Factors that affect licensing costs

What to consider

The licence and image fee for reproducing an artwork will factor in:

• where the work will be positioned – for example, front cover, editorial, lead campaign image
• the print run of the product: as an example, compare an academic publication with a small print run of 500, to a coffee table publication with over 10,000 copies
• who’s using the work: as an example, a global corporation is more commercial than a small independent gallery
• how long the artwork needs to be licensed for
• whether you’d like DACS to supply a high resolution image of the work, if we have one available through our collection of artist-reviewed and ready to license images

Pricing models

The person using the work is charged either a flat fee, which is a payment made only once, or a sales royalty rate, which is a percentage of the selling cost.

A flat fee may be most suitable for book publishing, depending on factors such as:

• whether the image is used on the front cover or inside the publication
• the print run of the publication
• if it’s English language only or all languages

A royalty rate may be more suitable for merchandise. This is a percentage of the retail or wholesale selling price. The more items sold, the more the artist receives in royalty payments.