Response to Taylor Swift’s agent

After my public response to Taylor Swift’s open letter to Apple, I didn’t quite expect the phenomenal reaction it received.  I knew it was provocative, I knew it was going to be risky and could possibly harm my chances of getting access to other concerts in future..  but it needed to be said – out loud.  When I thought hard about the possible consequences, and restrictions on my access to future work, I asked myself “What point is there in going to work if I can’t be paid for it – yet everyone else gets to benefit from my labour?”.  The answer?

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An open response to Taylor Swift’s rant against Apple

* Updated : Following a statement released by Taylor Swift’s UK agent, I have responded here*

Dear Taylor Swift,

I have read your open letter to Apple where you give your reasons for refusing to allow your album ‘1989′ to be included on their forthcoming Apple Music streaming service.  

(For reference: http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor)

I applaud it. It’s great to have someone with a huge following standing up for the rights of creative people and making a stand against the corporate behemoths who have so much power they can make or break someone’s career. 

A word of advice..

Some may know that I’m very protective of my copyright.  It is extremely important to me, and it’s no secret that I actively protect and enforce it.  Why shouldn’t I?  I work hard to produce my work, and if somebody thinks it’s worth making use of, then it’s only fair that I should be paid accordingly.  In a Utopian society, it might be nice to think that everyone works for free and helps each other, but lets face it – life isn’t like that. The Government tax us, we have to pay to heat our homes and put fuel in our cars to get to our workplace…  therefore it’s impractical, if not impossible to genuinely work for free.

So, recently I have been testing a new image search engine designed for photographers who wish to call in the lost license fees from their work which has been misappropriated.  

As a ‘small’ test, I tried a batch of just over 5,000 images from my library.  After a few hours, my report was ready, and to my horror, there were over 3000 matches.

That is a frightening statistic.  60% of my sample batch of images were found online.  Now, that’s not to say that all 60% were infringing..  there were some images that looked very similar..  EXTREMELY similar..  taken by a photographer at the same event, stood right next to me..  thankfully though, I can still recognise my own images and can discount these from the infringing batch…

Daughters of Davis – on tour with Sam Bailey NOW!

Daughters of Davis are made up of two sisters, Adrienne & Fern Davis who play music with an acoustic Soul/Folk vibe, and are  about to embark on a set of UK dates supporting chart topping singer Sam Bailey.

Brit Floyd – Discovery World Tour 2014

A Chas Cole for CMP Entertainment presentation

NEW FOR 2014 BRIT FLOYD

The World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Show
DISCOVERY WORLD TOUR 2014

A SPECTACULAR NEW LIVE PRODUCTION FEATURING MUSIC FROM ALL FOURTEEN PINK FLOYD STUDIO ALBUMS PLUS A DAZZLING NEW LIGHT AND LASER SHOW

What lurks beneath…

While catching up on Facebook earlier this morning, a friend of mine had posted a snippet of his blog which appeared in my newsfeed..  When I finished the end of his blog post, I was greeted by a cluster of links to other news stories:

The offending clump of links…

Depeche Mode – Delta Machine at the LG Arena

Depeche Mode in concert at the LG Arena, Birmingham – 27 January 2014.

Images can be licensed from the main site.

All images © Jason Sheldon / Junction10.net.  All rights reserved.

Image © Jason Sheldon / Junction10.net

Image © Jason Sheldon / Junction10.net

Heidi Browne Crowned The Open Mic UK Winner for 2014!

Following in a long line of prestigious Future Music winners, Heidi Browne from Market Drayton, Shropshire has been named as the winner of the national Open Mic UK competition at The NEC in Birmingham!

Heidi was crowned champion in front of a capacity crowd at The NEC in Birmingham on Saturday night taking home a recording and development deal. Her own original song G.I.R.L.F.R.I.E.N.D won over the judges making her the winner of the 21 and over age category and the overall winner of Open Mic UK 2014.

Maroon 5 open their UK Tour at the LG Arena, Birmingham

The photos in this blog are protected by copyright.  No unauthorised use of any image is permitted.  Images can be licensed for editorial use here.

© Jason Sheldon / Junction10.net / @junction10

The Classic Rock Show – European Tour 2014

Chas Cole for CMP Entertainment presents

“The classic rock fan’s ultimate live juke box!”

The Classic Rock Show – (PR Photo: © David Munn)

After the success of their critically acclaimed 2013 UK tour and as a testimony to the immense popularity of classic rock music, The Classic Rock Show is back – bigger and even better!

Featuring the music of The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Meat Loaf, AC/DC, Supertramp, The Who, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac & much, much more!