Amyl and the Sniffers prove they can level a room with nobody in it. Recorded at Soundpark Studios in Melbourne in October 2021 for the celebrated “KEXP at Home” series, the Australian punk firebrands rip through a set built on the snarling energy that has turned them into a global phenomenon, with vocalist Amy Taylor at her magnetic, wonderfully chaotic best. The setlist leans on their then-recent album ‘Comfort to Me’, with “Guided By Angels,” “Hertz,” and “Security” delivered at ferocious intensity, Dec Martens’ gritty riffs locking in with the driving rhythm section of Bryce Wilson and Gus Romer. An interview with KEXP’s Troy Nelson rounds it out, offering a window into the band’s creative process and a pure, unapologetic dose of rock and roll.
Punk Firebrands Amyl and the Sniffers Tear Through Hometown KEXP Session in Melbourne
Introspective Folk-Pop Newcomer Jessie Mazin Goes Acoustic on ‘untitled.jpeg (Live From Medium Sized Backyard)’
Jessie Mazin is pulling the curtain back on her debut, trading studio polish for something quieter and closer. The rising folk and alternative pop voice has released ‘untitled.jpeg (Live From Medium Sized Backyard)’, a live acoustic set out now via Atlantic. The release follows the runaway success of her Medium Sized Backyard performance, which racked up more than 1.7 million views and made the case for hearing these songs stripped to the bone.
The EP captures a raw, intimate side of Mazin’s work across stripped-back takes on three songs from ‘untitled.jpeg’, including the breakout “the man with money in his hands,” plus “the precipice” and “alive.” She also folds in a reimagined cover of Calvin Harris’ “How Deep Is Your Love,” reshaping a dance-floor anthem into something hushed and personal.
The original ‘untitled.jpeg’, produced by Carlos de la Garza and Adam Melchor, follows Mazin through political unrest, heartbreak, and the emotional disorientation of early adulthood, all filtered through the lens of a generation raised online. Having grown up on the internet, she channels that digital coming-of-age into every track, charting the move from online adolescence to adult reality. The title nods to both the permanence and the performance of life lived on screen.
Critics caught on fast. Ones to Watch called the record a meeting with Mazin at her most vulnerable and her most unapologetic, bold and willing to divide. The live versions only sharpen that intimacy, letting her voice carry the room.
untitled.jpeg (Live From Medium Sized Backyard) Tracklist:
- “the man with money in his hands” (Live from Medium Sized Backyard)
- “the precipice” (Live from Medium Sized Backyard)
- “alive” (Live from Medium Sized Backyard)
- “How Deep is Your Love” (Live from Medium Sized Backyard)
- “the man with money in his hands”
- “the precipice”
- “alive”
Opera Royalty Renée Fleming and Banjo Master Béla Fleck Unite on ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’
Two virtuosos from opposite ends of the musical map have found common ground in the hills of Appalachia. Renée Fleming, the five-time Grammy-winning soprano, and Béla Fleck, the 19-time Grammy-winning banjo master, have released their collaborative album ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’, out now via Thirty Tigers. Timed to the United States’ 250th anniversary, the record digs deep into America’s musical heritage across mountain songs, haunting ballads, and folk hymns, pairing Fleming’s expressive voice with Fleck’s banjo and a roster of bluegrass and country’s finest.
The roots of this run back years. Fleming and Fleck first floated the idea of an Appalachian album when they met, then let it sit until 2023, when they finally pulled it off the back burner and into the studio. “I was fascinated by the long, trans-Atlantic history of American and Appalachian folk music from an early age,” shares Fleming. “The themes of loss in songs like ‘Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies’ were perfect for my teen melancholy. I have always felt that the direct simplicity of this tradition is universal.”
Fleck, who produced the album, came to the music just as early. “I was thrilled to join Renée on a project to honor her love of folk music,” he adds. “Like her, I have been hearing that music since I was young, and the folk boom (or folk scare as some call it) put it front and center in New York City where I grew up. Pete Seeger and Joan Baez were superstars there. The music is deceptively simple, but there is enormous depth. And because the music is simple, it can be manipulated and expanded very naturally.”
Recorded in Nashville with Fleck producing, the album surrounds the duo with world-class players and a guest list to match. The pair announced the project in March with lead single “In The Pines,” featuring 11-time Grammy winner Dolly Parton, then followed last month with “My Epitaph,” featuring three-time Grammy winner Aoife O’Donovan. Vince Gill, Jerry Douglas, Sierra Hull, and Sarah Jarosz all turn up across the tracklist. The focus track, “The Scarlet Tide” with Vince Gill, lands as one of the record’s warmest moments.
The collaboration already hit the stage this month, with debut performances at Nashville’s historic Grand Ole Opry and Charleston’s Spoleto Festival, backed by Fleck’s all-star band My Bluegrass Heart and joined by Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan. More dates follow through the year, including marquee nights at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall, with album guests dropping in along the way.
The Fiddle and the Drum Tracklisting:
- “He’s Gone Away / Storms Are on the Ocean”
- “In The Pines” (feat. Dolly Parton)
- “The Fiddle and the Drum” (feat. Jerry Douglas)
- “My Epitaph”
- “The Scarlet Tide” (feat. Vince Gill)
- “The Cuckoo” (feat. Jerry Douglas)
- “Blackest Crow” (feat. Aoife O’Donovan)
- “Scarlet Ribbons”
- “he’s gone away (reprise)”
- “Pretty Bird” (feat. Sierra Hull & Sarah Jarosz)
Renée Fleming with Béla Fleck Tour Dates:
June 19, 2026, Telluride, CO, Telluride Bluegrass Festival
August 20-22, 2026, Chautauqua, NY, Chautauqua Institution
September 22, 2026, Los Angeles, CA, Walt Disney Concert Hall
December 3, 2026, New York, NY, Carnegie Hall
Video: Psych-Rock Marvels King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Close Lisbon Residency with ‘Live in Lisbon ’25’
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard turned the final night of their Lisbon residency into a full-blown showcase of everything that makes them one of the most relentless live acts going. On May 20, 2025, the Australian psychedelic outfit led by Stu Mackenzie capped a three-day Portugal stay with the third night at Coliseu dos Recreios, a historic 2,800-capacity room in central Lisbon. The set pulled from recent releases including ‘Flight b741’ (2024) and ran through their signature blend of garage rock, psychedelia, and krautrock motorik, with Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig’s guitar riffs riding Michael Cavanagh’s drums and Mackenzie’s vocal intensity into one long, hypnotic jam. Captured professionally and released as part of the official bootleg ‘Live in Lisbon ’25’, the recording catches the group at full strength, and it ranks among the standout European tour moments of the year.
Bruce Springsteen, Public Enemy, Mavis Staples Lead Two-Night New Jersey Salute to 250 Years of American Music
More than 20 legends are converging on the Jersey Shore for one of the most ambitious concert bills of the year. Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us takes over Oceanfirst Bank Center at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, on June 4-5, a two-night celebration of 250 years of American music tied to the country’s upcoming July 4 milestone.
The lineup reads like a survey of the whole American songbook. Jon Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesney, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Dropkick Murphys, Shemekia Copeland, Valerie June, Keb’ Mo’, Nils Lofgren, Darlene Love, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Trischka and Sister Sadie, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty and the New Breed Brass Band, Stevie Van Zandt, and Jimmie Vaughan are all on the bill.
Stevie Van Zandt’s The Disciples of Soul handle house band duties, anchoring the whole sprawling thing.
The format is built for discovery. Each performer takes on landmark songs pulled from American music history, with blues, bluegrass, rock, hip-hop, folk, jazz, country, and gospel all represented. Narration sets up every performance, framing the artist, the song, and the genre before a note plays. Hearing Public Enemy and Mavis Staples and Dropkick Murphys under one roof is the kind of programming that makes a night unforgettable.
The shows lead into the June 7 opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, and the man behind both is plain about the mission. “Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us is a journey through American music history,” said Robert Santelli, executive director of the Springsteen Center and the concerts’ executive producer. “The concerts reflect everything the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music stands for: the power of music to bring people together, the rich and diverse treasury of American music as a mirror of our national culture, and the inspiration to think about our shared history in these divisive times.”
How Olivia Rodrigo Captured a Generation
In January 2021, a 17-year-old former Disney actress released a piano ballad about driving past an ex’s house, and the world stopped to listen. “Drivers License” charted everywhere at once. Within its first week, the song reached number one on the Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music global song charts, and it sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 for over eight weeks, making Olivia Rodrigo the youngest artist in history to achieve that with a debut single. Chart records tell part of the story. The bigger story is what came next: Rodrigo became, almost overnight, the voice a generation had been waiting to hear.
What made her connection so immediate was authenticity in an era that prizes it. In a time where authenticity and relatability reign supreme, Rodrigo stands out as an artist who speaks directly to the experiences and emotions of her fellow Gen Zers in ways previous generations of artists haven’t quite captured. Her debut album Sour, fueled by hits like “good 4 u” and “deja vu,” landed like a diary read aloud. As Allmusic’s Heather Phares put it, Rodrigo nails what it’s like to be 17, heartbroken, and frustrated, and updates the traditions of the sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued songwriters before her for Generation Z. For young listeners, her songs feel like personal diaries set to music, dominating Spotify playlists, TikTok trends, and late-night scroll sessions.
The deeper magic is how she gives shape to anxieties her audience can’t always name. Sour blew up in 2021 because it connected with Gen Zers traumatized by a pandemic, school shootings, and an uncertain economic future, and she channels that internal trauma in subtle ways, like the insecurity of comparing herself to others on social media and always coming up short in “jealousy, jealousy.” She articulates heartbreak, mental health struggles, and the pressures of social media in songs like “jealousy, jealousy” and “brutal,” helping her audience navigate modern anxieties. The industry took note: the 2022 Grammys gave Rodrigo three awards, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album for Sour.
She also showed range fast. Two years later, her sophomore album Guts took a more humorous and unserious approach, proving she’s more than a single-mood artist. Where her debut centers on her first teenage heartbreak, Guts navigates the aftermath — new exes, new flames, new insecurities, with a perspective that has shifted significantly. She stepped firmly beyond the music, too, using her platform pointedly: she advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive rights, condemning the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade during her 2022 Glastonbury performance. The artist who sings about heartbreak speaks to a generation’s politics as well.
Put it all together and you see why Rodrigo matters beyond the streaming numbers. She arrives at the exact moment her listeners want someone to scream along with — fluent in their humor, their aesthetics, and their hope. She resonates with Gen Z for her relatability and vulnerability, while also finding a fanbase among older listeners. In a music industry hungry for its next defining artists, Olivia Rodrigo answers the question simply by being honest. She captures a generation by sounding exactly like it.
What Spotify’s Most-Streamed Songs Reveal About How We Actually Listen (Updated For June, 2026)
There’s a number at the top of Spotify’s all-time chart that says everything about modern music: 5.4 billion. That’s how many times The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” has been streamed since November 2019, making it the most-streamed song in the platform’s history. But the real story isn’t the winner — it’s the shape of the whole list. Here’s the all-time top 20:
- “Blinding Lights” — The Weeknd — 5.436B (Nov 2019)
- “Shape of You” — Ed Sheeran — 4.936B (Jan 2017)
- “Sweater Weather” — The Neighbourhood — 4.641B (Dec 2012)
- “Starboy” — The Weeknd with Daft Punk — 4.563B (Sep 2016)
- “As It Was” — Harry Styles — 4.440B (Apr 2022)
- “Someone You Loved” — Lewis Capaldi — 4.336B (Nov 2018)
- “One Dance” — Drake with Wizkid & Kyla — 4.264B (Apr 2016)
- “Sunflower” — Post Malone & Swae Lee — 4.263B (Oct 2018)
- “Perfect” — Ed Sheeran — 3.976B (Mar 2017)
- “Stay” — The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber — 3.944B (Jul 2021)
- “Believer” — Imagine Dragons — 3.858B (Feb 2017)
- “I Wanna Be Yours” — Arctic Monkeys — 3.812B (Sep 2013)
- “Heat Waves” — Glass Animals — 3.782B (Jun 2020)
- “Yellow” — Coldplay — 3.782B (Jun 2000)
- “Lovely” — Billie Eilish & Khalid — 3.772B (Apr 2018)
- “The Night We Met” — Lord Huron — 3.765B (Apr 2015)
- “Birds of a Feather” — Billie Eilish — 3.752B (May 2024)
- “Closer” — The Chainsmokers & Halsey — 3.739B (Jul 2016)
- “Die With A Smile” — Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars — 3.719B (Aug 2024)
- “Riptide” — Vance Joy — 3.698B (May 2013)
The first thing that jumps out is that streaming rewards the slow burn, not the explosion. Look at “Sweater Weather” at number three — a 2012 song by The Neighbourhood that was never a conventional chart-topper, yet has quietly amassed 4.6 billion plays and holds the record for the longest active chart streak at over 2,000 consecutive days. The same pattern repeats with “I Wanna Be Yours” (a 2013 Arctic Monkeys album cut), Coldplay’s “Yellow” from 2000, and Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met.” These aren’t songs that won the week; they’re songs that became permanent emotional furniture, resurfacing through TikTok, playlists, and word of mouth for a decade. Streaming totals measure endurance, and endurance favors the moody, the melancholy, and the romantic far more than the explosive pop smash.
That distinction matters because it reveals a gap between cultural dominance and cumulative success. Consider “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars: released in August 2024, it sits at number 19 all-time despite being one of the youngest songs on the list by years. It reached a billion streams in just 96 days — the fastest ever — and held the global number one for a record 201 days. That’s blistering, concentrated dominance. Compare that to a song like “Riptide,” which has needed more than a decade to accumulate a similar total. Both succeed, but in completely opposite ways: one is a wildfire, the other is a glacier. The all-time chart flattens these into one ranking, which is why the weekly and single-day records (where Taylor Swift utterly dominates, with “The Fate of Ophelia” pulling nearly 31 million streams in a single day) tell a very different, more momentary story about what’s actually capturing attention right now.
What ties it all together is that a small handful of artists have learned to do both — and they’re quietly colonizing the list. The Weeknd places six songs in the current top 100, tied with Bruno Mars; Ed Sheeran has the staying power of a catalog artist with “Shape of You,” “Perfect,” and “Photograph” all in the upper reaches. These artists treat streaming as a long game, releasing songs engineered for the playlist economy rather than the radio week. The lesson buried in these twenty songs is that the streaming era didn’t just change how much music we consume — it changed which music wins. The biggest hits are no longer the loudest ones, but the ones we keep quietly coming back to, year after year, until the billions pile up.
What the Highest-Grossing Tours of All Time Actually Tell Us About the Music Business (Updated For June, 2026)
Here’s a number that should stop you in your tracks: $2.07 billion. That’s what Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour grossed by the time it wrapped in December 2024 — making it the first concert tour in history to cross the $2 billion line, and roughly double the gross of the second-biggest tour ever. But the eye-watering top number is almost the least interesting part of this story. Dig into the full list of the highest-grossing tours of all time and you’ll find a map of how the entire music industry rewired itself over the last twenty years. So let’s dig in.
First, the list everyone wants — the Top 20 of all time
Here are the twenty highest-grossing concert tours ever recorded, by actual gross:
- Taylor Swift — The Eras Tour (2023–2024) — $2,077,618,725 — 149 shows
- Coldplay — Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022–2025) — $1,524,423,018 — 223 shows
- Elton John — Farewell Yellow Brick Road (2018–2023) — $939,100,000 — 330 shows
- Ed Sheeran — +−=÷× Tour (2022–2025) — $875,700,000 — 169 shows
- Ed Sheeran — ÷ Tour (2017–2019) — $776,200,000 — 255 shows
- U2 — 360° Tour (2009–2011) — $736,421,586 — 110 shows
- Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band — 2023–2025 Tour — $729,700,000 — 129 shows
- The Weeknd — After Hours til Dawn Tour (2022–2026) — $693,269,933 — 110 shows
- Harry Styles — Love On Tour (2021–2023) — $617,325,000 — 169 shows
- Pink — Summer Carnival (2023–2024) — $584,700,000 — 97 shows
- Guns N’ Roses — Not in This Lifetime… Tour (2016–2019) — $584,200,000 — 158 shows
- Beyoncé — Renaissance World Tour (2023) — $579,879,268 — 56 shows
- Rammstein — Stadium Tour (2019–2024) — $563,000,000 — 141 shows
- The Rolling Stones — A Bigger Bang Tour (2005–2007) — $558,255,524 — 144 shows
- The Rolling Stones — No Filter Tour (2017–2021) — $546,500,000 — 58 shows
- Coldplay — A Head Full of Dreams Tour (2016–2017) — $523,033,675 — 114 shows
- Metallica — M72 World Tour (2023–2026) — $517,500,000 — 70 shows
- Roger Waters — The Wall Live (2010–2013) — $459,000,000 — 219 shows
- AC/DC — Black Ice World Tour (2008–2010) — $441,900,000 — 165 shows
- Metallica — WorldWired Tour (2016–2019) — $430,000,000 — 143 shows
Now let’s talk about what’s actually going on here.
The whole list is basically a 21st-century phenomenon
Look at the dates. Every single tour in the top 20 took place in the 2000s or later — most of them in just the last decade. That isn’t a coincidence, and it isn’t only because ticket prices went up. It reflects a structural earthquake in how musicians make money. In the 21st century, tour revenue skyrocketed as record sales collapsed and musicians began relying on live shows for their income. The album used to be the product and the tour was the advertisement. That relationship has flipped entirely. Today the recorded music is the advertisement, and the tour is the product — the thing fans will actually pay hundreds of dollars to experience in person.
The first tours to break $100 million only did so in the late 1980s — Michael Jackson’s Bad World Tour and Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour, both running 1987 to 1989. From there it took roughly two decades to reach half a billion (the Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour in 2007), and then a stunning acceleration: $1 billion in 2023 and $2 billion in 2024, both courtesy of Taylor Swift. The curve isn’t linear. It’s exponential.
The Eras Tour is a statistical outlier, not just a winner
It’s tempting to file Swift at the top of a normal ranked list, but the gap is so large it deserves its own category. The Eras Tour grossed about 36% more than Coldplay’s tour in second place — but the more revealing figure is the per-show average. The Eras Tour averaged roughly $13.9 million per show across 149 shows. In its 2023 calendar year alone, it averaged a barely believable $17.3 million per night.
Compare that to the workhorses of the list. Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road grossed $939 million but needed 330 shows over five years to do it — the longest schedule in the top 20 — averaging “only” $2.8 million a night. Swift made nearly the same money Elton did across his entire farewell, but did it with fewer than half the shows. That’s the difference between a tour and a cultural event that bends the economy of whole cities around it.
There are two completely different ways to build a billion-dollar tour
Once you stare at the per-show numbers, the list splits into two philosophies.
The first is scarcity and scale: a small number of enormous, premium-priced nights. Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour grossed $580 million from just 56 shows — an average above $10 million per night, second only to Swift. The Rolling Stones’ No Filter Tour pulled $546 million from a mere 58 shows. These are short, stadium-sized, high-ticket runs that treat each date as an event.
The second is endurance and volume: more dates, lower average, sustained over years. Elton John (330 shows), Ed Sheeran’s ÷ Tour (255 shows), and Roger Waters’ The Wall Live (219 shows) all ground out their totals over long campaigns. Sheeran is the fascinating case here — he frequently tours as essentially a one-man show with a loop pedal, keeping production costs radically lower than a stadium spectacle, which means his gross and his profit are likely much closer together than they are for an act hauling a giant stage around the world.
That distinction matters enormously, because none of these figures are profit. A tour like U2’s 360° Tour — sixth all-time at $736 million — famously carried one of the most expensive stage productions ever built. Gross revenue and money-in-pocket are very different animals, and the list can’t show you the second one.
The old guard is being quietly pushed down the chart
For eleven straight years — from 1995 to 2006 — the highest-grossing tour of all time was the Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge Tour. The Stones set the all-time touring record three separate times (1990, 1995, and 2006), more than any act in history, and along with U2 they’ve topped the year-end chart eight times each. For decades, the very biggest tours were the domain of legacy rock acts: the Stones, U2, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Springsteen, Metallica.
That world hasn’t vanished — Springsteen, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Rammstein, and AC/DC all still sit in the current top 20 — but look at who now occupies the very top. Swift, Coldplay, Sheeran, The Weeknd, Harry Styles, Beyoncé. The summit has shifted from heritage rock bands doing victory laps to contemporary pop and pop-adjacent superstars at their commercial peak. The decade-by-decade tables make this vivid: the 1980s and 1990s tops were Pink Floyd and the Stones; the 2020s table is led by Swift and Coldplay by a country mile.
Why the dollar figures are also a little bit of an illusion
One honest caveat that the raw ranking hides: these are nominal dollars, and inflation does real work over a 40-year span. When you adjust to 2025 dollars, some older tours leap up the table. U2’s 360° Tour, sixth on actual gross, adjusts to over $1.05 billion — vaulting it past Coldplay into what would be second place. The Stones’ A Bigger Bang adjusts from $558 million to $867 million. Even Pink Floyd’s 1987 Momentary Lapse tour, which grossed $135 million in its day, is worth around $350 million in today’s money.
The adjusted numbers tell us something the headline list obscures: the gap between eras is smaller than it looks, and a handful of legacy tours were, relative to their time, every bit as dominant as today’s giants. What’s genuinely new about Swift isn’t that she sold a lot of tickets — it’s the sheer per-night intensity of demand, which even inflation can’t explain away.
So what does all of this actually mean?
A few things, taken together.
Live performance is no longer a supplement to the music business — it is the music business at the top end. The biggest artists now earn the overwhelming majority of their income on stage rather than from streams, which pay fractions of a cent per play.
The economics reward two opposite strategies equally well: be a scarce, premium event (Beyoncé, the Stones today) or be a relentless, efficient road machine (Elton, Sheeran). What doesn’t work anymore is the middle.
And finally, the ceiling is still rising. It took from 1989 to 2007 to go from $135 million to half a billion, but only seventeen more years to quadruple that to $2 billion. There’s no obvious reason to think the Eras Tour will hold its record as long as Voodoo Lounge held its. The next number that stops us in our tracks is probably already being planned.
How to Take a Good Press Photo on a Budget
Here’s a hard truth nobody likes to say out loud: before a single journalist reads a word about your music, they’ve already seen your photo. That one image is doing the heavy lifting — it’s the first impression, the handshake, the “should I bother pressing play?” And for emerging artists especially, press shots translate an important first impression about you and your music to many of the people you’ll meet in the industry. The good news? You do not need a five-figure budget or a fancy studio to nail it. You need a plan, a bit of daylight, and the discipline to avoid the obvious traps. Here’s how to get a press photo that actually lands, without emptying your bank account.
Start with the story, not the camera
Before you think about gear, figure out what you’re trying to say. Your press shots should tell the narrative of you and your music, so start by identifying the traits and imagery that characterise your brand or image as an artist or band. Folk record? Think open fields and soft light. Sinister electronic project? An abandoned warehouse may be more in keeping. The mood comes first; everything else serves it.
You don’t have to hire a pro — but be smart about who shoots it
Hiring an experienced photographer is the safest route if you can swing it, but don’t panic if you can’t. If you’re on a budget or don’t feel comfortable with a random person shooting your content, then don’t feel pushed — as long as you’ve done your research, are well-organised and have access to a decent quality camera, you can still take awesome photos by yourself. If budget is tight, get resourceful: look around at local colleges for photography students or ask around your music scene to see who’s recommended in your budget. A great option is finding emerging talent — find an amateur or aspiring music photographer through art schools, local photography clubs, or online groups; they might work for experience or exposure, but always credit their work and offer to cover expenses.
One golden rule: don’t shoot it yourself
This is the one place to hold firm. If you’re using a friend rather than a pro, keep the concept simple and give them the clearest instructions that you can, and do not, under any circumstances, try to take your own band photos — you need to be in the picture, and your camera timer isn’t the gamechanger you think it is.
Let the light do the expensive work
This is the single biggest free upgrade available to you. Skip the harsh midday sun and shoot during golden hour — the hour after sunrise or before sunset. During golden hour the sun is low in the sky, so you won’t get harsh shadows or blown-out highlights; instead you’ll get a soft, natural glow that makes skin tones look amazing. Compare that to noon, which sits directly overhead and creates raccoon-eye shadows under brows and chins, squinty expressions, and washed-out skin. One word of warning: golden hour moves fast, the light changes quickly, so show up early and be ready to shoot. For portraits specifically, arrange your shot so the sun is to the side rather than using front lighting, or you’ll get a squint. If you’re stuck shooting midday, open shade, a diffuser, or even sheer cloud cover will soften the contrast.
Skip the brick wall
Please. Avoid the “brick wall” scenario — it’s been done a million times, it’s boring and predictable, and it doesn’t take much more effort to find a different wall with a bit more colour or personality. And remember, your press shots are a visual representation of your band, so find a venue that complements your music. Many great locations are free — a stretch of coastline, an interesting alley, a friend’s characterful kitchen.
Get a range of shots in one session
Don’t walk away with one usable frame. Give the media options between close-up details and full-length shots — close-ups where face details can be seen tend to perform better on social media, whereas wider shots are better for editorial use. Build a quick shot list before you go so you leave with profile pictures, headers, and a hero image all in one go.
Keep it sharp and publishable
Editors have a low tolerance for blur. For publication, the photo shouldn’t be too arty, blurry or out of focus — good press photos also give you a higher chance of getting run alongside your review. And once you’ve got your hero shot, lean into it: it’s a good idea to stick to one photo for a while so people start to recognise the artist.
Sweat the tiny details
The cheapest fix of all is just paying attention on the day. Make sure there’s nothing in band members’ pockets — if your phone, wallet, or purse is making a bulge, it doesn’t look so good in the pictures. Thirty seconds of checking saves an editing headache later.
Refresh them more often than you think
Finally, don’t let your shots go stale. If your last shoot was three years ago, it’s time for an update — you should refresh with every album cycle, or every year or so, whichever comes sooner.
A press photo doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective. Nail the concept, chase the good light, dodge the clichés, and come away with options. Do that and you’ll have an image that opens doors long before your music gets a chance to. Now go catch that golden hour.
The Best Live Music Pubs in Belfast Right Now
There’s a particular kind of magic that happens in a Belfast pub when the fiddle starts up in the corner and the whole room leans in. No stage, no ticket, no setlist — just a chair pulled up, a pint poured, and music that’s been passed hand to hand for generations. This city doesn’t just host live music, it lives and breathes it — and there’s never been a bigger moment to prove it. This summer, from Sunday 2nd to Sunday 9th August 2026, Belfast takes centre stage as it proudly hosts Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the world’s biggest celebration of Irish music and culture. It’s only the second time the festival has ever come to Northern Ireland, and the first time for Belfast, with over 800,000 people expected across eight days of street performances, pub sessions and stage concerts in Ireland’s only UNESCO City of Music.
But here’s the thing: you don’t need to wait for August, and you don’t need a Fleadh wristband to feel it. From lively pub sessions to headline concerts, the Fleadh will transform Belfast into a carnival of sound, colour, culture and craic — yet the pubs below are already doing exactly that, week in and week out. Think of this as your warm-up, or your year-round answer to “where’s the real session at?” If you want the craic, the community, and the goosebumps, here’s where the locals actually go.
The Duke of York (Cathedral Quarter)
Start here. The Duke of York is the most photographed pub in Belfast — a narrow, mirror-walled bar down a cobbled alley — and it hosts trad sessions several nights a week. The quality is consistently high. Tucked down Commercial Court with benches along the alleyway outside, it’s the beating heart of the Cathedral Quarter. One word of advice: get there early; it fills fast and standing room is all you’ll get if you arrive late.
Kelly’s Cellars
If the Duke is the postcard, Kelly’s is the soul. On a Cathedral Quarter Saturday afternoon you’ll find cover artists everywhere, but Kelly’s Cellars is where you come for the real thing — the kind of traditional session that puts you inside the tradition rather than outside looking in. One of the oldest pubs in the city, and one of the most honest.
Maddens Bar
Berry Street’s Maddens is a purist’s delight, easy to spot thanks to the huge mural wrapping its side. Pouring what is arguably the city’s best pint, Madden’s welcomes musicians from 9pm each evening — or, as the owner puts it, they normally start landing in around then. World-class trad musicians regularly pull up a chair in the corner without ceremony. No theme, no concept, no Instagram aesthetic — just one of the most authentic traditional music pubs in the city.
Fibber Magees
For sheer reliability, it’s hard to beat Fibbers on Great Victoria Street. It’s one of the few places that holds traditional Irish music in Belfast 7 nights a week and, for that reason, it’s very popular (you’ll do well to nab a seat). Wooden panelling, an open fire, and a bit of Titanic memorabilia thrown in for good measure.
The Dirty Onion
Set in one of Belfast’s oldest buildings with a sprawling beer garden, the Onion is where traditional music meets big night out energy. The tip from regulars: their early evening sessions can often be truly memorable — less crowded, with fabulous musicianship.
The John Hewitt
A pub with a conscience. Run by the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre and named after the poet, its music programme is one of the best in the city — regular trad sessions, plus folk, jazz, and singer-songwriter nights. The atmosphere is warm, the pints are well-kept, and the crowd is a genuine mix of ages and backgrounds.
McHugh’s Bar
Housed in what’s reckoned to be one of Belfast’s oldest surviving buildings, McHugh’s has exposed brick walls and dark wooden fixtures throughout — atmosphere by the bucketload, and live music to match just a short walk from the Cathedral Quarter.
Lavery’s
For something bigger and rowdier, head to Bradbury Place. Belfast’s oldest family-owned pub, with over a century of service and still the one everyone ends up in, Lavery’s runs live music Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. As the locals say — if you’ve never been, you’ve never really been to Belfast.
The Sunflower
And for the folk and roots crowd, The Sunflower is an absolute must — a warm, inviting space with a dedicated following for its folk and roots nights and a strong sense of community.
A final pro tip for chasing sessions on the night: if you’re looking for pubs with live music in Belfast tonight, your best bet is to check their Facebook pages, since session times shift and the best ones are often unannounced. And if you’re planning around the Fleadh — most Fleadh events are free to attend, including outdoor concerts, street sessions and competitions, so book your beds early and let the city do the rest. Now go follow the sound of a fiddle down a cobbled alley. That’s where Belfast keeps its heart.
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann takes place in Belfast, August 2–9, 2026. For more information visit fleadhcheoil.ie, visitbelfast.com, and discovernorthernireland.com.