Does everyone see such high commission % from Alamy ? Asking myself the point of being here !

[Ben99]

So just checked my billing page and saw this 😱

 

Total Sales - $191.97

Commission - $168.28

 

Upon calculation commission is 87.66%. I know the contracts kept revising in the last few years but this still shocked me. 

[Hazel]

This is crazy....I thought 60% was high.  What is the explanation for this?

[Betty LaRue]

You must have made a lot of distributor sales. The distributor takes their cut & Alamy takes theirs, you get the pittance left. I’m out of all distributor countries except one or two. You can opt out in April. (I think)

Edited March 2, 2023 by Betty LaRue

[Jill Morgan]

Also, if you don't generate $250 in gross sales in a year, your commission drops to 20% before distributor.  I had a year of that.  It was painful.

 

Jill

[Ben99]

Thanks all that does shed some light. The latest sale shows up as - Sold price $23.31 Commission $18.65. Time to make a decision.

[Steve F]

8 minutes ago, Ben99 said:

Time to make a decision.

 

Need to get up to $250 gross for sure if you continue.

[Ognyan Yosifov]

Ben99 and Hazel, you just don't follow this forum on a regular basis. That's why you are not familiar with the latest news about the commission % increase which, actually, is not a new thing. There was an announcement by Alamy about the changes.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Ognyan Yosifov

[NYCat]

2 hours ago, Ben99 said:

Thanks all that does shed some light. The latest sale shows up as - Sold price $23.31 Commission $18.65. Time to make a decision.

 

If you go to Account Balance on your Dashboard you will see the exact reasons for commissions. If it's a distributor there will be two deductions.

 

Paulette

[Ben99]

@Ognyan Yosifov - In my defence,  I don't follow the forum yes but i do read whenever the contract change emails come from Alamy and never did I see 80%...

 

[spacecadet]

53 minutes ago, Ben99 said:

never did I see 80%...

 

The email was sent to me on 17/5/21 and contained the link to the new contract.

There was extensive discussion here as you can imagine.

Edited March 2, 2023 by spacecadet

[Cryptoprocta]

1 hour ago, Ben99 said:

@Ognyan Yosifov - In my defence,  I don't follow the forum yes but i do read whenever the contract change emails come from Alamy and never did I see 80%...

 

In the contract here, you can see that Alamy Silver lets Alamy keep 80%

https://www.alamy.com/terms/contributor.aspx

Also the percentage you get from a distributor sale is 'hazy', as the contract says we get to keep 40% or 20% of what is left after the distributor's cut (as Betty said above), but what they get isn't clear from the actual contract page.

Note also that if someone is on 'Silver', they only get 17% of an 'affiliate sale' (34% for Gold). I don't really understand the arithmetic: "The Alamy Commission for Content sales made via an Affiliate will reflect that of the applicable commission model as specified in the Alamy Commission Table and will include a 15% Affiliate and affiliate provider fee in respect of the License Fee. " I don't immediately see that we can opt out of affiliate sales, as we can, in April, for distributor sales, as Betty also said.

[Jill Morgan]

With only 641 images, it is unlikely you will get out of the Silver level.  Competition is just too tough.  You need a few thousand and cover a lot of different subjects. You have many similars, so your range is limited.  If you don't plan on adding a lot more, then you are stuck on silver.  It sucks big time.

 

But the stock photo market is bad everywhere. Too many images, not enough buyers.  When the market is flooded, it is a buyers market.  They have so many choices from so many different suppliers.

 

It's a bit of a Catch-22.  We need to add more to make more as we get less per image.  But with everybody adding more, we simple end up treading water as our percentage of the market either stays the same or sinks. It is the reality of the industry.  It is not going to change.

 

Jill

[Arno]

And you get a 1.29 sale, minus commission of 0.77... That leaves you with 52 cents for your savings account.

Things aren't what they used to be...

[aphperspective]

My last 8 licences averaged $0.76 net. Not allot to get excited about.

[Rebecca Ore]

If you don't have photos up anywhere, you'll make zero from them.  More or less what I decided.  I'm retired as are others here.   If you're not and you need an income stream, consider what the other possibilities might be.  A friend who majored in photography and has some photos up here said that the most money was in fashion and war.  Not sure if that's still true..

[Phil]

On 02/03/2023 at 15:32, Jill Morgan said:

With only 641 images, it is unlikely you will get out of the Silver level.  Competition is just too tough.  You need a few thousand and cover a lot of different subjects. You have many similars, so your range is limited.  If you don't plan on adding a lot more, then you are stuck on silver.  It sucks big time.

 

This.   Without a larger portfolio your yearly sales potential is decreased considerably below what is going to be likely needed to get above the Silver level. 

 

Also - many have opted out of Distributor sales due to their onerous total commission takes on license prices.

[Betty LaRue]

It boils down to this:

Do you like shooting for stock?

Do you enjoy making the RAW files look good enough for uploading?

Are you willing to just keep on making images, ignoring the small returns, until you build up a decent portfolio?

Are you willing to stop uploading a lot of similars, other than 2 or 3 of the same subject, best a landscape, a portrait, & if it applies, a closeup? Lots of similars is not the best way to build a portfolio.

If you don’t enjoy the process much, then maybe this isn’t for you.

If you like it, then keep on keepin’ on & ignore the small returns. When you build up your portfolio, you will have some decent licenses to go along with the bad ones.

I’m retired. Stock, while not giving me a meaningful wage at all, is still interesting & stimulating for me. Something else to fill my time with.  I enjoy it so I’m sticking with it.

 

[Marianne]

If you're at $191 in commissions and it was all earned between July 1, 2022 and now, you have a shot at hitting $250 by June 30, 2023, the relevant 1-year period. It's certainly more likely if you have more photos, but I've made it each year with 1,552 photos so it's certainly possible. I also think that being from the UK gives you an advantage since Alamy is UK based - though others have said US publications pay more. Anyway, upload some more stuff and hope for $60 in sales in the next 4 months. Good luck! 

 

I don't know if hitting $250 makes it the higher commission retroactive, or if it bumps it up for the remainder of the relevant period, or doesn't kick in until after July 1, 2023,  since fortunately, I've always gotten the 40% - less for distributors of course. Read the contract and see - but I do recall that if you hit the $250 mark for the relevant 1-year period, you'll definitely get the higher commission for the next year - so I'd encourage you to upload as much as you can for the next few months so you can get that higher commission for July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.  

 

Good luck!

[Jill Morgan]

5 hours ago, Marianne said:

If you're at $191 in commissions and it was all earned between July 1, 2022 and now, you have a shot at hitting $250 by June 30, 2023, the relevant 1-year period. It's certainly more likely if you have more photos, but I've made it each year with 1,552 photos so it's certainly possible. I also think that being from the UK gives you an advantage since Alamy is UK based - though others have said US publications pay more. Anyway, upload some more stuff and hope for $60 in sales in the next 4 months. Good luck! 

 

I don't know if hitting $250 makes it the higher commission retroactive, or if it bumps it up for the remainder of the relevant period, or doesn't kick in until after July 1, 2023,  since fortunately, I've always gotten the 40% - less for distributors of course. Read the contract and see - but I do recall that if you hit the $250 mark for the relevant 1-year period, you'll definitely get the higher commission for the next year - so I'd encourage you to upload as much as you can for the next few months so you can get that higher commission for July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.  

 

Good luck!

 

As soon as my sales went over the $250, I was bumped up to the 40% level.  Didn't have to wait till new contract date.

 

Jill

[NYCat]

Yes, I don't think it is a year between certain dates. I think it "floats" and changes can happen any time.

 

Paulette