Photographer/Agency Sales at Alamy

Posted on 1/17/2008 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (1)

Â On Jan. 14, Alamy posted a video of an event they hosted for contributors in November. During the presentation, CEO James West provided details relative to sales of the top 100 photographers and agencies represented on the site. The figures quoted below are the gross fee paid to Alamy. In most cases, the photographer or agency share of these figures is 65% of the gross, although some of the early contributors to the portal receive a higher percentage.

As of December 2007, Alamy had received images from 15,127 photographers, but only 4,413 of them contributed new images in Q3 2007. A total of 447 agencies have submitted images to Alamy, but only 217 of them contributed new images in Q3 2007.

Thus, the top 100 photographers represent less than one-tenth of 1% of the total with images in the collection. The top 100 agencies equal a little over 22% of the agencies in the collection. The breakdown of the figures are as follows:

Top 100 Photographers

The 74 that have less than 10,000 images in the collection

Average RPIÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $16Â (high $117, low $3)

Average No. ImagesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4,321

Average RevenueÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $40,369

Top earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $251,000

Lowest earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $24,000

The 26 that have more than 10,000 images in the collection

Average RPIÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $3Â Â (high $9, low $1)

Average No. ImagesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 20,736

Average RevenueÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $53,816

Top earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $127,000

Lowest earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $26,000

Top 100 Agencies

The 28 that have less than 10,000 images in the collection

Average RPIÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $12Â Â (high $34, low $4)

Average No. ImagesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,805

Average RevenueÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $56,387

Top earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $105,000

Lowest earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $35,000

The 72 that have more than 10,000 images in the collection

Average RPIÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $3.5Â Â Â (high $18, low $1)

Average No. ImagesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 34,153

Average RevenueÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $96,408

Top earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $454,000

Lowest earner in this groupÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $34,000

These top 200 contributors have supplied 6,501,500 of the 10,790,000 images currently on the site. Based on gross sales reported for 2007, the average gross RPI for all images on the site is about $2.80.

Copyright © 2008 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.

Comments

Jim Pickerell Posted Jan 19, 2008
CORRECTION:

The top 100 photographers have contributed 858,890 to the collection and the top 100 agents have contributed 2,621,556 images for a total of 3,480,446 not 6,501,500 as I indicated in the last paragraph above.

Jim