Evaluating Art Licenses: How to Tell if You Have a Good Deal

In a recent discussion on the LinkedIn group “Art of Licensing,” an artist asked group members to evaluate whether an agent had offered her a “good deal” based on the percentages of compensation. Artists and agents, alike, chimed in with their thoughts on the percentages and what makes for good representation in the art licensing field. As I followed the discussion, I thought about the questions that clients frequently ask me about proposed contracts and what questions they ought to be asking. In this post, I will focus on licensing agreements rather than representation agreements, although some of the issues certainly overlap.