Licensing a video

May 6, 2009 5:01 PM

I uploaded a video to a video-sharing site, and it's drawn a couple of offers to license it. What's a fair price? Any tips for this sort of thing?

It's a 30-second-or-so, weather related clip. The companies that contacted me both produce what look like terrible reality compilation shows. One company I've never heard of, the other most everyone's heard of.

Both have said that they want a copy of the original video before proceeding further. Is that typical? (one noted I could watermark it before sending it in) Being a neophyte at this, is there anything else I should look out for?

posted by aerotive to media & arts (2 comments total)

I can't directly help, but I remember a 'bloopers' type TV program that offered $1000 per video that they used. IMHO that's on the high side because many people will send in their video for free, just for the fame of it.
posted by Xhris at 10:27 AM on May 7

Depending on how rare it is, it could fetch up to $1500. That depends on a lot of factors. Is it a shot of a lightning strike or two? Or is it a shot of a tornado close up tossing cars about? The more unlikely it is that someone else has footage similar to yours, the higher the price should be. Never worked on any weather related shows, but I have worked on a few funny clip shows involving people and animals. Most of those netted the videographer (if you can call them that!) one hundred dollars and a t-shirt. When buying them commercially in bulk, I've known our company to pay as much as $1000 to $1500 for a few really good video clips.
Above all, *please* READ THE CONTRACT. The people who sent in their videos and got $100 signed away the rights to those clips for 99 YEARS. Meaning that the company I work for now *owns* that clip for a long time, and can use it however and whenever they want. If anyone sends you a contract like that, tell them you're not interested in that kind of deal. Tell them you can license it to them for a one-time usage fee, (IANAL - this may not be the correct terminology) for THAT SHOW ONLY. That way, you retain the rights to that clip, you can license it to BOTH companies, and hopefully make money on it for years to come!
If the clip is rare and compelling footage, I'd ask for $2000 and hint that you *may* be open to entertaining a counter-offer. If it's REALLY rare, and would be the backbone of a show that they're building, you could go higher. The fact that 2 different companies are sniffing around after it is a decently good sign.

Good luck! MeMail me if there's anything I can help you with.
posted by Spyder's Game at 12:08 PM on May 7