Alamy

Alamy

Type	Private
Industry	Publishing, media, web design
Genre	Stock photography
Founder	Mike Fischer, James West
Headquarters	Abingdon, Oxfordshire, U.K.
Products	Digital images, video
Services	Rights-managed and royalty-free images and video
Website	www.alamy.com

Alamy (registered as Alamy Limited) is a privately owned stock photography agency launched in 1999. Its headquarters are on Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, U.K. It has a development and operations centre at Techno park in Trivandrum, Kerala, India and a sales office in Brooklyn, New York, USA.^[1][2]

Company information

Alamy maintains an online archive of tens of millions of still images, illustrations and hundreds of thousands of videos contributed by agencies and independent photographers or collected from news archives, museums and national collections. Its suppliers include both professional and amateur photographers, stock agencies, news archives, museums and national collections. Its clients are from the photography, publishing and advertising industries and the general public.

In response to criticisms about its updated contributor contract,^[3] Alamy responded by stating that the changes only reflect the company work style and do not represent a significant shift.^[4][5]

History

James West, a graduate of Edinburgh University is the CEO of Alamy and co-founded the company with Mike Fischer in 1999. Mike Fischer, the current Chairman and co–founder of the firm, was also co-founder and CEO of RM plc, the UK Company that pioneered the use of technology in the classroom.

2002 - 2010

• In 2002, Alamy won an EMMA (Electronic Multimedia Awards) award for technical excellence. The purpose of this award is to recognize excellence in digital media content creation.^[6] It also introduced a 24/7 high-resolution download tool for customers.^[7] The technical innovation continued with virtual CDs becoming a replacement for RF image CDs.^[8]
• In 2003, the firm introduced an international distribution network. Based on the resulting increased sales, it increased the royalty payments for its contributors in 2006.^[9][10] Since 2002 Alamy has paid out over $100million to its contributors.
• In March 2004 one million images were available on the site and by October 2007 there were 10 million images online.^[11]

2010 – 2015

• In 2010, the firm created an iPad app to showcase its images.^[12]
• In 2011, Alamy launched a live news service.^[13][14] and in 2012 it started to accept live news images from mobile phones^[15] which upgraded their collection to 25million images.^[16]
• In the same year 2011, the company expanded its international sales unit with teams being introduced in Germany, Australia and The Middle East.
• In 2012, Alamy introduced the Alamy iQ, video, and creative search results .^[17]
• In 2015, Alamy’s iPhone app Stockimo has been shortlisted as a finalist of the MOMA awards – In the best mobile/tablet consumer facing app category.^[18]

References

1. "Global Still Images Market 2015-2019". ReportLinker. December 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
2. "Alamy". TopTenReviews. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
3. David Hoffman (27 May 2015). "Alamy in the rear view mirror". Editorial Photographers UK (EPUK). Retrieved 7 September 2015.
4. "Alamy responds to EPUK's open letter". EPUK. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
5. "Alamy Makes a Change to its Commission Structure". Centre of the Picture Industry (CEPIC). 20 November 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
6. http://www.alamy.com/pressreleases/2002/stock-photography-emma-award-121202.asp
7. "Image Search and Purchase Now Five Times Faster on Alamy.com". Graphics. 29 August 2002. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
8. "Alamy Launches Virtual Alternative to Royalty Free CDs". Graphics.com. 2 September 2003. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
9. "Alamy 100% royalties" (PDF). Weareoca. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
10. "Alamy CEO: AlamyRank "not disadvantaging specialist contributors"". Editorial Photographers UK (EPUK). 16 November 2006. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
11. Jim Pickerell. "Alamy Reaches 10 Million Images, Reveals Financials". selling-stock.com.
12. Patrick Jordan (28 August 2010). "New iPad Apps: Alamy Photo Collection". iPad Insight. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
13. http://www.cepic.org/news/industry_press_releases/2011/10/alamy_launches_live_news_service
14. "Alamy launches Live News service". Stockphototalk. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
15. Magezine Publishing Ltd. "Alamy Stock Photo Agency Now Allows Mobile Photos". ePHOTOzine.
16. "Email Marketing Software from AWeber - AWeber Email Marketing". aweber.com.
17. "Alamy shakes it up with Alamy iQ". 16 November 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
18. Alan Capel (19 February 2014). "Stockimo – Important stuff for Alamy Contributors". Retrieved 7 September 2015.