Alamy

[Matt Wallwork]

Not sure whether this is the right place in the forum to post this so please move it to the right section.

Just wondering how many people on here sell their images on Alamy and what type of sales people have had?

Cheers

 

[jeffW]

I was on Alamy for many years and made many sales always RM (rights managed) however Alamy seems to have a bunch of backroom deals in place with their clients so you as a supplier don't get a fair share. I continued to see my images being sold with large licensing packages (worldwide advertising use, worldwide display, etc.) while I would only get at most $120, but mostly the takes were $37.

Alamy sells their clients subscriptions (you as a supplier aren't entitled to any of that money) the subscription rate then reduces the cost of stock to basically nothing. Then from the reduced rate Alamy comes back at you, the supplier, and charges you their 60% cut. With over a thousand images the total money I actually pocketed in ten years was less than the cost of a Canon Rebel. The amount of time editing/keywording images, at first mailing CDs, then later having the computer occupied because it was uploading submissions, waiting for weeks to see if the submission passed their inspection(sometimes having to redo on a technicality) was and is not worth it.

IMHO: Stock agencies such as Alamy are (were) really a transitioning business between the 80's Tony Stone agency when paper catalogs where a way for buyers to see what was available from a far. Now a photographer can just as easily upload to their own website; wordpress, PhotoShelter, SquareSpace and Google Search really becomes the sorting tool. I use to double check my images on Alamy with terms such as "White House" and a lot of times actual images of a farm house painted white would take page one. I'm not going to say I've made a lot of sales purely electronically through my own website, but a single sale netted me more money than ten years at Alamy plus quite a bit more. Enough to justify the cost of a paid hosting site.

If you're going to the trouble of editing, keywording, uploading why allow your work fund some stock agency executive? $500 in ten years is not worth it, that's not even the cost of a good lens. People who claim they are making thousands from Alamy I'm suspect, either Alamy is promoting their work abnormally because they want the photographer to brag and bring in new suckers or (?) well I'm suspect and I've read a lot of negative comments over the years by real people.

 

[KmH]

Yep. The consolidation of the stock photograph industry that occurred back in the day and the more recent growth of RF (Royalty-Free) licensing has pretty much killed stock as a viable source of income for professional or amateur photographers.

And it's not just Alamy, it's Getty, Corbis and the plethora of microstock outlets too.