How To Sell Downloads For Commercial Use?

sirensofsong

I wanted to get some insight on how some of you handle digital downloads for commercial use.

Currently I have downloads available for commercial use, priced for web/print usage and I've sold a couple that were used for just that (that's the most I figured anyone would commercially want the photos for).

Recently, I had a company inquire about using a photo for a promotional banner display, which of course I should charge a lot more for, but how do you price for various uses when you can only set one price?

I'm tempted to totally remove commercial use downloads and have people contact me to negotiate fees, but I'm also afraid that could possibly cause buyers to look elsewhere, thinking downloads aren't available for commercial use.

What's the best way to handle this?

(I realize there's currently a request on uservoice that would allow for setting prices based on usage, but it doesn't seem very high in the queue)

Sam

I had a fast look at your site and it seems all (a lot) of your images are of people and volleyball.

For commercial use I believe you need a model release. Do you have one for every identifiable person?

You may want to research this a little.

Sam

Art Scott

sirensofsong wrote: »

I wanted to get some insight on how some of you handle digital downloads for commercial use.

Currently I have downloads available for commercial use, priced for web/print usage and I've sold a couple that were used for just that (that's the most I figured anyone would commercially want the photos for).

Recently, I had a company inquire about using a photo for a promotional banner display, which of course I should charge a lot more for, but how do you price for various uses when you can only set one price?

I'm tempted to totally remove commercial use downloads and have people contact me to negotiate fees, but I'm also afraid that could possibly cause buyers to look elsewhere, thinking downloads aren't available for commercial use.

What's the best way to handle this?

(I realize there's currently a request on uservoice that would allow for setting prices based on usage, but it doesn't seem very high in the queue)

It would be a little more work but have the downloads in a separate category and different sized downloads in different galleries......I know it is more work but..........So Category would be COMMERCIAL DOWNLOADS .....Galleries would be by usage or size - FOR THE WEB........BANNERS TO BILLBOARDS DOWNLOADS or whatever you like................and write the contract to be a NON EXCLUSIVE use contract........that way if all of a suddent 100 companies contact you they can all use the same image.........

Angelo

Sam wrote: »

I had a fast look at your site and it seems all (a lot) of your images are of people and volleyball.

For commercial use I believe you need a model release. Do you have one for every identifiable person?

You may want to research this a little.

Sam

^that

and what classifies banners differently than web or print ads in your mind?

.

sirensofsong

Sam wrote: »

I had a fast look at your site and it seems all (a lot) of your images are of people and volleyball.

For commercial use I believe you need a model release. Do you have one for every identifiable person?

You may want to research this a little.

Sam

Yes, I currently only shoot volleyball and concerts. I don't sell any of the concert photos but I do sell the volleyball photos. I didn't realize I needed a model release since I'm shooting in public. Not sure if it matters or not, but it was the player's sponsor who wanted to buy a photo for commercial use. I realize it can be a grey area...

sirensofsong

Angelo wrote: »

^that

and what classifies banners differently than web or print ads in your mind?

.

I went on imagewire and noticed their pricing was a lot higher for printed banners (3 feet x 5 feet in my case) than for web usage. I assumed that was standard.

sirensofsong

Art Scott wrote: »

It would be a little more work but have the downloads in a separate category and different sized downloads in different galleries......I know it is more work but..........So Category would be COMMERCIAL DOWNLOADS .....Galleries would be by usage or size - FOR THE WEB........BANNERS TO BILLBOARDS DOWNLOADS or whatever you like................and write the contract to be a NON EXCLUSIVE use contract........that way if all of a suddent 100 companies contact you they can all use the same image.........

I get it. You're right...that does seem like a lot of work! I can count the number of commercial sales I've had on one hand, so I'll have to think about whether or not to go that route. Thanks.

ChrisN

sirensofsong wrote: »

Yes, I currently only shoot volleyball and concerts. I don't sell any of the concert photos but I do sell the volleyball photos. I didn't realize I needed a model release since I'm shooting in public. Not sure if it matters or not, but it was the player's sponsor who wanted to buy a photo for commercial use. I realize it can be a grey area...

Ultimately it is the buyers responsibility to make sure that they have the proper release for the intended use (some uses such as editorial use generally do not need a release). The practice of the photographer getting a release is just to make the images more marketable to a wider group of buyers that either could not get releases because they have no way to contact the subject or the difficulty in locating someone after the image is taken. It can make an enormous difference in stock photography sales. In your case it is quite possible that the sponsor already has permission as part of another contract with the player and if they don't they should know how to contact the player.

Angelo

sirensofsong wrote: »

I went on imagewire and noticed their pricing was a lot higher for printed banners (3 feet x 5 feet in my case) than for web usage. I assumed that was standard.

I can't find imagewire but are you referring to high prices for the images used on banners or for the banners themselves. you're not clear on this.

it's conceivable the images are priced higher due to larger files and resolution in order to cover a greater area

sirensofsong

Angelo wrote: »

I can't find imagewire but are you referring to high prices for the images used on banners or for the banners themselves. you're not clear on this.

it's conceivable the images are priced higher due to larger files and resolution in order to cover a greater area

Sorry - I meant wireimage.com. Gettyimages.com is a better example b/c you can see how pricing changes based on what the image is being used for. My main point is, if a website wants to use an image and a billboard company wants to use the same image, most people would charge the billboard company more. Currently, smugmug doesn't easily allow you to set prices based on usage.

Angelo

sirensofsong wrote: »

Sorry - I meant wireimage.com. Gettyimages.com is a better example b/c you can see how pricing changes based on what the image is being used for. My main point is, if a website wants to use an image and a billboard company wants to use the same image, most people would charge the billboard company more. Currently, smugmug doesn't easily allow you to set prices based on usage.

yes and there are two reasons for that - licensing and image size/resolution

as for size / resolution you would definitely charge more similarly to various size print sales.

as for licensing I'd have to study further.

volleyshots

Brian,

This site is helpful in setting prices:

http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm

As we both know, selling volleyball shots commercially is rare, but this will get you in the ball park if you get lucky enough to land a client.

See you at the CLWO-Hermosa next week.

John G.