Social media is abuzz today with how Taylor Swift got Apple to back down on not paying musicians during their 3 month free trial period for their music steaming service. Ms. Swift states how it’s not for her, it’s for all the little people who are struggling and putting out their first single. She states to Apple (and the world) how successful she is and can support herself with just doing concerts. Terrific, unless you’re a concert photographer trying to make a living photographing at one of her concerts. Here is a link to one photographer’s open letter to Ms. Swift. It would be great of people could tweet and blog this on social media. Maybe we can get Taylor Swift to follow big, bad Apple’s lead in making life better for struggling artists.
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#1 by Matt Timmons on June 23, 2015 - 3:02 pm
Ah Capitalism. So much garbage for sale, so many buyers.
A few years back I was a flight instructor working at a flight school where the airplanes were very poorly maintained. The only thing the owner kept operational on these junk heaps were the engines (the part that bills the customer). A new student of mine was going through the preflight checklist and became very frustrated at all of the instruments that were inoperative. He asked me, “Why doesn’t the owner fix these planes if he wants to keep his customers coming here?” I replied with, “Because you’re coming here and paying full price to fly with them broken.”
Capitalism has a deaf ear for those who want to petition for money or value. No employer cares about how much someone wants to be paid; only what they will accept. If a photographer continuously shows up to a gig that pays peanuts or nothing at all AND signs away his income rights, then who’s fault is that? If someone wants the work more than they want the money, then they can’t call themselves a professional. All the letter writing in the world won’t be as effective as having a concert photography pit with no photographers in it. Want to get paid? Stop working for free and being a schmuck. That’s all I hear anymore is how photographers can’t get paid; so why the hell do they keep showing up for the job? I think your next book should be titled, “Photographers and Idiots: Could There Be a Link?”.
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