Likeness licensing guide
How to License Your Likeness to Brands
Brands and studios increasingly want to put your face, voice, or mannerisms into AI-generated content. Here's what actually happens, in plain terms, when you license your likeness through Pitchfork's LikenessDNA™ system — not a sales pitch, just how the mechanics work.
What "licensing your likeness" actually means
It's not the same thing as a sponsored post or a photo pulled from your feed. Licensing your likeness means granting a brand a scoped legal right to use your face, voice, and mannerisms — for a specific use, a specific length of time, in exchange for a specific price you set. LikenessDNA™ is the system Pitchfork built to make that scope explicit and enforceable instead of implied.
Do you lose ownership? No.
A license is a rental, not a sale. You keep your underlying rights to your own face and voice. What a brand receives is permission to use them for the usage type, duration, and exclusivity you agreed to — nothing beyond that, and nothing forever unless you specifically license it as perpetual. When the license term ends, the rights you granted end with it.
Is it actually legal for a brand to put my face in an AI ad?
Only with your documented, informed consent — which is exactly the gap LikenessDNA™ closes. Before your likeness can be licensed on Pitchfork, you explicitly confirm you own the rights to the content, that brands will be able to generate AI content using your likeness only within the terms you set, and that you've read and agreed to the LikenessDNA™ terms. That consent, and every signed license after it, is timestamped and stored — that's the Pitchfork Protect™ paper trail.
How you set your own terms
You control four things for every license: the usage type, the duration, whether it's exclusive, and your minimum price. Pitchfork enforces per-usage-type price floors so a brand can't lowball a use case that's worth more than a quick social post:
- Social Media Campaign — from $500, typically licensed for 30 days
- Digital Advertising — from $2,500, typically licensed for 90 days
- Video Game Character — from $7,500, typically licensed for 1 year
- Film & TV Production — from $10,000, typically licensed for 1 year
- Perpetual Commercial Use — from $25,000
- Full Buyout — from $50,000
Those are floors, not fixed prices — you can price above them, and any duration from 30 days up to perpetual is available regardless of usage type. You can also block entire categories outright (alcohol, tobacco, adult content, political campaigns, gambling, pharmaceuticals, legal services, and financial products are all one-click blockable) so those requests never reach you at all.
What you actually get paid
Pitchfork takes a platform fee out of every closed license, and the rate depends on your subscription tier — the same rate that applies to every other deal you close on Pitchfork, not a separate licensing-only number. You see the exact split before you activate:
- Free tier — Pitchfork keeps 45%, you keep 55%
- Creator Pro — Pitchfork keeps 17%, you keep 83%
- Creator Elite — Pitchfork keeps 12%, you keep 88%
- Agency accounts — Pitchfork keeps 15%, you keep 85%
That fee is deducted automatically at the moment a brand pays — funds move directly from the brand's card to your connected Stripe account via Stripe Connect, minus Pitchfork's cut. There's no separate step where you have to request a payout.
Step by step: how a license actually closes
- A brand picks a usage type, duration, and proposed price — it has to meet your minimum for that usage type or the request can't go through.
- Pitchfork generates the license agreement and both sides e-sign it inside Pitchfork Protect™. That signed agreement is the paper trail.
- Once both signatures are in, payment opens up. The brand pays, and funds route to your Stripe account via Stripe Connect, minus the platform fee for your tier.
- The license goes active once payment clears.
For anything over $10,000, Pitchfork recommends a Rush NDA attorney review (a paid add-on, currently $449) before either side signs — the license is legally binding once it's e-signed, and that's cheap insurance on a five-figure deal.
If a brand uses your likeness outside the agreed terms
The e-signed, timestamped license from Pitchfork Protect™ is your documentation of exactly what was authorized — usage type, duration, exclusivity, everything. If a brand you already have a license with steps outside those terms, that's a Deal Desk matter: request a review on the deal, or bring in attorney review for anything with real money on the line. The public infringement-report form is a separate channel, reserved for third parties who are not already a party to a Pitchfork deal.
Licensing is one way to earn on Pitchfork. For the mechanics of getting paid once a deal is agreed — escrow, fees, and what happens if a brand ghosts you — see how creators actually get paid for brand deals.
Set your own terms
Pitchfork's LikenessDNA™ puts pricing floors, blocked categories, and a signed paper trail behind every license you close — you set the terms, not the brand.