Alamy Reports Growth In Supply

Posted on 7/31/2006 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

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ALAMY REPORTS GROWTH IN SUPPLY


July 31, 2006



Alamy added 711,939 new images to its site in Q2 2006, a drop in supply from the previous quarter, and ended the quarter with almost 6 million images in its database. Agencies uploaded fewer RF images than in the previous quarter and photographers significantly fewer RM images.

The average price per RF image licensed went up during the quarter from $206 to $226 but the percent of RF images licensed declined slightly. The decline in percent doesn't necessarily mean the company sold fewer RF images. If they actually sold more images in total (and they don't supply data that would enable us to calculate the number sold) it would be possible for them to have licensed rights to the same number of RF images as the previous quarter and for that number to still be a lower percentage of the total licensed.

For the fourth straight quarter the average price for an RM license continued to decline and it is now at $151.

The average price for an editorial use was $122 and the average price for a commercial use was $364. Both are down slightly from the previous quarter and editorial prices have been on a steady decline for the past year.

RF makes up 31 percent of the images on the site and these images generated 38% of the revenue in the quarter. Sixty-nine percent of the images are RM and they generated 62% of the revenue.



The percent of revenue from editorial licenses continued to rise and was at 71% while commercial revenue has dropped to 29%. The three major sellers in the industry all make the majority of their revenue from commercial sales and a relatively minor portion from the editorial market. In Alamy's case the reverse is true. The company makes a higher percentage of its sales from the editorial market which tends to use more RM that RF and pay lower prices than traditional RF. These figures are another indication that Alamy is not penetrating the commercial market to any great degree.

Alamy doesn't report figures that would enable me to calculate total images licensed or gross revenue so it is impossible to determine whether revenue or the number of units licensed is rising as rapidly as the number of images available. However, anecdotal information from various photographers and agencies indicates that while total sales are probably rising significantly the return-per-image that the suppliers see is actually falling.

The following is a detailed chart of the information reported by Alamy.






































































































































































































































































































































2005

2005

2005

2005

2006

2006

Contributor Information

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

New RF images from photogs.

53,408

74,008

89,199

83,614

95,940

97,552

New RF images from agencies

60,850

140,360

63,451

125,405

152,752

109,935

New RM images from photogs.

203,641

258,847

268,147

291,356

450,653

312,170

New RM images from agencies

125,688

143,297

120,030

144,433

125,707

192,282

% Revenue photographers

38%

39%

41%

40%

43%

44%

% Revenue agencies

62%

61%

59%

60%

57%

56%

2005

2005

2005

2005

2006

2006

Contributor Information

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Photogs. submitting images

2,030

2,209

2,349

2,452

2,870

2,667

Photogs. submitting RM images

1,850

2,001

2,111

2,179

2,569

2,349

Photogs. submitting RF images

907

1,041

1,135

1,214

1,435

1,351

Agencies submitting images

165

175

179

161

178

165

Agencies submitting RM images

142

141

142

128

130

126

Agencies submitting RF images

58

70

72

67

79

74

RM images submitted in quarter

329,329

402,144

388,177

435,789

576,360

504,452

RF images submitted in quarter

114,258

214,368

152,650

209,019

248,692

207,487

All images submitted in quarter

443,587

616,512

540,827

644,808

825,052

711,939

2005

2005

2005

2005

2006

2006

Percentage Revenue Info

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Images per transaction - credit card

1.7

1.7

1.8

1.8

1.8

1.7

Images per transaction - account

2.9

2.9

3.0

3.3

3.4

3.6

% Revenue RF

43.0%

43.1%

42.3%

41.0%

40.0%

38.0%

% Revenue RM

57,0%

56.9%

57.7%

59.0%

60.0%

62.0%

% Images sold RF

41.0%

39.0%

39.9%

36.4%

33.0%

29.0%

% Images sold RM

59.0%

61.0%

60.1%

63.6%

67.0%

71.0%

% Images sold - credit card

23.0%

21.9%

23.0%

21.0%

18.0%

16.0%

% Images sold - account

77.0%

79.0%

77.0%

79.0%

82.0%

84.0%

% Revenue - credit card

25.0%

25.4%

28.1%

25.1%

23.0%

21.0%

% Revenue - account customer

75.0%

75.0%

71.9%

74.9%

77.0%

79.0%

% Revenue editorial licenses

67.0%

66.0%

62.7%

65.0%

69.0%

71.0%

% Revenue commercial licenses

33.0%

34.0%

37.3%

35.0%

31.0%

29.0%

2005

2005

2005

2005

2006

2006

Average Price in USD

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Avg RF price - credit card

$191

$199

$206

$210

$211

$235

Avg RM price - credit card

$239

$276

$304

$236

$225

$230

Avg RF price - account

$193

$206

$114

$203

$203

$221

Avg RM price - account

$170

$156

$146

$162

$151

$145

Avg RM price - editorial use

$132

$137

$131

$131

$126

$122

Avg RM price - commercial use

$423

$423

$425

$359

$389

$364

Avg price all RM images

$177

$165

$182

$170

$158

$151

Avg price all RF images

$192

$203

$201

$206

$206

$226




Copyright © 2006 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.  

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