:: music venues: wake up + smell the new media ::

< rant >

as part of my ongoing love affair with the live music scene in portland (and as part of furthering portlandconcertphotography.com), i hit up the dan auerbach show @ the wonder ballroom last night.

i called ahead to make sure i was going to be good to get my camera in. kristin was kind enough to tell me she hadn’t heard of any restricting policies from dan auerbach and they let the artist determine the camera policy. she said she’d call me back if she heard different, i never heard back so i headed over giddy as a school girl.

seeing as i though i had nothing to hide i didn’t try to smuggle in my 5D. i actually got past the doorman before he called me back and stopped me, saying i couldn’t enter with my camera. anything with a detachable lens was considered professional and wouldn’t be allowed in.

i’ve heard this rap before, so i asked to talk to a manager, hoping against hope it would make a difference.

it didn’t.

he immediately picked up for his doorman and they both denied even knowing who kristin was. frustrated i asked him what dan auerbach’s camera policy was and he replied “no professional cameras” and when i pressed for details he explained “no cameras with detachable lenses. it’s a industry standard in this business.”

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dear industry,

if you’re concerned about people taking your intellectual property and posting all over the internet you’re failing miserably. essentially what you’re doing is degrading the quality of free publicity for you and your talent. why wouldn’t you want as much free quality material out there about your product? this is the new world and it’s time to wake up and embrace it. the public, now more than ever, will make or break your image.

not to mention you’re not allowing me to go in with my still camera and take quality pictures, but you’re allowing dudes like the two above to record entire songs in HD and then post them all over the internet. doesn’t this seem the least bit whack to you?

stop basing policies on technological specifications from 1990. times have changed and you’re lagging behind miserably.

love and kisses,
steve

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< /rant >