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What to charge for a license

FlyingDutchman90

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Hello everyone,

A real estate company wrote to me that they would like to licence one of my drone videos and use the footage on their new website. They ask me how much I would charge for my footage and I honestly have no idea what is reasonable.
Does anyone has an idea what would be a reasonable offer from my side? We are talking about just a few minutes of raw footage.

Thank you very much in advance!
 
It's really up to you but since you already shot the footage without any expectations, I wouldn't go too high. Just make sure they credit you on the video which may add to further jobs down the line.
 
Make sure your country allows selling videos without being a commercial pilot. In US you would need a 107 license to accept payments. Giving pics and vids away is OK for consumer pilots. Good luck.
 
I would ask then how much they are willing to pay...if they have no idea I would ask if a hundred dollars and to be given credit in the title would be acceptable...if not then see if they would just give the credit....you could get work from it...HOWEVER ...since ,as pointed out already, the original flight was purely recreational, you would be within the regs...if you were to strike a deal for future work...whether directly through the original "customer" or from someone who does catch your information in the credits, it would be considered to be other than recreational and require that you earn the 107 credentials....Good luck with it
 
Correct.
Intent of the flight is paramount.
Thank you for that info but don't understand how intent can be determined. Seems any pilot could claim that excuse to accept payments, without being commercial. I gave my storm photos to the TIMES instead of payment, guess I shoulda taken the money.
 
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I agree....but if someone does it once ...it is plausible that the footage was incidental to a recreational flight...more than one time would make that questionable to me.....if anyone wants to record for money...just study and take the test for 107...it's not so hard and once you do obtain it, it does not cost anything to keep it current
 
Thank you all very much. Indeed, the intent of the flight was recreational and its a one time deal with this company. Also dont have the intent to sell footage on a regular basis.

I will ask 100 euros and to be credited and i will see if they agree.
 
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I've sold some footage and just looked up rates for the uncommon, non-repeatable stuff it was used in a documentary, at the time it was $1800 for 45 seconds. They paid, then came back for another 20 seconds.

Obviously depends on what it is, if they can send any drone pilot to take the same shot then you'll have to go with what someone would charge for a generic shoot in your area, maybe a tad higher since taking what already exists saves them some work. If it's like a building under construction and they want construction footage but construction's finished now then it's not possible to get footage of the half-built thing anymore, etc.

Funny thing is I got sick after shooting that in freezing cold temps, it was the only time getting sick was worth it 😆
 
Last edited:
Hello everyone,

A real estate company wrote to me that they would like to licence one of my drone videos and use the footage on their new website. They ask me how much I would charge for my footage and I honestly have no idea what is reasonable.
Does anyone has an idea what would be a reasonable offer from my side? We are talking about just a few minutes of raw footage.

Thank you very much in advance!
Are you asking about a commercial price or one where they will invite you back to do other work for them? It’s a huge difference! You could leverage this into a beneficial business partnership. Personally, I would offer it to them under a limited use license that allows them only to use it on their website and nowhere else. You decide the price, but I would offer it for free as an opening to maybe working as a commercial photographer for them. There are a lot of license agreement templates online for photographers to set these up. You can find one of those easily with google.

If you want to charge a single use commercial fee, web stock photo and video outlets like Alamy give you the ability to search for videos and see what different prices and licenses cost for them. Honestly, though if you go with one of those prices, they’ll probably not purchase it and won’t contact you anymore.

Edit: oh I see you already did your business now that I read the rest of the threads. Oh well, save this for next time.
 
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