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A CLASSICAL MUSIC ANALOGY
The difference between rights managed and royalty free is the difference between Beethoven and Palestrina.
It is the difference between “homophony” and “polyphony”.
It is profound and interesting and exciting. Beethoven is a rights managed kind of guy; Palestrina is a royalty-free kind of guy. Creatively.
A Story:
In the mid 16th Century at the Council of Trent, the Church decided that they did not like the direction music was going. It was “polyphonic”, meaning that in any piece of music there were many ( “poly” ) sounds ( “phonics” ) and melodies going on at the same time, interweaving, curling all around each other, and who the heck could make any sense of it, anyway? Music was supposed to be “uplifting” and simple enough for people to “get”, not all this “polyphonic” business.
They decreed that all music written for the Church should be “homophonic”: ONE theme, easily understandable, none of this multi-tasking. Perhaps the most famous piece of “homophonic” music would be written later by Beethoven in his fifth symphony: Da, da, da, daaaa..... da, da, da, daaaaa.... One basic theme, over and over, a million variations on that ONE melody.
In response to the Council of Trent, however, a fellow of some musical renown by the name of Palestrina declared that the problem was not that the music was polyphonic (many melodies all at the same time), but, rather, that the polyphony was being done badly. So he set about to prove that polyphony could not only be understandable and pleasant, but that, done well, it could be magnificent.
He produced the Missa Papae Marcelli which is one of the most sublimely beautiful examples of polyphonic music the planet has to offer. If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor and give it a listen. What he did was to take a great variety of melodies and “themes”, and, rather than having them crash into one another into an unintelligible cacophony, he found ways to have them support each other and enhance each other, working together to create effects that cannot be achieved except by “polyphony”.
What does all this have to do with photography?
Well, a lot of intrepid designers are using royalty-free pictures to create what is, in effect, visual polyphony. While rights managed pictures are being used, appropriately and well, as a “central, commanding theme” of the piece (the same way Beethoven used four simple notes, over and over, to create a magnificent, powerful symphony), royalty-free images have opened up the possibility (by virtue of their non budget-breaking availability) of creating multi-faceted, intricate and equally powerful “polyphonic” visual approaches: Lots and lots of images, intertwining visual “themes” interwoven in wondrous ways.
Look for it. More and more you'll see it being done. It's fun to watch, and we're delighted to be able to supply the images-- which are the “notes” that brilliant design minds are turning into symphonies.
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