Stock Photography Price Guide
There are Dragons
There are two fire breathing dragons that are impacting the photo markets and influencing the way you will need to compete for your stock photo sales. The huge stock agencies Corbis and Getty, in their battle with each other are changing the photo markets for the rest of us.
The research for this version of fotoQuote indicates that there are mixed benefits coming from their actions. The Chinese written ideogram for crisis is made up of two characters: one means danger and one means opportunity. FotoQuote helps you take advantage of the opportunities that are being created. New markets are developing and they are starting to use more still photography. Specifically in television, film and video. FotoQuote Pro helps you price in these markets by giving you dozens of hi-tech categories.
Give Discounts - Don't Lower Your Prices
I started writing fotoQuote in the early 90’s, in the middle of a recession. Articles in photo magazines said stock photography was dead. Photographers were undercutting each other, and prices were spiraling down. I decided to do something about it, and I spent a year creating the best pricing and negotiating program I could. I feel good that the release of fotoQuote helped shore up stock photography prices and got photographers talking to each other about good business practices.
Now we are in another recession, and I want to pass on the same advice that I’ve given every time the economy has slowed down:
Don’t lower your prices to make a sale!
Give discounts if you have to, but always make sure to stipulate that a discount is being given. Be creative; come up with a reason for the discount. Maintain a price that will keep you in business during the recession and after it is over. It will be much easier to eliminate a discount than it will be to “raise” your prices again once the economy opens up. You can find a list of suggestions on reasons for giving a discount in the fotoQuote Coach.
Market Changes
There are some big changes happening in the photo industry right now. I’ve spent the last year researching prices and looking for trends that might help you cope with some of the problems that exist, and also help you take advantage of some new opportunities that have emerged.
As your clients shift their presence and promotion from print to the web, they need additional media for their web pages; using more multi-media on their website.
One of the fastest growing needs right now is for video, both shot specifically for your client, or for stock clips. Corporate photographers are being asked for video, as are editorial photographers who shoot stills for magazine stories. Often the need for video is simple, and does not require a full production expense. With 35 new film and video footage categories this may be way for you to make more money, and we explain how to get started in the new fotoQuote Coach categories.
Problem Trends
There are some problem trends too, but I feel with good information you can still work in these areas and continue to make a profit. What are some of problem trends that we are finding?
Obviously the markets are tightening in some areas because of the economy. There is also a shift from print to web, and web prices are often weaker than comparable print prices, but potentially more photos will be used on the web than in print.
There is a huge rights grab happening right now in the publishing industry, especially in the textbook segment. The biggest agencies are smashing around in the photo industry like bulls in a china shop, without much apparent concern for anything but themselves. Their behavior may be having an affect on the weakening of web and textbook prices and licensing terms; including caving into the insistence of the textbook industry to increase the license duration terms from five years to ten years as a standard time frame, without much, or any, increase in the license fee.
Textbook publishers are also trying to change how a book revision is handled. It used to be if a book was revised more than 5% the photographer could charge for the re-use of the image. Then publishers got photographers to agree to a 10% change. Now the publishers are trying to get photographers to agree to a 25% change before they can charge a re-use fee. This is being resisted but if it is accepted by too many photographers it may become a fact, and that source of income would disappear. Not many books are revised more than 25%.
You may get calls from clients who say that X agency is charging X dollars for a specific usage and they want you to match that price. There are some good reasons why you may not want to. The big agencies are cutting deals right and left. Discounts and special package prices are offered to clients to encourage repeat business.
Images are often sold for less than the cost of production, and that is a business model that you, the producer can’t afford. Your business losses are not being propped up by investors. If the client has come to you to license an image, they’ve probably already tried the big agencies, and you deserve to be compensated fairly for having what they want.
Inconsistent Pricing
Also, from my research, the pricing in some of the larger agencies can be inconsistent, and it changes constantly; at times with major price shifts that defy logic.
An example of the inconsistency is one agency currently has two rights packages that are essentially identical, listed in two different parts of their website, one is priced at $1,300 and the other at $7,000.
In another example, changes were made recently to the rights packages an agency offers. Two packages, had their prices reversed, we think in error, with the package offering the fewer uses costing more than the other, by several thousand dollars.
Quote Packs
In fotoQuote Pro 5 we suggested you group together various rights and offer them to your client as a package of rights for a specific time in response to their request for all rights to your images.
FotoQuote Pro 6 now includes several different Quote Packs. The included usages, time limits and prices for each pack are broken down for you. A special chart lets you quickly see what is included in each pack. When you select a Quote Pack the detail of the included usages is automatically added as a text block to your quote.
Pricing with this type of Quote Pack is a great option for clients who ask you for all rights to an image. You can often convince the client that what they really need is this more affordable option that lets them have an unlimited use of the image, in multiple specific media types, for a limited period of time.
The fotoQuote Stock Pricing and Coach Tips
In fotoQuote pricing stock photography is as simple as finding the correct category and then coming up with a price for your usage. FotoQuote displays average prices for all categories, along with a price range.
The concept of an average price is misleading; there are no set prices for photography. Every stock sale is a negotiation and the price will fall within a range based on various factors such as image uniqueness and information you research in the Coach.
The fotoQuote Usage Tips, Coach and Rights Granted are where you will find the information that will help you decide what price to ask for your image.
When you select a stock pricing category the usage tip for that category will automatically be displayed for you. After you have read the usage tips, you can read several other Coach topics that guide you through your sale. Phone Scripts has examples of what to say during your negotiation and Documentation reminds you of the paperwork to include with your submission.