Rights Managed or Royalty Free?

[Contemporary Dave]

I'm a newcomer to stock photography and I currently have a library of around 370 images on Alamy and I have made only one sale in the last 3 months. I know I have to add a hell of a lot more images before it starts to work for me. Most of my images are for sale as rights managed (upon recommendation from an experienced Alamy user). I also have about 250 images on Shutterstock (which I believe are royalty free) and I've made around 30 sales.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if I have done the right thing by selling my images as rights managed. Do images sell better if they are marked as royalty free, or does it not really matter - as its all down the content and quality of your images?

[geogphotos]

51 minutes ago, Contemporary Dave said:

I'm a newcomer to stock photography and I currently have a library of around 370 images on Alamy and I have made only one sale in the last 3 months. I know I have to add a hell of a lot more images before it starts to work for me. Most of my images are for sale as rights managed (upon recommendation from an experienced Alamy user). I also have about 250 images on Shutterstock (which I believe are royalty free) and I've made around 30 sales.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if I have done the right thing by selling my images as rights managed. Do images sell better if they are marked as royalty free, or does it not really matter - as its all down the content and quality of your images?

 

 

You are comparing chalk and cheese. 30 sales on micro stock is what that business model is about - low fees, high volume. 

 

One sale in 3 months on Alamy is good going with only 370 images. I really do not think that you could expect much better than that whatever licence you use. 

 

Since you asked about opinions. I am 100% RM. 

Edited May 14, 2020 by geogphotos

[Steve F]

Ditto rights managed. But Alamy often seem to sell a hybrid type of RM/RF license these days so I'm not sure the distinction is as important as it used to be.

[M.Chapman]

Almost entirely RM for me. Main reasons are that RM provides helpful info about the licence details of any sales which helps me when  filing my DACS claim or identifying infringements.

 

Mark

[Betty LaRue]

I’m about two thirds or three fourths RM, the rest RF. So of course in keeping with the ratio, most sales are of my RMs.  Yet I just made a very nice sale of one of my RFs for $240.
I generally list some common subjects like a flower or tree and other things as RF. But I’ll also have some of the same subject, different shoot as RM. That gives the buyer choices. For instance, I may have several House Finch birds listed RM, and several RF. But I don’t mix license types from the same shoot, Alamy doesn’t like that, or didn’t used to.

Anything I feel is exceptionally nice, or is of something not easily duplicated by someone else, or the subject is rare, or there is nothing else like it, is listed RM, no matter the subject.

Betty