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As more and more images are being used on the Web, rights-managed (RM) sellers need to find an appropriate way to price based on such usage.

In my 2001 edition of Negotiating Stock Photo Prices, I offered a very simplified pricing system that basically had three categories – National Corporation, Regional Corporation and Local Corporation – and four sizes of uses. Considering the many ways that images are now used on the Web, this strategy is totally inadequate.

Recently, I have discovered that Getty Images has instituted a much more elaborate pricing structure which I believe is an excellent solution to the problem.

Basically, they have five different categories for advertising uses and two for editorial and publishing. Within each category they have an extensive breakdown based on the size and placement of the use and the length of time that the image will be used. In order to find the appropriate price for a given use, you multiply a base price for the category by a factor provided by Getty.

For example, here is the formula for an image’s commercial or promotional use on a Web site, not including paid advertising:

For this use, the base price is $315. If the image is to be used up to 180×150 pixels on a secondary page for only one month, the price would be $315. But assume that it is going to be used in a side banner on the home page for 1 year. We start with $315 and multiply that by 1.16 which gives us $365.40. Then we multiply that number by 1.5 which gives us $548.10. And finally, because the image is going to be used for one year, multiply the $548.10 X 1.75 to get $959.18.

For more detailed information on Getty’s pricing system, including my suggested modifications, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter, Selling Stock.