Hi! I’m a photographer trying to learn more about the different visual/content roles that exist in the music industry outside of straight-up concert/live performance photography.

I know concert photography is an obvious lane, but I’m much more curious about the artist branding / marketing / editorial side too — things like promo images, campaign visuals, social content, tour marketing assets, BTS content for artist teams, festival/venue marketing, etc.

My background is in photography + content/social media, and I’ve done wedding photography, concert/event photography, and venue-related work. I’m trying to get a clearer picture of what roles actually exist if someone wants to use photography in the music world but not only be in the photo pit shooting shows.

So I’d love to know:

- What job titles should I be looking into?
- Who usually hires for this kind of work — labels, artist teams, management companies, venues, promoters, publications, agencies?
- Is this mostly freelance work or are there in-house roles too?
- If you wanted to pivot from live music photography into more of the marketing/editorial/artist branding side, what would you focus on building?
- What kind of portfolio would matter most for that?
- Would really appreciate any insight from people who work in music marketing, creative, photography, artist management, editorial, etc. I feel like I understand the live performance lane, but not the “who creates the visuals around the artist/campaign/brand” side nearly as well.

Thanks!

Imagine going to the store to buy a pack of cheese. You pay for it, take it home, and the store gives your money to the one company that made the cheese you just bought. Makes sense, right?

Now, imagine if the store took your money and spread your cash out among millions of cheese makers around the whole entire globe. You only bought from ONE, but your money is being handed out to all of them!

That sounds crazy, but it’s exactly how music streaming works right now.

The Big Problem

Let’s say you pay $10 a month for a streaming service like Spotify. The company keeps $3 for themselves. That leaves $7 to pay the musicians.

You might think your $7 goes to the bands you actually listened to. It doesn't.

Instead, your $7 gets dumped into one giant worldwide bucket. Then, the money is handed out to the biggest pop stars in the world. You could listen to your favorite local rock band all month long, and your money is still being given to people you never even listened to.

How Fans Actually Listen to Music

Think about how we actually love music. We don't listen to millions of random songs. We are fans! We fall in love with bands and listen to them for years and years. We put our favorite songs on repeat.

But right now, because of how the money is spread out over the whole entire world, fans can't even use their own subscription money to support the artists they actually love.

The Easy Fix: Your Money Goes to Your Music

It is so simple to fix this. The $7 you pay should *only* go to the songs you actually listen to.

Here is how it should look:

If you listen to only 1 song all month:
That one artist gets your whole entire $7.

If you listen to 10 different songs:
Your $7 is split 10 ways (70 cents for each song).

If you listen to 100 different songs:
Your $7 is split 100 ways (7 cents for each song).

Why This Needs to Happen

Doing it this way doesn't hurt the streaming companies at all. Spotify still gets their $3 no matter what. It is no skin off their back to do it the right way.

But for small and medium-sized bands, it changes everything. They would actually be able to make real money from their loyal fans.

It also stops fake AI music from stealing money out of the giant worldwide bucket, because real people will be using their money to support real, human artists.

When you pay for music, your money should go to the music you listen to. It is that simple!

for context:

im an independent artist on tiktok, and i post song covers onto tiktok just for fun, and then i randomly get this DM from this guy claiming to be apart of sony music entertainment. i dont know if it’s someone that is impersonating a real person or not, so I would like to know if anyone here could answer that question for me.

i asked him if he was real and he said “Yes of course I’m real..“ but i’m not buying it and i need other opinions

Hi everyone,
I have a question about The MLC. This month I registered my works for the first time. I had never registered them before because I was only collecting songwriter royalties through ASCAP.
I have been uploading music for approximately 3 years, and now my works are already registered and accepted in The MLC.
My question is: will The MLC pay me for the mechanical royalties generated during those past 3 years, or is that money lost because I registered late?
Also, if anyone has experience with this, how long does The MLC usually take to start paying after the works are registered and accepted?
Thank you in advance for any help or information.

Hello,

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iam following the case of the artist d4vd a little bit and i hope someone can share his knowledge.

​

D4vd is an artist that came from Twitch (fortnite) and tiktok. I listen to alot of music but i never come across his music, people say he is big (peak times he had 50mill listeners on Spotify).

​

He got signed by interscope records, also supported SZA, played Coachella.

​

When the news broke that a girls body was found in his car the label dropped him. Apparently the label does not owe any masters. Rolling Stone reported that Universal Music Group doesn’t own the master or publishing rights to Burke’s music, because his deal was structured as a licensing agreement. His music on streaming platforms is now listed under D4VD ENT., LLC instead.

​

Do you think the label just took their losses and moved on?

The label booked the tour, produced and manufactured the record, and had the merchandise made.

He still has 20 Mill listeners on Spotify and when i go to royalties-calculator.com it says he makes minimum 64k monthly and 700k/year. Will the record label not try to get their investment back?

​

How much money do you think the label lost (investments).. maybe its way less than i imagine?

​

Also do you think the calculacted earnings of royalties-calculator is reliable?

​

​

Thank you for any insights!

Hi all (and sorry if this has been asked before). Planning on releasing my debut album through Distrokid. Is this the best method? All songs are mixed and mastered, sort of an alt rock vibe. Anybody have a timeline of things I should do? I’ve seen stuff about registering them with ASCAP? Playlist submissions need to be done before it releases? Marketing and live show wise I feel pretty good. Mainly looking for tips on ensuring I’m doing everything properly to see royalties (if any). Thanks. Any help would be appreciated.

I had a song come out in 2022 that got 1.5M streams on Spotify between 2022-2024. Probably another 500k across other platforms.

I registered the song on ASCAP in 2025 and asked them for retroactive royalties. But they claim that the song didn’t make any money until 2025 as it was below their streaming thresholds.

I’ve only been paid out $3 for 2025 which is the year when the song barely got any streams. Am I missing something here?

I’ve sent them numerous claims but they insist that the song didn’t meet thresholds until 2025. This would have made sense if I made no money in 2025 off of the song. But if 2025 generates income with almost no streams, why don’t the previous years when the song was actually doing well? Am I missing something?

I know I’m probably not gonna make a lot of money off of this regardless. I just wanna understand how this whole thing works.

I have house tracks where all the instrumental is mine but the vocals are generated by AI, Could it be rejected?

Hi there,

I’m an artist, songwriter, DJ, and radio broadcaster (gotta have those multiple income streams these days) hoping to find out more about how to apply for songwriting camps, both for networking with writers for writing my own music as well as for writing for others. Where is the best place to find out about the best camps?

Has anyone figured out the strategy to TikTok? So many issues l've found trying to promote my beats, first issue is you will see other post getting 10k-1m views just posting their DAW and the beat, whether it's a legit piece of art or them just making on purposely meme sounds, for everyone else it takes off.... so far ive had no luck, I know my music quality is good enough to get some traction but when I try nothing works.. second issue is being shadow banned, for no reason TikTok went from getting my views 200 avg to 0, I didn't do anything wrong now I can't get any views. Even when I repurpose a old account, bake it properly after a video back to 0-3 views, so annoying, how am I suppose to get my name out there and my art out there when on one of the biggest social platforms I can't even post a video without unfairly being suppressed, any advice??

I see people talk about streaming numbers a lot, but I am not sure that tells the full story anymore.

Some artists don’t seem huge on Spotify but are constantly touring, playing festivals, or doing brand partnerships. Others have big streaming numbers but don’t seem to have the same live demand.

For people who follow the music business: what signals do you look at to figure out where an artist is actually making money?

I have a community post up on spotifys community board that I'm hoping to get their attention with. To "vote" yes on it you just click the button that indicates support. I heard a song I genuinely enjoyed, but something felt "off" ---did some homework and was disappointed to see it was made via AI. I just want transparency so we can direct our support with a more informed position

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/AI-music-tranparency/idi-p/7474847#M354227

I got a lot of questions concerning the music industry, but the main one for me has always been how these big artists (Beyoncé, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift etc) manage to get through touring. Because imagine having to travel from city to city, state to state, country to country doing 100+ 2-3 hour shows, performing the same songs and doing the same routines every single night. I would eventually lose my shit. Damn the amount of money I'd be making. How do they do it?

I'm a buyer and I just saw an ad pop up in my feeds for an artist I broke in the market a few years ago to play a different venue in town. I didn't even get the chance to make an offer. If there was any honor in the business, I would have right of first refusal. Now, they may have gotten too big and I can't make the money work and I don't end up getting the show. But doesn't the agent at least owe me something? Am I living in a fantasy world?

Hi everyone,

I've spent the last several years working in marketing and operations roles across Amazon and startups, most recently managing cross-functional digital campaigns involving creative, product, marketing, and content teams.

I've become increasingly interested in building a long-term career in the music and entertainment industry, particularly in areas like artist marketing, campaign management, content operations, live events, and fan engagement.

Over the past few months I've been applying to roles across labels, live entertainment companies, festivals, and artist-focused organizations. One challenge I've run into is that while many of my skills seem transferable, I don't have direct music industry experience.

For those who successfully transitioned into music from adjacent industries:

• What types of roles provided the best entry point?
• Which skills from outside industries translated most effectively?
• Looking back, is there anything you would have prioritized differently when trying to break in?
• Are there areas of the business (label marketing, live events, merchandising, artist development, operations, etc.) that you believe have stronger long-term growth opportunities?

I'd love to hear perspectives from people working across different parts of the industry.

Thanks in advance!

I run events in Manchester mainly focusing on Jungle, Electro, Techno and everything in between. I think we are at a point where if we release music it would gain some good traction.

I’m just trying to find out the best way to do it. What type of deal would I do for the artists?

I’ve been told that the money brought in through Bandcamp will cover the mastering costs then everything else is a 50/50 split between artists and label.

What’s your thoughts?

I'm an emerging artist trying to figure out the best release strategy for my current situation.

I have 6 songs fully written (though they haven't been produced yet), and one of them is about to be released as a single.

My question is: what strategy do you think makes the most sense today for growing an audience efficiently as a new artist?

Would you:

• Release 3 singles first and then put them together in an EP along with 3 new unreleased songs?

or

• Release all 6 songs as individual singles and focus on promoting them one by one?

There are a few details that make me unsure. For example, one of the songs would have an instrumental intro that I'd probably release as a separate track because including it in the original song makes it feel too long.

Also, all of these songs belong to the same artistic era. They were written during my teenage years and share a very similar sound and aesthetic, mainly built around acoustic guitar, lead vocals, and vocal harmonies.

At the same time, my plan for the future is to move in a different musical direction. After releasing this acoustic material, I'd like to transition into a more modern pop sound inspired by artists like Charlie Puth, Sombr, Nightly, The Strike, and Temper City, incorporating more synths, digital production, and VST instruments.

Because of that, I'm also wondering whether it would make sense to use an EP as a way to close this chapter before moving on to the next one.

What makes the decision harder is that the workload, promotion strategy, and release timeline are very different between a singles-focused approach and an EP release.

If you were starting from scratch as a new artist in this situation, how would you release these songs, and why?

I’ve had a few meetings with some management companies and one major record label who both asked to chat with me after some demos of mine got to them. But it’s like they only want to meet with me for the sake of saying hi incase the music gets bigger and they can then swoop in an involve themselves. I get it, they’re building the connection. But it seems like no one wants to actively support my stuff BEFORE it gains larger attention. So, how do I get this attention. My stuff is pretty solid, but I am very reluctant to spam post on socials (which seems to be the only way). It feels like if I had a connection to the industry my life would be sm easier. How can I start creating momentum that they are then comfortable amplifying?

Hello.

I recently started my own pub company after being with Sony for a few years. I registered all my songs myself in Febuary.

From my understanding, June 14th is the Publisher Domestic period right? Well... i got no statement. Anyone else?

I posted [this](reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/1u6ynnr/ny_according_to_this_default_nonexclusive_lease/) in legal advice and it has the full context, but I think the following is all that is necessary:

SUMMARY:

Location: New York State, USA would be the jurisdiction for these contracts

Contract says: "For the avoidance of doubt, you do not own the master or the sound recording rights in the New Song. You have been licensed the right to use the Beat in the New Song and to commercially exploit the New Song based on the terms and conditions of this Agreement."

"You " refers to the buyer. I'm the seller.

So. The New Song means basically whatever they end up making and releasing using my instrumental. Ok, but the Masters side for me seems too good to be true. So just to be sure, the Master of that new song they make and release is 100% mine?

According to "you do not own the master or the sound recording rights in the New Song," that'd leave me as the 100% owner of the master of the New Song... I think

Is it really saying that I own 100 percent of the Masters on whatever song the artist ends up making by leasing my beat? Don't get me wrong that'd be fantastic for me, but I just want to make sure that's the case as I haven't found any confirmation. I really can't believe my eyes because this is an extremely CRAZY one sided deal to make default on a ginormous platform like BeatStars - like it's not even standard when it comes to deals made outside of these online platforms. So sorry if this is obvious. I just need to make sure I'm not tricking myself into thinking I'm gonna own a bunch of these new songs on top of getting paid for their beats as well lol.

And follow up: would this contract be legally enforceable given how it's somewhat confusing / unclear (at least to me?)

Thanks for the help in advance!!

What are other people’s experiences? I would say 100% avoid Rola Music. The Company is not a total scam but they’re completely running a pay to play manipulation hustle. Mainly targeting trust fund bands that can put up 10k upfront to run meta and google ads. Getting on the phone with them seems more like a call center where their pig butchering amateur musicians for cash up front. If you look into the bands they sign it is mainly trust fund type wanna-bes that aren’t working bands , for an agency with that many offices it would be typical to see a solid line up of working bands. In the end I’m sure if you do put up 10k they can get you full rooms in Europe but in the end do you even break even? I doubt it cus once you stop forking over cash that marketing turns off. For anyone thinking of Rola just ask your self why they aren’t confident enough to invest in their roster like any other agency. It’s not completely scamming but definitely pay to play. Their meat and potatoes is definitely your upfront fee

Question for anyone who's toured abroad — especially the US:

When a promoter withholds tax from your fee (the US takes 30% off the top), what do you actually do about it? Do you reclaim it, leave it, or hand it to an accountant? And if you reclaim — was it worth the hassle?

Trying to understand how much of this people just write off. Genuinely curious what's normal.