Is it allowed to use an M camera during a concert?

Dogman said:
Nostalgia. I remember Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jim Croce and other concerts being viewed through my trusty Vivitar 200mm pre-set lens. Nobody cared if you took pictures, danced in the aisles or hung around afterwards to talk to the band. It was a less formal time. Like the T-shirt says, "I might be old but I saw the best bands".

By the way, I have the distinction (along with a few thousand others) of having seen Taylor Swift in concert years ago before anyone much knew who she was. She was the first lead-in act for George Strait--he really had one of the best bands around at the time. I don't recall much about her performance but I do recall she was very gracious to her young fans, coming out at the end of the show and milling around in the crowd talking to them and generally being one of the group. Nostalgia again. I'm sure things have changed a lot since that concert.
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Yes, George Strait has a killer band. His guitar player, Rick McRae is a master musician. I met him when he was playing with an Austin friend of mine, mandolinist Paul Glasse. They used to have a weekly gig at a local Tex-Mex place, El Mercado.
 
This weekend, Seattle somehow survived the most impactful event weekend in its history. Two days of sold out baseball games (45K each) and two record setting sessions of the Taylor Swifties in the Seahawks stadium (72K each) both on the same days. In addition, there were two other gigantic events as well. We celebrated today (Monday) with the first rainfall in almost a month! We attended the prior record attendance record in the Seahawks stadium in 2011, for the U2 360° concert. Only 70K.
 
Whitten said:
Income from recordings has plummeted due to streaming, so artists endeavour to maximise income from playing live (sadly).
Also, Youtube and smart phones have had a big impact. You used to start a tour away from the critics, now your every note is recorded and uploaded to Youtube within hours of the first show. Musicians might experiment more, take ore risks, but now your every note is recorded and published to the world from the first date of a tour.
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I'll take a live performance over studio most of the time. Studio has been too controlled and no audience feedback. Get a copy of Jazz at the Pawnshop. Jazz at the Pawnshop - Wikipedia This recording has the feel of live, small joint/dive bar performances. Black Coffee by Johnny "Hammond" Smith has that feel, too, but is much more driving.

As for recording and uploading live performances it is pretty hard to get a good pirate recording and not get caught. Crap on cell phones just does not work. I did live remotes as a hobby for some years and if you want good ones you need permission and good gear set up right. No, I did not do famous bands but I did record "America's Best Bar Band" the Freak Mountain Ramblers. As one member laughingly said about the group, "We made a lot of money, but we never had any fun." This is not the best Freak recording I did but it is sort of OK. Here is a side of them playing at McMenamin's Sandtrap in Gearhart some years ago:

 
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plummerl said:
This weekend, Seattle somehow survived the most impactful event weekend in its history. Two days of sold out baseball games (45K each) and two record setting sessions of the Taylor Swifties in the Seahawks stadium (72K each) both on the same days. In addition, there were two other gigantic events as well. We celebrated today (Monday) with the first rainfall in almost a month! We attended the prior record attendance record in the Seahawks stadium in 2011, for the U2 360° concert. Only 70K.
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Glad I wasn't there. The bigger the spectacle, the more I'm inclined to run screaming in the opposite direction. Crowds bring out the worst in people. Can you tell I'm an old guy? ;)
Edit: Congrats on the rain! send some over to NM, please?
 
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plummerl said:
This weekend, Seattle somehow survived the most impactful event weekend in its history. Two days of sold out baseball games (45K each) and two record setting sessions of the Taylor Swifties in the Seahawks stadium (72K each) both on the same days. ...
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Apparently not in tune with popular culture, I was totally unaware of both.

Panem et circenses!
 
boojum said:
As for recording and uploading live performances it is pretty hard to get a good pirate recording and not get caught. Crap on cell phones just does not work.
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Most people consume the music on Youtube. There are thousands of clips uploaded after every show. It's not about 'bootleg' live albums.
The fact is, every note you play as a musician is now broadcast to the world on the same day. It's like having every photograph you make uploaded to Instagram, whether you are happy with the exposure, focus and subject matter or not. That's why so few musicians take risks now.
 
Whitten said:
Most people consume the music on Youtube. There are thousands of clips uploaded after every show. It's not about 'bootleg' live albums.
The fact is, every note you play as a musician is now broadcast to the world on the same day. It's like having every photograph you make uploaded to Instagram, whether you are happy with the exposure, focus and subject matter or not. That's why so few musicians take risks now.
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I understand how the musicians feel about this. But who would want to watch and listen to some crap recording of the event? And to make matters worse most folks hold the phone vertical rather than a cinema-like horizontal.

Perhaps I am too used to small venue classical, jazz and rock shows rather than a screaming mob. They didn't have mosh pits in the old dive bars. LMAO Yeah, my age is showing. But hanging out with 40 - 70 thousand people for a rock show does not thrill me. I did it in Oakland for the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour. The sound system was great. Mick was smaller than my pinky finger. About the size of my fingernail on that pinky finger.
 
boojum said:
I understand how the musicians feel about this. But who would want to watch and listen to some crap recording of the event?
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You are conflating two different things, which is going to confuse everyone.
Point 1: Musicians do not want their every note to be recorded and published worldwide, filmed by dozens of audience members on smart phones and uploaded to Youtube.
Point 2: An unstoppable trend is that audience members WANT to film shows and upload them to Youtube, and they generally get a lot of views.
How you feel about audio quality is completely irrelevant to those two points.

On from that, cameras....
Artists want to control their images. They often have their own embedded photographer on tour. Industry practice is to allow local press photographers to shoot the first three songs of a show (only). Artists therefore try very hard to ban (unauthorised) people from taking photographs at their shows. You can't effectively ban smart phones as they are primarily a communication tool, and almost everyone is carrying one.
 
Whitten said:
You are conflating two different things, which is going to confuse everyone.
Point 1: Musicians do not want their every note to be recorded and published worldwide, filmed by dozens of audience members on smart phones and uploaded to Youtube.
Point 2: An unstoppable trend is that audience members WANT to film shows and upload them to Youtube, and they generally get a lot of views.
How you feel about audio quality is completely irrelevant to those two points.

On from that, cameras....
Artists want to control their images. They often have their own embedded photographer on tour. Industry practice is to allow local press photographers to shoot the first three songs of a show (only). Artists therefore try very hard to ban (unauthorised) people from taking photographs at their shows. You can't effectively ban smart phones as they are primarily a communication tool, and almost everyone is carrying one.
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I addressed Point 1 in sentence one.

I just cannot fathom why folks would want to watch/listen to such crap captures. Maybe it is to be part of the hysteria of the moment. To somehow have import from an "I was there" statement. It is to me like a senseless selfie.

I do not know enough law, actually I know none, so I cannot comment on image rights. If the performers do own them they have the right to restrict use of them. This brings up the question of who owns the images if they perform in public as opposed to a closed venue?

But enough of this. I'm going to bed. It's late out here. ;o)
 
I only go to concerts in theaters and I m very disturbed by all the people holding their phone over their heads to record the event. So I decided to ask the policies and if recording or photography is allowed I do not go.
Short before Covid I attended a Joan Baez concert in a Theater in Milan and was very pleased by the fact the staff was very quick to stop anyone trying to hold the phone.

I admit years ago I also took photos during a Patti Smith concert in the short time during the first three songs when it was allowed.

Let’s enjoy the music, the event, the atmosphere and take photos if we like before and after 🙂
 
It seems like it's the venues that make the rules. Although I know artists agree with video and photography restrictions.
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Small compact cameras, a size that would fit in a pocket, are allowed at most of our events.
Professional type cameras (SLRs with interchangeable lenses) are not allowed, with the exception of official photographers covering the event. Video cameras and professional audio recording equipment are not allowed either.
 
raid said:
Taylor Swift is no Paul McCartney.
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I forget the exact year but in 2000 something my wife and I went to the Tokyo Dome to see Paul McCartney. When he walked out on stage everybody stood up and started clapping. From that moment on nobody sat down. A camera would have been useless unless you were 10 feet tall. Frankly nobody was interested in pictures, everyone was just living in the moment. It was magical!

The concert went on for a couple of hours, my hands were hurting from clapping so much. Then the encore started. His encore went on for about 3 hours - I’m not kidding! Name a song - he played it. He played the hits and he enjoyed doing it. To be honest, I don’t remember what I paid for our tickets but it wasn't crazy big money. Good times!

BTW - The best concert I ever went to was “Humble Pie” at the Rochester (New York) War Memorial in 1972 (I think it was 1972) Steve Marriott was amazing!

All the best,
Mike
 
I generally avoid these giant gigs. Doesn't matter if it's Taylor Swift, U2, Rolling Stones, whatever. Not a fan of something that huge and impersonal.

The stuff I go to is normally small enough that using a film camera - something small like a Pentax MX or Leica IIIf - isn't an issue. Normally I'll take a few shots in black and white so I've got something to print in the darkroom later and put on the wall, but that's it.

One of the best gigs I saw in recent years was Mogwai, the Scottish post-rock band, in the Southbank Centre in London. It was a seated gig, and no one minded the fact I was carrying a Pentax KX with a 135mm lens and shooting from my seat. I burned through a roll of Delta 3200 and printed my favourite for the wall:


Mogwai; 25th January, 2014. by Tony Gale, on Flickr

...I know I said "recent years". I didn't realise until I dragged that out of my Flickr account that it was nine years ago! Jesus.

Also, one of the dumbest "photographer at gig" stories I can think of was a few years before that, when I saw Martha Tilston - a quiet folk singer along the lines of Joan Baez - in a small venue in Cornwall. My girlfriend at the time decided she was going to use her Horizon to shoot some photos of the whole stage from her seat - and had it on the slow setting, where the swing of the lens takes something like 10 seconds and makes a horrendously loud clockwork noise throughout its travel. I could have murdered her.
 
Yokosuka_Mike said:
BTW - The best concert I ever went to was “Humble Pie” at the Rochester (New York) War Memorial in 1972 (I think it was 1972) Steve Marriott was amazing!
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I liked Humble Pie, too. I must have really liked them because I saw them three times, once in 1972 and twice in 1973, all in Boston.
 
Raid, you probably already know this, but you might want to bring a pair of ear plugs with you to the show. I don't mean to block out the music, but rather to reduce the volume. I know that I can no longer stand extremely loud music, and I have heard that her show trends pretty loud. I don't go to shows without a pair in my pocket anymore.
 
I saw Joan Baez playing live here in Pensacola on a small street during a festival. That was just great. Her voice was wonderful, and the small number of people on the street made it more personal. It was for free. I took some photos. Just souvenirs.
 
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