RM versus RF (again) ... but in numbers

[Kukkudrill]

I recall a forum thread a while back in which (besides carrying on the eternal debate about the pros and cons of RM and RF), it was said that Alamy prefers RF because this is increasingly what clients want. This has stayed at the back of my mind, and I thought it should be possible to test how true this is by counting the number of searches in Alamy Measures that specify RM and RF. AM appears not to provide any information other than the search terms on all-of-Alamy searches, so I went to my own most important pseudonym and looked up searches from 1st January to 30th June this year. I stopped counting after 100 pages of search results. Here are the results:

 

Searches that specify RM or RF

RM: 25 searches

RF: 14 searches

 

Distribution of RM and RF in pseudonym

RM: 95%

RF: 5%.

 

The results should be treated with a lot of caution. First of all, number of searches that specify RM or RF is very small and more data might change the picture. Secondly, most of the images under this pseudonym are RM and this probably skews the results. I used only one pseudonym because my pseudonyms aren't subject-exclusive so a lot of searches show up in more than one. Thirdly, results are also likely to vary by subject matter.

 

But if more forum members were willing to chip in with their own figures, we might build up a more general picture.

 

 

[John Mitchell]

Too lazy to do numbers on a warm summer day, but taking a cursory look at my back pages, I see very few [RM] or [RF] requests, which leads me to think that it doesn't make much difference. Clients don't seem to have a preference. But the numbers could prove me wrong...

 

P.S. Thanks for your efforts.

[Ed Rooney]

All searches of my collection have been RM. That might be because all my images are RM.

[Kukkudrill]

John, in my case too the number of searches that specify RM or RF is very small - 39 out of 2000, or just under 2 per cent. I agree that this is the most important statistic.

[Reimar]

I'm not sure what your findings show.  Searches are one thing, but sales are probably better.

Going back to Jan 2010 for one of my three pseudos, I find I had 1051 RF sales and 305 RM sales.  That's 77% RF versus 22% RM.

This pseudo consists of 2531 RF images and 802 RM images.  So 76% RF and 24% RM.

So for me, I don't see much of a difference in saleability of one or the other.

[John Mitchell]

It would be interesting to know why Alamy recommends RF. Perhaps we'll find out one day.

[M.Chapman]

Given some of the rather loosely restricted licence terms available from Alamy on RM images I don't think it makes much difference to customers any more.

 

One of the advantages of RM over RF to me is that the Alamy sales report for RM images gives the necessary detail that can be used in support of my DACs claim, whereas RF sales almost always don't.

 

Mark 

[Reimar]

That's a good point Mark.  With my many RF images, including more may not get me to the next DACS level, but at some point it would.

 

I always thought RF gave me better returns than RM.  A quick check of my spreadsheet referenced above confirms this.

In this 8 year period, out of about $90,000 for this pseudo I had 79% of my gross income for RF, while only 21% was for RM.  Recall that this pseudo has 76% RF and 24% RM.

Put another way: in this period my average gross for RF was $27.4 versus $23.0 for RM.

I wish I could have my RF returns and eat my DACS cake too.  Alamy has been giving details in some RF sales, but not all.

 

[Bill Brooks]

On 7/7/2018 at 02:48, Kukkudrill said:

John, in my case too the number of searches that specify RM or RF is very small - 39 out of 2000, or just under 2 per cent. I agree that this is the most important statistic.

 

Client behaviour may be to always search for both RF and RM to find a selection containing both RF and RM images and then balance the usefulness of the images found with their preference of either RF or RM.

 

In other words. I have two images I could use. One RF and the other RM, but I am going to buy the RM because I prefer RM. Another scenario could be both images are RF so I will buy one of them even though I prefer RM

 

I dont think you can tell much from client designations of RF or RM in the search.

[Kukkudrill]

If they have a preference for either RF and RM, surely they would do a single search, unless maybe the subject is a rare one?

[Cryptoprocta]

But given that searchers have to be savvy about a few things, it may not be beyond reasonable expectation that many regular buyers will understand the flexible licence Alamy now offers. It's particularly obvious that any file designated RF can be bought/used as RM, if the buyer checks the right boxes. As noted in other threads, some RM licences are so wide to be 'almost/effectively RF', but that may not be so immediately obvious to buyers.

[John Mitchell]

34 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said:

But given that searchers have to be savvy about a few things, it may not be beyond reasonable expectation that many regular buyers will understand the flexible licence Alamy now offers. It's particularly obvious that any file designated RF can be bought/used as RM, if the buyer checks the right boxes. As noted in other threads, some RM licences are so wide to be 'almost/effectively RF', but that may not be so immediately obvious to buyers.

 

Also, the "Buy this stock image now" usage terms and prices are exactly the same for both RF and RM images.

[Cryptoprocta]

2 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Also, the "Buy this stock image now" usage terms and prices are exactly the same for both RF and RM images.

Except that for designated-RF images, the last option is "Choose a Royalty-free licence" (viz 'rather than any of the RM options above'), but in designated-RF images, the last option is "Choose another rights-managed license".

[John Mitchell]

4 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Except that for designated-RF images, the last option is "Choose a Royalty-free licence" (viz 'rather than any of the RM options above'), but in designated-RF images, the last option is "Choose another rights-managed license".

 

That's true. However, it doesn't sound as if the prices for those other RF or RM licenses end up being much different from each other either most of the time. Just sayin'...