Value of Exclusive Content
 

I've got a deal going through where I'm purchasing quite a bit of exclusive content, but the photographers are offering, fairly adamantly, only 1 year full-exclusive rights after which they will also have full rights to the content for publication, resell, whatever.

I've only dealt with permanent exclusive rights before, so I'm curious how much, if at all, this degrades the value of the content. Any thoughts?

This is an open question, it can be anything.
After a year will he sell it to 3 people or 500.
WIll it be all over the tgps or just paysites etc etc.

So your content will be worth after a year somewhere between $0 and $5000 (dunno how much you bought)

I haven't bought it yet...still in negotiations, but he SAYS he just wants to use it as part of his online portfolio with possibly occassional sales.

Another factor is the content is about 4-5 years old, although it's never been distributed and is good quality (probably scanned from 35mm) with all releases/ids in order. Some non-exclusive sets have been sold only a couple times in the last year and a half, which gives you some idea of how his marketing skills are. Therefore, I feel pretty comfortable that the pictures would remain minimally distributed even after that 1 year period, but I couldn't actually rely on that.

Hi, I think you're getting yourself ripped off...

Here's why: I shoot exclusive content all the time and in the rights release doc I've stated that I will be able to use select photos/videos as reference to future customers provided every photo/video is explicitly designated as "Property of Buyer, Produced by NicheFetish.com"

No client has a problem with that. However, it is evident from what you've stated that the content provider will be able to resell the content in 1 year - not just show it to potential customers. Again it will depend on the discount that you're getting from him. If you're paying close to 100% of the production costs, insist on a life-time exclusivity.

That's my :2 cents:

I have exclusive content shot all the time and exclusive means exclusive noone else at any time can use it.

And to answer your question, YES not being the only one with content will mean a decrease in sales, how much of a decrease depends on how much it gets out there.

Thanks for you input. I agree, but the deal isn't too bad. It boils down to about $0.12/pic in bulk with half the pics at the 1-year exclusive deal and the rest is non-exclusive but with unrestricted rights. I'm still negotiating for permanent exclusive rights...

If it is shot on film it was shot for magazines. Most of them buy "Non-Exclusive Internet" rights as part of their purchase contract. They pay $500 to $5,000 for a set and you can sell it 1-5 times to magazines. Assuming it is any good.

If it was sold to magazines, it is very likely it's already on the net. You need to get exactly in writing what this content has been sold for and where before you buy.

Then you need to think if it's worth it to have it for one year, "Semi-Exclusive" before he starts reselling it. You have to think this is what he will be doing and if he's hard up for cash in 1 year he may give it to J$tyle$ for him to do a content blowout.

How much is he charging and for what is the bottom line.

Thanks and I agree. What I'm envisioning is not necessarily keeping this for ongoing resale, but transferring the rights to a paysite at a very competitive price. How long before the content gets old and in need of replacing on a paysite anyway? I guess that's the rationale I see in placing any real value on the content above non-exclusive.

I've got it in informal writing and will create a very formal purchasing order/contract that explicitly states the terms. The content has only been up for sale on one website (and nowhere offline), and I have been admitted in to see every sales log since the site's creation. So assuming all that is true, then I know exactly the distribution of the content and it is very minimal at best. Only the content that has never been sold can be part of the exclusive deal.

It boils down to $0.12/pic in bulk, but only half the pics are included in the exclusive deal.

I'm not an expert at content blow-outs since we shoot exclusive only but $0.12 per pic seems like an exceptionally good offer so any risks associated with the 1 year term are actually already included in the price.

Best of luck with sale :)

Thanks, Kraz. That's kind of what I was thinking. The guy tried selling content, but I guess either didn't have time or the knowledge to promote it, so he's completely closing shop...only the photographer's personal websites are going to be maintained and have use of the pics after a year.

that is a hit and a miss , sure some say it will be worth less and yes so if you go to sell the site ,
but i would hope that after a year that content is way in the back of a site for all the updating you have been doing .
We shoot exclusive and we have many sites as well .
but again we do one to two updates a week so in a years time there will be no less then 54 sets in front of that stuff and as many as 100 more sets . SO to me this is a two fold matter .
just my :2 cents: :2 cents: