Is Taylor Swift a hypocrite? After demonstrating she was the most powerful person in the music industry, after denouncing Apple for not paying royalties on test drives of its new streaming music service, and winning the battle, she is now accused of practicing the same unfair method by a photographer.
Just as she did, Photographer Jason Sheldon wrote a letter to Taylor, denouncing miss perfect’s unfair practices. It turns out that photo waivers for the pop star’s concerts obliges the photographer to use the images from the show only once and only within the published report on that performance. Thus photographers can’t sell it to other editorial outlets, can’t sell prints of the image, meaning they don’t own their own work, but Taylor own it! And of course the contract stipulates that Swift can use any photographer’s work in marketing material and not pay them anything.
‘How are you any different to Apple? If you don’t like being exploited, that’s great.. make a huge statement about it, and you’ll have my support. But how about making sure you’re not guilty of the very same tactic before you have a pop at someone else?’ writes Sheldon. ‘Photographers need to earn a living as well. Like Apple, you can afford to pay for photographs so please stop forcing us to hand them over to you while you prevent us from publishing them more than once, ever.’
‘With all due respect to you too Taylor, you can do the right thing and change your photo policy. Photographers don’t ask for your music for free. Please don’t ask us to provide you with your marketing material for free.’
To Taylor’s defense, she is not the only famous artists having such contract for photographers but is this guy right? You bet he is, taking photos during a concert is real work, and it takes to be a professional to really do a great job, so why are they robbed of their art? This guy is right to compare both situations, and if Taylor is not a hypocrite she should change the contract.