Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Image licensing for Amazon product listings  (Read 2957 times)

MichaelEzra

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1146
    • https://www.michaelezra.com
Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« on: March 21, 2018, 04:56:04 pm »

What is the reality with image licensing for product listings on Amazon?
There are numerous places offering photo services with per image prices ranging from just $60 on a "high end" all the way down to $5 with license included.
This has no correlation to Getty's license price calculator.
Amazon is a substantial market place, so has the photo industry here been completely disrupted?
Logged

bwalker

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 20
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2018, 10:36:31 pm »

Michael, I would venture to guess the reality is this: there are so many photographers with little to no business background they simply have no sense on what a photograph needs to be priced at in order to make not only a living but a viable business. The barrier to entry in this business can be extremely low and with it you get multitudes with no sense of what it takes to build a worthwhile business.
Logged

tcphoto1

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 158
    • http://www.tonyclarkphoto.com
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2018, 11:19:36 am »

Are you talking about Large Corporations selling their product or individuals with small quantities? I have found that individuals are not worth pursuing, they do not value photography so spending $60 per item with multiple versions is unrealistic. If you've already shot product for a Corporation and eCommerce is not included in your license then I'd start the negotiation at 1/3 the original licensing fee.
Logged

Slobodan Blagojevic

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18090
  • When everyone thinks the same, nobody thinks
    • My website
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2018, 11:51:15 am »

What exactly are you asking?

MichaelEzra

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1146
    • https://www.michaelezra.com
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2018, 08:10:16 pm »

I am asking if photography business has adapted to the current business needs of a large potential customer base that is represented by small businesses on Amazon.
If feel there is a large-scale disruption happening as numerous *small* businesses I was in contact with are scared away with any talk on advertising / e-commerce licensing, regardless of the price.
They are looking for cheap flat fee service and based on existence of countless amazon listings - they find it...

Every business owner's friend with a DSLR and a white paper background or a 100$ box does this for pennies.
Just frustrating. And then - would corporate clients agree to pay more, what it really is worth when done professionally?
Logged

Slobodan Blagojevic

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18090
  • When everyone thinks the same, nobody thinks
    • My website
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2018, 08:59:41 pm »

But why license? Isn't that a one-time use? They sell trinkets, you take a picture of it, sounds like a flat-fee service to me. Especially with the abundance of those willing to do it for $15.

tcphoto1

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 158
    • http://www.tonyclarkphoto.com
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2018, 11:21:02 am »

I chose to work with my larger Clients, pursue additional similar accounts and leave the bottom feeders to the others. As my Father always said, "Champagne taste and beer budget".
Logged

Joe Towner

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1365
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2018, 11:20:02 pm »

Shots for Amazon, Etsy and the like are more or less production shots.  It's a volume game, where you have a booth setup, and someone who can crank them out pretty quick.  I know that Zulily does everything in CaptureOne, with Canon bodies.  It's something that would keep an assistant or two busy, but not something I'd consider a worth wild paying gig, unless it was part of a larger production for print, etc.  They're definitely a flat rate type thing, per item, but each item should be less than 2-3 minutes, and you want everything perfect in camera because post is a waste of time.

Logged
t: @PNWMF

SELPHICK

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 29
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2018, 12:13:49 pm »

a client recently asked me to quote on a similar project, fee for service, prior artwork was provided by an amateur with an iphone 5 and no colour management. It is the state of the industry, get over it. In the end professional work was not what many small to medium size clients want.

Logged

KLaban

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2451
    • Keith Laban Photography
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2018, 01:36:24 pm »

a client recently asked me to quote on a similar project, fee for service, prior artwork was provided by an amateur with an iphone 5 and no colour management. It is the state of the industry, get over it. In the end professional work was not what many small to medium size clients want.

My agent used to respond to cheapskate clients with the line you'd like to *screw the wife as well?,

*self imposed censorship, with those of a more sensitive disposition in mind. His language was of course a tad less reserved.

Rob C

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24074
Re: Image licensing for Amazon product listings
« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2018, 04:50:39 am »

My agent used to respond to cheapskate clients with the line you'd like to *screw the wife as well?,

*self imposed censorship, with those of a more sensitive disposition in mind. His language was of course a tad less reserved.


The trouble is, Keith, many would reply yes, seems like a good offer; I would like to screw the wife as well!

I was asked to quote for a knitwear catalogue some years after I left the UK.

The guy who rang me up was a designer I'd known before I left, and he asked me to quote for the shoot etc. and the understanding was that we would find a local hotel or apartment for the models, and that he'd stay with us.

A couple of days after agreeing that, I got a fax from him telling me that he was no longer on the travel list, and that the knitwear company's designer was coming in his place. I said sorry, no way I am having a stranger come live with us for a week or so. At the same time, I received a copy of an existing brochure for another company, which the supposed client company wanted me to match. This production would have cost twenty times the budget, at least, of the deal I had negotiated.

I faxed my designer friend back and said forget it, no deal. I won't do the shoot; there isn't the budget to do what your client wants. I sent a copy to his client outlining the fact that there was no way that a small shoot could match the production values of one with many models, a team of hair, makeup artists etc. and that anyway, my own techniques/style were diametrically opposed to the sort they had sent as sample of their understanding of "perfection". The initial response was how much more money do you need? I replied that it was now nothing to do with money, but of an impossible relationship, and that as far as I was concerned it didn't fly.

It might have been interesting to see what they eventually came up with.

Some jobs are doomed before they begin; learning that is a valuable lesson.
Pages: [1]   Go Up