How the shift from perpetual to term-based licensing can empower your business.
Staying up to date on changes within the type industry and pivoting your business accordingly is a vital part of running a successful foundry. We’ve seen many changes in technology over the years: from hand-set type to machine typesetting, and on to photo composition and digital type. As we stepped away from physical materials, the possibilities of distribution and licensing have been evolving at a rapid pace. And it’s our job to keep up!
Changing times & industry
The type industry is modernizing the way fonts are accessed, distributed, and licensed with solutions that are term-based. This is a fresh way of thinking about licensing for our industry, and we’re excited about its potential to both benefit foundries financially and improve users’ contemporary workflows.
We’ve shifted most of the licenses on MyFonts to be term-based, so that foundries are compensated for ongoing use, unlike the previous perpetual model. Our subscription ‘Monotype Fonts’ is another new approach intended to increase ongoing revenue and help solve challenges faced by font users. By making it easier to find and choose fonts, we hope more people see fonts as a crucial part of their creative workflows.
Market realities
How designers at large brands and advertising agencies use fonts today has evolved and it’s important to understand these changes as a type community. Many of these organizations are looking for more efficient ways for their teams to license fonts, finding it challenging to use individual fonts which may have different EULA terms, pricing, and lengths of contracts.
These clients need simplicity and ease of use for their designers. Monotype Fonts gives their teams access to high-quality type for experimenting, branding, and web design work all without getting tripped up by licensing restrictions or trial fonts. One way to get in front of these designers is by having your fonts on Monotype Fonts and visible to them for quick and easy selection.
Research-led change
To better understand users’ needs and challenges, we started with research. In February 2023, we surveyed 2,888 people in creative industries to understand their thoughts on fonts. We received fantastic input from users, which is directly driving our product development, strategy, and product innovations.
These respondents told us “access to high-quality fonts” was the most important factor, followed closely by the ability to create prototypes and spec designs with these fonts. Feedback from those surveyed helped us develop Monotype Fonts as a solution for dynamic and changing user needs.
A solution for large-scale design needs
We want to give your foundry the chance to be a part of these bigger deals — and that is where subscription licensing comes in. Since Monotype has invested in relationships with creative agencies and brands, there is potential for your fonts to be used on large scale projects and campaigns.
Monotype has large-scale deals with established brands and advertising agencies, due in part to our ability to help with their complicated and multi-faceted needs. These clients might not have the bandwidth to manage working with multiple foundries and purchasing font licenses for each unique campaign, seasonal email blast, or new product launch.
A common challenge we’ve seen for these larger clients is an individual creative purchasing a license once, and then passing files to multiple teammates (without the correct licensing), who can then keep the fonts and use them perpetually (without the designer ever being compensated for additional users!).
We solved for this issue in our subscription model by implementing tracking for when a font is activated by an organization and paying the designer for each activation. Tools like this help team managers understand what their teams are using and ensure proper licensing.
As we all can agree, fonts are valuable. We want to make sure you’re being compensated for the value you’re creating through your hard work. When your fonts are used, or even considered in mock-ups, we want you to get paid.
More space to focus on your work
Licensing digital typefaces has been tricky for years, and misuse or incorrect licensing can take an exorbitant amount of time to troubleshoot and resolve.
We have legal experts on staff that are proficient in the intellectual property of fonts ensuring you (and us) are indemnified from liability, etc. With any licensing model, there are certain challenges that can arise, from a customer using your font without the correct license (or any license!) to users failing to see the value and protectability of your intellectual property. Our dedicated global team offers personalized guidance and will even pursue infringement cases on your behalf, protecting the safety of your work.
Visibility and marketing are also critical components of a successful type foundry, and Monotype has teams of people dedicated to getting fonts in front of the right customers, including 350+ sales and support team members who are focused on selling your fonts.
We want to empower you to do what you do best: Create fonts and help brands express themselves in new ways. We aim to lighten the load of running a business by giving our Foundry Partners access to our robust sales and legal teams, along with resources like webinars and articles to help grow your brand. Being in partnership with Monotype means you have support in running your business, so you can keep making great fonts.