Selling on Alamy: Royalty Free or Licenced?
Never in the field of internet forums has this thorny question arisen so frequently. Often asked by those with only a Royalty Free (RF) experience of selling stock images (like those coming from microstock) it is a good question. The world of Rights Managed (RM) stock selling is all very new to them. By the way, Alamy refer to RM as L (for Licenced).
So how should you place your images on Alamy? RF or L? Read on to find out more.
As always, if you’re new to the whole arena of image licensing and you’re not sure what a photography licence is or does, then please read this post first.
Ok, you’re back.
So, you’ve passed Alamy Quality Control with your new submission. Your images are queued up in your “Manage my Images” screen and you now need to decide how you are going to sell them.
Lets look at the options.
I’m now going to introduce you to two of my very English friends (note the olde English hyphenated surnames)
Barry Rights-Managed and his good friend Brian Royalty-Free :) These guys have both passed Alamy QC at the same time with identical sets of images that they took whilst out shooting together.
Barry Rights-Managed has decided to sell all of his images as RM (remember Alamy calls this “L”). He wants to sell his images on more than one stock library and does not want to give any agency exclusivity. He has some images with releases and some without. He has a mix of people and places.
Brian Royalty-Free has decided to sell all of his images as RF. RF cannot have any exclusivity so he can sell his images on more than one stock library. Like Barry, he has some images with releases and some without. He has a mix of people and places.
We’re underway
Barry Rights-Managed sets all his images as L for “licenced”. He knows that he will sell his images based on the usage by the end user.
Brian Royalty-Free sets all his images as RF. He knows that he will sell his images based on file-size and not on usage.
(PP note: really sorry if this is sounding like Thomas the Tank Engine for photographers but bear with me…. it’s better than me prattling on about the minutiae of licencing options….I am basing this on real world examples!)
Both Barry RM and Brian RF have some images of people. Barry RM does not have model releases but he can still sell his images for editorial use only by placing restrictions on his licenced images to that effect. Brian RF has model releases for his people shots. Without model releases he cannot sell those images as RF if the people are recognisable*
* this could take a chapter on its own - suffice to say if the model could recognise themselves or a body part in your image then you need a release to sell as RF. Why? Because RF allows all uses - you cannot restrict to just editorial.
A while later…………the boys get some sales
Mr Picture Edtor is looking for a shot of Anywhereville for a magazine article. He wants a photo to run half a page inside the magazine. He does a search and up pops two images from Barry RM and Brian RF.
Mr Picture Editor only wants to run the image once. He has a small magazine and does not have much budget to play with. He prices up both images. Barry RM’s image can be had for $100. But to get an identical image from Brian RF at the file size he needs for the half page size it would cost $200.
He buys Barry RM’s $100 image for one use only.
Point to note: RF is not always cheaper than RM. Especially where single uses in small run circulations for editorial use are concerned. RM is nearly always going to be cheaper in these circumstances.
Mr Small Designer searches for an image of a pretty girl. He has a client that wants some leaflets and brochures made up and is on a tight budget. The images used will be very small, perhaps 2″ across. He does a search and up pops two images from Barry RM and Brian RF.
Mr Small Designer wants to run the image on 10,000 brochures and on his clients web page. He will probably use the image again on some other promotional material later in the year, possibly next year. He prices up both images. Barry RM’s image can be had for $600. Advertising usage is much dearer than editorial. But to get an identical image from Brian RF at the file size he needs for the small size it would cost only $99. He is so pleased he buys another of Brian RF’s images for $99 too.
Point to note: RF is almost always cheaper to buy than RM when it comes to advertising use. Especially where multiple uses in large run promo material is concerned. RM is nearly always going to be dearer in these circumstances.
Mr Large Designer searches for an image of a guy walking fast along a road with a briefcase. He has a large client that has a European ad campaign underway and has a good budget to play with. Mr Large Designer will use the image he chooses very small, perhaps 3″ across but in a number of different media types across Europe including small ads in magazines, brochures and TV. He does a search and up pops two images from Barry RM and Brian RF.
Mr Large Designer does not like RF. It has no history. He does not want nor need exclusivity for this assignment but wants to know that the image he chooses hasn’t been round the block several times either. He feels safer with a rights-managed image. He will not buy Brian RF’s image for this reason, even though it would only cost him $150. He rings the agency and asks them to confirm if any existing licences are in force on that image. There are none. He does a deal and buys the usage he needs for Barry RM’s image at $1850.
Point to note: RM is sometimes chosen because it has a traceable history. Especially where large budget uses for advertising use are concerned. RF is always going to be cheaper in these circumstances but can lose out because its usage history is unknown and it is likely to have been sold multiple times.
(PP note: OK, enough I’m getting bored now…!)
So, given the release situation is the same, the choice is yours. Open the box or take the money. I can’t steer you either way. I have a mix of both. Depends on subject matter and your hunch as to whether your image can attain a good RM commercial fee one day or regular RM editorial sales.
Some images will sell better as RF and some as RM and vice-versa. Sometimes that “typical RF” shot goes for a record RM fee. All depends. That’s the beauty of this game - its so unpredictable.
You have the likelihood of more sales with RF (though Alamy’s own figures show RM sells more than RF on their particular agency) but at a lower average value per sale than RF; or less sales (or more if on Alamy!) as RM with the delightfully tasty unknown that one day you may sell an RM for a whopping great licence fee.
Oh, and I should mention repeat business. Of course, with RF there’s no repeat business from the same buyer because they’ve got unlimited use. With RM you’ll sometimes find a buyer re-licencing an image several times over a period of months or years (depends on the length of use they buy initially) so RM can actually be more profitable in the long run than an RF sale.
p.s. there’s a lot more Pro’s and Con’s (exclusivity, restrictions etc) to RM and RF than I’ve been able to write here. These individual licence types are covered in more detail in the following posts:
I never said any of this was easy….. ;)
PP
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Thanks for this description of RM and RF. It really helps explain the differences.
Peter
You are most welcome Peter,
Glad you found it helpful!
PP