Licensing

We get a lot of questions around this topic of licensing

and so we wanted to help address that in a simple way.

Licensing really comes into play when

you’re using an artists work for your benefit, beyond just simply for pleasure.

A family hires a photographer for family photos, they then receive print rights for personal use only, allowing them the freedom to hang those photos in their house and to share prints with their friends and family.

But let’s say a brand sees that photo they posted on their social media account and reach out to use the photo on their social account, maybe for an ad or something similar - currently they don’t have the rights to say yes at this time because they paid simply for the service and rights for personal use only.

Unless someone pays for full rights of the art, it never belongs to them in full, they only have the limited rights in which they paid for. In a sense, you’re borrowing the art for the use that’s been agreed to.

So with commercial work, you pay for the service to have it created, then from there you agree to how it’s going to be used and for how long, and this is where licensing comes into play.

If you’re using the work to benefit your business (having the art work for you) then you now are having to pay for the rights to use it in this fashion - and the small fee is given to the artist, as the owner, to be compensated for what you’re about to make off their creation.

The more eyes it’s seen by, the more you’re likely to earn,

the more value it has, the higher the licensing cost.

There are industry standard calculators used to determine the cost and evaluation depending on various categories.

HOW IT’S USED

WHERE IT’S USED

HOW LONG IT’S USED FOR

Ex: You have a photo taken and is used on an ad that you’re promoting in hopes this image will have people pause, engage and react by purchasing what you’re selling/advertising.

When you were only attracting 100 people to your site, but through this ad you’ve attracted 10,000 people - that’s 100 times more than before without the photo working for you to bring people in.

So when you’re charged a small fee in compensation for allowing you to make money off their work, this shouldn’t be questioned, instead recognizing the value that’s been given.

To put it simply - without it you have made far less, but with it, it has helped you attract and sell far more.

*Often there is an initial discount off of the licensing cost

for the first round if you were the one that also paid for the creation of the work.

And if you choose to renew the licensing, you’re then likely to be paying full price, but if it’s delivering the value, it’s more than worth it.