Hello Alamy: “What exactly is a “Premium Account”?
this in from a reader this morning:
“Hi Will,
I thought you might be interested in the following email exchange between a client of ours and the Alamy sales team last week, following a cold call from Alamy. I thought you might find their sales pitch interesting. This is a travel Agent they were selling to, so a commercial rather than editorial client....We were shocked, we removed almost all our pictures from Alamy two months ago, but I am sure that most photographers with Alamy have no idea what is happening to their Rights Managed images”. read on...!
Alamy Sales Pitch
Regarding photo rates we’re working on a new package called the Alamy Premium Account, the benefits are:
$49 (US) per image
Unlimited repeat below the line use over 10 years, worldwide*
Un-watermarked “try before you buy” downloads.
No print run/impression limitations.
Unrestricted file size (typically 50MB).
22 million images available on http://www.alamy.com/bespoke and growing.
No credits, subscriptions or volume commitments.
Unlimited shared access to your library of purchases.
No differentiation between Royalty-free and Rights Managed images.
Client Question:
What exactly is a “Premium Account” ... what is the cost to join, and how do I set up?
Alamy Answer:
What is it? Well it’s just a title for a new way of pricing images (for us, we’re used to traditional Rights Managed/Royalty-free!).
There is no cost to join, no obligation, you just pay for images “as you go”, on credit card or if you like, you can open an account and be invoiced instead.
When asked about the ‘pitch’....James West at Alamy said they were just “trying” a marketing pitch to the travel industry?
our reader goes on: “Agencies that have signed up to this deal include National Geographic and Alaska Stock so their photographers will receive about $14 for the sale! You can’t afford to eat and pay rent on fees like that.”
Update 3 Aug: Alamy have posted a notice re this subject on their forum pages
UPDATED: We have had a call from James West at Alamy saying he did not post the recent comment which contained the comment ‘We are a business not a charity’. James did not post that comment, it looks like our comments section was sabotaged on that one....it has been removed.
Posted in: Alamy
Comments(10)
post a comment »Peter, August 01, 2011 [#]
Well,I think if this is the case it is time to say,’GOODBYE ALAMY’ and GOODBYE GETTY
and GOODBYE to all of these agents taking quick liberties to put working photographers in the poor house.
I say now is a good time to slick up your websites,band together and sell srock on your own without these low rates..How many $14 sales will it take to buy that new professional camera or lens let alone pay the rent and eat.
James West, August 02, 2011 [#]
We are experimenting with a pile of stuff - you have to keep moving and turning over new ideas in this market (to put this in perspective - we throw away way more ideas than we keep). Firstly and principally we are busy launching a new site in Germany, we are working on new and better search experience for creative picture buyers, we are launching a new student offer in the autumn and yes we are experimenting both with price points but also with the nature of licenses to see how much it affects volume in some of the market segments we target like travel.
The offer which was forwarded to you in just one such example. This particular market segment has been decimated by microstock offerings and we’re experimenting with price points that bring rights managed imagery back into consideration without giving away high value advertising rights and without dragging prices into microstock territory. As of today this is only a sales and marketing experiment - with a targeted offer made to a handful of customers in narrow bands of the market. Less than 1% of revenue comes from such offers.
James
Peter, August 02, 2011 [#]
You just cannot do this without decimating the stock industry. I will not sign up any of my images to this type of promotion. I know the world is changing but reality says that the people who supply the images professionally are not going to submit stuff any more, we have to make a living. Ok so if travel companies want to buy RF microstock then there is nothing we can do to stop them, but if the Microstock industry fails to make any decent profits then the owners will think again. If however all the rights have been given away for 10years for US$50 what is the point of shooting anything more to offer for sale? Photographers its about time we started knocking some of these things on the head or we will all be on the dole.
Doug, August 02, 2011 [#]
Thanks for replying James. It’s a tough market out there and experimenting within a field is necessary and I know a burden on the agency.
However, if you allow third party agencies to get in on the deal (National Geographic and Alaska Stock are noted above) will those agencies (and NG is an agency as well as a user) then reduce further the photographer’s percentage of sale… I guess the easy way to ask this is, when all is said and done, when Alaska Stock licenses and image for $49 what will the creator of the image net?
Steve Lake, August 02, 2011 [#]
Out of interest, James, is this offer being rolled out in the US only or also in your other markets? Because I’m not sure your reasoning holds for the UK travel market.
$49 per image with unlimited repeat below the line use over 10 years, worldwide - in what way is that not ‘dragging prices into microstock territory’?
Everett, August 02, 2011 [#]
What is the point of offering 10 years usage for a Travel brochure? Alamy built a lot of its early reputation ( and profits) for supplying excellent travel images. Many good agencies and photographers joined up, and the clients came and paid reasonable prices and were given a license for 1-2 years use.
So where is the money coming from to run Alamy if none of the clients need to bother to call you for the next 10 years?
This is pure greed on behalf of Alamy to try to steel the instant market, and it will be their downfall, and also they will bankrupt other much smaller UK agencies who are still trying to make a living, and the photographers who no longer trust you Alamy.
Tina Manley, August 02, 2011 [#]
I am concerned about the lowering of prices for stock usage, but I am even more concerned about the erosion of rights. Rights Managed is not the same as Royalty Free and never will be. How can we manage the use of our images if the usage is unlimited in so many ways? Free downloads without watermarks will only encourage more illegal usage that can’t be traced.
Tina Manley
Sheila Smart, August 02, 2011 [#]
Outright revolt over at Alamy forum and rightly so. Photographers are constantly being left out on a limb with appalling pricing such as receiving $50.00 for a calculator price of $550.00 and Alamy licensing images at a 90% discount is becoming the norm. I have just placed restrictions on ALL my Alamy images and hopefully there is no one in Antarctica who wants to license them! (Any image with restrictions is not part of this rights grab).
Sheila
Sneb, August 06, 2011 [#]
Alamy has a contractual duty to respect the licensing model selected by contributors and to accurately report on RM licenses sold.
The contributor outrage is not so much over the fact that Alamy is experimenting with hybrid models—it’s with the notion that Alamy are doing so without the authority or permission to do so.
It is an arrogant position to suggest that a business strategy that is good for Alamy is also good for all contributors. Yes, you can try new “stuff” but try it within the boundaries of the contributor contract.
Jeremy Nicholl, August 08, 2011 [#]
I have a comparison of Alamy Premium vs microstock here, and illustrations of how and why Premium is actually cheaper than micro:
http://www.jeremynicholl.com/blog/2011/08/08/alamy-“we-can-cannibalise-microstock”-by-selling-photos-even-cheaper/