In the fast-moving world of influencer marketing, there’s one part of the process that remains consistently broken: usage rights.
Despite the growing sophistication of the creator economy, rights are still treated as a vague checkbox in contracts; misunderstood, mispriced, and misused. Brands often pay too much up front "just in case", while creators are left with little recourse when their content is repurposed beyond agreed terms.
At TrueRights, we’ve been working to solve this. Today, we’re excited to launch the TrueRights Calculator: a new tool that brings clarity, fairness, and accountability to the way rights are priced and negotiated in influencer marketing.
We built the Calculator in response to a very real problem. Over the past year, we’ve spoken to hundreds of creators, brands, agencies and lawyers, all of whom described the same issue: usage rights feel like a black box. Nobody really knows what they’re worth, and as a result, both sides lose.
Our data backs this up. Recent analysis from TrueRights found that on average, brands are overpaying by 69% for content they don’t use, while creators are undercharging by an average of 195% for content that drives real value. It’s a broken model. Rights are bought in bulk without a clear plan for use, or they’re added on as a flat rate fee that doesn’t reflect the actual value the content delivers. In some cases, they’re not discussed at all, leading to a free-for-all where creators’ work is reused without permission and brands risk reputational damage by stepping outside the lines.
The TrueRights Calculator is designed to fix this. Rather than guessing at what rights might be needed, or overbuying just to be safe, it allows brands and agencies to calculate the value of rights based on actual campaign performance. That means usage rights can now scale dynamically, with pricing that reflects how and where content is used, not just what was agreed in principle at the start. This also means greater transparency for creators around how their content is used in paid media, making it easier to track, understand, and ensure they’re fairly compensated when their work performs.
So how does it work? The TrueRights Calculator takes into account a range of variables that actually affect the value of usage rights; things like platform, geography, length of usage, type of content, and media format. But where it really changes the game is in factoring in performance. By using campaign-level data such as paid media spend or impressions delivered, the Calculator generates pricing that scales in line with how content is actually used. If a piece of content performs well and is pushed further in paid, the rights cost more. If it’s used lightly or not at all, they cost less. It’s dynamic, not fixed. And that means brands can scale content with confidence, while creators are fairly compensated for the value they create.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all template; it’s a flexible pricing engine built for the real-world complexities of modern content use. And crucially, it provides a clear logic behind every rights fee, helping both sides enter negotiations with greater clarity, consistency, and trust.
If you work in influencer marketing - as a brand, an agency or a creator - and you’ve ever felt that rights were the most confusing part of the process, we built this for you.
Unlock smarter usage rights pricing. Join our beta and try the calculator free today.
