I’m working on a bunch of book covers, and to that end, I’ve been working through Fiverr with a contractor in Bosnia. They use DepositPhotos for their business model, which allows commercial use for books with their standard image license up to 500K downloads (I should be good). The contractor has given me multiple templates that I can use while swapping out the cover page and changing the text. Easy peasy lemon squeezy and the work they did saved me a ton of time for not a lot of cash. Small investment, big savings.
But now that I have the templates and can play with the covers and titles, I want to find some cover photos. I can generate them through AI tools, and I may do that for some. For example, I’m looking for a cover image that would / could represent 1940s Big Band / Swing music. I don’t particularly want a specific group, like the Glenn Miller Orchestra, so much as I’d rather have a generic “look”. Kind of like if I was writing about the 1980s and 1990s, I want someone dressed in Madonna-inspired fashion, not Madonna herself. It’s the vibe, not the person.
The test: 1940s music, Big Band or Swing style performers
I have some criteria. First and foremost, I don’t REALLY want to pay for a subscription. I don’t have the volume or need over time; I have a short-term heavier need, but I could blast through and pull them all now. So I’m setting the test as 50 images at once. Second, ideally, it would be a simple flat-rate pay-as-you-go model without breaking the bank. Third, I need to be able to do book covers up to a certain level, without having to pay for the extended license. By contrast, I’m not looking too much for free stock photos. I’m willing to pay to get something better than I have from my AI generation.
I am going to focus on finding a photo to represent music from 1943-1949 or so. Not much was available, so I ran an option through AI production and got the following. It’s not perfect, more orchestra or 1950s than swing. But it could be a good option for illustrating a song like Five Guys Called Moe. 🙂 Anyway, that’s the threshold I’m trying to beat.
The results
| Site | Cost for 50 photos / 1 photo | Option for 1940s music | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 123RF | $535 / $10.07 | Almost nothing, just jazz images | Yawn |
| Adobe Stock | $502 / $10 | Interesting radio setups, nothing “band” like | Super expensive |
| Alamy | $614 / $12.28 | Old music posters, 1-2 images of actual big bands | Super expensive |
| Bigstock | $79 for one month / $1.58 | Brass/jazz or silhouette | Yawn |
| Creative Fabrica | ~$50 for a year / $1.00 | Almost nothing | Good for icons, etc. |
| Creative Market | xx / $10 | Cartoon versions | Meh |
| Deposit Photos | $158 / $3.14 | Animation, jazz, nothing realistic | Good for many things, not all |
| Dreamstime | $100 / $2.00 | Andrews sisters reenactment | Meh |
| Envato | $16.50 for a month / $0.33 | Very little, mostly recent | Great price if they have what you want |
| Freepik | $30 for a month / $0.60 | Almost nothing old | Meh |
| Getty Images | $15,000 / $300 | Great image of a woman soldier with a bugle | Ridiculously expensive |
| Gratisography | $0 / $0 | Some interesting ones of specific bands | Can’t beat price |
| iStock | $480 / ~$9.00 by credits $129 for a month / $2.58 | The woman soldier with a bugle is available but $36 (3 credits) | Lots of reports of scammy business practices when trying to cancel |
| Kaboompics | Free | Nada | Yawn |
| Pexels | Free | Some jazz | Yawn |
| PicJumbo | Free | Nada | Yawn |
| Pixabay | Free | Nada | Yawn |
| Shutterstock | $125 for a month / $2.50 | RAF swing band | Decent offerings |
| StockSnap | Free | Nada | Yawn |
| Stocksy United | Varies | Nada | Yawn |
| Storyblocks | Varies | Nada | Yawn |
| Unsplash | Varies | Nada | Huge overlap with Gettys |
Yeah, so that was mostly a bust.
What if I just google it, find an image and see where it is available?
I found lots of stuff, but none of it gave me any more options than I already had. I confess what I *really* want is the Andrew Sisters’ image from when they performed Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B). Somewhere around this part of the YouTube video:
Sigh. The cost of it is exorbitant though, as it perhaps should be. Official likenesses and such. Without it, I’ll stick with my relatively free AI image. I’ll play with some more AI options though, see if I can imitate the Andrews Sisters’ look and feel. Or I’ll just play that video again. Terrible camerawork in part, but well, it was Armed Forces productions I think.
Onward! At least I have a list of places to try for other options. But Deposit Photos isn’t bad in comparison.
