Cold emailing can be an efficient method for reaching new clients as a music photographer. It may be possible to reach dozens or hundreds of potential new clients. What cold emails lack in effectiveness, they make up for in relative ease and reach.

In this article, we'll cover a common mistake many photographers (and in particular music photographers) make when trying to pitch their services.

Effective cold emails should do a few things well. Ideally, your cold emails should:

• Clearly understand the reader/audience and their potential needs
• They should very clearly state your value
• You should establish credibility
• There should be a clear ask that prompts a response

One common problem with music photographers emailing clients occurs with this last point.

Avoid the Trap of Vague Wording

It's best to be as clear as possible in a cold email. All too often, I hear from music photographers who are asking bands or management if they “need a photographer” or they are generally stating how they'd “love to photograph the show.”

Even the wording “I'd love to work with you” may a little too ambiguous for our purposes here.

When asking if a band “needs a photographer,” it can easily be confused with offering to shoot for free (which is a common occurrence) or asking for access in exchange for photos. Generally wanting to “shoot the show” or “shoot with you” is similarly vague. What comes across at most is a request for access.

None of these requests are what you want to communicate if you're actually inquiring about being paid as a professional. And if you're cold emailing prospective clients to be paid as a music photographer, this is exactly what you want to do.

At best, vague language is only inefficient — and there are situations that are perfectly suited to diction open to interpretation. But at worst, when using vague language you fail to communicate clearly and you won't get the result you want.

Using Specific Business Language

If you want to clear, use business language that is specific as possible if the goal is avoiding any possible confusion. Here are a couple phrases that can help avoid confusion:

“Hire a photographer”

The use of the business specific action of hiring is very clear. You're not volunteering, you're not asking for a photo pass, you're not hoping to trade photos for access, you're not giving away your work. Aside from some willful misunderstanding, asking if they're looking to hire a professional is about as clear as it gets.

“Happy to discuss rates”

This is a great follow up to the above use of “hire,” which may be used well in a follow up. You're reinforcing that you're offering a service, and if they have need of it, you can get into the details. The use of “rates” here isn't jumping the gun with more info than is needed, but floats the discussion of pricing as part of the natural flow of conversation.

End Notes

There's no single magic cold email template that will work 100% of the time. Using cold emails is a numbers game — it's about creating opportunities and forging new connections. Cold emails might have a very low success rate, maybe 10% for a positive response, and an even much smaller percentage for actually booking a job.

Given all the challenges of generating business, using clear language can be a huge asset to the best results when cold emailing as a music photographer.

The post Writing Better Cold Emails for Music Photographers appeared first on ishootshows.com.

The last several years have seen record inflation and increases in the cost of living overall around the world. From the cost of milk and eggs to camera gear, just about everything except maybe big screen TVs has gone up in price.

It's as important as ever to emphasize the importance of making sure your fees and rates as a photographer increase along with inflation and the cost of living. Evaluating and raises in your rates should be done every single year.

This year we launched the Photography Rates sheet. If you're lost on what to charge for music or sports photography, we have dedicated spreadsheets for these specialities that can give insight into what real market rates are for specific jobs.

US INFLATION RATES

In the last 3 years, we've seen historic rates of inflation worldwide. Normally, inflation rates hover around 2% Over the last 3 years, we've seen inflation rates average 5.93% for a cumulative 18.88% increase.

Beyond inflation itself, the consumer price index for goods across the board have averaged higher. While we're seeing a decline in the trend of the CPI, the fact remains that prices are higher than ever, not lower.

KEEPING THE SAME RATE YEAR OVER YEAR REDUCES YOUR VALUE

In recent years, the cost of various essentials, including gas, food, and utilities, has consistently risen. Consequently, it's reasonable for you to consider adjusting your rates for the services you provide to your clients.

In essence, failing to raise your rates in line with inflation means a decrease in your purchasing power. As the prices of necessities such as gas, milk, and the materials you use for your work continue to climb, it's essential to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Anything less quite literally means less value for your work as a creative.

YOUR CLIENTS ARE RAISING THEIR RATES

Just as consumer goods are increase, so are services. You can bet that the prices charged by your clients — whether they're musicians, agencies, art buyers, managers, etc — are increasing to keep their own profit margins up.

This year, publishers and streaming services have reached a settlement to increase streaming royalty rates to 15.35%. This is after already winning an increase from 10.5% to 15.1% for the 2018-2022 period. While this increase is not due solely to inflation, it's not independent from the fact that value has to track with the times.

It's not personal — it's just business. Your best clients should understand. And those who don't — they are not budgeting accordingly in a way that truly respects the value of photographers in relation to global economics.

INCREASING YOUR VALUE YEAR OVER YEAR

Beyond cost of living adjustments, another important reason to increase your rates every year is for your own professional growth. As creatives, we are not static — we are constantly learning, adapting and bettering ourselves in small but important ways.

Wherever you are in your career, you are gaining experience in your craft. This comes in the form of faster workflows, better technique, and more. All of these small but important and incremental changes add value to your customers.

And that value to your customers can and should be expressed as increased rates.

GIVING YOURSELF A RAISE

With conventional 9-5 jobs, you should expect not only cost of living adjustments, but also pay increases that reflect your experience and abilities as tied to promotions, title changes and professional growth.

As photographers, we have only ourselves to advocate for ourselves in most instances. No one else will be fighting to give you a raise. You must be the one to demand it for yourself.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU RAISE YOUR RATES?

A 2-3% raise year over year is generally accepted as appropriate for cost of living increases for many corporate employers. Again, this is in a typical 9-5 office world that many photographers don't occupy.

Personally, going into 2024, I would recommend at least a 3.2% increase. Why 3.2%? If you're based in the United States, this is the rate the US Social Security Administration is raising benefits from 2023 going into 2024.

Almost every year since its inception, social security payments have been adjusted to ensure that the purchasing power of these benefits tracks with inflation. Note, this is simply keeping the same purchasing power — it does not account for your professional growth or advancement.

So at the minimum, I'd still recommend at least a 3.2% increase to your rates as you head into 2024. This is assuming you raised your rates last year.

END NOTES

Now that we've covered why you should raise your rates every year, jump into the 4 best times to raise your rates as a photographer (spoiler alert: it's right now). And as a refresher, for more reading, check out the common things to charge for as a photographer. You might be surprised at some costs and fees you can pass on to your clients if you aren't already.

The post Photographers: Raise Your Rates Right Now appeared first on ishootshows.com.

Misunderstanding can happen in the best circumstances in life. When you're a photographer, delivering images to clients seems simple enough, but there are a few important details that can save headaches down the line.

First, it's important to outline use for photography as clearly as possible. This includes agreeing on exactly how the images can be used and what exactly you'll deliver, in as clear as language as you can make it. Are the images for social media use only? How many images? Resolution? Duration of license? And so forth.

There are a lot of details of image licensing, copyright as a photographer and more. But the intent of this article is to give you an approach for how to be direct with clients to limit misunderstanding and misuse of photography as a professional.

When to overdeliver

There can be a huge benefit to overdelivering for a client. Underpromising and overdelivering makes you look good. It makes a client feel like they're getting more than they're paying for, shows your drive, and so forth.

But in the context of this article, we're taking a different approach. Delivering precisely what's needed and what's agreed on, so that you're protected as a photographer.

Common image misuse

Common types of misuse by photo clients can include usage that is out of agreed:

• Licensing (commercial vs editorial)
• Duration
• Scope/specific use

In this post, we'll look at a few technical ways of trying to limit the latter, photo usage out of scope.

Preventing misuse

There are few aspects of business that we aren't going to go into detail on. There are absolutely best practices you should be doing that should prevent misuse in the first place. These include:

• Getting all terms of use in writing
• Signing a contract with clients new and old
• Agreeing on exactly what you'll deliver
  • How many images
  • What resolution
  • Turnaround time
  • Licensing and usage
  • Duration of license

Deliver what's agreed

From a business standpoint it can be advantageous to deliver the minimum agreed deliverables. It's worth stressing that this approach is in direct contrast to overdelivering to take advantage of a big break, networking, client pleasing or ease of working perspective.

Ideally, there's a balance for overdelivering in quality rather than quantity, and one every photographer has to feel out for themselves and each situation.

I'm a music photographer, so let's take a hypothetical scenario in which you're hired by a band to make images they can use on social media.

You've agreed to deliver 10 final photos from a show. You're being paid $500 for this gig.

Limit quantity

In this approach for limiting liability, if you agreed to deliver 10 images, deliver 10 images. Not 20 and not 50 or 100. Overdelivering certainly has it's places and they can be numerous, but in this approach for limiting potential misunderstanding and misuse, deliver exactly what was agreed on.

Why?

Because limiting quantity sets and fulfills boundaries. It sets the expectation that you're sticking to your part of the agreement and that you have delivered the very best with zero filler. If they want more images, that's outside of the original scope. At the very least, it's worth considering a discussion.

In addition, there's a clear price to image ratio here. 10 images for $500. When the quantity goes up, unless you have agreed on it with the band, the price per image goes down when you deliver in excess. There are plenty of times to do so, but in this context of limiting liability, it should give you pause for consideration.

If you haven't set expectations on the number of images you should deliver at all, it's always a good idea to do so. At the very least, part of being a pro is managing expectations, even if you plan to exceed them.

Limit Resolution

In addition, if the understood use is social media, limit the resolution to precisely what is needed. Don't deliver the high res files when that isn't what is expected.

1080 pixels on the short image side for Instagram is fine, maybe a little more if you want to allow for cropping.

Why is this important? Limiting resolution to the final, intended size helps reduce the chances of misuse that requires larger resolution. Low res web images don't make great printed tour posters or album covers.

If the client needs higher resolution, they can come back with that request and negotiate for it's use.

File Format & Size

Similarly, a client doesn't need the RAW files if the agreed use is social media. They don't need TIFF files. All they should realistically need is a 65-80% compression JPEG.

Just like resolution, if they need the RAW file, they should pay for it.

Furthermore, a full res file RAW file reinforces an assumption the notion that no further discussion is needed for even the most demanding technical uses. Billboard? Poster? No problem.

Final Thoughts

When you overdeliver in terms of quantity or other technical aspects of deliverables, the first time, it's a pleasant surprise. The next time and every time after, it's now the expectation.

This is not inherently a negative, but when the rate doesn't reflect the work rendered, it becomes an imbalance of power, which should give any pro pause.

The real aim should be to impress with professionalism, quality, reliability, and so forth.

The post Delivering Images to Clients to Limit Misuse as a Photographer appeared first on ishootshows.com.

Most photographers I know struggle to put a price on their work. This is especially true for newer photographers who haven't found a peer group that can tap into experience on rates for photography.

Talking about money can feel taboo generally, but especially for photographers and when it feels directly tied to our success. But I'd argue that talking about money and business literacy is essential in the music photography world if we want to create and sustain value for our work in the music industry.

Sharing rates as photographers

Recently, I launched a Photography Rate Spreadsheet focused on music photography. The intent was for fellow music photographers to self report rates across editorial, brand, in-house, festival and tour clients so that we can get more clear and transparent idea of rates in our industry.

It's expanded to sports photography and film and television thanks to Heather Barry and Leigha Jenkins, respectively. And hopefully this is just the start. Why? Read on.

What is pay transparency?

Pay transparency is the act of sharing pay, rates, fees and other forms of compensation in an open manner. Some fields such as tech jobs make transparency a standard component of employment, via salary bands. Other fields may have compensation tiers, minimum wage, and so forth.

Photography has no such protections or standards in place.

Why is pay transparency necessary?

For freelance creatives and photographers in particular, transparency about rates has been historically almost non-existent. The general reasons for this are ego, fear of competition, and jealousy or feelings of doubt.

I would argue that pay transparency is essential for fields like photography. Why? Because we don't live in a vacuum. We don't work in isolation nor do our clients and prospective clients.

Pay transparency helps us all for several reasons.

Pay transparency helps create standard rates

First, pay transparency removes one of the essential hurdles that newer photographers face: not knowing market rate of what to charge for their services.

Veteran photographers often lament that newer photographers undercut them and cite this as a reason for declining value in their craft. Being transparent about rates addresses this by giving newer photographers the knowledge of what fair rates are, allowing them to make informed decisions about their worth.

This sharing of rates helps establish a standard when pay transparency is widespread community knowledge.

Standardized rates help all photographers

I've always been as open as I can about rates and giving advice about what I would charge for photography jobs. The reason is half altruistic and half selfish.

The altruistic aspect is self evident. Helping people is good.

The self serving part? I give out pay info and help with rates because the next time the client needs photography, I want my full rate. By sharing information about I would charge, I'm betting on making a more sustainable future for myself and all photographers by encouraging others to charge what I feel I'm worth. This act helps prevent inadvertent undercutting. I want you to get paid so I can get paid.

This is precisely why photographers should be open, even when it comes to competition. We should all be advocating for the highest rates possible that respect our talents and value.

Here's a recent note from a photographer on the Music Photography Discord.

This is a direct example of the kind of empowerment and confidence that rate transparency instills when it's normalized in a community.

The fear and fallacy of undercutting

A major fear of photographers being closed about what they charge is a fear of undercutting. When this reason is cited as a reason not to share rates, a few considerations come to mind.

If your rate is all that keeps you valued by clients, you're already dispensable

Rate transparency doesn't change a client's emphasis. If all they're concerned about is saving money, there's always someone cheaper — including those who are willing to work for free. You don't need pay transparency or a spreadsheet to see that.

Pay transparency isn't the enemy with cheap clients

Being transparent about certainly won't save you from the people working for free or cheap and it never has. You're already in a compromised position with low value clients and this has nothing to do with being transparent about pay with the larger photo community.

In fact, being closed about pay only helps clients who would take advantage of photographers who feel like coming in low for jobs is necessary to secure a job.

The best clients equate a low price with low quality

There will always be budget clients, and this is perfectly fine. But I'd argue that for the best clients, a low price is viewed with concern and suspicion. There's a Goldilocks effect for pricing and viewing services. Very often, you don't want to be at the extremes, especially if you're very low or very high compared to other rates.

When you undercut, not only are you leaving money on the table, you're making yourself a target for doubt, being viewed as inexperienced and low quality.

Being just cheaper won't matter to the clients you want

Cheap photographers don't have a unique value proposition. The photographers do are the ones who often find they can leverage their talents more than just a competitive price. More importantly, simply being the cheaper option isn't going to get one very far with the clients most photographers actually want.

Individual vision, skill, talent, ease of collaboration — these are the qualities the best clients value in those they choose as partners.

Client-photographer relationships are build on trust and unique value propositions. Reliability, consistency, rapport and so more. When budget cuts truly constrain, clients that one has built a relationship will almost always be up front about it. Undercutting isn't something that magically turns good clients into cheap clients.

Summary

If you were on the fence about pay transparency, I hope that this article has given some considerations as to its value. The Photography Rate Spreadsheet is open to all and I hope will serve as reference. We're looking to expand beyond music photography and sports photography, so if you have a specialty — particularly for event/live photography — let's make it happen.

Photography can feel like a lonely endeavor until you find your community, and even then, it can be a struggle to find openness of knowledge and generous peers. Not everyone has that solid group chat or friends with experience. The goal of this spreadsheet is to give everyone a resource, regardless of experience, clique or social following.

Whether it's locally, among your peers, in your specific genres or at any scale, the future of photography will only be strengthened by rate transparency.

The post The Importance of Pay Transparency in Photography appeared first on ishootshows.com.

If you're a music photographer, pricing your work can be a struggle at any stage of your career. Traditionally, guarding one's pricing and rates has felt like an asset or perhaps a necessity. This approach isn't specific to music photography, but it is one that is very common in this field.

I'd argue that being as transparent about rates and pricing is something only benefits the music photography community. If we can leave egos aside, understanding what our peers charge and earn can give us both goals and the aspirations to set our sights even higher.

To this end, I wanted to create a comprehensive music photography rates sheet that can serve as a community resource to encourage transparency about rates. Enter the Music Photography Rates & Pricing spreadsheet.

If you're looking for what to charge for music photography or have experience to share, read on.

If you want the sheet, skip to the end, but I'd encourage you to read about why this resource was created first.

Why is pay transparency necessary?

Like most aspects of business and employment, pay transparency benefits those doing the work. Conversely, being closed about what we charge only saves egos and protects low budgets.

Not sharing rates gives leverage to those who would take advantage of our passions and talents. It feeds on the doubts and insecurity of creatives and reinforces the narrative that we have to lower our fees or miss out on opportunities.

I feel sharing rates about what we charge as music photographers gives us strength collectively. It gives points of reference — both high and low — for the value of our work.

Rate transparency empowers photographers

Transparency about rates empowers photographers. Here's an example that was shared on the Music Photography Discord recently, where a beta of the rates sheet was shared in advance of its public launch.

Knowledge is power. Photographers being able to negotiate higher rates from the confidence of community knowledge is the exact reason we need rate transparency.

Creating a solution for the music photography community

With this in mind, I've created a Google form and linked Google sheet that I hope can serve as community reference point for rates in music photography.

The intent of this form and data are to give us a transparent look into music photography rates. The goal is to show real world rate reporting as a reference for estimates and fees so that we can help negotiate and leverage our value more effectively as music photographers. 

The more we can share and understand what clients are paying and what are peers are charging, the more power we have to advocate for our worth. All submissions are anonymous. All data, high and low, is valuable and encouraged.

Contribute to the Music Photography Rates Sheet

If you're reading this and have ever been paid for music photography, I'd strongly encourage you to enter work history and rates. The strength of this data relies on as diverse entries as possible giving as much detail as possible.

If you're looking to contribute rates, it's helpful to view the sheet first to understand the formatting. Take a look, then add your experience.

From local bands to world tours, if you've done work as a music photographer, we need your data. All entries are anonymous, but you can name the artist or clients if you wish.

And here's a plain link to the submission form:

https://forms.gle/zHxJ9g4DVPZCQS7T7

What do Music Photographers Charge?

If you're creating an estimate or you've been asked for a rate and want to a reference for what other photographers are charging, look no further.

You can see past entries from this form in the reference sheet for music photo rates here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n-9lzJ9aKmkT_N_cNsV4-xvz2otvCIZfTCzVn4Zs04c/edit?usp=sharing

I hope this resource is helpful. If you're looking for more help with business and pricing, or if you're looking for a place for community, join us on the Music Photography Discord.

The post The Music Photography Rates & Pricing Spreadsheet appeared first on ishootshows.com.