Alamy's financial results for 2021

[M.Chapman]

Alamy's Financial results for 2021 have been published.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03807789/filing-history

 

Turnover up 40% to £29.1M (£20.7M in 2020)

Profit up over 100% to £6.3M (£3.0M in 2020)

 

Good news that Alamy still seemed to be doing OK in 2021. It's a pity they chose to reduce our commission.

 

Mark

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by M.Chapman

[Nodvandigtid]

Thanks for posting, Mark.

It will be interesting to see the year ending 2022 result in twelve months' time and see the effect of the contributor's commission reduction from July 2022 onwards!!  

[Sultanpepa]

If it meant that contributors were sharing in the spoils I'd say great. But we're not. Their profits are our loss.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Sultanpepa

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, Nodvandigtid said:

Thanks for posting, Mark.

It will be interesting to see the year ending 2022 result in twelve months' time and see the effect of the contributor's commission reduction from July 2022 onwards!!  

 

 

The commission cut to 40% was in July 2021. 

[Nodvandigtid]

Yes, I think quite a few will remember that, and its impact on Alamy's bottom line in the set of figures just released (and the reduction in our net income), but I am interested in seeing the commission reduction impact from July 2022 as I wrote.

That's when. in terms of commission, the rate for x number of contributors fell from 40% to 20%

In terms of those contributors that's a 50% reduction, whilst Alamy get a 33.333% increase in income from any images sold by those contributors (and I am not going into detail about images sold through distributors - let's keep it simple).

 

Maybe it won't matter and it's all down to simply "improved market conditions" again😉 

 

   

[geogphotos]

Sorry, hard to keep up with all the commision cuts. 

 

Not long ago we were getting 65% 

[geogphotos]

My reading of the accompanying text is that Alamy is little more than a cash-cow now. 

[M.Chapman]

7 hours ago, Sultanpepa said:

If it meant that contributors were sharing in the spoils I'd say great. But we're not. Their profits are our loss.

Previous years' accounts included a line entry "cost of sales" which I believe gave an insight into the total cost of commission being paid to contributors. Unfortunately that information is no longer included as a separate line item for 2021 (well I couldn't find it anyway). Nevertheless, I believe the main driver for the increase in profits was the increase in turnover and not the effect of the change in commission levels. I think the factors that hurt individual contributors income are; (in no particular order)

• the increasing number of images and contributors (including agencies) in Alamy's portfolio (ie. more competition, less chance of sale)
• the cut in commission rates being paid on direct sales from July 2021 onwards
• the drop in sale prices being achieved by Alamy
• increasing level of sales through distribution at low prices with even lower % commission payable payable to the contributor

Overall, I suspect the total amount of commission paid to contributors in 2021 has probably risen, but it's being shared amongst more contributors/agencies, so individual contributors aren't seeing this rise.

 

What I don't see in the figures is any particular justification as to why Alamy decided to make a U turn (relative what Emily said in Dec 2020 video) and cut our commission. It doesn't look like they were forced to do it (for example to stay solvent). It was a "voluntary" decision to further boost their profits at contributors expense. I fear this change will do long term damage as Alamy is now losing out on the best/exclusive content and contributors, weakening their portfolio and forcing them to cut prices further to maintain sales.

 

2022's number will be interesting as the effect of some contributors dropping to 20% commission are offset by adverse market conditions (recession) and the total mess up of the web-site front end (which IMO still doesn't work at all well).

 

Mark

[meanderingemu]

9 hours ago, geogphotos said:

My reading of the accompanying text is that Alamy is little more than a cash-cow now. 

 

and a place to dump the PA images to flood the Stock side

[John Mitchell]

One thing is certain, it now pays much more (financially speaking) to be a middleman than a creator. The pie keeps getting larger, but the slices get skinnier and skinnier .... 🥧

 

 

 

[Angler]

Not good for contributors. In 2005, two years after starting with Alamy, average sale was $150 with 70% to the contributor, so far this year those figures are $25 & 40%. No incentive in a declining market. I'm still selling but haven't put any new work up for sometime.

[Alex Ramsay]

1 hour ago, Angler said:

Not good for contributors. In 2005, two years after starting with Alamy, average sale was $150 with 70% to the contributor, so far this year those figures are $25 & 40%. No incentive in a declining market. I'm still selling but haven't put any new work up for sometime.

My figures this year are similar. The rule of thumb used to be $1 per year per image on sale - this year is on course to be half that

 

Alex

[John Mitchell]

7 hours ago, Alex Ramsay said:

My figures this year are similar. The rule of thumb used to be $1 per year per image on sale - this year is on course to be half that

 

Alex

 

I'm down to about $0.50 (gross income) per image as well this year.

Edited September 29, 2022 by John Mitchell

[Russell Watkins]

Ooh, my "sad face" emoji has disappeared. Have an updoot instead John et al.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Russell Watkins

[MariaJ]

On 30/09/2022 at 00:09, Russell Watkins said:

Ooh, my "sad face" emoji has disappeared. Have an updoot instead John et al.

I noticed both the "sad" and "confused" emojis have disappeared.

[Russell Watkins]

30 minutes ago, MariaJ said:

I noticed both the "sad" and "confused" emojis have disappeared.

 

We probably wore them out...

[spacecadet]

On 29/09/2022 at 18:45, John Mitchell said:

 

I'm down to about $0.50 (gross income) per image as well this year.

I have never got anywhere near that.

[John Mitchell]

10 hours ago, spacecadet said:

I have never got anywhere near that.

 

I was probably close to (or even over) $2.00 once upon a time. But them days is gone forever...

 

Twas fun while it lasted, though. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by John Mitchell

[Betty LaRue]

On 28/09/2022 at 15:22, M.Chapman said:

Previous years' accounts included a line entry "cost of sales" which I believe gave an insight into the total cost of commission being paid to contributors. Unfortunately that information is no longer included as a separate line item for 2021 (well I couldn't find it anyway). Nevertheless, I believe the main driver for the increase in profits was the increase in turnover and not the effect of the change in commission levels. I think the factors that hurt individual contributors income are; (in no particular order)

• the increasing number of images and contributors (including agencies) in Alamy's portfolio (ie. more competition, less chance of sale)
• the cut in commission rates being paid on direct sales from July 2021 onwards
• the drop in sale prices being achieved by Alamy
• increasing level of sales through distribution at low prices with even lower % commission payable payable to the contributor

Overall, I suspect the total amount of commission paid to contributors in 2021 has probably risen, but it's being shared amongst more contributors/agencies, so individual contributors aren't seeing this rise.

 

What I don't see in the figures is any particular justification as to why Alamy decided to make a U turn (relative what Emily said in Dec 2020 video) and cut our commission. It doesn't look like they were forced to do it (for example to stay solvent). It was a "voluntary" decision to further boost their profits at contributors expense. I fear this change will do long term damage as Alamy is now losing out on the best/exclusive content and contributors, weakening their portfolio and forcing them to cut prices further to maintain sales.

 

2022's number will be interesting as the effect of some contributors dropping to 20% commission are offset by adverse market conditions (recession) and the total mess up of the web-site front end (which IMO still doesn't work at all well).

 

Mark

Since the cut, many contributors are shooting what’s easily available. As a result, there are more Ho-hum images being uploaded, while some contributors have stopped uploading altogether, or very little. Incentive has been effectively squashed. Why should I spend several hours and costly gasoline to drive down to the city hub, hang around for sunset to get a spectacular image of a certain statue that represents Wichita and Native Americans and risk getting mugged? Nope. Why should I have gone to the chili cook off festival Saturday past, fighting traffic, trying to find parking and spending a minimum of an hour there, not including another hour getting there and finding parking and driving home. Nope, again.

Guess I’ll just shoot what I’m eating. Easy peasy. Oh! I saw a butterfly flit by. Maybe I can sneak up on it. On second thought, that’s a bother for 40% of little.

I’ll credit Alamy for making two nice $$$ sales for me last day, September. Still, I get only 40%. I doubt many of us will ever get over this last shameful cut.