Artists Rights Society

What Artists Rights Society does

Artists Rights Society (ARS), founded in 1987 and headquartered at 65 Bleecker Street in New York, is the premier copyright management and licensing agency for visual artists in the United States. The organization represents over 122,000 artists and estates worldwide, including iconic figures such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, Alexander Calder, Cindy Sherman, and Louise Bourgeois, and functions as the nexus between artists, museums, publishers, brands, and production companies requiring cleared rights.

ARS operates as a licensing intermediary, brokering agreements between artists (licensors) and commercial entities (licensees) across seven service modules: museums, galleries and auction houses; publishing and editorial; film, TV and live performance; merchandise and brand collaborations; advertising; special projects and activations; and artist membership and representation. Revenue is generated exclusively through licensing fees and royalty collection on a per-transaction basis, with credit card payments accepted for invoices up to $3,000 and check/ACH required above that threshold; specific fee tiers are not publicly disclosed and appear negotiated per project. The company distributes services entirely through direct channels — website contact forms, email, phone, and relationship-based outreach — with no resellers or intermediaries. Its technology stack is minimal: a public-facing website with member search and licensing request forms, an active Instagram presence, and email newsletter distribution, with no app, API, or SDK offerings.

Beyond licensing, ARS pursues a sustained advocacy agenda — supporting copyright extension, the ART Act for resale royalties, and AI training data transparency legislation — and is a member of CISAC and a collaborator with the Copyright Alliance and Fairly Trained. Founded by Theodore Feder, who remains President, the company operates with a small team (11–50 employees) and has no disclosed external investors, funding rounds, or parent company.

Name

Artists Rights Society

Legal name

Artists Rights Society

Website

https://arsny.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Artists Rights Society (ARS), founded in 1987 and headquartered in New York, is a copyright management organization that represents over 122,000 visual artists and estates and licenses their artwork to museums, publishers, brands, and film/TV productions in exchange for royalties.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Art Licensing and Copyright Management

NAICS

Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures (711410), Lessors of Nonfinancial Intangible Assets (except Copyrighted Works) (533)

SIC

Patent Owners & Lessors (6794)

akta.pro primary industry

Creator Licensing & Rights Monetization (UGC Licensing, Music/Video Rights) (MPACAFAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Royalty Accounting & Payment Services (Statements, Audits, Payee Management) (MPAIABAL), Contracting, Licensing & Rights Management (Music/Performance Releases) (HSACAHAM)

Keywords

• Art licensing services
• Copyright management
• Visual artist representation
• Royalty collection
• Intellectual property licensing

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Art Licensing and Royalty Management: ARS represents artists and estates, licensing their artwork to commercial entities (brands, publishers, museums, etc.) in exchange for royalty payments or licensing fees. The company acts as an intermediary managing copyright permissions and collecting royalties on behalf of represented artists.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Artists Rights Society (ARS) is a copyright management organization that represents over 122,000 visual artists and estates, licensing their artwork to commercial entities (brands, publishers, museums, film/TV producers, advertisers) in exchange for royalty payments and licensing fees. ARS serves as the intermediary between licensors and licensees, negotiating agreements, granting permissions, monitoring usage, and collecting and distributing royalties.

Product overview

Artists Rights Society (ARS) operates as a premier art licensing agency offering a unified platform for managing artwork rights and permissions. The core offering is its licensing services, which facilitate legal agreements between artists (licensors) and commercial entities (licensees). The service portfolio spans multiple licensing categories including Museums, Galleries & Auction Houses, Publishing & Editorial, Film/TV/Live Performance, Merchandise & Brand Collaborations, Advertising, and Special Projects. Additionally, ARS provides artist membership and representation services, representing over 122,000 artists and estates globally. The company also facilitates brand collaborations that merge artistic vision with commercial products, and engages in advocacy efforts to protect artists' intellectual property rights, particularly regarding AI and digital reproduction issues.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Art Licensing Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 122,000 artists and estates represented globally
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Copyright AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerARS co-drafted comments with the Copyright Alliance in response to the US Copyright Office's notice of inquiry on AI. The Copyright Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest and educational organization dedicated to advocating policies that promote and preserve the value of copyright.
• CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerARS is a member of CISAC and signed a letter along with other organizations representing over 6 million artists worldwide to AI policymakers advocating for the livelihoods of artists and the protection of human creativity.
• Fairly TrainedminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerARS announced support for Fairly Trained, a non-profit organization that provides certification to AI developers who do not use copyrighted works in their data set without a license.
• Sister Societies (International Collective Management Organizations)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerARS collaborates with international sister societies worldwide to manage global copyright permissions and licensing for artists, functioning as part of a global network of collective management organizations.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Art Resource: Art Resource is a US-based visual arts rights and licensing agency representing major museum collections and artists for image licensing — directly comparable to ARS in catalog size, customer segments (publishers, museums, brands), and licensing royalty model.
• Bridgeman Images: Bridgeman is one of the world's largest art licensing agencies, offering reproduction rights for fine art, photography, and cultural imagery. It directly competes with ARS across publishing, editorial, and brand licensing verticals.
• VAGA (Visual Artists and Galleries Association): VAGA is a US-based collective rights organization for visual artists covering reproduction, exhibition, and digital rights — operating the same licensing-royalty model as ARS and serving overlapping membership of artists and estates.
• DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society): DACS is the UK equivalent collective management organization for visual artists, operating the same licensing, royalty collection, and sister-society network model as ARS, with ARS/DACS reciprocal agreements.
• ADAGP: ADAGP is the French collective rights society for visual artists (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.), functioning as a direct counterpart to ARS in continental Europe through the CISAC sister-society network.
• VG Bild-Kunst: VG Bild-Kunst is the German collecting society for visual arts reproduction rights, performing the same collective rights administration role as ARS in Germany and across the international sister-society network.
• SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori): SIAE is Italy's collective management organization covering visual arts among other creative categories, operating the same sister-society reciprocal licensing framework as ARS via CISAC membership.

Emerging players

• Artists' Legacy Foundation: Artists' Legacy Foundation provides artist estate management and licensing for major American estates (Diebenkorn, Frankenthaler, Motherwell). It overlaps with ARS in estate rights administration but is smaller and focused on specific legacy estates.

Broad incumbents

• Getty Images: Getty Images is a global visual content and licensing platform with broad editorial, commercial, and creative rights offerings. While much larger and more diversified, it competes with ARS for editorial and commercial visual licensing revenue.
• Shutterstock Editorial / Editorial Image Licensing: Shutterstock operates a large-scale visual content licensing marketplace serving publishing, editorial, and commercial customers. While broader and stock-focused, it overlaps with ARS in the editorial and commercial licensing of visual artworks and photographs.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/artistsrightssociety
• Xx.com/ARSNewYork
• Facebookfacebook.com/artistsrightssociety
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/artists-rights-society

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Artists Rights Society