How to choose music art prints

Key answer

Music art prints put instruments and players on the wall — guitar, piano, organ — as photographic still life rather than concert posters. Browse the Music collection when you are ready to buy.

AT A GLANCE — Music
9 works · 7 artists · 6 sizes · from £52.50
Most represented	David Drake, 3 works
Shape of the collection	landscape 1 · portrait 5 · square 3

Instruments, players and the objects of listening

Nine works by seven artists — one of the most dispersed edits on the site for its size, which means considerable variation in approach between one picture and the next.

The subjects divide roughly into three: the instrument as object, the player in performance, and the paraphernalia of listening. They are different kinds of picture and they do different things on a wall.

Nine works, and the split that matters

Music is a subject rather than a style, so the useful division is not by genre but by what is actually in the frame: the instrument, or the person playing it.

The instruments. Vintage Blue Organ, Sleek Black Guitar and Musician's Piano Reflection are object studies — the thing itself, photographed for its form. These behave like architectural or still-life work on a wall: strong shape, clear structure, readable from across a room, and no narrative to follow.

The players. The Pianist, Stylish Musician with Guitar and Crescendo put a person in the frame, which changes the job entirely. These are human moment pictures that happen to be about music, and they carry the same weight in a room as any portrait — more presence, more to look at, and less tolerance for being hung somewhere you only glance at.

David Drake's three — Twang Thang, The Road Warrior and Bluesbreaker — sit between the two. They are guitar pictures with a character to them, and being one photographer's set they are the obvious route to a group rather than a single piece.

Why a set beats a single piece here

Music prints are usually bought for a specific room — a snug, a study, a room with the record player in it — and a single instrument photograph in a large room can look like an illustration of a hobby rather than a piece of art. Three works by one hand, hung as a run, reads as a collection and carries the wall on its own.

Drake's three are the natural set. Hang them in a line with identical frames and an even gap; because they are portrait-shaped they suit a narrower wall than a landscape trio would, which is useful in exactly the small rooms this subject tends to go in. They can sit either side of a chimney breast or a door without fighting the architecture the way a wide landscape run would.

The rooms this suits

Dining rooms and sitting rooms lead, which is where the tagging and common sense agree — these are rooms people sit in, talk in and listen in. A study or a snug is the other strong answer, particularly for the instrument studies, which reward being looked at closely.

Hallways are the weak case. Music photography tends to be dark and detailed, and a hallway is usually poorly lit and walked through rather than stood in. Both those things work against it.

Buying one for a musician

This is the most common reason people buy from a music collection, and it is worth being careful about. A picture of the instrument someone plays is a narrower gift than it looks — it either lands exactly or reads as a novelty, with very little in between, and it depends on whether they think of the instrument as equipment or as a thing of beauty.

The safer choice is usually a player picture rather than an object study. It is about music rather than about a specific piece of kit, so it does not have to match their instrument to work, and it holds up on a wall for someone who is not a player at all.

If you do go for the instrument, match the character and not just the type. A lacquered black guitar shot in studio light and a battered road-worn one are the same instrument and entirely different pictures.

Dark grounds, and where the lamp is

Most of this collection is shot against black or near-black — stage light, studio black, the shine on a lacquered instrument. That is what gives the work its drama and it is also the thing to plan around, because a dark image behind glazing behaves partly like a mirror.

Before fixing anything, stand where you will usually sit and look at what is behind you. A window or a ceiling fitting in that sightline will be in the picture every evening. It is the most common disappointment with dark photography on a wall, and it is a positioning problem rather than a framing one.

Framing

Black moulding on the instrument studies — it continues the ground and keeps the object graphic. The player pictures take oak or natural timber more comfortably, because warmth suits a human subject where it would soften an object study. A white mount works throughout; a generous border helps the darker pieces particularly, giving the eye somewhere to stop before the frame.

Related genres

Browse the Music collection →

Quick answers for collectors

What are music art prints?

Work with music as its subject: instruments, players, performance and the objects of listening. The collection is small and varied at nine works by seven artists, which makes it one of the most dispersed edits on the site for its size.

Which room suits music prints?

Studies, snugs and dining rooms. Music subjects carry personal association, which makes them good where you spend time and want something to look at, and less suitable in a hallway where a two-second glance cannot do the association any justice.

What size music print should I buy?

Six sizes are offered from £52.50. Instrument studies are detail-dense and reward close viewing, so Small and Medium suit a study or a snug. For a larger wall, choose a piece with a strong silhouette rather than one whose appeal is in the surface.

Are music prints a good gift?

Where you know the connection, an instrument someone plays carries far more than a generic musical subject. Without that connection it behaves as decoration, which is fine but is a different purchase. The same applies to any place or subject collection.

Is the music collection large?

No — nine works by seven artists, so it is a small, varied edit rather than a deep survey. If nothing here suits, the figurative collection carries dance and performance subjects across 41 works, and overlaps in feeling if not in subject.

How are your prints framed?

Every work is hand-framed to order in the UK. You choose the moulding, the mount and the size on the product page, and the piece is made after you order rather than taken off a shelf. Framed pieces arrive in 5–8 business days. Mount widths run from 4.5 to 8 cm.