Hey, I've got someone who's contacted me about a commission for a logo for a friend of their dad who runs a Dutch radio station. With the language barrier the person who contacted me is the one negotiating the commission and obviously I'd rather sell the rights to the logo image so they can use it for whatever they want and I don't need to worry about not knowing whether they're using it commercially in a way that hadn't been agreed upon prior and basically avoiding what could be a massive headache all around.
My problem being, I've never sold the rights to an image before as I always retain my rights to the images I do for regular commissions so I've not got a single clue what I should charge for the full rights to the image?
I'd charge about £30-£40 for the logo itself, but no idea what I should charge for the rights. I tried looking about on my own but it was pretty confusing and figured just asking for advice would be easier.
My problem being, I've never sold the rights to an image before as I always retain my rights to the images I do for regular commissions so I've not got a single clue what I should charge for the full rights to the image?
I'd charge about £30-£40 for the logo itself, but no idea what I should charge for the rights. I tried looking about on my own but it was pretty confusing and figured just asking for advice would be easier.
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Basically you have to write up a little contract that says which rights you are selling (into perpetuity).
In order to determine a price you'll have to consider, how big of a station is it, is it just a small local thing or a big national player and so forth? Either way you shouldn't dip below 3-figures (for endless use), but I couldn't name an exact price this instant. I can check the artist's handbook of pricing later when I'm at the studio, though you might wanna consider picking up a copy for yourself too.
Also I know some friends who do Dutch radio stations, if you send me the name I can probably make a more informed estimate.
Edit: link to pricing handbook, it's oh so nice http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102166/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389597980&sr=1-1
Edited at 2014-01-13 07:28 am (UTC)
And thanks for the link!
Added to my growing list of art books I need to buy. xD
30-40 pounds is way way way way way too low to charge for a logo even without the rights. Way.
I would google "What should you charge for a logo" and get an average price based on results in the industry. This is usually how I do pricing research. Its usually implied that rights come along with a logo so I've never factored that in separately.
For small time clients, though I'd be more willing to revise the rights fee down because it will otherwise be out of their budget and I'd rather take a small licensing fee than no job, especially considering most small time clients would probably just slap together some clip art if they didn't hire that friend of a friend of a friend. Use your best judgment or ask them outright about their budget if you're not sure.
To be honest, for small clients, as long as I get the price of the actual logo, anything extra they agree to for rights and licensing is icing. If they somehow make it big and end up being huge and commercial and your logo ends up everywhere -- yeah okay, maybe you missed out on bigger licensing fees, but that's a highly unlikely case, and at least you still got paid for your work.
He's apparently on some form of social benefits so doesn't have the biggest budget, I'm thinking it'd probably be more worth it to charge less than I usually would to fit his budget and write up a contract saying it's for use on their website only.
I would reply to specific people but I'd be pretty much copy-pasting most of my reply.
Thanks for the advice so far!