Need Help with Selling Rights for an Image

[trittium]

I was contacted about selling one of my images on flickr. The person is looking for a high resolution image. They said, "I am looking for a royalty free rather than a righs managed price". So my questions are.... What is the difference between royalty free and rights managed? What is the typical sell price of an image like this?

Here is the image

 

[kaiyen]

Royalty free - you let them use the image for free.

Rights managed means that you retain the rights to it and you are licensing it for some fee.

That's a quick and dirty explanation. If you decide to go with royalty-free, be sure to stipulate under what circumstances the license applies. Don't allow it to be "all media, all circumstances, etc."

allan

 

[Rob Skeoch]

Well if it's Royalty Free they would pay just once for the image and could use it for anything. Most people buying Royalty Free buy a DVD with about a 100 images. They can then use them for what ever they want with no more fees.

With Rights Managed images you find out exactly what they want to use if for and build the price around this. If they want to use it again for the same thing or an entirely different thing they pay again.

Both methods are popular today and make the agency lots of money.... the photographers not so much.

The problem with Royality based sales is the hassles down the road. The client thinks they have bought the photo so when they go to reuse it they don't feel they should be repaying. And if they're out of town or in another part of the world they could use the photo for years and you would never find out.

A third option that wouldn't really involve just a single photographer is subscription fees... a client pays a flat monthly fee and can use any photo in the collection for whatever they want. This is certainly the way things are moving and will probally be the doom of stock photography.

So what is your picture worth... try to get as much as you can, but since it's not the only picture available the client will have many options on price.

This is totally unrelated to how great your photo is... I happen to like the shot, and they must too, but it's not the only shot available to them.

Just my 2 cents worth.

-Rob Skeoch
www.bigcameraworkshops.com

 

[RML]

A third option that wouldn't really involve just a single photographer is subscription fees... a client pays a flat monthly fee and can use any photo in the collection for whatever they want. This is certainly the way things are moving and will probally be the doom of stock photography.

Subscription fees or licensing fees are the norm in the world of IT, and it's going to be in the world of audio and video. I see no reason why it wouldn't work for photographers. For me, this third option would be most preferable.

 

[canonetc]

You may want to ask them what the image will be used for. Book, calendar, magazine, poster, etc. This little piece of info can help in negotiating.

If it's for a magazine, the downloadable Estimator on the Editorial Photographers.com website is very helpful in determining a negotiation starting point:

http://www.editorialphoto.com/resources/estimator/help.asp

Good luck! And....keep your rights if you can....when you are rich and shameless, you might wish you'd held on to the ownership of the image.

Chris
canonetc

 

[40oz]

it sounds like they are trying to eliminate some hassles by asking for a price that lets them use the image as much as they want without having to notify/pay you for each use. Essentially, you are selling them the rights to the photo. I would expect this price to be much higher than what you'd charge for a single use in a publication. The price would probably depend on the intended use of the image, and by no means are you required to agree to their request.

The state of Minnesota a few years ago paid what many citizens considered a ridiculous price for a single photo for use in al their advertising and brochures. I think it was on the order of a couple hundred thousand dollars. Considering the variety of publications and wide range of use the photo will see over the years, one might consider that price low for the intended use.

I think it would be important to determine the extent of use the photo would see before figuring a price. I don't think there is any worry that you'd sell the rights to your photo then find you threw away potential billions in royalties down the road.