Royalty-Free?

Okay so clearly the advertising-photo industry has changed. It continues to change. One aspect is royalty-free photography. This is touchy for most shooters and for some, they love this because they can submit mediocre outtakes (that would otherwise collect dust) for usage and make a few pennies off them. But at the expense of other photographers?
  
Recently, I had a huge stroller company contact me about a few shots of mine. They wanted to purchase five existing shots to use on collateral, in-store/pop, web and packaging for North America only. Unlimited use for 3 years. I gave them a price—a well-below average price of $5000 a shot. Now just to put things in perspective—I was paid $5000 for a single shot for 3 month regional usage on a billboard a couple years back by a much smaller company. 
  
So this giant company, making millions in sales annually, was shocked at the pricetag and decided to go with royalty-free shots for what, about 100 bucks a shot. Not great shots. Not exclusively theirs but cheap nonetheless. Just interesting. 

  
It's good to keep up with the continuous ebb and flow of this industry. Heather Morton is an art buyer with a great blog and an interesting perspective. Follow her.