@@defcon1gaming it was all BS. He wanted me to continue with free shows and travel to other states with no pay. I told him no way. My photography gear wasn’t free. And I didn’t do it
I'm already established as a working sports photographer, but looking to break into concert photography as a second niche. This video has been awesome for pointing me in the right direction. I had no idea how much concert photographers even get paid.
Thanks for the free game! I have been trying to break through into the music photography world for some time now, and your videos have helped me better understand the business. Keep crushing it man, hope we cross paths one day
Awesome to hear your story! Really insightful! Must have taken a lot of effort to make. I hope this video will reach more festival photographers like us! 👏
I would argue that it's fine to line up unpaid work when you're new at any creative venture. I would never advertise that my work is free or cheap or any other price-based concept. It's easy to lower your prices. It's much harder to raise them.
The figures that you are giving are just slightly less than bar staff. Also not a flex, I just find that similarity very interesting. I'm an event photographer, but my business model is a little different. My goal is to make more as a photographer than as bar staff. When I say bar staff, I mean barback, bartender and bar manager. I appreciate the information.
Hey Scott! I appreciate that comparison! It’s definitely interesting to learn more about different industries like you said. And no problem at all, thank you for watching!
I've managed to get photo passes for smaller artists to get experience and I've got a few contacts now. But trying to figure out how to get one for a main stream artist. Colin,
Hey Tariq, great and informative video! Quick question, for your cold messages, do you have a general template for it? Could you share how you start off the convo? Thanks!! Following from here on out!
Thank you Kris! I actually created a video strictly about the exact cold email template I use every time, I’ll link it here: th-cam.com/video/cfpjs4kF-ps/w-d-xo.html Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with!
I keep hearing that music photography is impossible to get paid for. I hope you're right, because I really wanted to do this and have gotten discouraged.
It’s definitely possible to get paid but by no means should you go all-in unless you have reliable & consistent retainer clients, or a full time job at a local venue or just straight up a 6-12 month emergency fund to live off of. Throughout the entirety of my music photography career I’ve always had a day job, and music photography has been on weekends almost always. (I’ll take Monday PTO if I have to.)
Hey! What do you think is a good metric to go by when offered a retainer for a specific musician? Currently in negotiations and I want to make sure that i'm compensated fairly for being full time
I suppose it depends on how much recurring work you’d be receiving! The more recurring, the more inclined I’d be to lower my rate on a per shoot/edit basis. While keeping other variables in mind like taxes, food, etc… Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any follow-up questions
what about working with newer bands/artists and offering a starter package to help them with "Branding". And should this be lower than working with commercial clients... my concern with different rates is that you might run the risk of "cheaping yourself out" and then people start questioning your prices if they vary between clients.
Great question! If I was working with a newer band/artist to help them get their career off the ground with branding, etc… I would probably lower my rate but I also wouldn’t work for weeks or months on end so that you’re making penny’s every day It’s really all about moderation, and if you find yourself making less than minimum wage an hour once you’re done with ALL of the work, then that’s when you really should take a step back and change up your scope of work, because you’ll still be taxed on that money even after the fact. In the video I mention value based pricing which really is only relevant when you’re getting started because once you get big enough or more consistent with your clients, you won’t have to work with smaller artists who don’t have a budget for media. I hope this helps! Let know if you have any other questions 💪🏽
I came across your video and thank you it answered a lot of questions. However, you mentioned that you include 'x' amount of photos in your price (30 i think you said). Is there an agreement on what can be done with them such as only for social media (if so is there an understanding on what the artist can do with the pictures pricing attached to the usage) or it is under the understanding that the artist can do what ever they want with them. Such as marketing,social media and etc. Thank you for your advice in advance.
Yes, in most cases when you’re hired on to shoot for an artist at a given concert or festival - it’s under the assumption that they (the artist & management) can use the photos you capture however they please (marketing, social media, etc..) Obviously if this was a press or editorial shoot it would be different with contracts in place and what not But most festival shoots are pretty cut & dry with no contracts, just an email chain and an agreed upon price point and deliverable quantities. Hope this helps!
I might have communicated it wrong but only AnjunaBeats covered airfare & lodging, every other artist outside of that music label only paid for photo/video services!
Awesome advuce!! 🫡 i started my concert photography about a month ago and have been going to local gigs (metal/rock/punk bands) my question is.. what do you do in the interim from shows? Lets say you dont have a concert or event in 3 months...then what?
That’s a really good question… my obvious answer right now is make TH-cam videos about it instead 🤣 But since that isn’t the case for most people, I would say continue improving your editing, learn new skills like shooting video or editing with Photoshop or After Effects, post more frequently on Instagram and get a small following. Build out your portfolio on a website builder like Squarespace for example. That’s what I would do and what I’ve done in the past!
@TARIQABDELPHOTO sweet! I been building my ACTUALLY portfolio through pixpa. I'll check out your other videos on this subject as well. I'm also shooting a music video for a pretty well known local metal band here in L.A. so I'm excited for that as well. 🤘
Please do! And let me know if you have any other questions as well. Yes building a portfolio outside of social media on an actual website is a huge one. I never got into the music video scene but I feel like that would be so much fun! Keep killing it!
I did my 1st free concert on 9/2/2023. The guy called me the next day to become his official band photographer and will set me up for future gigs 🙏
Amazing work! Absolutely love to hear that! 💪🏽
@@defcon1gaming it was all BS. He wanted me to continue with free shows and travel to other states with no pay. I told him no way. My photography gear wasn’t free. And I didn’t do it
"BELIEVE IN THEIR BELIEF IN YOU" YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I needed this, thanks man
Yes!! Thank YOU for watching! 💪🏽
My guy - THANK YOU! This has been so helpful, mostly in how validated I feel. I was already using the value based pricing without even knowing it.
Glad to hear the video helped! Thanks for watching!
I'm already established as a working sports photographer, but looking to break into concert photography as a second niche. This video has been awesome for pointing me in the right direction. I had no idea how much concert photographers even get paid.
Thanks for the free game! I have been trying to break through into the music photography world for some time now, and your videos have helped me better understand the business. Keep crushing it man, hope we cross paths one day
Happy to help! 🫡
I’m really glad to hear that this video helped in some way 😊
More videos coming soon!
Awesome to hear your story! Really insightful! Must have taken a lot of effort to make. I hope this video will reach more festival photographers like us! 👏
Thank you Michiel! I appreciate the kind words!
I hope so too! Share with your festival photography friends and let’s all get paid 💪🏽
WOW. Best video yet.
❤️❤️❤️
Amazing video! Thank you for sharing!
🫡🫡🫡
I would argue that it's fine to line up unpaid work when you're new at any creative venture. I would never advertise that my work is free or cheap or any other price-based concept. It's easy to lower your prices. It's much harder to raise them.
100% agree with this.
This is so helpful! Thank you so much!!
Im so glad to hear that! Thank you for watching!
Thank you for this video ;)
Of course!
The figures that you are giving are just slightly less than bar staff. Also not a flex, I just find that similarity very interesting. I'm an event photographer, but my business model is a little different. My goal is to make more as a photographer than as bar staff. When I say bar staff, I mean barback, bartender and bar manager. I appreciate the information.
Hey Scott! I appreciate that comparison! It’s definitely interesting to learn more about different industries like you said.
And no problem at all, thank you for watching!
I've managed to get photo passes for smaller artists to get experience and I've got a few contacts now. But trying to figure out how to get one for a main stream artist. Colin,
Hey Tariq, great and informative video! Quick question, for your cold messages, do you have a general template for it? Could you share how you start off the convo? Thanks!! Following from here on out!
Thank you Kris!
I actually created a video strictly about the exact cold email template I use every time, I’ll link it here: th-cam.com/video/cfpjs4kF-ps/w-d-xo.html
Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with!
Yesss. Awesome video
Glad you enjoyed man! 🫡
Thx you brother
My pleasure 🫡
Great work :)
Thank you Eugene!
awesome vid
I’m glad to hear that! Thank you for watching!
YES!
ENJOY!
What’s good Tariq, great video… I’m in the same niche making videos, we should talk 🤝
Thanks man! I’ll hit you up on IG 👀
I keep hearing that music photography is impossible to get paid for. I hope you're right, because I really wanted to do this and have gotten discouraged.
It’s definitely possible to get paid but by no means should you go all-in unless you have reliable & consistent retainer clients, or a full time job at a local venue or just straight up a 6-12 month emergency fund to live off of.
Throughout the entirety of my music photography career I’ve always had a day job, and music photography has been on weekends almost always. (I’ll take Monday PTO if I have to.)
Hey! What do you think is a good metric to go by when offered a retainer for a specific musician? Currently in negotiations and I want to make sure that i'm compensated fairly for being full time
I suppose it depends on how much recurring work you’d be receiving!
The more recurring, the more inclined I’d be to lower my rate on a per shoot/edit basis.
While keeping other variables in mind like taxes, food, etc…
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any follow-up questions
what about working with newer bands/artists and offering a starter package to help them with "Branding". And should this be lower than working with commercial clients... my concern with different rates is that you might run the risk of "cheaping yourself out" and then people start questioning your prices if they vary between clients.
Great question!
If I was working with a newer band/artist to help them get their career off the ground with branding, etc… I would probably lower my rate but I also wouldn’t work for weeks or months on end so that you’re making penny’s every day
It’s really all about moderation, and if you find yourself making less than minimum wage an hour once you’re done with ALL of the work, then that’s when you really should take a step back and change up your scope of work, because you’ll still be taxed on that money even after the fact.
In the video I mention value based pricing which really is only relevant when you’re getting started because once you get big enough or more consistent with your clients, you won’t have to work with smaller artists who don’t have a budget for media.
I hope this helps! Let know if you have any other questions 💪🏽
I came across your video and thank you it answered a lot of questions. However, you mentioned that you include 'x' amount of photos in your price (30 i think you said). Is there an agreement on what can be done with them such as only for social media (if so is there an understanding on what the artist can do with the pictures pricing attached to the usage) or it is under the understanding that the artist can do what ever they want with them. Such as marketing,social media and etc. Thank you for your advice in advance.
Yes, in most cases when you’re hired on to shoot for an artist at a given concert or festival - it’s under the assumption that they (the artist & management) can use the photos you capture however they please (marketing, social media, etc..)
Obviously if this was a press or editorial shoot it would be different with contracts in place and what not
But most festival shoots are pretty cut & dry with no contracts, just an email chain and an agreed upon price point and deliverable quantities.
Hope this helps!
Am I missing something? Seems kind of weird to charge 3 different airfare/lodging even though you’re going to be there already?
I might have communicated it wrong but only AnjunaBeats covered airfare & lodging, every other artist outside of that music label only paid for photo/video services!
My name is Tariq 😂
It’s a great name!
Awesome advuce!! 🫡 i started my concert photography about a month ago and have been going to local gigs (metal/rock/punk bands) my question is.. what do you do in the interim from shows? Lets say you dont have a concert or event in 3 months...then what?
That’s a really good question… my obvious answer right now is make TH-cam videos about it instead 🤣
But since that isn’t the case for most people, I would say continue improving your editing, learn new skills like shooting video or editing with Photoshop or After Effects, post more frequently on Instagram and get a small following. Build out your portfolio on a website builder like Squarespace for example.
That’s what I would do and what I’ve done in the past!
@TARIQABDELPHOTO sweet! I been building my ACTUALLY portfolio through pixpa. I'll check out your other videos on this subject as well.
I'm also shooting a music video for a pretty well known local metal band here in L.A. so I'm excited for that as well. 🤘
Please do! And let me know if you have any other questions as well.
Yes building a portfolio outside of social media on an actual website is a huge one.
I never got into the music video scene but I feel like that would be so much fun!
Keep killing it!