Okay, call me crazy but I think one of the best things we could do as an industry is standardize USAGE prices. You’ve heard me say this before and yes, I’m saying it again. To be clear, I’m not talking about Creative Fees, but the Usage Licensing Fee alone. It would make life so much easier for everyone involved in the photography business–photograhers AND buyers–and I think it would actually increase the income for many photographers.
Imagine how much less stress there would be in doing an estimate for a client if you knew that, (totally hypothetically) the one year US exclusive print advertising in national consumer magazine ads up to one page was $25,000–and if your client knew that too. Your Creative Fee would be based on your creative value to the project (a function perhaps of time and effort and experience, and how important your particular creative style is to the project) so that would vary from photographer to photographer, but the variation in total project price between any three photographers would be much less than we see now in estimates(bids).
This would enable buyers to more easily work with the best photographer (creatively) for any given project because they would not have to get past the huge price differences they get now. For example, in the project usage mentioned above, it is completely possible that the Creative and Usage fees (total) would be $35K for one photographer, $25K for another, and $7500 for a third. Try getting that $35K photographer the gig when the cost consultants and the end-client are completely wrapped up in the numbers! Buyers have to fight hard (sometimes) to get the right photographer for the project in these situations!
Of course, this is not how things have historically been done–with standardized numbers. But guess what–today isn’t yesterday and tomorrow demands a new way of working. I think we really have a shot at creating some sort of fair and equitable system now, and we should be putting our heads together to see how we can make this happen…WITH our buying colleagues. Let’s work together to find a realistic solution to these difficult issues of usage pricing so that we can focus our attention on creating great work.
I’ve mentioned before the idea of tying usage prices to media buys–that is still an option I think, but it is only one idea. I am certainly open to others and want to encourage a dialogue on this topic. However, I mean a dialogue on possibilities–not “that’s not the way it worked in the past” or “that’s stupid” or “I should get to charge whatever I want” kinds of comments, please. I’m asking you to open up your minds and brainstorm on forward-thinking ideas. Lots of them won’t work, but if we don’t try to find some solutions now, we’ll (potentially) lose the opportunity to make a significant change for the betterment of everyone in the business.
Oh, and btw, the photo organizations cannot be involved in this sort of talk because of all sorts of potential anti-trust law issues. Don’t get mad at them…it’s not their fault.