Opt Out is Open. Time to dump the unwanted Distributors.

[meanderingemu]

Opt out is open.  

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by meanderingemu

[meanderingemu]

quick reminder, that opt in is not time limited, so if unsure about a certain market, better opt-out now you can reassess anytime during the year,  

[John Mitchell]

Thanks for the reminder. Deal me in (or out as the case may be).

 

Terrific image by the way. Hopefully that brand of TP is being shipped to Ukraine.

[meanderingemu]

Just now, John Mitchell said:

Thanks for the reminder. Deal me in (or out as the case may be).

 

Terrific image by the way. Hopefully that brand of TP is being shipped to Ukraine.

 

actually image was in a market in Lviv 3 years ago, his attacks on Ukraine didn't just start.  

[John Mitchell]

Just now, meanderingemu said:

 

actually image was in a market in Lviv 3 years ago, his attacks on Ukraine didn't just start.  

 

Well, someone must have been thinking ahead. You certainly get around...

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Well, someone must have been thinking ahead. You certainly get around...

 

used to.  so weird signed a one year rental agreement today for first time in 8 years. 

[Celluloid Hero]

All done, several global annexations have just taken place.

[DJ Myford]

Another Outclub member signing in. I dumped all distribution when they made the distributor's cut open-ended, and now I'm out of Novel Use and Image Options too. (The latter in case they decide to use it as a Trojan horse to circumvent other opt-outs.)

[Phil Crean]

1 hour ago, DJ Myford said:

and Image Options too. (The latter in case they decide to use it as a Trojan horse to circumvent other opt-outs.)

Good point!

Phil

[meanderingemu]

and just like that, found one of my image licenced through an Alamy Russian distributor yesterday to RT media.  This is on you Alamy supporting the current regime.  These should have been removed immediately upon the Invasion of Ukraine.  Well done being supportive of the regime. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by meanderingemu

[Hanna_Fate]

I opted out of ALL "additional revenue" because I don't trust them.

[Taina]

Image Options seems unnecessary to be on, as customers will edit images anyway. And yes, it can be used as a Trojan - good point! 

[Ed Rooney]

On 01/04/2022 at 01:34, John Mitchell said:

Thanks for the reminder. Deal me in (or out as the case may be).

 

Terrific image by the way. Hopefully that brand of TP is being shipped to Ukraine.

 

Hopefully, I bet there's a market for that TP in Russia.

[Graham]

All my images, without exception, are marked Rights Managed.  A few days ago, a sale appeared with the following licence details:

 

Country: Worldwide
Usage: Advertising and promotion, Royalty Free, all media, in perpetuity
Media: Promotional brochures/ leaflets/inserts
Image Size: Any size
Start: 28 March 2022
Duration: Unlimited

 

I complained to Alamy that my image being set for Rights Managed licensing, it should not have been licenced on Royalty Free terms.  Strangely, the Licence column in the Sales History says "Rights Managed".  I cannot see how a RM licence can include a Royalty Free licence: RF is not a sub-set of RM, it is a completely different concept.

 

Alamy replied to the effect that this had been licensed under the Novel Use scheme, and that they considered that they had the right to grant a RF licence, despite my having marked it as RM in image manager.  I replied giving Alamy my reasons why I do not consider that they have the right under the terms of the contributor contract (which applies both ways) to grant RF licences in respect of images which contributors have specified as RM, even under the Novel Use scheme, but I have not received a reply to those further comments.  I guess we will just have to agree to differ on that one.

 

It can also be seen that although Media is specified as "Promotional brochures/ leaflets/inserts", Usage expands this to include "all media".  

 

In other words, Alamy has granted a Royalty Free licence under the guise of RM, for all media advertising and promotion, in perpetuity.  And all this for just $0.52 gross.

 

When the commission rate changed, I removed exclusivity from all my images.  I believe that Alamy's FAQ used to say that exclusivity (and therefore the previous higher commission rate) could not be granted if the image had previously been licensed RF (perhaps it still does, I have not checked).  Despite marking this image for Alamy to license on a RM basis, were I ever to wish to put this image with another agency on an exclusive basis, I probably could not do so because it has now been licensed on RF terms.  In other words, I have lost all future control over the use of this image, and for a net return after commission of $0.21. 

 

I had assumed that marking my images as RM in image manager would mean that they could only ever be licensed on RM terms, but apparently Alamy has other ideas under the Novel Use scheme.

 

I happened to be awake at midnight on 31 March.  At 00.01am on 1st April I opted out of Novel Use.

 

Graham

[Allan Bell]

I left "Novel use"  early doors.  Followed by "Image options"  a bit later.  Followed by "Distribution" last year.

 

 

Additional revenue options

Option	Status	Action
Distribution	in                            out	You opted out on 17 May 2021
Novel use	in                           out	You opted out on 04 Apr 2013
Image options	in                           out	You opted out on 26 Oct 2017
Reportage/archival or Live News image upload service		Apply

 

Could be one good reason why my sales are lower than some others, but I have not had the problems some have had either.

 

Allan

 

[John Mitchell]

7 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Hopefully, I bet there's a market for that TP in Russia.

 

No doubt, and hopefully the market is expanding.

[Dave Richards]

Thanks for the reminder. I have been opted out of distributor since the contract change but have now dumped novel use (?thought I was already out of that) and image options. All my images, with maybe a dozen exceptions which are RF, are RM editorial only.

[M.Chapman]

3 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

I left "Novel use"  early doors.  Followed by "Image options"  a bit later.  Followed by "Distribution" last year.

 

 

Additional revenue options

Option	Status	Action
Distribution	in                            out	You opted out on 17 May 2021
Novel use	in                           out	You opted out on 04 Apr 2013
Image options	in                           out	You opted out on 26 Oct 2017
Reportage/archival or Live News image upload service		Apply

 

Could be one good reason why my sales are lower than some others, but I have not had the problems some have had either.

 

Allan

 

Is there a danger that, because of some very low value sales reported loudly hereabouts, that all of "distribution" gets given a bad name? Before making any changes I just analysed all my Alamy sales over the last 10 years and find that there are some very valuable distributor sales in there. In fact my average Alamy direct sale is $30, but my average distributor sale is somewhat higher at $35, and around 10% of my sales revenue has been via distribution. So there's no way I'm going to totally opt out of distribution as many distributors seem pretty good. So for me I'm staying in most areas but have opted out of Russia, Belarus, China and India. I'm already opted out of novel use, and most of my images are RM. I stayed in image options.

 

Mark

Edited April 2, 2022 by M.Chapman

[DJ Myford]

A reasonable percentage of my sales were via distribution, but when our cut was reduced to 24% - and potentially less - it was only just a little better than the 20% I'll soon be getting for direct sales. For a while I was getting a payment each year, but now I'm unlikely to make any more sales and when I get kicked down to silver I'll probably quit, so I don't really care anymore. Obviously the situation is different for those with larger collections.

Edited April 2, 2022 by DJ Myford
Clarification

[John Mitchell]

9 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

Is there a danger that, because of some very low value sales reported loudly hereabouts, that all of "distribution" gets given a bad name? Before making any changes I just analysed all my Alamy sales over the last 10 years and find that there are some very valuable distributor sales in there. In fact my average Alamy direct sale is $30, but my average distributor sale is somewhat higher at $35, and around 10% of my sales revenue has been via distribution. So there's no way I'm going to totally opt out of distribution as many distributors seem pretty good. So for me I'm staying in most areas but have opted out of Russia, Belarus, China and India. I'm already opted out of novel use, and most of my images are RM. I stayed in image options.

 

Mark

 

I've also had some good distributor sales, including $$$ figure ones, so I decided to do much the same as you -- opted out of Russia, Belarus and China. I might do same with India. Is there really an Alamy distributor in North Korea? I kind of doubt it.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by John Mitchell

[ROC]

It might be worth having a re-think if you’ve opted out of distributer sales. Last December I had a distributor sale for $400.   Even with the commission lost it was still a good earner for me. (I’ve had other really good distributer sales too). It went to Germany, but I have since had an awful lot of plant images going to Germany for $0.20! 

Edited April 3, 2022 by ROC

[sb photos]

I have dumped distributors in Russia, Belarus, China and a few other countries that have bad human rights issues. Not that I've sold or likely to sell to any of these. My previous few distributor sales have only been to Eastern Europe and for around $4. I suspect the really low license fees originate from discounted bulk sales, something we can't withdraw from.

Edited April 3, 2022 by sb photos

[Allan Bell]

13 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

Is there a danger that, because of some very low value sales reported loudly hereabouts, that all of "distribution" gets given a bad name? Before making any changes I just analysed all my Alamy sales over the last 10 years and find that there are some very valuable distributor sales in there. In fact my average Alamy direct sale is $30, but my average distributor sale is somewhat higher at $35, and around 10% of my sales revenue has been via distribution. So there's no way I'm going to totally opt out of distribution as many distributors seem pretty good. So for me I'm staying in most areas but have opted out of Russia, Belarus, China and India. I'm already opted out of novel use, and most of my images are RM. I stayed in image options.

 

Mark

 

I have only had 7 dist sales from day one to now. Three of those were refunded. Of the four sales that went through they averaged $33 each which netted me $42.

 

So I do not feel I am losing out by opting out.

 

Allan

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Allan Bell

[Martyn]

Having had a distributor sale to Japan last year for $2665, I will stay in but remove certain countries ... the commission taken from that sale hurt but not as much as if the sale hadn't happened because I was opted out of distribution ...

[BobD]

On 02/04/2022 at 11:19, Ed Rooney said:

 

Hopefully, I bet there's a market for that TP in Russia.

 

I doubt anyone would want to risk 15 years in prison wiping their behind.