Reading a brief properly

Music photography briefs are short. A date, a venue, a fee, a couple of sentences about deliverables. They look simple.

What they hide is everything that actually matters: who can use the images, for how long, with what restrictions. The brief reads in two minutes. The contract you sign because of it can run for two years.

Here is how to read one properly before you commit.

What "usage" actually means

Usage is the most important word in a music photography brief, and the most often misread.

Usage = where the images can be used, by who, for how long.

These three terms are not the same job:

• →"Editorial use": the images can be used in articles about the show or artist. A magazine, a news site. Not paid advertising.
• →"PR use": editorial use plus the artist's and label's own social media and press materials.
• →"Full commercial use": all of the above plus paid advertising, billboards, merchandise, anything that sells a product.

The price between editorial and full commercial usage can be five times the rate. Confirm in writing which one applies before you say yes.

The three questions that change the price

Three questions you ask before you quote:

1. Who else can use these images?

Just the artist? The artist and the label? The festival and its sponsors? Each additional party adds value to the images and should add to the price.

2. How long can they be used for?

One year, three years, perpetual? Perpetual usage is worth significantly more than a one-year licence and you should not give it away for the standard day rate.

3. Are there exclusivity restrictions?

Can you use the images in your own portfolio? Can you sell prints? Can you license them to a magazine after the brief is over? Exclusivity restrictions limit what the photos are worth to you and should raise the price.

The brief that says "a few photos"

A brief that says "a few photos" is not a brief. It is a starting conversation.

Push back. Ask: how many? In what format? For what use? By when? If the client cannot answer, they have not thought about it yet, and pricing now would be guessing.

"A few photos" usually means "as many as you can deliver and we will pick from those." That is a different job than "twenty press-ready frames by 9am." Pricing differs. So does the time you will spend on it.

Spotting a problem brief before you sign

Red flags worth reading slowly:

• →The brief specifies turnaround time but not delivery format.
• →The brief asks for raw files alongside JPEGs. Raw files are not a deliverable. Raw is your working file. Push back on this.
• →The brief includes a model release. Live music does not usually need model releases. If one is asked for, there is a commercial use case they have not mentioned, and the price should reflect that.

The unwritten part of the brief

Briefs do not tell you about parking, load-in time, what the catering room is called, or whether the PR will be on site. You learn this stuff by asking before the day.

Email the PR with three or four practical questions a few days out. "What is the call time, who do I check in with, what does the pit setup look like, and when do you need files?" Get it in writing. The day of the show is not the time to discover the load-in is two hours earlier than you assumed.

When to push back on a brief

If the brief asks for something that does not feel right, say so before you sign. Once you have started the work, your leverage is gone.

We have walked away from briefs that included exclusivity for under-rate fees, turnaround times we could not realistically meet, and scope too big for the budget (for example, a full day of photo plus video for the price of a single shoot). Each time we walked away the relationship survived because we said so before the contract, not after.