Alamy go all ‘microstock’ with ‘Limited Use’ scheme
I predict a riot. Alamy appear to have gone all microstock on us today. No, seriously. No, don’t look at your calendar – its not April 1st.
So just WTF (as teenagers say in text speak) is going on over there?
Today on their blog, well known stock photography agency Alamy wrote that they were “delighted” to announce the introduction of a new revenue opportunity to be known as “Limited Use”. Unfortunately their contributors, upon seeing the details, were not delighted at all. In fact, some of them appear to be pretty livid.
Quick History lesson
Back in September Alamy introduced what they termed as their “Novel Use” scheme. This was apparently to be able to sell licences that fell outside of the normal price calculator. It was noted that the sort of “novel uses” Alamy had in mind were high volume but low revenue opportunities. Think phone screensavers etc – though Alamy never gave any idea of what they thought Novel Use meant; in part because it was there to capture as yet unrealised uses and partly (as I can understand fully) so as not to give away their ideas to the competition.
Scroll forward to April just gone (April 2008). April is the one month a year where you can opt-in or out of Alamy distribution and/or Novel Use. Since nobody in the known universe had actually reported a Novel Use sale yet most people , it would seem, left the opt-in live.
Today (9th June) Alamy released this blog post on their blog which outlines the new “Limited Use” scheme.
According to the blog: Limited Use has been devised to let your images compete in the low cost ‘micropayment’ market without undermining your existing revenue streams on Alamy.
It proposes a three tiered pricing point which covers images from web resolution up to A6 print size:
Quoting from Alamy:
Blogs: Use in articles posted by an individual blogger on personal and special interest blogs for an unlimited time. Images cannot be included in a corporate site, used for advertising or promotion or used in a defamatory, sensitive or controversial manner.
Social Networking: For use by an individual on social networking and virtual world websites for an unlimited time. Images cannot be used in advertising, promotion or in a defamatory, sensitive or controversial manner.
Education: For teachers, academics or higher education students on a single user basis for any of the following combinations:
* Interactive whiteboards
* Hand outs
* Project work
* Reports
* Dissertations/theses
* Presentations/lectures
So how much are these licences?
Limited Use licence pricing
XS 0.4 MB Web 450 x 300 px (16 x 11 cm @ 72 dpi) £0.60
S 1.4 MB Electronic media 689 x 462 px (25 x 17 cm @ 72 dpi) £1.20
M 5.5 MB A6 print out 1142 x 1688 px (20 x 29 cm @ 150 dpi) £1.80
Limited Use will be trialled in the UK initially and covers all RM & RF licence types. Yes that’s right – RM or “L” as Alamy call it is included. This is what is so wrong. RM sold at 60p, that is plain wrong even if it is for limited use (who is going to police the use??). RM images are controlled by history of sales. I could understand Alamy doing this with RF only but with RM it is completely devaluing the licence type.
And we all thought RM had gone to the dogs when Getty introduced the $49 web licence – that seems like a good price compared to this.
As I write there are 73 (and rising) comments to Alamy – none of which welcome this move. The Alamy forum thread is nearing meltdown.
Contributors are threatening to remove their images from Alamy. This sounds a drastic move but if you signed up for “Novel Use” and didn’t remove yourself in April 08 you are now committed to this until April 2009 – so any and all of your RM or RF images can be sold for 60p!
Is there a way to stop my images being sold as Limited Use if I signed up for Novel Use this without leaving Alamy?
Yes, there is (I think!)! but its not going to be quick.
Alamy say the following about Novel Use: “If you do sign up however, all of your images (except those with licence restrictions) are locked into the scheme. You can opt-out in April of each year if you wish to.”
Add a restriction:
So if Novel Use images must be free of any restrictions then to stop that image being included in the new Limited Use scheme simply set a restriction. Any restriction will do. Even “internal business use in the Pitcairn Islands”. It doesn’t matter.
Just add a restriction that won’t restrict its normal saleability. i.e. don’t be a muppet and restrict worldwide editorial use!!! :)
I’ll try and keep this post up to date with how this progresses. Its only day one and the peasants are revolting.
This is gonna get ugly……
PP
Update from Photoshelter: Consensus on the forums there (but no word yet from the big cheeses) is that if you have images in Alamy’s Novel Use scheme you cannot have them for sale on PSC as it will break their “under $50” rule.
I think that’s harsh. A lot of contributors to both agencies have trusted Alamy and opted-in to Novel Use in good faith that it was to pick up out-of-calculator sales – not micropayments. Now they face being penalised twice. Alamy have 10 months left for all the opted-in contributors before they can make a mass exodus. Alamy are not playing fair here.
Come on PSC – you aren’t the worlds top seller of imagery and you do take some stick but no need to kick us when we’re down eh?!
Update 10th June 2008: Alamy have today announced a 2 week opt-out period for Novel Use participation from 10th June 2008.
Update 14th June 2008: The Alamy site will be down all day on the 15th June to implement “Limited Use” – gulp…!
Update 8th July 2008: Alamy have posted that they are listening to contributors and have plans to modify the scheme, perhaps allowing opt-in by pseudonym or individual image. See the Alamy blog post here
Update 11th July 2008: Two more Novel Use / Limited Use updates have appeared. Alamy have posted that they are allowing internal corporate use under a subscription model. See the Alamy blog post here and that Novel Use / limited Use is now available to customers worldwide. See the Alamy blog post here
Update 7th June 2009: The Novel Use scheme appears to have passed quietly away sometime in February 2009!. The scheme is no longer active at Alamy. Alamy’s adventure into microstock was short lived. I, for one, am glad. Alamy’s USP is not to service bloggers but to sell its wide and diverse collection of editioral images that are unobtainable anywhere else.
Tags: Alamy, licenses, limited use, microstock, novel use, Photography Business, restrictions, RF, rights managed, RM, royalty free, Stock Photography
[...] thephotographybiz.com tips, tricks, tutorials, comment and insight on the business of photography « Alamy go all ‘microstock’ with ‘Limited Use’ scheme [...]
[...] hat when it comes to providing images for bloggers. There is more about a similar point of view at thephotographybiz.com. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pixlinx.net%2F%3Fp%3D100′; addthis_title = ‘I+can+wear+two+hats’; [...]