With millions of high quality choices in the market, why do you need to purchase images for commercial use? For starters, most royalty-free images can be used commercially. The standard or basic license that comes with them allows you to use the images in advertising, marketing and other promotional materials. However, an Extended License is required if you wish to print over 300,000 copies or create your own merchandise for resale.
While you can download free images from Google, they simply do not have the right license to protect you against copyright infringement. This means you are risking your money and your reputation for trying to save a few bucks. Licensing images for commercial use, on the other hand, comes with perpetual usage rights that allow you to use the images in any project for as long as you wish. Get an Extended License, and you get to enjoy more benefits.
When do you need an Extended License?
- You intend to distribute more than the intended limit of copies.
- You want to use the photo in designs that will be sold for profit.
An Extended License is like an upgraded version of the standard license. It extends the usage rights you get with the latter, while removing certain limitations and adding other very useful rights. It is also a one-time fee model, so you can use the image multiple times without additional costs.
When you purchase photos for commercial use with an Extended License, you can legally use them into products to be sold repeatedly to multiple clients. You don’t have to worry about production runs either because the image can be used in unlimited reproductions.
What is the best source of buying images for commercial use?
iStock offers millions of high quality stock photos for commercial use. Curated in two collections, you can get them with subscriptions or credit packs. However, the Extended License is available on-demand with credits only. Every image with this license is priced at 18 credits. Depending on the pack you buy, this will cost you between $144 and $170.
Shutterstock boasts the largest stock photo collection in the market with over 100 million images. Extended License, known as Enhanced, is available on-demand starting at 2 images for $199. Of course, the larger pack you buy means the bigger your savings. Depending on how many you want to buy, Shutterstock images for commercial use will cost you between $68 and $99.50 each.
Stock Photo Secrets offers, by far, the cheapest deals in the market at $80 regular price per Extended License image. Customers with an active subscription at the stock site gets to enjoy 50% discount, allowing them to purchase stock photos for commercial use for as low as $40 each – a fraction of the price from other established stock sites. Depending on the size of the image pack, you can purchase images between $22 and $60 each.
Among the three reputable stock photo sites, the best place to buy stock photos for commercial use is Stock Photo Secrets. SPS offers handpicked premium images for very affordable prices. For small and mid-sized businesses, this is the perfect Extended License source.