The confusion with Taylor Swift
I haven’t posted on this in ages but, I’m resurrecting it for something that I feel is very important and isn’t being taken correctly. I’ve read Taylor Swift’s open letter and I champion equal pay and equal rights for all artists. I’ve read Sheldon’s open letter to Taylor Swift and even more so I believe that photographers should have the same rights. I feel like there has been a big confusion though. This letter was not meant to be about pay, per-say, but that is what is getting all of the attention. It is not about a photographer getting paid again, because, let’s be real, we rarely get paid to begin with, which is whatever, we do it because we love music and we love photography. It is about the fact that Taylor Swift called out Apple because they were exploiting her rights and she is doing the exact same thing to photographers.
The real issue is that it states, in her contract that her, her company, pr, management, etc. own the rights to use the images for any non-commercial publicity. So, theoretically, they can not sell the images to, let’s say Pepsi for a huge ad campaign, and she can’t put the images on merchandise to sell at her shows. But, they can plaster them on promotional posters, put them up in lights to promote a show, put them on facebook, instagram, blogs, websites, for promotional purposes, and isn’t the point of promotion to, in the end, make more money? Also, any time those images are posted, they don’t have to give credit to the photographer.
So, not only would it be Apple posting her music for free, but it would then be Apple posting her music AND not telling anyone who wrote the songs. That is the major issue. NO, it’s not ok that we can go to a show, photograph it, then if another publication asks to use it (who we didn’t shoot it for) we can’t give it to them. YES, it’s a pretty major issue that we can’t post them for ourselves on our own websites, facebook, and instagram. But the major issue, that seems to be getting lost is that she is stealing our images for her own use. That, is the Hypocrisy.
My words to photographers. Stop signing rights pull contracts. Yes, it’s cool that you are getting to photograph Taylor Swift, or Paramore, or Foo Fighters, etc. It’s not cool that you are being forced to give away your images for them to use freely. It may seem awesome to see them posted everywhere, but it doesn’t just affect you. It affects the entire industry. For more, I was asked to comment on dailydot.com
In closing, just as Taylor did, I say:
Taylor, with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free music. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our photos for no compensation.
http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-apple-jason-sheldon-photographer/
