A Reddit user asked me how to request the use of someone’s work to use in their podcast. Essentially they wanted to know how to license someone’s work. I’ve been through this process myself, and I’ve been approached to provide my work to an organization. Anyway, I wrote up a detailed response for them and thought I’d share it with the AtL community and make sure I’m in the right. Let me know what you think about my explanation. Was it detailed enough? Did I miss anything? How have your license requests gone?
Can you give me an example of a piece of content you’ve wanted to use? Like, send me the link. If there was a photo online I wanted to use for my work, I’d try to find the attribution and copyright holder of that image. Sometimes that info is part of the image. If it’s not part of the image, the source might be dubious, as someone is using it without attribution. Regardless, the best way to find an image source is to run a reverse image search on Google. You’ll then either find the creator whom you can ping directly or find the service that’s hosting the image, like Reuters. Content creators are so used to just taking and using without permission because most people take video clips, which is generally acceptable because it doesn’t devalue the entire video; in fact, it can help inspire people to watch the whole video. But when what you’re selling is a single photo, using it for any purpose other than critique is copyright infringement.
For example, let’s say I wanted “a landscape photo of a valley at sunset,” so I Google it. Google images shows me tons of options, each one with an attributable website.
Let’s say I want to use this photo: https://dave-allen.pixels.com/featured/mountain-sunset-scenic-landscape-blue-ridge-parkway-north-carolina-photography-maggie-valley-dave-allen.html
I know the artist is Dave Allen, but the website I found the image on doesn’t provide me with their contact info. So now I need to do another search for Dave Allen, the photographer. The first site is https://daveallenphotography.com/. Great, now I can contact the photographer through their contact page: https://daveallenphotography.com/contact.php. I can ask them for the right to use their photo. They might know offhand what they will charge, or they might need more info from you. It might take them a little time to get you an exact quote, because they have to check with their lawyer and the market rate. Alternatively, if you do your homework ahead of time and know the market rate for a photo on a podcast of your size and volume, and the duration you’d like to use the image. You know the market rate for that kind of thing; you can come to the proposal with that information, and they might agree to it.
Once a rate and duration have been agreed upon, it’s just a matter of sending out a contract, having it signed by both parties, and you should be good to go. It will be essential to remember that after the agreed use period, you’ll have to renegotiate the use of the image, and rates may change. You could also agree to a lifetime-use contract or outright ownership, but that’s far more expensive. It’s a lot of work the first time, but it will get easier with time. You’ll be supporting the artists who make your program great, and most artists worth their salt will be very responsive to offers of money.
I hope that helps you.
