The internet is very much a visual medium. When customers are browsing automotive websites, be it a car review site or dealership listing, they expect to see high-quality car pictures—and a lot of them. This ever-growing need for visuals can make royalty free car images seem like the most desirable assets out there. But for most automotive businesses, royalty free car images aren’t the best option.
Royalty Free Images Aren’t Free
Many people mistakenly believe that “royalty free” means, well, “free”. But that is far from the case. Although almost every major photo licensing business advertises royalty free images, there are actually three types of image licensing agreements that allow for repeated use of an image—only one of which is technically royalty free:
Royalty Free Licensing: With true royalty free licensing, an image can be licensed after a one-time flat fee and the licenser can use the image into perpetuity. The disadvantage for business is that these photos are non-exclusive—anyone can pay the fee and use the same photo—and there are often limits on how they can be used.
Rights Managed Licensing: With rights managed licensing, the licensee pays a one time fee to use the image, but the sizes, formats, number of times, or the length of time the photo can be used is restricted by the terms of the license. Exclusive rights to use an image may be negotiated, as can a wider range of uses.
Extended Licensing: A licensing agreement that falls somewhere in between royalty free, and rights managed is extended licensing. Like in a royalty free model, images that fall under an extended license can be used by multiple licensees and can be used an unlimited number of times. However, extended licensing can also allow for more usage types and long-term image use.
The reason that all three license types are commonly called royalty free images is partially that, in many cases, the differences between the license types doesn’t matter—the licenser is never going to exceed the number of uses for an image or present an image in a way that violates the licensing agreement. For businesses, however, these differences can be significant.
The Difference Between Commercial and Editorial Image Licensing
Almost all image licensing types make a distinction between editorial and commercial use. Critically, images under an editorial license cannot be used for commercial purposes; they can’t be used to advertise or promote a product or services, modified and incorporated into a graphic design, or sold on merchandise. Automotive images of this sort can work to illustrate car reviews or accompany editorial articles on an automotive blog, but their use for most businesses is limited.
Commercial licenses are the standard licenses for most royalty free images, but not all commercial licenses are the same. Generally, a commercial license will allow you to use an image for sales or marketing purposes. However, not all uses may be covered. For example, if the image is part of a product that is being sold—such as an app that uses stock images in its interface—a standard commercial license isn’t going to cut it. Instead, the app maker needs to negotiate for this use before paying the initial fee to license the image. In other words, they need an extended license that covers a comprehensive range of uses.
Complicating matters further is that most stock photo sites that offer royalty free car images don’t own the images in their libraries; they only facilitate the licensing of the images while the ownership rights remain with the original creator. The royalty free car images they offer are a mix of editorial and commercially licensable images, which means the licensee has to verify that each individual image on the site is available with an appropriate license type. Other legal caveats may also apply, such as whether the image is taken in front of a landmark or if a model is photographed along with the car. These variables can make building a website, creating an advertising campaign, or designing a product with royalty free stock images a time-consuming task fraught with potential legal peril.
The Limits of Royalty Free Car Images
While the legalities of using royalty free car images can limit their use for automotive businesses, there’s also another reason these assets may not be the best choice: lack of quality and specificity. Most royalty free stock libraries have plenty of car images, but few have the right car images. That’s because the majority of the photos shown in general stock databases were never taken with the needs of the automotive industry in mind. Images of a 5-year-old car against a majestic landscape, a model in a barely-visible driver’s seat, or a generic vehicle in traffic are useless to a dealership creating car listings, a journalist reviewing a new vehicle, or a rental agency wanting to showcase their inventory.
What most businesses need are photos that were specifically taken to provide a detailed look at a vehicle and its features. To find these photos, dealerships, car rental agencies, and others in the automotive industry should look to a specialized automotive stock library that ensures the vehicle is at the forefront of their images. These libraries can also help businesses avoid complex legalities by offering extended licenses designed to meet their unique needs.
Finding the Right Partner for Your Image Needs
Stock libraries that specialize in complete automotive imaging solutions offer a powerful and innovative way to integrate high-quality assets into business websites, products, and marketing strategies. Unlike standard stock libraries, they offer:
Unmatched breadth of images. Businesses can find a comprehensive range of makes and models, with coverage going back decades.
Depth of coverage for each model. Specialized stock libraries focus on documenting every detail of a vehicle inside and out, ensuring that the businesses have the images they need.
Consistent high quality. The studio-quality car photos offered by automotive stock libraries maintain true-to-life colors and consistent lighting and angles across shots and models, creating a cohesive aesthetic.
Significantly, the assets within these libraries are available with extended licenses designed for commercial use in the auto industry, which means that businesses have the flexibility to use the images in a way that makes sense for them.
Car stock images created by automotive imaging specialists and offered with extended licenses support businesses more effectively and with less potential for legal complications than royalty free images. With these high-quality assets, businesses have the resources they need to lead the way in the evolving landscape of the automotive industry.
DRIVING INNOVATION IN AUTOMOTIVE IMAGERY
The EVOX Images database features the most innovative packages of interior and exterior stills, 360º vehicle imagery, and VR experiences. At more than a million images strong, our team consistently raises the bar on industry standards, and offers an unmatched delivery schedule.
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