I felt that at this stage of the course I would be able to reflect better on the last few months and my thoughts on where the course, for me personally, is heading. I think first I should say that I have been very surprised by how challenging  it has been with regards to allocating time and writing at an academic level, something which I am pretty sure I am still someway off mastering. I think I came into this course feeling a little arrogant if I am honest with regards to what to expect, largely because when not doing music work I have spent five of the last seven years working in higher education in non-academic roles, but with very close relationships with many academic staff. I think I was expecting to have some of their intelligence rub off on me and all of a sudden I would be an a  academic myself just by being on a course. As I write that it sounds very silly, but I thought I must have picked something up even by accident, but no, I am pretty sure I was as lost as other people who have never had any link to higher education. The other thing that gave me unjustified confidence was that I have written many strategic documents in my higher education roles. The latest one is a major strategic driver or a key part of the University, and I say that not to assume any importance in me, but to try and show how much more challenging it is to write an academic paper than a document which contributes to running the institution itself.

So in a brief summary, how have I found the assessments? The essay was challenging because I think I probably jumped in too quickly to a subject, which I am passionate about, without really thinking if there is any academic context to it. Then on top of that I first found it difficult to really allocate any significant single period of time to it, it was ten minutes here and there and just took far too long to actually get it started. However, I think I have to go back to the choice of subject as the greatest mistake. I thought as there was a lack of academic writing on music photography because no-one had thought to do it yet, whereas now I think it may be because there is nothing to actually analyse and conclude upon. I will make sure I am more informed before choosing the subject area for the next assessment…although music photography is…no, stop now.

The presentation has been challenging in a different way. I love a  good presentation, and the sound of my own voice, but I have to admit that  I have been held back hugely by technology and the limitations of my Tiger operated MacBook , which although frustrating, has probably been good for me to focus on the content rather than the wow factor of some fancy animations.

The APL has probably been both the source of greatest concern but also the most satisfying when, as with other people on the course, I have analysed what I have achieved and realised I have actually done something pretty good and worthwhile, and that I am proud of.

There is of course also the blog, but rather than comment I would suggest just read and come to your own conclusions and let me know through comments.

My final word will be regarding the ongoing perception of photography held by the musician. Photographers are your friends, you look god and we look good, you want to capture moments with your music, we want to capture moments with our cameras. That’s all. Ta ra for now.

I am not available for weddings.

I have been looking at my stats and although decidedly meagre, there is some satisfaction to be found when you beat your previous best number of views. I have also started really hammering Twitter this week and have already noticed some significant exposure just from interacting more and targeting my words to the right place. Twitter is an incredible tool to find your audience, even for me as a photographer just writing blogs I have directly through some praise and retweet had my previous blog included in a relatively well read weekly gazette for general photographers. I see how this works now and am really going to spread myself around much more. I followed 100 new people this weekend and have gained nearly 30 new followers – not massive numbers, but not bad for effectively doing nothing. And before you ask, only around a third are spam thingys, but they all count!

I have also been looking at the other blogs from people on the course and have found it interesting to see what other people have blogged about and how they have developed their style over the ten blogs. I have tried to do a bit of everything, some on photography, some on the industry and the issues I see, some reflective, one with a lighter edge and one when I was very tired which I should have deleted, but it was one for the list so it remained. It is really interesting to read about the struggles and triumphs people have gone through, understand more about the quirks and complexities of the different types of composing, editing and performing, and to know that my fears and frustrations are shared – I am not alone.

I think that blogging has been great, and something I wish I had started sooner, but I also think the key to worthwhile and successful blogging is to use it in conjunction with other social media to engage widely and effectively. I know there is a case for the argument that you blog for you and who cares if no one reads it, but I would say if in that case why blog? Just keep your thoughts to yourself. I relate it to performing music live and not caring if anyone is watching because you are doing it for yourself and not trying to please anyone else – if that is the case then play at home and give the time and space to someone who wants to share their art with people. I was once told by a music performance lecturer that the first thing he needs his students to understand is that you “give a performance” and as such you should give something worthwhile to the audience, even if it is one man and his dog, give them something to believe in, something to feel and something to think about. I think a blog is the same, make it a worthwhile read, make it interesting and make it informative.

Saying all that, I, like I think probably some of you, have in the back of my mind…number nine done…so have to hold my hands up and admit I have probably contradicted my own opinion this time, but I am not worried, well not about my blogs, my APL on the other hand is a very different kettle of panic and confusion.

1. Always print off and take with you the e-mails you have received to arrange the show or the mobile number of the tour manager. The number of times you will arrive and the busy tour manager has forgotten to put you on the list will be annoyingly high. Just remember that the venue doesn’t give a hoot who takes pictures so as long as you can prove to them that the artist wants you there they will more likely than not let you in. (p.s. do not fake e-mails to sneak in to gigs – this will lead to a very uncomfortable experience hoping you won’t get caught)
2. Get in position early. If there is a pit, get in there, find a home for your bag under the stage or against the barrier and leave it, stocking your person with all the kit you need.
3. Use the soundcheck and support acts to judge best positions and camera settings. The second you get into the pit you should start snapping away to be ready for your three (most likely) songs. Yes the guy checking the guitar will be more static but he will also be more poorly lit so with experience you can judge the settings and really just play with the shutter speed during the shoot.
4. Remember why you are there and shoot accordingly. If you are on specified assignment, focus on that alone. If you are just building a portfolio, think what sort of images work well through stock photography websites.  Get a good mix of shots, all band members, full stage shot, a couple of talking shots, basically a bit of everything that is put on offer by the band. You have an endless supply of images, use them not to take hundreds of the same shot and pick out the best later, but to get every aspect of the show.
5. As important as it is to get images of the band, use the opportunity to also get some generic shots which can be sold on for other purposes – feet on pedals, hands on guitars, instruments, stages and the crowd. You have the time to do this during soundchecks so make the most of it, you are not just there for three songs but all the time waiting before so use it wisely.
6. Get a picture of the setlist the second it is taped to the stage, as this is during setting up you can use flash and it means you have the record for other uses such as reviews. It also makes a nice picture, especially if it appears to be handwritten as it is probably one of the band who has written it.
7. Said often, but also often missed – learn the song and band quickly. Listen to the music and watch the band intently for the first 30 second of each song and be ready for the repeat of good bits. Songs are repetitive, as are many performers so it relatively easy to know when something good is going to happen again if you missed it the first time.
8. If possible, have two cameras with you giving you option of wide angle and zoom in an instant rather than having to change lenses.
9. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the only way to take live music shots is by setting the ISO to 1600. 1000 or even 800 will do if you have a fast enough lens – and the 50mm 1.8f is very affordable and perfect for concerts. Lighting in general is bad at live venues, but that is because the stage is the centre of attention and that is normally lit up pretty well. Yes sometimes that light may be red or blue, but it is still good light which allows fast shots to capture clear moments.
10. Don’t get annoyed at other people getting in your way, they are just doing their jobs as well, particularly other photographers who are focusing on the stage as you are so a little jostling may happen now and again, get over it, it is not personal.
11. Do get annoyed at too cool for school kids who dance around as they take rubbish photos. They also spend more time chatting to the crowd than preparing and it is all about fun and status for them. They are the blaggers and need to be stopped.
12. Be prepared to show your balls. From being confident enough to get yourself in if need be, to getting position in the pit or even harder, in the crowd at smaller venues. Sometimes you have to barge your way through and irritate crazed fans to get your three songs, but be polite and make sure you move on after the three songs and you will get away with it.
13. If you can get away with it, get a good position after the three songs and just be ready for the big moment later in the show. The moment the singer jumps into the crowd, everyone will be focused on them and as every other person with a camera will take a picture you can even sneak a flash in, which may be essential as the crowd are unlikely to have any light on them at all. Generally as long as you are not constantly taking shots, and as long as you are let into the main crowd with your camera, you can get some decent shots without annoying security.
14. Security are your friends. Chat and joke with them (pick the right ones though, some are just miserable bullies) and they will keep out of your way. They, like you are there to work and there is a camaraderie of sorts which you need to manipulate. Just make sure you play by the rules and they will generally help you out, maybe even give you an extra song if no-one else is there to tell you to stop.
15. When you have finished the show, don’t mess about. By the time you get home there have already been images and videos posted online and your potential audience is starting to move on to something else. Consider taking an image on you phone during the soundcheck and tweeting it with the promise of more to come later, get it in your audiences’ mind that you are doing this and they would like to see it.
16. Use Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to publicise widely and well. You have some amazing tools to showcase you work, learn them and use them effectively but efficiently – you cannot be a part of every new social network so focus on the big ones and ignore the rest.

That is it for now. I think also you must enjoy it. You are doing something you love watching something you love – you could be sat in an office or in a factory so don’t take it for granted. However, you will not make a fortune from music photography so be prepared to do the other boring stuff to balance the books.

A quick link to a small selection of my stuff, website is coming soon. http://www.flickr.com/photos/48467652@N07/

Please let me know if this has been any help or if you disagree I would be very interested to hear your thoughts.

The ultimate dream is to have a little record shop with a couple of music geeks to keep me company – yes – much like John Cusack in High Fidelity.

However, that really is not going to happen and this course is not really the channel to get the resources together to do it – that would be the lottery. I, as I suspect is the case with everybody else, have a lot of dreams which I hope I will at least have a go at sooner rather than later. So if I look at what I want to do and then see how it marries to the course, then I can hopefully start to focus a little better. Had I done this sooner, maybe I would not have spent weeks trying to turn gut feeling into a meaningful essay.

So my list starts here and I have to say some of these have stuck for the last fifteen years and I really should have started them by now. So in true High Fidelty style…

1. Record and release a record as Sloe Jones, my one man acoustic psychobilly explosion!
2. Make a living from Daniel PJ Photography, nothing fancy, just enough to get by doing what I love.
3. Start up my own record label, Cracked Recordings.
4. Open up my own record store, Rhythm Junction Records.
5. Host my radio show, The World’s Greatest Radio Show, on BBC radio.
6. Own my own design and communication studio, The Elephant.
7. Curate my own music festival with Ani Difranco, The Frames, Dirtety Three and Hamell on Trial all on the bill.

So these are the various dreams I still harbour and I hope that this time next year I can tick a few off and be on the road to the rest – good luck me.

Jenny Lee Lindberg, Stella Mozgawa, Seth Bogart, Erin Emslie, David Scharf, Patrick Stickles, Eric Harm, Brandon Welchez, Mike La Franchi, Jenna Thornhill-DeWitt, Arin Fazio, Cullen Omori, Judah Dadone, Doris Cellar, Chuck Criss, Ryan Grubbs, Nate Grace, Austin Youngblood, JP Pitts, Brian Black, TJ Shwartz and last but quite wonderfully by no means least, Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg.

So who do we have in the UK who could maybe prove that an ordinarily named person can be cool and make great music and in turn prove that Americans will never quite be as great as British musicians no matter how well they are named …

David Robert Jones

Right then, enough of this silliness, back to some work.

Even as recently as last year, there was still a notion of selling out, although it had been oddly rebranded as being “careerist” by the too cool for school brigade. There was an interview I read from the particularly hypocritical Cribs who were so busy spitting their vitriol on other bands they failed to realise that by recruiting Johnny Marr as their “spiritual” fourth member they were playing the biggest publicity careerist campaign of the lot. Anyway, I digress, my point is that there is nothing wrong with musicians wanting to make a career out of music, yet a band doing just that were suddenly saying that making music is the important bit, not whether people listen or not, very easily said when you have Johnny Marr and a top ten album!

That was apparently the new “selling out”, or so they thought. In reality we seem to have just flown at warp speed from some form of artistic morality (Cribs rants aside) to a place where great independent bands are flocking to be included on the latest Twilight soundtrack. This is not a soundtrack in the old sense where existing songs are used, but bands are writing songs specifically about vampires and werewolves to be included and hit payday! There was even recently a trailer for some naff US drama on Channel 5 with a great track by I Am Austin, a great little indie duo from North Wales, with the slogan at the bottom for unsigned artists to send their music to be turned into the theme for a thirty second trailer for some crap telly. Speaking to unsigned artists recently, they are scarily aware of this new market and even more worryingly, they are happy to cater to it to get their shot.

Forget about good music, relentless touring and a bit of honest passion. It is all about the gimmick, the quick exposure and the short lived success. And sadly unless there is a major shift in the attitude of the artists to unanimously take a stand then it could just be the only future we have left.

First things first, the essay! I have been going round in circles trying to find a focus for the broad title of…Music Photography:??????????? It seemed like a great idea to start with, I am a music photographer and on a course with loads of people who may be interested in what makes music photography a particularly difficult profession to master, or how it has changed in the last ten years, or what I believe are the wider factors which have an impact on all aspects of music and how these have a detrimental knock on effect for photography. The list is actually endless, but I am sure your interest is not so I’ll stop there.

What is certain to me is that music photography as a profession is becoming less valued and I say this on the day I have decided to take on only my second ever wedding job – albeit for a friend who wants an informal natural approach so not one posed shot required, but still after swearing five years ago after the first wedding job to never do it again, this feels like a bit of submission to inevitability.

So what are the main issues that are having an impact on music photography, or more specifically the still image? Well…the decline of the tangible music product gives less space for a photo to go on something that actually makes money, the issues with live music in general meaning less opportunities for photos, but more importantly less opportunities in venues set up to allow photography to be done at a decent level, greater channels for musicians to connect directly with their audience have reduced the need for professionals across the music industry which in turn has led to novices not realising the value of good publicity material, and on it goes.

However…

I have decided that in order to channel the essay into something of interest, validity and to cover the major factors in what is looking like an increasingly restrictive 800 words, I must look at the cause and effect of something. Almost by default and due to the recent releases by the only three camera manufacturers that matter – Nikon, Canon and Apple – I think the secondary area is camera technology. Each of these releases are very different and pose very equal points for debate and if I am totally honest, until around a minute ago when I typed the three makes, I was still not one hundred percent sure on what the third level would be…really.

As I started typing I felt there were still within Music Photography : Technology, many important aspects to address, and not necessarily camera technology, but audio technology, online technology and recording technology have all contributed to the dreaded bedroom musician who goes to number one, releases their debut and wins a Brit before even playing a live show. Again, even now tangents are opening up and again I am distracted from the point in hand. But camera technology is what I am going to focus on, and more to the point, the impact it has on music photography as a profession. I think…yes that will do.

Now if you are still with me, and I forgive you if not, I will have to get this sent over to Jon, who has been very supportive and patient with me while I battle my indecision demons and then crack on with making it work, along with an accompanying presentation and the one I am really not looking forward to, trying to prove my past ten years experience is worth something in an academic context. On the plus side, this is nearly 800 words so at least I now have a better understanding of how long my essay will be. Speak soon.

So the question…what is the future of the music industry?

There is first an important point to make which is usually conveniently and rapidly skated over – this is not just about the future – but about the last ten years. A sense of fear and alienation exists about music and the digital age and how the two can work together, yet many years down the line and despite the much too large catalogue of failures, there have been many pockets of great successes. Which leads to another question – when is it time to stop looking for solutions and settle on one of the ones that has already been presented?

It is important to understand the potential left in the internet and how it can be used. The future is not in content but how it is accessed and as such it is highly likely that the primary channels for audience engagement for the next ten years are already out there just waiting to be utilised and utilised widely. This, however is not the only solution. Yes it is important that the channels of engagement with the audience are in place, robust and used consistently and frequently, but the main question still exists…what is the future of the music industry?

What needs to be discussed is not a single magic solution, but perhaps a series of smaller interlaced solutions for each area of the music industry. Perhaps the only way forward is to look back to when it was much simpler and much more effective. Ultimately there is still the same general market rules, supply and demand, but with different players and tools. So the conclusion here is not one of finality or an answer, but rather a trigger to first identify the key elements from 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago which made music the gargantuan industry it became, and then track each to mark the key changes and developments over time and what it really meant to the market. Maybe then each element can be addressed individually and the next stage of evolution will emerge.

Or is it now really as simple as getting an e-mail address – job done?