Alamy Images Launches Virtual Alternative to Royalty Free CDs
Abingdon, UK (Sep. 02, 2003) -- Alamy Images has launched the Virtual CD, a unique new product that gives users all the benefits of hard copy, royalty-free (RF) discs without the hassle inherent to physical CDs. Alamy's Virtual CDs are themed collections of RF images that can be quickly and easily purchased for a set price at www.alamy.com.
For both contributors and buyers, Alamy's virtual discs have many advantages over their physical counterparts. Because Alamy virtual CDs are free to produce, contributors can put together collections 'on disc' without the prohibitive costs of mastering and packaging. This gives customers access to great material on disc that they would not find anywhere else as well as all the usual brand names at disc prices. [an error occurred while processing this directive]Virtual CDs are delivered instantly without any additional delivery delays or costs. Images can be downloaded from Virtual CDs as soon as the user has purchased them rather than waiting for physical disks to arrive by mail or courier. In addition, virtual discs cannot be lost as the images are always available for download.
"Many of our customers want to buy royalty-free images on CD for reasons of convenience and budget, so we decided to make our 'CD' offering even more compelling," said James West, CEO of Alamy Images. "Alamy's virtual disk offerings provide all the benefits of physical disks to customers, and then some, and also offer contributors a cost-effective way to market and sell groups of images."
Customers initially have the choice of over 130 Alamy Virtual CDs from contributors such as image100, imagestopshop, ImageState, PhotoWood, Up the Resolution and Nature Picture Library. For the current range of Alamy Virtual CDs, prices start at $170 for 55 images and range up to $599 for 100 images, with exact pricing depending on the provider. The number of images per Virtual CD also varies, as they are put together by varying contributors.
Virtual CDs can be purchased from Alamy in the same way as single images at www.alamy.com and, like single images, remain in the user's account. Customers simply log in and are then able to download images from the CD. Contributors who would like to have their images considered for Alamy Virtual CD collections should contact alan@alamy.com.
About Alamy Images
Alamy Images (www.alamy.com) provides a one-stop shop for leading and 'hard-to-find' image brands worldwide. The website was launched in February 2001 to provide image buyers with a single source for all their royalty-free (RF) and traditionally licensed image needs, supported by innovative technology and strong customer service.
Alamy uses technology to run its operations more cost effectively than its competitors and can therefore pay more flexible rates of contributor commission. The same technology enables the company to provide innovative new products and services for customers, e.g. an Easy Download tool for high-resolution images for certain licensed image users and an interpolation service to enable us to increase the resolution of an image without impacting its quality. The company balances this emphasis on technology with strong customer service, ensuring every customer has a named contact and access to free searches.
Hundreds of thousands of commercial and editorial images can be found on the Alamy website and thousands are added every month. Subjects include everything from business and lifestyles through to extreme sports, gardening and architecture. For a full list of key contributors, please see http://www.alamy.com/content.asp. A list of key customers, spanning leading advertising, direct marketing and design agencies, publishers, corporates and broadcasters can be found at http://alamy.com/customers.asp.
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