On this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) discuss marketing your lesson studio through photography. They explore how having high-quality, authentic photos can elevate the appeal of your music school across social media, websites, and other marketing channels.
In this episode:
- How to find the right photographer to fit your music school’s brand
- What you can expect to pay for a great photographer, or how you might be able to get one for free
- Ways that the investment in great photos can pay off and the many ways you can use photos in marketing, branding, and even to get positive reviews of your lesson studio.
John and Mandy emphasize the importance of capturing candid and genuine moments that represent the diversity and vibrance of music classes, explaining the impact of these visuals on potential clients. They offer insights into finding the right photographer, whether through trades or hiring, and share tips on maximizing the use of photos in studio decoration, online presence, and beyond.
Join our private Facebook group, “Performance-Based Music Programs and Rock Schools,” a community for like-minded professionals to connect and share insights.
Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:04.12)
this episode of Rock School Proprietor podcast, Mandy and I are talking about how to get great photos of your music school. We both agree that having great photos for your social media, website, and all your marketing is a great investment. We talk about how to find a photographer and the many ways that you can use these great photos in your studio.
John Kozicki (00:29.93)
School Proprietor podcast. I’m John Kozicki and we’re gonna be talking a very marketing specific topic today. We’re gonna talk about photos and photos that we can use in our studio for things like website, social media, email, brochures and Mandy you have fantastic photos. Yes. For your studio.
and I’m Mandy York.
Mandy York (00:53.29)
Yeah, this topic is important to me. I think it’s super important. It can be really effective to have great marketing photos for your studio.
I agree, I feel the same way. I spend a significant amount of money on great photos in my studio as well. What in your mind makes a great photo for a music lesson business?
Well, I think what you want to capture when you’re doing this, you want to capture candid photos, right? Personally, I like capturing my physical space, giving the viewer like a sense of the studio space. Capturing all the ages that we serve, right? I want to see photos of the babies as well as the five-year-olds.
Your studio.
Mandy York (01:48.578)
So we’re really representing all ages and then all classes too, right? You, just like you, you’ve got private lessons, you’ve got band classes. have mixed age classes and then I have like, elementary age classes. So I want to capture everything that we offer. so that when I go to use these wherever I use them, I’m able to give the viewers a really good picture of who.
We are right and you use the word candid and within your studio and your music together studio we’re talking about like the candid photos are always great because you’ve got Maybe a one-year-old with a huge smile on their face That’s I think candid in that sense is authentic. Yeah, right. So that’s showing
What you do and how you do it and it’s proof of concept, right? people know what to expect and Who doesn’t love a smiling toddler? Hey And I I take the same approach right so I don’t I mean I have had photos of students in studio And i’ve used those on my website, but most of the time now I spend my budget
Absolutely.
Mandy York (02:51.79)
It’s irresistible.
John Kozicki (03:09.806)
on photos from our concerts, live photos of the students. Because again, it’s that the end result, showing the end result, showing the proof of concept, this is what we are about, this is what we do, this is, when you come to my studio, you can envision your kid performing live, like all these other kids.
down.
All right, so how do you get those great photos is the question, right?
Yeah, I have had great luck with trade. I have traded services with photographers. that is something to think about.
Yeah, and that was in kind of in my in my notes about Because you hire a photographer is what you’re sure fire photographer the photographer comes into your studio, right? How long do they spend in your studio what like how long does it take for them to capture the photos that that yeah
Mandy York (04:15.626)
use. Yeah, I like to typically take a morning of classes. So they’re going to hit at least three classes. That way you get a number of age ranges and you know, these, these photos you can use for years. So you want a variety, right? So that everything isn’t, so it doesn’t get stale. you want a good library of photos. So in my classes,
these early childhood classes, right? We’re all sitting on the floor. The kids are moving through the space. It is kind of easy for a photographer to come in and, you know, just stay along the perimeter. Oftentimes these little ones don’t really quite notice. It’s going to be different for your bigger kids. They will be very aware that a photographer is there, but to get those candid photos, they’ll just on the perimeter, getting down at the kid’s level. Maybe when we do a fam jam.
get all the instruments out and play, they can really get in the middle and take pictures of kids. that’s how I like to do it. The photographer comes in and spends a few hours with us. And then we’ll do a separate session in the afternoon for my after school elementary age kids.
You have to talk to the photographer and give them instructions on what you want.
So because I’ve done these really great trades, I am drawing from families that participate in my class.
John Kozicki (05:44.963)
So yeah, the photographers that you’re using are people who are in your studio already or have been in your studio, which is a great resource, I think.
Yes, they get it. They know what’s coming next. They know that, I’m going to be the fam jams coming, and I’m going to get down in there and get all these great shots of kids playing with percussion instruments. They know that there’s a lullaby at the end, and they’re going to snap pictures of cuddling babies and moms. I put out a call. Hey, I’m looking to do a trade. I need a photographer. DM me, right? And then go out and look at their websites.
you know, and pick someone that you think is going to be a good fit.
How often do you have a photographer come in and take photos?
I have done this three times. Three times in 10 years. okay.
John Kozicki (06:45.294)
Okay, so you know every few years. Every few years. Yeah, you’re getting a lot of mileage out of these photos. okay. So I have done, as I mentioned before, I’ve done, I’ve had a photographer come in and shoot photos that were very posed, right? Years ago I was redoing the website and I really wanted…
Yep.
John Kozicki (07:12.736)
some in-studio stuff. And so we had five or six students come in and it was very posed. And the photographer still got great stuff. So that was really good for the website. What I’ve also been doing, and I do this at least once a year, sometimes more, is I’ll have a photographer come to our concerts and capture, again, as I said, capture those live shots. Now that,
is a little trickier in my opinion. To hire a concert photographer, excuse me, photographer, they have to understand what it’s like to shoot in that lighting. the photographer that I use is great in that setting. I’ve used other photographers in concert settings that were still good, but it’s a little trickier to shoot in that lighting. So I think with that,
more specific setting, you have to find the right photographer, which is a little tougher. And very similar to you, I tell them, well, I guess you said your photographers know what to shoot. They kind of have an expectation of what’s gonna happen in the class. So for me, I’ve had to give some instructions to my photographer, like try and get a picture of every kid.
different angles, but he’s fantastic and so. Yeah. I mean, I’m going to brag a little bit. yeah. Of my concerts are pretty good. Yes. But that’s, mean, that’s mostly credited to my photographer. So.
You get great photos.
Mandy York (08:58.942)
And because you’ve chosen the right photographer. Sure. Right? He before this particular setting, like you said.
Yes. Yeah.
Question that I have now we’ve talked about how this is so important for both of us and I think again that authenticity and the proof of concept and it’s a representation of what we really do in our studios, so I believe that Prospective clients and prospective students pick up on that authenticity What about using say stock photos or AI?
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (09:36.268)
Yeah. AI. Yeah. coming from, you know, I’m a licensed teacher, right? I’m a licensed music together. And when you, when you have a licensed program, you are often provided with lots of kind of stock images. and some of them are good. And I do use some of those, assets that they, they give me as a, as a licensee.
Let’s talk about the stock photos first.
Mandy York (10:05.816)
But it is just not the same. And I am pretty certain everyone out there, if you’re looking at a website, if you’re scrolling through social media, you can probably tell which is the stock and which is the authentic photo for the most.
most part, I agree. And I’ve seen some great stock photos of kids playing instruments. And a few in particular, in particular, I still remember in my mind, but I’ve also seen them multiple times used by different studios. And will a prospective client see as many music studio websites as I do? Probably not. So there, think there are some great stock photos out there.
Yeah.
John Kozicki (10:54.094)
Not bad. No, but again that authenticity and for someone who’s just starting their studio if you don’t have the resources yet to to have a photographer come in well, yeah, then You may have to utilize those. Yeah, and that’s that’s a good idea What about AI because that’s a thing now to mm-hmm, what are you you know, I don’t want to Hit on a hot topic here hot button issue. But what do you think about?
You know,
John Kozicki (11:24.084)
using AI to generate some photos of happy kid playing a guitar.
Right. I have not used any AI images, photos. I’ve had other center directors send me like, hey, look at this funny thing I did. You know, I tried to get AI to create something and this is what it generated and it didn’t hit the mark. So I have yet to see AI generated photos that I feel are any good.
Yeah, I don’t know. mean, but I’m, maybe I’m not the person to ask, you know,
I’m devil’s advocate here on this one though. You know, I think don’t you think AI is continually getting better?
yeah, I’m yes. I’m saying I haven’t seen anything yet. Yeah. But I, I wouldn’t be opposed to it once the technology is there. And like you said, if you are just starting out, then yeah, use those stock images and the AI stuff. And even with someone that as someone that has a library of, you know, personalized photos, I still mix in some stock images. So there’s value in this stuff.
John Kozicki (12:41.294)
Well, I think you’re talking about stock photos as licensed photos that you receive from Music Together for the most part. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, so they’re stock, but they’re customized for your program, which I think is more specific for what you do. I don’t want to get too into the AI thing. I’m on your team. I agree. think, again, going back to the authenticity of
of what we’re providing and
Because we do something at least for us we have in-person studios because we do something that’s very regional specific right where there’s a geographic location that we we we draw our clients from There’s a good chance that someone jumps on our website and they’re like, I know that kid You certainly wouldn’t get that with AI The only other point that I’m gonna make about AI is
You know
John Kozicki (13:44.858)
As artists, which we are, if we aren’t willing to pay for the expertise of another artist, a photographer, what message are we sending to our prospective clients about what we offer? You know? So that’s my last point on AI.
Yeah, that is a great point.
John Kozicki (14:13.996)
Let’s talk about hiring photographers. You had mentioned the photographers that you work with are former clients. From your classes. And you also mentioned that you’ve done trades. Because my questions were going to be, how do you find a photographer? How much should you expect to pay?
former occurrence.
John Kozicki (14:42.99)
Do you have an idea of what it would cost for you to hire a photographer?
Mandy York (14:53.998)
Well, I’ve only done the trades. the last photographer I hired, I did for an outdoor amphitheater concert. And that was about $250. And that’s a great deal.
$250 for how long?
An hour-long concert an hour-long concert and I can’t even tell you how many photos just she shot and then Edited a bunch and sent them. Well, you know gave them to me through a portal. Yeah You know it when when you’re working with your own families like your own clients Yeah, they’re also very generous to it, right? Like they want you to succeed and the programs that you’re offering are important to them so they
probably maybe put a little more heart into it. Sure.
sure. Well that you know that’s you you bring up a good point about putting heart into the work to capture those photos. Not all photographers are the same and I think that’s important for someone who’s going to hire a photographer to shoot photos for your music studio to understand. You’ve got portrait photographers, you’ve you’ve got
Mandy York (16:00.878)
No.
John Kozicki (16:17.334)
I don’t even know all the different types of but I know what I like. What are the photographers that specialize in taking family photos in nature? That might not be right. That might be right for what you’re looking for because I would expect that for most of us, we’re gonna be taking photos of students either in our studios, indoor setting.
Lots of that.
Mandy York (16:45.056)
Movement. Yeah, you know, these are moving targets that photographers to capture.
There you go. So, finding the photographers, that’s, I think that’s great advice. Look in your studio first. There are a lot of digital photographers out there these days and it seems to be a very common side job for moms. And most of us are dealing with a lot of parents. So I agree. Search in your studio first, but
definitely look at their portfolio to figure out is what they’re resonating with you and can you envision them capturing your students in the same manner, right? As opposed to.
going to a photographer and saying like, hey, I want this, can you do that? Because again, photographers are artists, they all have their own style and they all have their own way of doing things. So I think it’s best to seek out a photographer because you like what their work looks like as opposed to saying like, I want a photographer to do this thing, this very specific thing and then hire a photographer and ask them to do that.
Definitely.
John Kozicki (18:09.184)
So costs, I’ll share, since I haven’t done trade with photographers, I’ll share a little bit about what I’ve paid for photographers. I think on the low end, I’ve paid a couple hundred bucks. And I believe that was for some in-studio photos, like the very, you know, the posed stuff where I had students come in and the photographer shot pictures of them in the studio.
Couple hundred bucks, I think I got maybe 100 photos from that.
I’ve used a couple of different live photographers and rates varied between $200 $400.
I ended up with good photos, but not like the photos that I get now. The photos I get now, I definitely pay a premium, I think, for the photos that I get. The photographer I use now for the live photos, this, again, he is, he’s a live concert photographer.
I pay between $500 and $700 for him to come out and shoot the concerts for the day. Kind of pricey. It used to be $500, his day rate is now $700. But for that money, he will shoot, in a day we’ll have probably 10 to 12 bands perform. And…
John Kozicki (19:49.24)
he’ll give me maybe a thousand photos of those, of all those kids performing. So yes, it’s expensive, but as you said, you get so many photos and you can use them for years. I have at this point, I have photos for just about anything I need from all the times I’ve had him shoot my students in my concerts.
Do you use your photos for anything other than the marketing materials, like website and social media or email?
I use them in my studio. I’ve decorated the studio with wall decals and window decals. Yeah. that’s it. We did a cool thing once. Early on, I had a photographer come in, and she shot a couple classes, gave me the photos, and then she offered photos to the
parents too. She kind of set up a site where they could and I think she maybe charged 15 a shot. So if she got a really great you know photo of Joey with the maracas. Yeah. Mom could that was kind of a neat add-on for the parents too. They liked that.
Yeah, yeah, I have done similar. We’ve got photos in the studio printed out and framed. We’ve got some larger photos printed on canvas. So again, we decorate the studio with the photos. I thought about doing that thing that that you mentioned where the photographer would offer those photos to the parents. We could never crack the code because my photographer takes so many photos.
John Kozicki (21:38.218)
And he doesn’t really want to deal with that back end. He doesn’t want to deal with all of those parents. Instead, he’d rather just do the work and give me all the photos and then I can do what I do with them. So we’ve never done that thing where parents pay 15 bucks or 20 bucks and they get the photos of their kids. I think that’s a good idea though. What I have done with the photos though in the past,
is I’ve used them after the concerts to send to the families and I’ve said, Hey, we got some really great shots of your kid. Here you go. Here are the photos. You can print them off. You can do whatever you want with them. By the way, if you want to leave us at Google review or a Facebook review, here’s a link. And so that’s been a really good way also.
to get some reviews by giving those photos to the parents.
Yeah, that’s a great idea. like that a lot. And like you said, if you’re giving these photos to the parents, they’re posting them on social media. Yes. And then someone else is seeing that and saying, I know her. Right. mean, it is a great way to spread word of mouth. Really, really great.
Yep, exactly. And again, these are pro shot photos. So not like the photos that the parents are getting with their phone. So they’re going to be super impressed with how sharp they look. Recap. Email, website, social media, brochures. can use these. Like you get so much mileage. At least I do. I get so much mileage out of these photos.
John Kozicki (23:31.852)
The authenticity again, I think is super important. You could find, I mean, you’re getting these photos for free. You’re just basically trading for your services. I think that’s fantastic. Like what other, I can’t see a better investment in having great photos. But you might be able to find a photographer if you can’t trade for a couple hundred bucks, a few hundred dollars. I think it’s so worth it.
Yeah, I mean, we wear a lot of different hats, right? And so marketing can be cumbersome sometimes just like all the other pieces, but this is something absolutely worth the investment that, you know, the small thing is going to have a big impact. Big impact. think, you know, I guess I’m going back to the why. Why should you do this? Right? Why should we be doing this? Because there’s a lot.
of options out there. There’s a lot of studios. There’s a lot of kids activities, right? And if, if I’m browsing your social media pages, your website, and I get like what I feel is a real glimpse inside what you’re doing, like it’s effective. Like people see that. if I’m just seeing like a couple of kids, like playing your guitar in an empty room, you know, like it’s not giving me a full picture.
That’s the idea here. Yes, giving people the full picture of what you do, who you are.
And there, yeah.
John Kozicki (25:04.686)
And there are subtle clues in all of these photos that I’ve seen from your studio from my studio Whether it’s in the background of your photos. It says music time of Milford. Yeah, Right, that’s real in the background of my photos is a Michigan Rock School banner behind the drum set or a kid wearing a Michigan Rock School t-shirt while they’re performing That’s that authenticity, right? So again, you know, it’s real. Yep
So you know it’s right.
John Kozicki (25:34.306)
So much value. Also, I don’t even remember the last time I had to go online and type a Google image search for like kid playing the drums, right? And then sift through however many and then end up on a stock photo site. it’s like, hmm, hemming and hawing. Is it worth paying $20 for this photo? You know, it’s like, I just go to
my hard drive that I have my photo archive on and I’ve got literally thousands of photos to choose from.
Yep. Totally worth the investment guys.
Yeah. So marketing photos, hire a photographer. You will not regret it. And that’s going to wrap this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Thanks, John.
John Kozicki (26:27.15)
If you have topic suggestions or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info at RockSchoolProprietor.com. We would love to consider those for the show. You can also join our private Facebook group, Performance-Based Music Programs in Rock Schools. Great people over there. Show notes and transcripts for this and all episodes can be found at RockSchoolProprietor.com. I’m at rock.school.proprietor on Instagram. If you’d like to connect with me there, you can also find me on LinkedIn as John Kozicki.
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