Kickstarting Your Music Photography Journey

If you’re reading this you’re probably a few years into your music photography journey. But even if you’re just a few months in, this article will cover every step from A to Z to transform your music photography from a passion into a career. 

A career as a music photographer isn’t always an easy path, but it is a deeply rewarding one that will provide you with unforgettable memories, unique experiences, and lifelong friends. Turning your hobby into a job isn’t for everyone though, so before you go any further it’s worth taking a pause to think about what your goals are with your photography. 

Going full time in this business can be a tough decision. To help make it, you should consider the entire picture (small pun intended) of what the lifestyle looks like. Most importantly in this step is asking yourself if you’re prepared for the 90% of the job that takes place outside of the concert venues.

If you don’t enjoy travel, don’t do well with uncertainty, and need 8+ hours of sleep each night then a career as a full-time music photographer is probably not the best path for you to take. That doesn't mean you can’t still have an immensely fulfilling experience photographing shows on nights and weekends (as I have done for many years!) but it’s good to ask yourself these questions before making any big decisions. 

So, let’s say you’ve done your soul searching and have committed to making a career of music photography. Where to get started?

Setting Your Goals as a Music Photographer

To take the first steps you need to know where you’re going. Since we’re talking about a career here that means we need to start with your income. Open up your bank statements for the past few months and take the average of what you spend in a month. Now multiply that number by 1.26, which should give you roughly enough buffer for federal and state taxes and insurance. 

This number is the minimum amount you need to make each month to maintain your current lifestyle. If it seems unreachable, go back and make adjustments to some of your spending, but try to keep the total realistic. 

You now have your exit velocity target—the amount you need to earn from your photography to leave your day job behind and go full time. The rest of this article will focus on getting you to that exit velocity target. 

Monetizing Your Talent: Earning Income Through Music Photography

Finally, the part you came here for! How much can you realistically earn through music photography? 

The answer is, it depends. I don’t know any full-time photographers who make all their money from one source alone, so it's safe to expect you will need a few different income streams to support yourself. In this section, we’ll cover several examples with sample pay-out rates to see how they stack up.

• Live shows: arguably the hardest type of photography to monetize because so many photographers are willing to do it for free. If you’re working directly with the artist’s team it is possible to earn $250+ for a shoot. You can also still get paid by certain publications to photograph shows, although it’s increasingly rare. I’ll cover more on how to do this later on.

• Promo shoots and portraits: these are much easier to charge for as they require a more personal relationship with your clients since you’re usually the only photographer on the shoot. Rates vary, but an established portrait photographer can charge $500+ for a one-day promo shoot with a band.

• Touring: the holy grail of paid concert photography work. Rates for tour photography are usually calculated on a weekly basis and can range from $500 on the low end to $4,500+ for well established artists.

From these rates, you may notice a pattern emerging: earning enough to support yourself from music photography alone is very challenging. A hypothetical photographer touring for 3 months a year and covering 20 additional paid live shows and 20 promo shoots in a year may only bring in $45,000 pre-tax, which is below the average salary in all US states.

To supplement this income, you can also branch out into related areas like music videos and social media content creation—both of which can pay as well or better than photography work alone. For more on this, Jakob Owens has created some very helpful tutorials on music videos and getting started on that side of the business.

Many touring photographers also add to their income by taking on multiple jobs on the tour—like merchandise sales or marketing for the label. In 2024, musicians averaged $8.7 in merchandise sales per attendee. For a sold-out 500 cap venue, that’s $4,350, which makes the person selling the merchandise after the show a very valuable member of the tour. By combining music photography, videography, and other jobs on the tour you can make yourself an indispensable member of the team, while increasing your income. 

‍Additional Income Streams for Music Photographers:

‍If the numbers from music photography alone seem daunting to reach, you can explore other sources of related income to reach your exit velocity earnings target, including:

• Advertising and commercial usage: This isn’t an easy one to get, but it can be incredibly lucrative. For example, I’ve been offered up to $3,500 per photo by a major music brand for a usage buyout on a series of 5 images. More on this later.

• Book and print sales: Be careful with this one. There is a legal gray area in the US that allows you to sell 200 or fewer copies of a print categorized as “fine art” without permission from the subject(s) of the photo, but this doesn’t always hold up if a band decides to take legal action. Before you sell images of an artist it’s best to get their permission first.

• Personal content creation: life as a music photographer is super interesting and people will want to know more about what you’re doing all day. Documenting and sharing this content through a distribution channel like YouTube can allow you to build an audience and monetize your content through ads, although it can take a while to build this up as an income source. YouTube’s payouts range from $1-$7 per 1,000 video views.

There are plenty of other income sources you can explore in addition to the ones mentioned here—like other types of photography (corporate events can easily pay $350+ and my wedding day rate eventually reached $8,000 per shoot), licensing images to stock photography websites, refurbishing and flipping old camera gear, or developing and scanning film.

In the beginning, you will likely need to hustle and combine a few of the sources mentioned above to get going. As your portfolio of work and your network grows you’ll be able to increase your rates, more consistently book paying gigs, and consolidate the number of activities you’re doing to focus on the ones you enjoy most.

Getting Paying Clients For Music Photography

‍Now that you have a goal in mind and a roadmap for how to get there it’s time to put the pieces together to book paying clients for your music photography. In this section, we’ll cover:

• How to grow your network and profile in the industry
• How to approach clients for paid work

Music is one of the ultimate “who you know” businesses, so growing your network needs to be a priority. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, website, or professional photo email address yet (even if it’s @gmail.com) now is the time to set those up. This almost goes without saying, but you should also be highly active in your local music scene.  Photograph as many shows as you can and be the person who stays late and introduces themselves. Get the contact information for the artists but also for the venue owners, promoters, artist managers, and PR firms in your area and send them your photos. 

Every show you photograph is an opportunity to expand your network and create future opportunities for paying shoots, so don’t let them go to waste! At the end of your emails include 1-2 sentences that leave the door open for more work. If you offer portrait sessions mention these. If you know the manager has another artist coming to your town in 1 month offer to photograph them as well. This way, each show you photograph leads to the next one.

Here’s an example I used many times that you can copy and customize for your own emails:

‍“I also saw that your artist [ARTIST XYZ]  will be performing in [MY CITY] in two weeks. I'm available during the day and was wondering if they might be interested in shooting some portraits around the city before the show? ‍

‍I've been photographing musicians and concerts for the past [XYZ] years and have worked with artists like The Kooks, John Butler Trio, Odesza, and many others. A selection of my portrait work can be found on my website at this link.‍

‍If you like what you see in the gallery and are interested in discussing rates for a promo shoot please send me an email or give me a call at [MY NUMBER].‍

In addition to these follow up messages it’s a good idea to be proactive with your network building. Search for PR companies like Grand Stand and Lighthouse and browse their artist rosters to see if you’ve already photographed any of their clients. If you have, send the photos over and introduce yourself. Do the same with management companies (like Red Light Management, United Talent, and Panache) and record labels. On LinkedIn, search for titles like “music publicist” and “artist manager.”

To organize all of your new contacts I recommend setting up a basic database in Google Sheets or Airtable with their name, contact information, and any notes about artists they work with or where you met.

As you build these relationships you can start mentioning your rates in the conversations. This can be a daunting step, but to make music photography into your career you will have to make this critical switch from hobbyist to professional— for yourself but also in the eyes of the people you work with. As you do this, don’t be afraid of rejection or missing out because you asked to get paid for your work. This is exactly why you’re building a large network of contacts, so you can afford to hear “no” a few times to get to a yes. 

‍How Much To Charge For Music Photography

‍One of the most frequently asked questions in music photography is “how much should I charge?” The answer is unique to each photographer, but we do have some data to help you figure this out. The average rate from all 1,000 photographers listed on Photographer Tonight is $198 per shoot. But, the range goes from $20 for photographers just starting out to $1,500+ for established pros. 

For additional benchmarks, prolific music photographer Todd Owyoung has also created this fantastic public database of concert photography rates.

When deciding how much to charge, you can take a few approaches:

• Charge a flat rate per shoot or per artist
• Charge by the hour
• Charge by the image

In general, flat rates and hourly rates are the most common and I would recommend against charging by the image. Flat rates are also usually the easiest to negotiate for live shows while hourly rates can work well for extended sessions like portrait shoots or editorial work. For additional benchmarks on how much to charge, try searching the Photographer Tonight database for your home city and see what other photographers in your area are charging. 

‍How Much Does it Cost to Work as a Music Photographer?

‍Just as important as your income are the expenses associated with working as a full-time photographer. Your exact amounts may vary, but it’s good to know the general categories and amounts you can expect to spend to run your business.The example below is from a year when I was working extensively and didn’t make any large gear purchases but did rent equipment for several shoots.

• Photo equipment: $2,000
• Editing software subscriptions: $179
• Hard drives: $600
• Cloud storage: $288
• Business insurance: $322
• Website: $120
• Travel: $3,000
• LLC annual filing: $500

‍Total Expenses: $7,019

‍When putting together your target income goal don’t forget to account for these kinds of expenses. 

Booking High-End Photography Income

‍Once you’re consistently booking paid shoots you have the option to start branching out into increasingly lucrative areas, like advertising and commercial placements. These types of projects can be incredible sources of income, if you know how to get them. For reference, I spent 6 years as an advertising account manager and helped book several shoots where it was common to pay photographers $35,000 or more for 2 days on set. 

To break into this part of the industry you will need to make new connections with agency employees and possibly your own agent to represent you. To find ad agencies in your area, you can use a tool like Agency Spotter. From there, you’ll want to connect with people working in the production department, as art directors or creative directors, or in talent buying roles. You can also consider getting an agency to represent you, like Wonderful Machine or Giant Artists. 

While well-paying, these kinds of projects don’t come along often if you’re 100% focused on photographing music. But, if you build your connections over time, when the opportunity does arise you can ensure your name is in the conversation for these high-end contracts.

‍Honing Your Photography Skills

‍To make music photography your full time job you’ll also need to treat it like your profession and not just a hobby. There’s a bit of a “chicken and the egg” thing at play here where to become a full time music photographer you first need to act like one—even before that’s your reality.

Being a professional means putting care and attention into each step of your photography so you stand out in this crowded field. It starts with plenty of time spent in photo pits to hone your eye and camera skills, but it doesn’t stop there. Outside of the shows, you should focus on refining your editing skills, picking up new techniques, and learning from other photographers who are further along in their careers. Your ultimate goal should be to develop a style that’s unique and recognizable to you. As you grow, clients will start seeking you out for these unique elements that you bring to your work. 

In addition to developing your style you can also stand out in the ways you interact with your clients. Be the photographer who responds quickly to emails and consistently delivers photos on time. To help in this area we’ve previously covered tips for speeding up your editing workflow to make this easier. Great photos are good, but great photos delivered quickly will win over repeat clients.

I also highly recommend using a gallery hosting service like Pixiset to deliver your photos to your clients. Their free plan offers 3GB of cloud storage which is more than enough to get started.The way you deliver your photos is the way your clients experience your work and a Google Drive link or .zip folder often doesn’t cut it. Putting some thought and time into creating a great customer experience in this final step will also help you stand out. You already put in hours of time creating and editing your photos, don’t let that fall apart at the last second by delivering your photos wrapped in a sub-par experience.

From Free Shows to Paid Work

‍To put this all together, here’s an example for how to go from shooting shows for free to getting paid for your work. As a starting point, we’ll look at a photographer who has built a portfolio of work across 10 or more concerts, but hasn’t gotten paid yet for a shoot.

‍Week 1:

• Start with your “warm leads” and recontact the artists you’ve photographed before. If they work with managers or PR agencies contact them as well and share a link to your image galleries from their shows. 
• If you offer portrait shoots now is the time to pitch them to these clients. Use the email template from earlier in this post to get started. 
• If you don’t have a portrait portfolio yet do the first 1-2 for free or at a reduced rate so you have example images for future shoots.
• Search the Photographer Tonight publication database for magazines and blogs you can work with to expand your reach. Check out this article on working with publications for more tips on this.

‍Weeks 2-4:

• Start building your contact list in the industry. 
• Find and connect with local artists, managers, venue owners, promoters, and publicists. Share your portfolio and offer your services for upcoming events. The more specific you can be here the better. “I’m available to photograph the Weakened Friends show on February 17th” will get more responses than “I can photograph any upcoming shows.”
• Cover as many shows as you can and follow up with each artist and their team to pitch additional projects. Mention your rates so they know your work won’t come for free.

‍Months 2-6

• Continue all steps above and start prioritizing paying work over free shoots. 
• If your contacts aren’t trying to negotiate your price you need to raise your rates. A quick yes means your rates are too low.
• Continue up-leveling your shooting and editing skills. Focus on creating the best possible results for every artist you work with. Great images, delivered quickly, in an easy-to-view format is the goal. 

‍Months 6-12

• By now you should have a robust portfolio of images and a healthy and growing list of industry contacts who see you as a reliable and talented collaborator.
• At this point, you can start pitching your services for your first tours. These types of work come and go very fast so you’ll need to be proactive and start the conversation before the tours are announced. Don’t be afraid to offer additional services like merchandise sales after the show to get your foot in the door. 

The exact date ranges will vary for everyone, but the most important thing is to take the first steps now. To see a real-world example, check out the story of Boston-based photographer Brent Goldman—who got started with music photography in his 30s and 2-years later has multiple tours under his belt, worked with artists like Beck, Tame Impala, and Noah Kahan, and had his photos features in TIME Magazine, PEOPLE,  Rolling Stone, and more.

‍Wrapping Up

‍So there you have it! It may not be easy, but it is absolutely possible to make a living as a music photographer. By following the steps outlined here you can get started down the path of turning your passion into your livelihood.

Good luck, and happy shooting!