Let Them Eat Cake

Is usage licensing dead? Not exactly. But the business it was built for doesn't really exist anymore. Print is all but gone. Social media now accounts for 80% (!) of ad spend in the US. Clients want the C word \[rhymes with shmontent] by the dump truck load and there are ten times as many people willing to shoot it. @asksternrep, a prominent photo rep with an excellent advice page, recently posted a follower’s question on her Instagram feed and the comment section got real spicy. Her advice to photographers losing bids over usage: be the best photographer you can be, and clients will pay for limited licensing. Will they though?  We try to unpack what actually happened to the commercial photography market, why work-for-hire is the real threat, and why "hold the line on licensing" is good advice for 5% of photographers all of the time, a few more photographers some of the time, but never all photographers all of the time.  *"Telling photographers to do better is an outdated answer to a structural shift in the industry."* **Links:** @asksternrep — Andrea Stern’s (generally) great advice resource on Instagram ASMP — American Society of Media Photographers **Find us:** Follow Jay on Instagram: @jayfram Follow Bill on Instagram and Threads: @sawalich Read Bill's newsletter, Art + Math: artandmath.substack.com Jay's photography: jayfram.com Bill's photography: sawalich.com Write to us: [jay@jayfram.com](mailto:jay@jayfram.com) / [bill@sawalich.com](mailto:bill@sawalich.com) Rate and review Continuous Agitation on Apple Podcasts — it actually helps.