Many stock companies refer to themselves as libraries because, like a library, they carry a broad array of materials that tries to satisfy a wide range of tastes and needs.

Licensed Not Sold - With stock media, what you are really buying is a license that gives you permission to use the material you're interested in.

Once you have a license you don't in fact own the material. It is still owned by the stock company. They remain the copyright holders. Your license lets you legally use the material in your production.

There are two main types of stock licenses.

1. Rights Managed

The price of a rights managed license depends on how you wish to use the media you're interested in.

For instance, is it going to be used in a national advertising campaign or is it for your company brochure? Is it being considered for a PowerPoint presentation or is it going to be used in a motion picture? Each usage has a different price.

A rights managed license also takes into consideration how long you will use the media. Periods usually range from 3 months to several years.

If you are going to include the material in a product, your license will be based on how many pieces you plan to manufacture.

With a right managed license, at the end of the license period, you no longer have permission to use the media. Your relationship with the company ends (unless you extend your license).

2. Royalty Free

Royalty free means you are not charged a fee for each separate commercial use of the media. You can use the material as often as you'd like for as long as you'd like. You pay an initial fee for the license and are then free and clear of any further licensing restraints.

A rights managed license is more expensive Why? Because when you license, for instance, a rights managed photo, the stock company removes the photo from circulation for the period of your license.  No one else can use it.

This is the main advantage a rights-managed license provides.  It protects against simultaneous use - so your competitor won't be using the same photo as you to launch their ad campaign. When you use royalty free content, there is no such protection.  The same photo or music track may be being used by hundreds of companies at the same time.

The question to ask is'is this important to me?  Do I care if another company is using this image or this particular web template?  If you do, then you will want to pursue a rights managed solution.   If, on the other hand, it really doesn't matter to you, then you'll want to take a serious look at royalty free media because it is so much cheaper.

Stock by any other name - Rights managed recordings are known as "needle-drops" in the stock music world. This name came from the act of actually lowering a phonograph needle onto a record to place the music in a production. Now with compact discs, they've started calling it "laser-drop". I find "rights managed" to be a much better description.

Royalty free is sometimes called "buy out". I've also seen it referred to as "copyright-free" but this is really an error. The material is in fact fully copyrighted by the stock media company. UniqueTracks is a royalty free stock music company.