The band OK Go has posted an open letter to the world on their message board regarding the current state of the music business, but more specifically the current state of their record label EMI and how they and their label get paid. Here is one quote from the article.

Andrew Hetherington posted a Jim Marshall slideshow video on his blog nearly a year ago. Jim Marshall presents many of his famous images at Platon's studio in New York City to an invitation-only group. Most images in the presentation are from the music industry, some are other celebrities, and some document the civil rights movement and other moments in time.

An October 2009 press release for the festival states that "Lilith 2010 promises to be a much bigger summer festival than it was in the past, traveling for the first time overseas and celebrating a mix of international artists and local up-and-comers."

Here are the current list of confirmed artists for the 2010 tour.

I received an e-mail announcement for a music festival called Jam in the Dam taking place March 21-23, 2010 in Amsterdam. I wanted to share this for the benefit of all our European friends. You can also find more information at the CID Entertainment Jam in the Dam page for the festival. And of course the festival has its own Jam in the Dam website.

Several photos to bring blog up-to-date:

XXIV.IX.MMIX in Salt Lake City, Utah
URGEHAL (Norway)


SPEARHEAD (United Kingdom)

Strobist editor and ace lighting guru David Hobby has written the first in what will be a series of blog posts detailing his personal experience in selecting a new set of monobloc lights. Read the first installment titled "Mono Monday: Choosing the Right Big Lights" over on strobist.blogspot.com and keep looking back there every Monday for the next article in the series.

Tony Luna has written a multi-part business series on Photo.net that discusses in detail the lifecycle stages of a freelance photography job. The link below takes you to the introduction where you will find links to the remainder of the series. Each part is presented as a stand-alone article. The entire series is a great read, whether you are new to photography or a seasoned pro.

http://photo.net/learn/photography-business/freelance-photography-advice/

This new version of the Camera Raw plug-in replaces the original one that was installed with Adobe® Photoshop® CS4; Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0; and Adobe Premiere® Elements 7.0 software. Visit the Camera Raw page for a complete list of supported cameras.

The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2.4 update includes these enhancements:

This page contains links to the web sites or porfolios of legendary music photographers. These sites are packed with terrific photographs, knowledge from years of experience, and nuggets of wisdom you cannot get anywhere else.

• UPDATE 3: Added Robert John, a 25+ year veteran and new member of our community. Welcome Robert John!
• UPDATE 2: Added half a dozen more photographers. Credits go to Daniel Bedford and Jon Sievert for these.
• UPDATE 1: Added more than a dozen photographers. Credit goes to Lyle A. Waisman for providing these additions.

If you would like to see a link here to any specific music photographer, contact Walter or Will. Here's the current list:

PhotoShelter published a free report from a 2009 survey of 550 photo buyers. The results are interesting. Over 90% of buyers surveyed hated flash-based introductions on websites. Click the link below to read a summary of the survey. They provide a place where you can enter your e-mail address and PhotoShelter will e-mail a free 22-page PDF with all of the results. I know I'm going to be redesigning my website based on this information.

http://pa.photoshelter.com/mkt/photo-buyer-survey-2009

Peter Krogh has released the second edition of his enormously popular book, "The DAM Book". According to information in the book's website, the second edition is written almost entirely from scratch and is 492 full-color pages. It adds chapters for tools like Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom, and information on backups and data validation. Click the link to order it directly from Amazon.com.

Popview is the European platform for musicphotographers younger than 35. Every year, photo’s of the seven best photographers can be seen in an exhibition. The selection is done by an international team of photographers and curators.
The exhibition will open during the Eurosonic Noorderslag musicfestival (Groningen, Holland) in the Noorderlicht Photogallery (Groningen), and can be seen for a month.
One of the seven selected photographers is rewarded the Lex van Rossen Award; an annual prize for young musicphotographers.

[ The following text was written by Ed Greenberg, P.C., and is reproduced verbatim and with permission. ]

Google the above phrase or any of its permutations, e.g. “You’ll never shoot another job”, ”Now no one will ever hire you” and so on and you will get thousands of hits. The cliché, in one form or another, manifests when a creator, whose work has been infringed or whose bills have not been paid, has the temerity to express the intent to hire a lawyer.

Photo District News Online reports that Blender Magazine is folding. It is yet another victim of the down-turn in ad revenue due to the current economic conditions.