Micro sales

[meanderingemu]

47 minutes ago, Celluloid Hero said:

Just came across a remark by Nicole Glass on her excellent YouTube channel, mentioning that as an SS photographer you might receive as little as 25cents for an image. Looks like we are breaking some records here for minimum returns! Alamy now officially microstock?

Old video.  They are getting much less than that now.

[Celluloid Hero]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

Old video.  They are getting much less than that now.

Yes, you're right it is an old video. I suspect stock photography is now one of the few industries where deflation is the norm, not inflation.

[MariaJ]

On 17/02/2022 at 09:18, Celluloid Hero said:

Yes, you're right it is an old video. I suspect stock photography is now one of the few industries where deflation is the norm, not inflation.

 

They pay those who supply content 10 cents per image, meanwhile the founder is a billionaire. 

[Rebecca Ore]

4 hours ago, MariaJ said:

 

They pay those who supply content 10 cents per image, meanwhile the founder is a billionaire. 

 

A failed stock photographer who turned to running a stock agency, if I remember what I read correctly. 

[Cryptoprocta]

10 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

A failed stock photographer who turned to running a stock agency, if I remember what I read correctly. 

No, he was a techie and entrepreneur.  (I think you're thinking of Bruce Livingstone, who started iStockphoto)

From Wikipedia:

"Jon Oringer (born May 2, 1974) is an American programmer, photographer, and billionaire businessman, best known as the founder and CEO of Shutterstock, a stock media company headquartered in New York City. Oringer started his career while a college student in the 1990s, when he created "one of the Web's first pop-up blockers." He went on to found about ten small startups that used a subscription method to sell "personal firewalls, accounting software, cookie blockers, trademark managers," and other small programs.

In 2003, Oringer founded Shutterstock to provide microstock photography, ..."

[geogphotos]

Oringer got started by taking as many images as he could and also buying up rejects from photographers at 50 cents a slide/chrome. 

[Rebecca Ore]

5 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

No, he was a techie and entrepreneur.  (I think you're thinking of Bruce Livingstone, who started iStockphoto)

Yep.  All those agencies look alike to me, and not that much different from the publishing world. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by Rebecca Ore

[John Mitchell]

On 18/02/2022 at 13:51, MariaJ said:

 

They pay those who supply content 10 cents per image, meanwhile the founder is a billionaire. 

 

He'll end up giving capitalism a bad name if he doesn't watch out. 🤑

[Marb]

Another £0 sale. This is absolutely pathetic, and an insult to photographers. Even the micros pay more. 

[meanderingemu]

4 hours ago, Marb said:

Another £0 sale. This is absolutely pathetic, and an insult to photographers. Even the micros pay more. 

not excusing prices here, but from what i saw, most micro sales round to nearest dollar are also £0.  Alamy just joined sadly. 

[geogphotos]

9 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

not excusing prices here, but from what i saw, most micro sales round to nearest dollar are also £0.  Alamy just joined sadly. 

 

 

10 cents at micro = a result of inevitable capitalist forces akin to Darwinism, there is no point complaining, just the way the world is

10 cents at Alamy = total betrayal, undervaluing photography, disaster, complaining loudly will reverse the 'inevitable capitalist forces' etc

 

Isn't that the story?

Edited February 22, 2022 by geogphotos

[meanderingemu]

35 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

10 cents at micro = a result of inevitable capitalist forces akin to Darwinism, there is no point complaining, just the way the world is

10 cents at Alamy = total betrayal, undervaluing photography, disaster, complaining loudly will reverse the 'inevitable capitalist forces' etc

 

Isn't that the story?

 

 

seems like it.  Reading the globalist forums i am confounded by people who upload to most Micros, including some much worse duds (down to one penny net), terminating their Alamy accounts.  I can understand someone getting out of the whole market, but not sure i understand Alamy adapting makes them pariah in the group. 

[spiegel]

On 18/02/2022 at 22:51, MariaJ said:

 

They pay those who supply content 10 cents per image,...

 

I doubt that the selling price of subs is of any importance to us. What is significant is what is on our credit side at the end of the month. 
Unfortunately, despite deflation, it is still the case that the greedy agency, whose name I will not mention here, generates a higher turnover than the Alamy biotope. A snapshot of this year, January and February, shows a nearly 10-fold (!!) amount for me. The reason, of course, is that the greedy agency not only sells subs, but also generates large individual sales from time to time. What in addition to the hundreds of subs, leads to a considerable result.
If you look at microstock photography not from the point of view of a photo club, but from the point of view of sales, the agency whose name I don't want to mention (and which I don't like emotionally, unlike Alamy), seems to be pretty far ahead.  

[Rebecca Ore]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

seems like it.  Reading the globalist forums i am confounded by people who upload to most Micros, including some much worse duds (down to one penny net), terminating their Alamy accounts.  I can understand someone getting out of the whole market, but not sure i understand Alamy adapting makes them pariah in the group. 

 

I think it was Alamy's earlier promises.  I had to go and cool off for a while before realizing that files on my hard drive were making really nothing, might as well try to engage with my better photos, think about composition and exposure with new ones, and just live with the situation.  Alamy had gotten me some decent deals in the past.  And appears to be all over the map with the deals other people have been reporting. 

 

Getting robbed by a stranger is easier to take than getting robbed by someone whose birthday party you attended  (yeah, happened to me).

 

[M.Chapman]

8 hours ago, Marb said:

Even the micros pay more

And they generate much higher sales volumes. I really don't understand why Alamy has made some deals that appear to undercut the micros, especially when the share given to the contributor isn't protected in any way.

 

Mark

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

And they generate much higher sales volumes. I really don't understand why Alamy has made some deals that appear to undercut the micros, especially when the share given to the contributor isn't protected in any way.

 

Mark

 

Market share. If they don't offer these deals they lose clients. 

[Cryptoprocta]

3 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

seems like it.  Reading the globalist forums i am confounded by people who upload to most Micros, including some much worse duds (down to one penny net), terminating their Alamy accounts.  I can understand someone getting out of the whole market, but not sure i understand Alamy adapting makes them pariah in the group. 

While Alamy prices were higher, the low sales volume was almost tolerable.

Now that it's low and super-low prices and low sales volume, it's not; especially for those who have different content, RM, on Alamy. They might well, arguably, put their content RF over various sites in a hope of maximising their total earnings. Not that many people expect much nowadays or moving forward.

[meanderingemu]

10 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said:

While Alamy prices were higher, the low sales volume was almost tolerable.

Now that it's low and super-low prices and low sales volume, it's not; especially for those who have different content, RM, on Alamy. They might well, arguably, put their content RF over various sites in a hope of maximising their total earnings. Not that many people expect much nowadays or moving forward.

 

 

i doubt many had images as RM since they uploaded to all sites, but many of these have accounts at MS that they even list as lesser performer as Alamy.  and not sure how closing the Alamy account altogether increases total earnings. 

[Cryptoprocta]

2 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

i doubt many had images as RM since they uploaded to all sites, but many of these have accounts at MS that they even list as lesser performer as Alamy.  and not sure how closing the Alamy account altogether increases total earnings. 

Quite a number of people, like me, upload different images to Alamy as RM.

I don't know which 'globalist forums' you're referring to, but the people I know who have quit Alamy recently have mostly been in this group.

As for these others you're referring to, I don't know their reasoning.

[geogphotos]

No surprise if people quit Alamy or stock photography. There's always plenty of new contributors arriving. 

 

The situation we now have with ultra low fees hasn't happened by chance. 

 

Simultaneously creating the situation by supporting micros and also complaining about low fees on Alamy strikes me as illogical. 

 

Happily earning micro income and then complaining that Alamy doesn't occupy a parallel universe for the RM you upload also strikes me as illogical. 

 

Contributing is optional. Contribute what and where suits you best. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by geogphotos

[Cryptoprocta]

2 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

i doubt many had images as RM since they uploaded to all sites, but many of these have accounts at MS that they even list as lesser performer as Alamy.  and not sure how closing the Alamy account altogether increases total earnings. 

Some ex-contributors are concerned about Alamy and a.n.other selling files extremely cheaply to a country which has little regard for copyright, the same country which copies our content from newspapers in particular, and Alamy can't/won't do anything about it. Many of these have already left that other site already because of the very low percentage given to indies, which Alamy is now only slightly above for low earners.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Cryptoprocta

[sooth]

welcome to the gig economy....  where your side hustles includes grubhub, amazon flex, fiverr, and stock photography.

 

....which btw, "gig economy" is a good subject to shoot 

Edited February 22, 2022 by sooth

[Snib]

7 hours ago, geogphotos said:

No surprise if people quit Alamy or stock photography. There's always plenty of new contributors arriving. 

 

The situation we now have with ultra low fees hasn't happened by chance. 

 

Simultaneously creating the situation by supporting micros and also complaining about low fees on Alamy strikes me as illogical. 

 

Happily earning micro income and then complaining that Alamy doesn't occupy a parallel universe for the RM you upload also strikes me as illogical. 

 

Contributing is optional. Contribute what and where suits you best. 

I agree, contributing is optional however if for instance these low sales are due to novel use roll on April when I can disengage…. It is the not knowing where and how these fees are arrived at that is the issue! So come April I will kick novel use into touch and see for myself (sorta trial and error job) as Alamy isn’t spilling the beans. No other way forward this end to curb the relentless 0.00 sales fee.

[Marianne]

One of mine that licensed for $80 in December licensed today for $1.60

 

Usage: Editorial, For Editorial use on customers website, app and social media platforms (excludes Advertising)
Media: Website, app and social media

 

It's a UK license. The $80 one was to a UK magazine. 

[Cryptoprocta]

5 hours ago, Marianne said:

One of mine that licensed for $80 in December licensed today for $1.60

Again, proof (as if proof was needed when Alamy has officially confirmed it) that price has nothing to do with the quality of the image, but only the discount of the buyer.