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Distributor commission on sales


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Hi all,

 

Had my first sale last month so I'm curious about the commission structure. I noticed there was:

- 30% alamy commission

- 40% distributor commission

Is this right? I seem to remember 50% commission but its been a while since I read the fees structure.

 

Thanks Hai

 

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Just now, Hai Nguyen said:

Hi all,

 

Had my first sale last month so I'm curious about the commission structure. I noticed there was:

- 30% alamy commission

- 40% distributor commission

Is this right? I seem to remember 50% commission but its been a while since I read the fees structure.

 

Thanks Hai

 

 

It's correct. 50% is for direct sales.

 

Gen

 

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I’ve been having more and more distributor sales the last few months, leaving my share of the pie about one bite. I think last month nearly all were distributor sales. :( 

Still, better than none at all.  Added together, I get three or four bites. I think I’ll bake my own pie.

Betty

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23 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

Is it the general consensus that it's best to opt out of the distributor scheme or should we look at it as 30% is better than 0%?!

 

I'd say that opting out of the distributor scheme these days is akin to shooting oneself in the foot. Distributor sales can be very low, but then so can direct sales. Also, some distributor sales are very good. I'd probably lose about 25% of my income if I dropped out of distribution. But chacun à son goût of course. 

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20 minutes ago, GS-Images said:

 

I see it as better than nothing, but it is a little demoralising especially when distributor sales are usually to countries who pay less anyway. 30% of peanuts is....a small peanut. I'm staying opted into distribution for now as I need all I can get, but if I was a big seller I might think again.

 

Geoff.

 

Making 0% can be even more demoralizing. B)

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I'm opting out of Distribution in April, getting a small share of tiny sales is bad enough, but I'm finding a lot of uses through distributors which aren't reported, and spending hours finding, reporting and chasing single digit sales, is pointless. With the German and Spanish language alamy sites and the various offices around the world, I'm no longer interested in getting the smallest piece of the pie (when they do report).

It's going to be direct or not at all from now on!

 

Posted by Rob Cook

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It's true that Alamy can service clients worldwide, but there appears to be some favoritism involved, such as a German magazine always buying via a German stock agency even though the sources of a lot of the photos they use are Alamy and others. Hence, participating in Distribution is a pretty much necessity for contributors. I opted out of Distribution last April and then, as sales dropped off a cliff, opted back in a few months later.

 

With Alamy, we can choose whether to participate in their bulk rate deal, the UK newspaper scheme. With distributors, however, participation in their bulk rate giveaways goes with the territory. Around here they say Kleinvieh macht auch Mist, but sometimes Mist is the right word for it. It would be great if we could participate in Distribution but exclude their bulk rate deals.

Don

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47 minutes ago, GS-Images said:

 

Reporting with distributors is pretty bad, and they often take longer than the already crazy time Alamy ask us to wait before chasing. Then it's more of a wait for the funds to clear. A while ago I chased several distributor uses of one image with a known buyer (via a distributor), and because I somehow mislaid my screenshots and the articles had been taken down, they were written off as couldn't be proven. I often chase distributor sales and like you say Rob, it feels pointless. I'm not at the point of opting out yet but with a larger port I may well do.

 

Some UK newspapers are just as bad about reported uses. With my low numbers of sales compared to many here with larger ports, I wonder how much money is effectively being stolen from us all due to non-reportage. One major national newspaper recently owed me several fairy high value live news sales that I would have never got if I hadn't logged them all and chased them up, and it didn't help that I was told incorrect information by someone about that subject. The amount I would have lost out on was more than I often get in revenue for a whole month of stock sales.  That's another subject, I know, and a thread that would likely not go down well with the odd contributor, like the last time I dared to mention the truth about non-reportage and was attacked for it.

 

Geoff.

 

I feel your pain!

With the mislaid screenshots, try googling the web page/articles that your images were used on and click on the cached version of the page, that might still show your pictures were used

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16 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Making 0% can be even more demoralizing. B)

 

That, of course, is assuming that foreign buyers don't go straight to Alamy if they can't buy through a distributor.  After all, that's the whole point of the "world wide" web, isn't it?  I have had direct sales from overseas that have avoided the distributor system because I have been opted out.  Obviously, there's no way of knowing how many distributor sales I've missed out on but at least I do get a reasonable share on the odd(?) ones that get sold.  Does the higher fee make up for the ones I miss?  I don't know.  My strategy is to allow distribution for certain countries where I have had good sales in the past, especially where English is not widely spoken.  

 

Chris

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On 3/9/2018 at 02:33, CM photo said:

 

That, of course, is assuming that foreign buyers don't go straight to Alamy if they can't buy through a distributor.  After all, that's the whole point of the "world wide" web, isn't it?  I have had direct sales from overseas that have avoided the distributor system because I have been opted out.  Obviously, there's no way of knowing how many distributor sales I've missed out on but at least I do get a reasonable share on the odd(?) ones that get sold.  Does the higher fee make up for the ones I miss?  I don't know.  My strategy is to allow distribution for certain countries where I have had good sales in the past, especially where English is not widely spoken.  

 

Chris

 

I get what you're saying. Photo-buyers can indeed go directly to Alamy on the WWW, which would of course be better for us. However, many buyers might prefer to deal with agencies in their own regions for a number of reasons -- language, ease of doing business, local expertise, price, etc. 

 

BTW, I'm wondering how you know for sure that you have had direct overseas sales because you have opted out of the distributor system.

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Some distributers get higher rates than others. You can pick and choose which ones you want to distribute your work.

I opted out of one particular distributor that always gives a very low "bulk distribution rate" about two years ago, but decided to continue with most of the others.

 

In 2017 my number of sales, and average rate per image was up over 2016. I might have made more if I had continued with that particular distributor but probably not a whole lot more.

 

fD

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On 09/03/2018 at 07:48, GS-Images said:

 

Reporting with distributors is pretty bad, and they often take longer than the already crazy time Alamy ask us to wait before chasing. Then it's more of a wait for the funds to clear. A while ago I chased several distributor uses of one image with a known buyer (via a distributor), and because I somehow mislaid my screenshots and the articles had been taken down, they were written off as couldn't be proven. I often chase distributor sales and like you say Rob, it feels pointless. I'm not at the point of opting out yet but with a larger port I may well do.

 

Some UK newspapers are just as bad about reported uses. With my low numbers of sales compared to many here with larger ports, I wonder how much money is effectively being stolen from us all due to non-reportage. One major national newspaper recently owed me several fairy high value live news sales that I would have never got if I hadn't logged them all and chased them up, and it didn't help that I was told incorrect information by someone about that subject. The amount I would have lost out on was more than I often get in revenue for a whole month of stock sales.  That's another subject, I know, and a thread that would likely not go down well with the odd contributor, like the last time I dared to mention the truth about non-reportage and was attacked for it.

 

Geoff.

Without wanting to stir up a hornets nest, why are you having to find and report usage of your images?

Is this a failing of Alamy's account department or just a result of the business model in use?  Almost sounds like the purchase system is built on trust, at least for distributors and perhaps larger clients.

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It seems Naive to let distributors (or clients ie Newspapers) to download high res unwatermarked, and self report. It's always going to be open to abuse. The only solution as I can see it, is Watermarked Low res files for positionals, and then billing at the point of download, regardless if the image makes it into the final layout. 

 

It is hugely frustrating to find repeat offenders, using lots of unreported images, and doing all the work to get a tiny fee, and they get away with paying their normal fees with no financial punishment for using images without permission. 

 

There is no incentive for the clients or the distributors to report correctly, they might as well try and get away without reporting, as the consequences are no more expensive than if they did report!

 

The thing is, for every unreported useage you find, how many more are out there, 10, 20 or a 1000? And despite alamy having a record for any download for any first time download, we have to come across the usage, before it can pursued, and we pay the distributor for the privilege!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, York Photographer said:

It seems Naive to let distributors (or clients ie Newspapers) to download high res unwatermarked, and self report. It's always going to be open to abuse. The only solution as I can see it, is Watermarked Low res files for positionals, and then billing at the point of download, regardless if the image makes it into the final layout. 

 

It is hugely frustrating to find repeat offenders, using lots of unreported images, and doing all the work to get a tiny fee, and they get away with paying their normal fees with no financial punishment for using images without permission. 

 

There is no incentive for the clients or the distributors to report correctly, they might as well try and get away without reporting, as the consequences are no more expensive than if they did report!

 

The thing is, for every unreported useage you find, how many more are out there, 10, 20 or a 1000? And despite alamy having a record for any download for any first time download, we have to come across the usage, before it can pursued, and we pay the distributor for the privilege!

 

 

 

I have been saying this for ages. If someone doesn't report their use and it has to be chased up then they should have to pay the calculator price. That would then encourage them to properly report.

Kevin

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25 minutes ago, KWheal said:

I have been saying this for ages. If someone doesn't report their use and it has to be chased up then they should have to pay the calculator price. That would then encourage them to properly report.

Kevin

While I can understand that overhauling their purchase system to ensure each sale is properly catalogued at the point of sale could be a complicated and costly exercise, there doesn't seem to be much cost associated with introducing punitive charges for those clients who do not report purchases.
 

If you are trusting everyone who visits your store to pay on exit, there are always going to be some customers who abuse the system - especially if, when found out, they only pay the regular purchase price.  Introduce an additional charge for those who abuse the system and less customers will try and get away with it.

 

Has Alamy ever commented on this subject?

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And why should the "distributor" get the lions share of the fee?

 

I believe it should be distributor 25%, Alamy 30% and contributor 45%.

 

Allan

 

 

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19 hours ago, fotoDogue said:

 

 

 

19 hours ago, fotoDogue said:

 You can pick and choose which ones you want to distribute your work.

How does that work, fD? I can see how to exclude certain countries but not individual distributors.

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1 hour ago, DDoug said:

 

How does that work, fD? I can see how to exclude certain countries but not individual distributors.

 

 

Go to My Dashboard

Click on Additional Revenue Options

Click on Distributors and it will take you to a list of distributors arranged by continent.

Check on the ones you want. Uncheck the ones you don't want.

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