Alamy Changes . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
Sept. 17, 2007

Alamy Chief Executive James West has informed photographers that the company will soon release a number of new products and, for the first time, provide comprehensive sales figures that will suggest continued growth.

Some photographers took the announcement in the company's public blog to mean that Alamy will offer a micropayment stock photography product and gave the company mixed reviews for supposedly doing so.

Contacted on this date, West said Alamy will release sales figures "to help our contributors assess our performance."

"I hope the numbers will show that while Alamy still has some growing up to do, we nevertheless have built up something that is beginning to look like a strong track record," West added.

Frustration with low-priced micropayment stock photography was clearly on the minds of some shooters who responded to the announcement of new products.

"If this is advance warning of Alamy testing the waters of microstock I will pull all my images from Alamy," said British photographer Bob Croxford.

"I find your announcement alarming to say the least," added a contributor named "John," who used no last name.

But, others like a poster named "Rolf georg" liked the idea. "I'm looking forward. I would love to sell my random RF (royalty-free) images at a lower price via Alamy. I think the prices for ordinary isolated shots or design elements (backgrounds, close-up) should be lower. Not microstock prices but only in the two-digit range."

West wrote that at least one of the soon-to-be-announced pricing strategies "recognizes and respects that prices are falling across the industry but also that contributors need to retain control over how their images are sold."

"Photographers need to be able to test the water in some of these growing new markets without cannibalizing their sales or devaluing their product in the process. We will endeavor to make this possible for you and I promise that we won't do anything drastic without your consent!" he wrote.

As for reporting thorough sales figures for the first time, West said the numbers will show that the company has been immune to some forces that have punished stock photo prices elsewhere.

"This is because we are a growing company that does 70 percent of its business in the relatively stable secondary editorial market (magazines, non-current affairs sections of newspapers, book publishers, travel companies, etc.)," West wrote.

Until now, Alamy has provided some sales figures, but not enough to provide a clear picture of the company's overall finances. The British company is privately held and is under no obligation to provide any financial information.

The Alamy web site is at: http://www.alamy.com.

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