Creative Licensing

When using creative assets, such as photography, there is usually a license that comes with them stating how the client or user can use the asset and the terms that determine the price of it. Two common license types include a royalty free license and a rights managed license, with the most common being the royalty free license. A royalty free license means that the user pays the creator of the asset once, and the asset becomes able to be used by the user for commercial use as many times as they want. When using a royalty free asset there is a restriction on how many users can use it. Also, the higher the resolution of the asset, the higher the buying price. A rights managed license means the assets are licensed per use, and the user may have to pay the creator on an ongoing basis depending on how the asset will be used, how long the asset will be used, and what the distribution of the project will be. The more extreme these situations are the more the creator gets paid. Basically the creator monitors their work based on what you plan on doing with their asset.

For an example of a royalty free license and how a price is derived, let’s say I am tasked with the project of creating t-shirt graphics for a client. The graphics will originate from a photograph from a stock photography website, iStockphoto. My client will need a quantity of 5k shirts printed. First, I find the photograph I want to use on the website. Then I will want to choose the highest resolution of the photo. In this case I chose a picture of a cat with an XXLarge resolution costing 50 credits. Under extended licensing options I want to choose the items for resale option since the photo is for t-shirts. This option adds another 125 credits for a total of 175 credits. If I am a pay-as-you-go member I can get a package of 300 credits for $440 with each credit costing $1.47. Therefore, my photo that I want to use would cost me $257.25.

The benefits of royalty free assets include an ongoing use after purchase, a less expensive price, and easy access. The challenges of using them include the risk of finding the asset being used by someone else since they are not exclusive and not being able to transfer or resale the asset to someone else when finished with it. The benefit of rights managed assets is being able to purchase exclusive rights for a certain amount of time or possibly purchasing total exclusive rights. The challenge, or downside, of using them is possible ongoing payments that are based on the factors of using it instead of its size as in royalty free assets.

If I have a career at an agency or company as a designer more than likely the company will buy these assets. The cost won’t come out of my pocket. But, it may be reflected in my pay. If I am doing freelance work then of course it will come out of my pocket, and I will have to figure it into the expenses and the client’s cost of the project. On the flip side, if I am the one using the licensing, then of course it will be my means of protecting my work and making a profit/living.