What's the size of the global type market?

[thierry blancpain]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

I've been wondering recently, what's the amount of revenue of the global type (fonts) market each year?

This figure would include the revenue of all the indie foundries, of the large players like Monotype, and of resellers like FontShop and MyFonts, webfont services like Typekit, but exclude type-related software products like FontLab or Linotype FontExplorer X. Basically all the revenue that is generated directly through font files.

What's your guess?

[hrant]

I don't guess. But I am listening.

hhp

[Stephen Coles]

You can get a big chunk of this by looking at the public earnings statements of Monotype and Bitstream (who formerly owned MyFonts).

[thierry blancpain]

Monotype's 2011 annual report states they had creative professionals revenue* of roughly $31,556,000.

Now the question is, how much of a market share does MT have in this area? A lot of their sales (and growth in creative professionals revenue) is from non-web, direct to corporate customer sales. I take they own a very large share of that market, but am unsure about the web retail market. Given that they own fonts.com, this will also be a decent chunk. But Myfonts.com is of course not yet on their balance, given they only acquired it in 2012.

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* "We derive revenue from two principal sources: licensing our text imaging solutions to CE device manufacturers and independent software vendors, which we refer to as our OEM revenue, and licensing our fonts to creative and business professionals, which we refer to as our Creative Professional revenue."

MT's 2011 Annual Report is available on their corporate website.
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[thierry blancpain]

The question really is, how big a chunk of the market does MT own?

Also, Bitstreams' revenue is around 13m: "For the full year 2012, Monotype Imaging expects Bitstream's font business to contribute approximately $13.0 million to $14.0 million in revenue"

(From http://ir.monotypeimaging.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=658188)

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This adds up to 45m+ for what MT will probably have in terms of fonts revenue in 2012. Do they own more than 80% of the market?

[Si_Daniels]

>The question really is, how big a chunk of the market does MT own?

I'd guess about 150%

[Christopher Dean]

.

[thierry blancpain]

I've been thinking about this some more. While MT will earn a lot through royalties themselves, a lot of that revenue will also be their fees for selling through their sales channels. While at first I thought MT had something like 80% of the market, I'm now thinking that it could be more around 60%, especially if custom type projects for large clients are part of the mix – those can have quite the price tag.

What do you think? Will anybody talk about this openly?

[Stephen Coles]

I don't see a reason why anyone would talk about their earnings openly unless it was beneficial to them or the industry in some way. Something like the AIGA Salary Survey, perhaps.

[oldnick]

Okay: I suppose that I can break the ice.

Gross revenue on my fonts from all sources for 2011 was just north of $100,000, my second-best year so far. Of that amount, various sales agents collect from 35% to 82% of the gross amount. I launched a new product in February, which is on track to add another $40,000 gross to the total, half of which will accrue to me.

[5star]

82% really?

WTF!

n.

[oldnick]

No, not WTF: ITC.

[J.Montalbano]

Oh boy, those 20% ITC royalties. Don't ya just love'em. They and FontHaus, early in my career, are two of the reasons I go it alone. And without revealing too much, I have to say that my gross figures are larger than oldnick and I get to keep it all! Independence!!

[Si_Daniels]

>I have to say that my gross figures are larger than oldnick and I get to keep it all!

Does the tax man know? He does now :-)

[J.Montalbano]

Of course the tax man knows. I'm not pulling a Studio 54.

[Nick Shinn]

I get to keep it all!

Nonetheless, I think you’d come out even further ahead if you also sold through distributors. They reach a great many customers who have never heard of Terminal. Font Bureau and Emigre, two of the oldest digital foundries, were slow to adopt the distributor route; I doubt they have any regrets.

IMO, the only downside is the time it takes managing one’s dealings with distributors, which are becoming increasingly complex. Especially as they all want to do things differently, from ad sizes to webfont formats.

[thierry blancpain]

Yeah, I didn't expect single foundries divulging their foundries' revenue, but taking more educated guesses at what percentage of the market MT owns nowadays. I for example have absolutely no idea about the revenues of orgs like Adobe Type, FontShop, FontFont, Emigre, etc. – so hearing any kinds of numbers puts everything into perspective and allows for a better overall picture.

Thanks to those who've already talked openly about their revenues! I'll try to take out some time next week to put together a rough calculation based on the publicly available numbers – will also try to find Adobe's numbers.

[oldnick]

James,

It’s good to hear that fonts have been berry, berry good to you, and that hard work and dedication pay off. As for me, a reasonable balance of indolence and time spent doing something that interests me while earning more that I would in a regular day job is A-OK. Plus, my partner in my latest venture has suggested slicing and dicing my latest package for resale in the App Store, so I might have to revise my numbers upward a bit.

As Bucky Katt says, “At the end of the day, it’s all 24/7.”

[daverowland]

Without suggesting anyone reveal their actual incomes, would anyone care to share the percentages of their income (after royalties) from various distributors? I'm in the process of signing up with Fontspring and have also been offered a contract with Monotype (since the MyFonts takeover) to list through linotype and fonts.com.
I'm interested to know whether, given the reduced royalty rate from Monotype, the extra exposure (if there is any) is worth the effort. While Fontspring use the same size promotional graphics as MyFonts, for Monotype I'd have to make new ones in different sizes, which is something of a hassle if the numbers don't add up!

To get the ball rolling, I'll start:
Income from font distributors:
MyFonts 100%
;)

[J.Montalbano]

Oldnick,

I wasn't comparing our gross sales as a point of competition, just as a point of reference that you graciously provided. I agree that making fonts for a living is better than working most jobs. Good luck with the App thing.

[hrant]

I think you’d come out even further ahead

In fact James is in an ideal position to test the relative viability of a distributor versus going it alone. I think Jackson Cavanaugh* might be trying something just like that, since he's on MyFonts but his latest release is only available directly.

* http://okaytype.com

hhp

[daverowland]

I guess after he's sold it to everyone who knows their stuff and would buy from him direct, he'll put it on MyFonts for a 'second wind' of sales. Makes good sense to list exclusively first (100% royalties!) then with distributors later as sales dry up a bit.

[Dunwich Type]

I'm interested to know whether, given the reduced royalty rate from Monotype, the extra exposure (if there is any) is worth the effort.

I intentionally never signed with Monotype because I did not want to be associated with that company. Unfortunately I was rolled in when they bought another vendor. I sell almost nothing through Fonts.com relative to MyFonts and Fontspring. Monotype really is not going to do anything for you that Fontspring doesn’t, so there’s no good reason to accept their low royalty rates or risk them getting a OEM sale that you might have picked up directly had your work not been listed with them. Tell them to match Fontspring or take a hike.

[hrant]

The thing is Dave that fonts -especially display fonts- are subject to fashion (including going out of fashion through over-use) so a font that sells very well at a given time probably won't sell nearly as well later on.

hhp

[daverowland]

a font that sells very well at a given time probably won't sell nearly as well later on.

A good reason to stagger releases through separate distributors then.