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All About Illustration Licenses - YouTube
Channel: The Illustrators Guide
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Today we're talking about illustration
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licenses.
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The illustration industry works on the
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basis that illustrators grant
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licenses to their clients, so those
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clients can use
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the artwork for a particular purpose, in
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a specific location,
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for a certain amount of time. The artist
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owns the copyright and is giving their
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client permission
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to use the work in exchange for a fee.
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That's how stock libraries work, it's the
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same for photographers,
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musicians are paid a royalty when their
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music is licensed for
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a tv advert for example. If i wanted to
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put some music in this video
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i'd have to pay a license fee. Every job
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you take on
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should have a defined license agreed
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with the client up front,
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because the variables in that license
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will affect how you price the work.
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And when you're pricing an illustration
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a portion of that is going to be
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the production cost, that's how long it
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takes you to make
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and how complicated it is to make, but
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the rest is going to be
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the fee for the license. You could make
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one illustration
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for one issue of a magazine for 拢1000
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for example,
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but if that same illustration was
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created for a nationwide advertising
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campaign
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it could cost 拢10,000. The
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production cost is the same
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but the scope of the license is way
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bigger. As a general rule of thumb,
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the more people that are going to see
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the work, the higher the price should be.
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A magazine with a bigger readership
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should, in theory,
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pay more than a small magazine. A
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quarterly magazine
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should pay more than a weekly magazine
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because they're using it for longer and
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more people are going to see it.
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A nationwide advertising campaign will
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pay more than
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an advertising campaign that's limited
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to a small region.
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Licenses can become very complicated but
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i'm going to break it down here into
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three main parts:
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Usage, that's the 'what' Territory, that's
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the 'where'
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and Duration, that's the 'when' or how long
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Usage. Most of the time a client will
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tell you what the illustration will be
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used for,
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whether it's a book cover or newspaper
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or packaging,
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because you need to know that to do the
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job, but it's not always clear
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and there are often multiple uses for
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the same illustration.
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You need that complete list from the
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client to price accurately.
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If the illustration is only for a
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magazine cover, that's a relatively
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small usage but if that same
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illustration is going to be used for
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packaging, marketing materials, point of
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sale items,
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and print adverts and on
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social media... That's quite a lot.
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Sometimes a client will want to
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extend their license later down the line
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and if you've agreed to a fee for a
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specific purpose
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and the client wants to use it for
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something else down the line,
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they should offer you an additional fee.
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It could be an all media license,
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in that case the client wants the
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flexibility to use the image on
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anything they want. Now that should be a
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bigger fee, and if you don't charge
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enough and then you see your design on
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t-shirts, billboards, magazines,
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you know, you're not going to feel great
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about that. I'm going to link to a blog
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post in the description with some of the
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different usage terms that you might
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come across
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and what they mean. Territory.
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This is where your work is going to be
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used. Could be as small as one exact
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location
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for an event. Not many people are going
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to see that but it could be global.
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Thousands of thousands of people could
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see it, you know a global brand like
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Nike might roll out an ad campaign all
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over the world,
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uh but an indie gin distillery might
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only be advertising in their local area.
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It could be a country, it could be a
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whole continent.
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Some territories are defined by language.
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Something
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could be rolled out in German-speaking
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countries for example: Germany,
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Austria, Switzerland. I think that's it.
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Generally speaking the bigger the
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territory, the higher the fee should be,
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but different countries have different
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economies. The UK is a small country but
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they have good
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budgets. Brazil for example is a massive
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country
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but they're going to have generally
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lower fees.
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The UK the US, France and Germany
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They all have very good budgets
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generally, Canada and Australia
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tend to be a little bit lower. A UK
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magazine might have
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a counterpart in the US: GQ for example.
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They have
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different uh versions of GQ in lots of
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different countries.
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The territory is larger in the US, so if
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they want to use your illustration in
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the UK
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version and in the US version, you can
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ask for a higher fee.
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Duration. How long is the client going to
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use your work for?
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An ad campaign could run for a year or
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it could just run for a few
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weeks, or days even. A weekly magazine
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will pay less than a quarterly magazine
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because
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the work has only been used for a week. A
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beer label might be
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a seasonal beer. It could only be for the
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Christmas season,
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but then you should ask yourself is it
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only this Christmas,
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or is it Christmas every year? Some
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clients don't know how long they're
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going to use your work for.
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Imagine that gin distillery from earlier
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they might buy ad space in their local
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magazine um for three months, but if that
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goes well, they might
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want to extend that. The duration can be
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harder to define for books,
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a publisher doesn't necessarily know how
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long a book is going to be printed for,
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but if they print 10,000 books, that
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could take
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six years to sell or six months to sell.
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Now in that case, the duration can be
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limited to the first edition
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and if they sell out in six months
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they're probably gonna print more but
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you should be offered an additional fee.
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the longer the duration, the higher the
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fee should be.
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When that time runs out, if they want to
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keep using the work, they should offer
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you
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an additional fee. Some clients don't
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know when usage will start
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so you could have a one year license
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'from first use'
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for example. Perpetual licenses or
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licenses with no time limit means the
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client wants the flexibility to use the
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illustration for
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as long as they want. It's quite common,
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It should be a higher fee,
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but if that license is also exclusive to
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that client, it means you can't ever
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resell the illustration. And since i
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mentioned exclusivity,
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it is another factor you should consider.
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A monthly magazine might have
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90 days exclusivity which is pretty
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standard in my experience.
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After that 90 days is up, you are free to
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re-license that
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illustration to another client. You
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wouldn't charge the same the second time
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because there's no production cost,
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but the great thing about licensing is,
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you can continue to make money from the
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same image
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forever potentially, if people want it.
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The example i just mentioned
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with the perpetual license, if it's
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exclusive to that client, they may or may
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not
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use it after one year for example, but if
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they have the exclusive license
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to do so, you can't ever use it yourself,
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or re-license it again.
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So if the client wants a perpetual
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license, you might try and negotiate an
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exclusivity period.
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A couple of years maybe. It's unlikely a
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brand is going to want to use the same
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image forever anyway.
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Even worse for you than an exclusive
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perpetual license would be an exclusive
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'all media' perpetual license. That means
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the client can use the work for whatever
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they want
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for however long they want, and you can't
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ever use it again.
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and that amounts to the same as selling
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your copyright, which
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we'll look at in another video. You might
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technically be the copyright holder but
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the client has complete control
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over your work, and needless to say it
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should be an enormous fee
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for that kind of license. Finally
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i want to stress the importance of
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getting licenses agreed
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early in the process, before any creative
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work starts.
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Some combination of the factors we've
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discussed here will make up your license
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and guide your pricing.
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Get it in writing early and then you and
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the client know exactly what the deal is.
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You could use a formal licensing
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agreement, but it really
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only has to be stated clearly in an
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email and agreed to by the client,
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then you've always got proof. If your
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work is used for anything that
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it's not supposed to be used for you can
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just refer back to that
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email. When you get a contract make sure
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it reflects the terms that you've agreed
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to in this license discussion.
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Some contracts have standard terms in
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them and the person sending you the
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contract might not know specifically
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what's been agreed to,
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so it's your job to check that it
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matches.
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Here's an example license, it doesn't
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have to be anything more complicated
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than
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writing this in an email and asking the
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client to agree to it.
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You've defined the usage and the
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territory and the duration of the
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license.
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It specifically names the client so
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there's no ambiguity about that
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and it also states what the exclusivity
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terms are.
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Hope this has been helpful, any comments
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or questions
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let me know. A couple more videos here
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see you next time.
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