Getty Images trying to reinvent the commercial music licensing business

Getty Images trying to reinvent the commercial music licensing business

Getty Images is primarily known for their catalog of pre-cleared digital stock photos. The company is now trying to reinvent the commercial music licensing business.

Getty Images charges a flat rate for the images they sell and the customers are free to browse, preview and buy the images from their website without making any phone calls.

The company recently acquired Pump Audio which operates an online music licensing business. Getty is now planning to apply their own model to music licensing for ads, TV shows and movies.

Pump Audio has an catalog of about 700,000 tracks most of which consists of content generated by independent and unsigned artists.

Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein added that they are also planning to expand the licensing business to include content from major labels and mainstream acts.

Klein said in a statement: “Everyone always focuses on the grand slam, but that’s not a sustainable way to build an industry. There’s a focus on licensing a tiny percentage of the catalog in a very complex way with prices in the stratosphere that have no basis in reality to a small number of people … We want to simplify the process.”