The Rights Managed Stock Photography Model - The Business of Photography by Brad Rickerby

If you have just read my blog post on Stock Photography Then you are no doubt anxious to head off and look for a stock photo agent to market your images. I would urge you, however, to stick around and go over some of the options you will have in that search so that you can better maximize your revenue. A little more knowledge here is a lot more power.

It is important to know how a stock agency will license your image. Not as in how they will market or sell your image, but rather, as in what usage rights will be given and for what fee with each license model. There are basically two license models, Rights Managed (RM) and Royalty Free (RF). Today we are going to take on RM.

Please remember that when your stock photo agent makes a sale for you, they are not actually selling your image. What they are doing is licensing the use of your image. This is the way Bill Gates (of Microsoft) got rich. When you buy a Windows computer you are not actually buying the Windows software it comes with. Rather you are paying to use that software. Microsoft owns it, you pay to use it.

It is the same with your images. You retain ownership at all times (if someone wants to structure a deal with you where you give up ownership, walk away), and people pay you for the right to use the image. Which is great, because you can resell the same image over and over and over again.

The RM license model was the only license model available from the beginning of stock photography until just a few years ago.  The RM model manages the image on a license by license basis, so that in theory, you know exactly who has used the image and for what. The license for the image will specify the number of times it can be used (usually one), where it will be used, the size of use, the industry it will be used in (trucking, banking, entertainment, etc), the purpose of its use (whether editorial, advertising or something else) and a number of other particulars.

The fee for the license is based on these factors. Advertising use, for example, will fetch a higher fee than will editorial. All other things being equal, the larger in size or the greater the size of the print run, the higher the fee will be. And so on for many other factors.

Keeping track of who used each image and for what purpose is important for the user of the image. Careful tracking assures that there will be no conflicts in usage from one users to the next. Thus, an image can be used for advertising, say, a bank, with confidence that no other bank has used the same image.

RM licenses almost always used to have higher fees than RF licenses. These days, with special incentives to preferred clients, RM licenses may in fact have a lower fee than an RF license.

From the start of my career in stock photography until roughly 2002, my average RM license was about $1,000 USD with frequent spikes to $5,000 and $10,000. My highest license fee was $26,000. (Please keep in mind that this is the gross license fee and I split that fee with the stock agency.)

From 2002, RM license fees have steadily dropped.

In my next blog post I will cover RF licenses. You may wish to subscribe to my blog (the box on the upper right) to be sure not to miss that and other upcoming posts on the business of photography.