients ask Alamy's sales staff to find something for them and wrap up the deal.

 

 

 

 

[geogphotos]

9 hours ago, SamanthaO said:

 

Alamy has up until the end of 2021, provided a platform that allowed an acceptable return on investment (ROI). When enough creators decide that their ROI is not being met, they too will have a decision to make on whether to be adding fresh new content, not adding any new content, or removing all their images (like I did in SS) to make a statement.

 

This has been an ongoing pattern. People leave and others arrive. Many of those leaving needed to think more about revenue than those who have replaced them. 

 

Just look at the regular threads about what contributors have earnt in the preceding month/year. Most posting here on the forum do not rely on Alamy income in order to live. Alamy is a part-time hobby for most. 

 

I agree with you, and have said so many times, contributors will lose interest when they feel that they are being taken for granted and don't like that feeling ( psychology rather than finance). Until now though there has always been a regular stream of new entrants ready to participate.

 

So far the 'crowd' has always been available to provide continuity - and with around 280 million images now available ( just here at Alamy - which is a comparatively low revenue agency) there is hardly a shortage of images. 

[meanderingemu]

On 10/01/2022 at 19:15, SamanthaO said:

I will wait until I see an explanation from Alamy to the discontent that has been voiced over this forum. If this was a one off or there is some sort of reasonable explanation then I will definitely continue with Alamy. I eagerly wait for their response to this issue.

 

to be honest, i think we have had Alamy's explanation.  "This is the market, and we and our distributors charge what WE feel is appropriate, and charge you (60%-88% in 2022) for this expertise.  In addition we have now normalised approaches that we deemed "Novel" in the past as part of our standard approach". 

 

edit: should have made clear i was combining the information contributors have received under one quote.

Edited January 12, 2022 by meanderingemu
added info

[SamanthaO]

18 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

to be honest, i think we have had Alamy's explanation.  "This is the market, and we and our distributors charge what WE feel is appropriate, and charge you (60%-88% in 2022) for this expertise.  In addition we have now normalised approaches that we deemed "Novel" in the past as part of our standard approach". 

Where did you find your quote from? 

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, SamanthaO said:

Where did you find your quote from? 

 

it's a combination of the answers we have had (and the commission is just straight out of the contract), and an extrapolation that first they said these licences were "Novel", but then retracted said they were just regular ones.  Most of them are from people's posts in a thread called "Selling for pennies" (which at least Alamy as now nicely moved out of the suggestion forum).  

You will also notice towards the end, that they stated that all other answers would likely come only from  direct communication from e-mails, hence the no further statements to come.

 

 

 

[geogphotos]

All Alamy images used here.

 

https://www.revistaad.es/lugares/galerias/conocemos-pueblos-bonitos-espana/13346

 

104 images used in one article. 

 

Realistically, they are either going to pay pennies and use lots of images or pay a more decent fee per image and use one or two per article.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by geogphotos

[SamanthaO]

5 hours ago, geogphotos said:

All Alamy images used here.

 

https://www.revistaad.es/lugares/galerias/conocemos-pueblos-bonitos-espana/13346

 

104 images used in one article. 

 

Realistically, they are either going to pay pennies and use lots of images or pay a more decent fee per image and use one or two per article.

 

 

Interestingly, its the first website that I have seen to use Alamy images without crediting the photographer. 

[Rebecca Ore]

6 hours ago, geogphotos said:

All Alamy images used here.

 

https://www.revistaad.es/lugares/galerias/conocemos-pueblos-bonitos-espana/13346

 

104 images used in one article. 

 

Realistically, they are either going to pay pennies and use lots of images or pay a more decent fee per image and use one or two per article.

 

 

 

Looks like possibly the work of mostly one photographer.  

[sb photos]

7 hours ago, SamanthaO said:

Interestingly, its the first website that I have seen to use Alamy images without crediting the photographer. 

I find it quite common.

[geogphotos]

A couple of points in reply to those raised:

 

There are very many websites that do not give any credits at all.

I have two of my pics out of 104 so assume they have used the work of many Alamy contributors

I do not want to go into the specifics of this example as it would be unfair on the client

I just used it as an example, one of many, to demonstrate a typical use nowadays to help us understand the frustration of very low fees 

If the fees were higher they would use far fewer images - and then instead of complaining about low fees we would be moaning about the lack of sales 🙂

Edited January 14, 2022 by geogphotos

[John Gaffen]

I have had 14 sales in January, so far,  for a grand total of $38.59!  So you can easily see the average price/image  I'm currently getting. I do find it frustrating, even though I had a record year in 2021, both in terms of numbers sold and total earnings. But I do find this this downward price spiral, worrying!  

[Alamy]