While Many Call Taylor Swift A Hero, One Man Publicly Branded Her A Hypocrite

New Year's Eve 2015 In Times Square
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You’d be hard-pressed Monday to find anyone who might have something negative to say about Taylor Swift. Actually, you could probably say that about any day. But Monday is certainly no exception, as over the weekend Swift took Apple Music to task for not paying artists and rights owners during the service’s free three-month trial period. It’s admittedly a pretty bogus policy, or rather, thanks to Swift, it was a pretty bogus policy, as Apple Music abruptly changed course.

So cue the praise for Swift. She fought the good fight and won. Right? Well…it depends on who you ask.

Photographer Jason Sheldon has pointed out traces of hypocrisy in Swift’s stance on Apple Music, comparing it to the policy of Swift’s management company, Firefly Entertainment, Inc.’s when it comes to freelance photographers shooting at her concerts. In a blog post entitled “An Open Response to Taylor Swift’s Rant Against Apple,” Sheldon praises Swift’s takedown of Apple before taking a hard right turn, making the case that if Swift truly cared about all artists (as she claims), she would want to amend her policy on photographers, which isn’t exactly artist-friendly.

For every artist that is in a secure enough financial and influential position to stand up against the likes of Apple without having to worry that Apple will publicly block your ability to earn a living from their iTunes market place, there are hundreds of professional concert photographers who don’t enjoy that security..  they don’t have the voice you do, and they don’t have the public favour that you have when it comes to demanding fair rights for their work, and they have a much higher risk of being prevented from working in future, not just at your shows, but any show which is connected by the same promoter, venue, PR, or management company.

Sheldon’s main issue was two points in the Concert Photo Authorization Form given to freelance photographers by Firefly before shooting at a Swift concert. The two clauses in Sheldon’s opinion are “a complete rights grab,” made only more egregious given Swift’s reason crusade.

The issue for Sheldon is that while Swift refuses to “give away her music for free,” she has no problem with demanding “free and unlimited use of our (photographer’s) work, worldwide, in perpetuity.” While freelance photographers are lucky to be paid once for their work, if that work consists of live shots of Swift at one of her shows, Swift and Firefly are free to use those photos for as long as they want, all without having to compensate the photographer who took them.

It’s at this point in the story where you might be wondering, why should I care about freelance photographers?

That’s fair. I’ll let Sheldon explain:

As a freelance photographer, I am asked to photograph concerts by publications.  I get paid IF and when the photos are used, not for turning up to a show and shooting it.  Therefore, if the newspaper has a bigger story to run and doesn’t have enough room to use my photo, I don’t get paid.

A freelancer working a Taylor Swift show who signs the Firefly agreement is prohibited from selling unused photos in other places. It’s a one-time deal for them, but not for Firefly, who can use the photographs as much as they want (those live shots on Swift’s Instagram are coming from somewhere).

It should be noted that this is a fairly common clause in artist agreements, but not every artist has voluntarily positioned herself as a freedom fighter on behalf of rights holders. By taking that stance, Swift opened herself up to these criticisms.

Your move, Taylor.

Love, Jason Sheldon.

(Via Junction10 Photography)

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