Licensing

You should really google or Youtube the question, thats how i learned it. A big benefit of our site is that our images are in a data bank of product that is available to purchase by people that purchase images every day for media, business marketing , etc. Take a look at the getty images site too to see some of those images and what the costs are to purchase either royalty free or managed rights.

Go to Behind the Scenes > Default Settings, and scroll down to Default Image Licensing Prices (for sale on Licensing.Pixels.com), or alternatively (other info there) Behind the Scenes > Image Licence Program (on the bottom).

There you'll find a lot licencing information. However, nothing about pricing, meaning how to set competitive prices. And this is actually really a problem. It doesn't matter where you look in the Internet, Getty Images, Google, Youtube, etc. - there is nowhere any reliable information.

What I did (but it's still in the research phase) is to activate my network and ask people to ask around if they know anybody who is actually working in the media business, e.g. purchasing images online. So far, there have 2 names popped up but those people have not yet volunteered information.

Therefore, should there be anybody here who knows something about the buyers market for licencing, please share your knowledge!

In vain have you acquired knowledge if you have not imparted it to others. Deuteronomy Rabbah (c.900)

By the way, the buyers market for licences is probably huge... media agencies, journalists, publishers, every company which produces packaging, musicians who need CD covers, ...

Linkedin is probably another option to enquire information, or Xing...

The licensing system basically enables a micro stock business model to be applied to your images. A buyer essential pays a license fee, limited or unlimited, to use your image for a particular media.

If you go to the bulk edit prices option or licesning option behind the scenes there are hyperlinks for each option. Click these for an explanation of each license option in both laymans and/or technical terms.

Invest $20 in a book.on stock photography.

This page explains the business of licensing fairly well. It's pretty long, so be prepared to spend some time. It gets into pricing a little past the half way mark. http://fineartamerica.com/imagelicensing.html

In a nutshell, Rights Managed licenses give the buyer the right to reproduce an image for a specific purpose only, for a limited period of time, and make a limited number of copies. Royalty Free licenses allow the buyer to use the image for almost any purpose (except for art prints which are specifically excluded), for an unlimited time, and make as many copies as they wish.