CD Cover

[Flowerpot]

Hi all,

Just after some advice on an email received from a Croatian band. They've seen a photo on my website (don't know which one yet!) and want to use it for a CD Album cover.

They've asked me how much I would charge for this, but I haven't a clue! Have never sold an image before!

I really know nothing about this group and have no idea of print run sizes or the quality of the image they need. I don't know their budget either.

I don't know what to charge, but I don't want to sell myself short and provide something for nothing.

I also need some info on how I go about retaining copyright of the image if I do indeed sell it.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Flowerpot x

[narlus]

how established are they? are they signed to a record label? if so, how large is the label?

[Flowerpot]

I have absolutely no idea. The person who emailed me had very poor english.

From what I can gather they are an "a capella" band from the city of Split in Croatia.

I don't think this is an album that we'll be seeing in HMV anytime soon!!

[Dream Merchant]

I would try to find out as much as I can about the band. Besides the record label and other details, get the band's name and their members names and do a search. If they are big in any sort of way, chances are they will appear in search resultss smewhere.

If not, ask them about how many pieces they intend to print and where/whgat is the extent of distribution. Of course, they can be upfront or they can lie, but that's a chance we all have to take sometimes if there's little or no publicity/background info on a group or if the group is small or obscure.

Go from there and by what industry standards are for the relative popularity of the group/print run and distribution and make sure a contract is in place protecting all your rights of owbership and future usage/sales. Just to give you a very very rough nballpark, in our country, for a one or two time limited print run, that could be anywhere from US$100 - $300 for a really small/unknown group to US$5,000 and up for a well known group. That rate goes up for regional or international distribution, or unlimited use.

Just be sure the check clears first before you release anything.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to be of more specific assistance Flowerpot.