Tag: Music Journalism

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Three tips for music writers in 2018

Music Writing, Music Blogging, Music Journalism

The music business in 2018 would be virtually unrecognizable to the music business of 2000. In less than two decades the industry we all love has undergone an extended transformation that has placed an emphasis on access rather than ownership, created a glut of festivals, and brought into question the necessity of quote/unquote ‘music journalists’. When algorithms can predict success better than even the most gifted ears and everyone with an opinion is able to share their thoughts on social media do we really have a need for full-time music writers?

The answer, as always, is yes. There may be more people talking about music than ever before, as well as more way to access music, but that does not mean the quality of conversation around the art form is at its peak. As long as there are great artists creating impossibly catchy songs that ultimately never receive the praise or support they deserve there is still work to be done on the part of music journalists. There is and will always be a need for people to amplify the voice of artists on the rise, as well as a need for experienced listeners to help those short on time make worthwhile discoveries.

While there is a lot to be said for how music blogs and publications can better themselves in 2018 (click here to learn more), there is also quite a bit you should be taking it upon yourself to do in order to get ahead. What follows are three tips to keep in mind as we begin to navigate the uncertain months ahead. The future is always unpredictable, but there is a lot you can do right now to increase your chances of a better tomorrow. If you have any questions, just email me: james@haulix.com.

Storytelling matters now more than ever

There was time not long ago when the vast majority of music blogs created just two pieces of content: Reviews and news. The reviews were written hurriedly by young critics trying to make their name by praising or trashing talent, while the news often amounted to little more than copy/pasted press releases tweaked just enough to not be outright plagiarism. Some of this content was good, but most was immediately disposable.

Some of those sites still exist today, but most have died due to an inability to grow their audience. If the content your creating is immediately disposable then the same can be said for your site. If, however, you are able to find a way to create unique content that no one else can offer then you may be able to set yourself apart.

To do this, we suggest telling more stories. Find an artist you believe in, regardless of popularity, and tell their story. Tell your story about telling their story. Tell the story of their fans and why they choose to care about this artist instead of the other million-plus in existence. Find an angle that interests you and share it with the world. Take chances. Maybe what you uncover isn’t necessarily new or groundbreaking information, but as long as it is honest and well-written it will entertain.

Maintain your archives, both public and private

Here’s a nightmare scenario most writers never consider: What happens to your content in the event a hacker attacks the site(s) where you contribute? What happens if the owner of that site suddenly loses interest in the publication and deletes it? What happens if for whatever reason your content disappears before you or anyone else thinks to save a copy elsewhere?

The answer is always the same: Your content is gone forever.

In 2018, there are no longer any acceptable excuses for failing to maintain a personal archive. Too many sites have gone under and too many people have complained over social media about now permanently lost work for you to fall in line with those who the easily avoidable mistake of not keeping track of your work. After all, who else do you expect to do it? No one cares more about your career in writing than you, so you must be the one to look after and ensure its legacy.

In addition to saving your work offline, we also suggest you maintain a catalog of links to the currently active content you consider to be your ‘best’ work. Services like Contently make this easy and cost-effective. Again, there is no excuse for your archives being a mess. Get it together!

You need a website

Every time we create a post offering advice to individual professionals we make it a point to emphasize the need for a personal website. It doesn’t matter if you own a blog with a hundred contributors or you contribute to a hundred blogs, every single person trying to make it in the music business should have their own website. The reasons why are as endless as your imagination, but the main reason is that you need a place where you and your work can be the focus of everyone’s attention. You need a place where your absolute best work is displayed, as well as a place where people can learn more about you and whether or not you are available for freelance work. A personal website can be anything you want it to be. Just make sure you have one.

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A tip for surviving the industry holiday slowdown

The holiday season is upon us, and in no time at all businesses across the industry will go dark so employees can celebrate this time of year with their loved ones. It’s a beautiful thing, especially in an industry notorious for long hours, but for a few professionals it’s also maddening. Allow me to explain…

While many music professionals are able to setup out of office replies for the holidays there are still bloggers, podcasters, and a wide variety of media people in between with audiences who demand a constant feed of fresh content. When the industry goes dark for the holiday these poor souls (including yours truly) find themselves clicking through every pitch they receive in hopes of discovering something worth writing about. More often than not they settle on additional editorial content, generally in the form of telling you the best stuff you might have missed, and they pray it’s enough to keep clicks rolling in while the snow falls.

There is a saying in journalism that you should seek to tell stories you would want to read. If you should find yourself writing something you have no interest in reading it is highly likely those who find that article will feel the same. As much as fresh stories in a feed can be good for business is it really worth whatever investment of time they require if next to no one cares to read them?

People care less about entertainment news around the holidays than they do practically any other time of year. Don’t take this personally though, as it is true for virtually every publication. Entertainment and entertainment news is the distraction we fill our days with when doing things we would otherwise avoid if we could, like work. Holidays are communal escapes, offerings friends and family the chance to do things they want to do, therefore lowering the need for distractions.

To put it another way, the demand does not exist because the need for something that brings joy is met through other (arguably far more important) means.

This year, I want to challenge all music writers out there to try something different. Rather than beat your head against your keyboard in between clicking refresh on your RSS feeds just try and take a little time to experience what the rest of the world does this time of year. Schedule tweets and make whatever necessary posts you feel you must make to maintain appearances, but as soon as that is done shutdown your computer and experience this thing call life. Talk to the people who support you and tell them of your vision for the new year. Ask people what they have been up to with their time, and make it a point to really listen to their words. Be present, and remember you will never have two holiday seasons that work the same way. The people around you now may not be there next year, so don’t take a minute for granted.

This won’t be easy, but I have good news: The music industry will still be here when you get back. I know you will feel like you are slipping behind, but there is rarely a single headline in the last ten to fourteen days of the new year that drastically impacts the music landscape. You know this as well as I do, so quit lying to yourself and accept that it is okay to spend a little time offline. Who knows? It might even do you good to unplug.

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Blog Tips: Language matters when covering assault

Often in music journalism it feels as though every step forward is immediately followed by half a step back. A rather harmless example of this would be people learning that diversity in content offerings often breeds better engagement, but then they spread themselves too thin trying to cover too much and the quality of their content begins to slide. This is a minor setback that is easy to fix, but not all things are this easy to change.

Over the last few years music journalism as a whole has increasingly taken notice of wrongdoing within the music industry as it relates to assault, unwanted advances, and related problems. The attention paid to these cases has helped make more people aware of the issues being faced in our global music community, but all too often the language used does not correctly describe the events that happened. The most recent example of this involves Molly Rankin, vocalist for the band Alvvays, who was nearly assaulted mid-performance by a male concert goer in Belgium. The man rushed the stage in the middle of a song and tried to surprise Rankin with a kiss, but she moved out of the way before he could have his way with her. You can view the incident in question below (it begins at the 3:35 mark).

No one in the music community has condoned this man’s behavior. What they have done, however, is underplayed the seriousness of his actions by using the wrong language in their story. Here are a few examples:

So a common thread here? All these sites promote the story as a man ‘trying to kiss’ a woman he never met who does not know who he is and certainly did not ask for his affection. That is not an attempted kiss. That is an attempted assault.

Assault, more specifically sexual assault, is defined as a sexual act in which a person is coerced or physically forced to engage against their will, or non-consensual sexual touching of a person. You may not personally believe kissing count as a sexual act, but for many it does, and insisting someone kiss you against their will is an act of sexual violence.

When writers use the wrong language to cover instances of assault or other crimes they are (perhaps inadvertently) normalizing the behavior. They are downplaying the seriousness of the allegations, or in this case the actual events, with language that infers the situation has some quality of lightness. Rankin may have been able to laugh off this bizarre instance, but that is no reason to think she’s okay with the fact it happened. It’s never okay, and as journalists reporting on the events specificity is key in helping audiences understand what makes such actions inappropriate.

Women in music – or anywhere else – owe men nothing, yet again and again we read stories like this where guys take their shot because they don’t see the harm in taking a chance. As influencers on this culture it is the responsibility of every writer to take action against wrongdoing and urge their readers to do the same. 

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The difference between good and bad content

There are a lot of music blogs in existence today, yet many will tell you that interest in music writing has long started to wane. People claim services like Spotify and Apple Music, which are increasingly adding editorial efforts to their platforms, have replaced the space once populated by music nerds with a their own URL. Who needs a blog for discovery when a streaming service algorithm will auto-populate discovery playlists for you every week? Who needs critics when everyone with Facebook or Twitter has the ability to blast their thoughts on any and everything to the world at large? Who needs….you get the point.

As a career music writer I will be the first to admit that the vast majority of music writing is completely disposable. As more and more artist compete for our attention blogs have increasingly turned to regurgitating press releases as a means of constant content creation. The transition from classic journalism to clickbait and/or what essentially amounts to embed posting has been something no one could have predicted in the age before the internet. Writers have been trained to see clicks as the determining factor in quality, which in turn has placed less focus on the stories being told and more emphasis on timeliness. It’s a vicious, unending cycle that makes for lazy writing and forgettable content. If your only goal is to be the first to share something, why would anyone look to you for anything more.

The hard truth is that sites who promote themselves as being the fastest or ‘first’ to share new content are indeed on the way out. There is simply no competing with platforms owned by global corporations capable of hiring as many writers as they need to chug out links, tour dates, and embedded media. That said, there remains and always will be a place for legitimate music journalism. People love stories, especially those stories about artists who travel from town to town sharing their creativity with the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new artist or someone trying to preserve their legacy, a good story told well will always have an audience.

The problem is, or at least one of the major problems are, that most writers – and many young consumers – have been trained to think of entertainment writing as a vehicle for promotion rather than one of understanding. The content being churned out each and every day revolves largely around making people aware of the latest thing someone has done and whether or not it is any good. Great music journalism bridges the gap between author and reader in a meaningful way by offering perspective and/or understanding about the artist being discussed. Unfortunately, most music journalism barely qualifies as good because it merely spins promotional messaging and never thinks to dive deeper. The reader has no reason to care about the author because the words being shared mirror the messaging the artist (or their representation) is using on their social feeds. This lack of an originality hurts two-fold because it fails to establish a reason for the reader to care about the author and it fails to offer any insight whatsoever into the media being shared. It’s no different than junk mail alerting you to a sale. You appreciate the notification, but you don’t necessarily need it in your life.

Bad music writing often amounts to a lack of detail. Think of any author whose work you have enjoyed and you’re likely to find the reason you care about their craft is in the way they share their perspective on the subject at hand. They dig deeper than “_______ did ______ to promote _____” and ask the questions that really matter. These include, but are not limited to: Why do you create? What is the meaning of your art? What motivates you? What are hoping to accomplish with your art? Is there a message people should be receiving? Is making music everything you thought it would be? How are you changing as a person, and what impact has that made on your art?

There will come a time in the not too distant future where content factories posing as blogs go the way of the dinosaurs. Those sites and writers who survive will do so because they offer engaging, original content that strives to further connect readers with the talent they love and those they have yet to discover. Make sure you are standing on the right side of history.

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Blog Tips: The Playlist Will Never Die

Never underestimate how fast the world can change. The move from home phones to cell phones, to smart phones took less than twenty years. Our primary means of consuming news changed from print to digital in what is ultimately the blink of an eye as far as the history books are concerned. Heck, less than a hundred years ago it took week for a message to be sent from one country to the next, but now in the digital age we can send mail to space and back again within seconds.

Music is no different. Columbia Records, the oldest label in the world, launched in 1887. In less than 150 years the industry has undergone more evolutions than anyone can count, changing much faster than most realize. Within the 60 years you could have recorded a single and drove it from radio station to radio station in hopes of getting it played. Today you need an entire team of people who understand radio to even have your song considered.

And let’s not even deep dive the changes in music journalism. The image most carry of a young writer rubbing shoulders with their rock idols a la Almost Famous is a thing of the distant past. Today’s writers are more often than not laptop junkies who maintain a healthy photography hobby on the side (or they’re photography junkies with a writing hobby – it’s 50/50) who make next to nothing writing articles read by anywhere from tens of people to millions. Every one of them is constantly searching for the next original thought or undiscovered gem that might catapult them a bit further into the arena of those who actually get paid to write about music.

While I encourage you to always keep your passion for the next big story strong, it’s important to know that as much as things seem to change there is a lot that remains the same. One of those things is playlists, and in the digital age it is easier than ever to cultivate and engage with a community through playlist curation. In fact, the Music Business Association recently called playlists ‘more popular than the album.’ Ouch.

The biggest problem you’re going to face when deciding to integrate weekly playlists into your writing is deciding which one of the big four streaming companies are you going to build your content on. Spotify has the largest share of the market by a vast margin at the moment, but Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon each have millions of monthly subscribers. Ask your readers what they use and follow their lead.

As for the playlists themselves, the easy access to most music throughout modern history makes gathering simpler than most daily chores, which is all the reason you need to create as many playlists as your mind and collaborators can imagine. At the very least you should be creating weekly discovery playlists based on the coverage you plan to run. Take all the reviews and editorials you’ve got lined up and channel them into an eclectic collection of sound to help further promote the focus of your work. In doing so you’ll not only better engage your audience, but you’ll also make a lot of publicists and independent artists very happy.

But you should never do the bare minimum unless it’s absolutely necessary. Get creative. When the possibilities are endless you can be both extremely niche and shamelessly generic at the same time. Collect the 25 best love songs of the last 25 years right alongside a list of every song played during a car chase in a Fast and Furious film. Invite musicians, industry professionals, actors, and anyone else of interest to create playlists for your audience, and use those playlists to promote any coverage of that artist person you have on your site.

In an age where the options for consuming news and entertainment are endless the best tactic for reaching consumers is to play into their own interests and behaviors. People are more likely to start their day with music than a quick search of your latest blog posts, so take your brand and focus to them through the streaming playlist curation. If you can establish yourself as a great playlist curator people will seek out your other work. You can even add links to the description that promotes specific content on your site.

It has never been easier to showcase your taste than it is now, so quit hoping you 1000-word discovery of the week essay will get a million reads and build me a list of every song and artist my life is missing.

James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Coordinator at Haulix. He is also the Film Editor for Substream Magazine and the host of the Inside Music Podcast. If you enjoyed the words above James would like you to follow him on Twitter.

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The ongoing need for a music media revolution

For the better part of the last decade I have spent up to fourteen hours a day staring at phone and computer screens in hopes of writing something people would want to read. Sometimes I have found success and other times I have not, but through it all one thing has remained unflinchingly true: Getting paid for writing well is incredibly hard. It doesn’t matter if your article or blog post got an artists signed or convinced several hundred people to buy a record they otherwise wouldn’t have given a minute of their time, unless you play by a very specific set of rules, you are going to have a hard time making anything other than memories as a digital music writer.

This makes no sense. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world, if not more, read music news online every day. Maybe they check out tour dates, or maybe they watch music videos when they should be working, but they all rely on people like me and my many writer friends to create content for them to consume. We, like many journalists struggling to pay bills in the digital age, feel there should be a way to harness their need for content to create profitable careers.

If you’re a reader and not a writer you probably assume advertising keeps your favorite site online, and that may be true, but depending on the size of those sites the income received from ads can vary from pennies to thousands of dollars per month. When that money is not enough to cover costs, and it usually is not, many sites will turn to marketing companies that supply paid content for the site to run in return for a few extra bucks. Some companies will pay sites $300 or more per month to run a handful of articles with links and SEO terms intended to help a third party company get more notoriety. Sometimes the content these companies provide is false, or at least incomplete, but in order to get paid the content must run more or less as it was received. Publishers agree to this because they, like their writers, need more to stay afloat.

When publishers find themselves in positions where they are entirely dependent on advertisers and/or paid content they inadvertently hinder their publication’s ability to grow (and by grow I mean cultivate more readers, increase digital reach, and generally raise their level of notoriety). Writers are no longer allowed to cover what they believe is important until they have met whatever agreements they have with their financiers. They are also unable to be as honest in their writing as they would like to be if their publisher believes a negative comment or review might cause advertisers to stop working with them. It’s not uncommon for a site or magazine to choose not to cover and album or event because someone at the top of the company food chain believes negativity may scare away potential advertisers. It doesn’t matter if that negativity is based on fact or if an opinion is honest because money is the ultimate deciding factor in what content gets published.

The restraints placed on writers do not stop at saying whether or not something is worthwhile. Many writers, myself included, have also been encouraged to place less importance on discovery articles because new (unknown) talent doesn’t drive clicks or ad sales. It doesn’t matter if the person you want to cover is the greatest songwriter of their generation or the next act to sell out Madison Square Garden until advertisers feel the same way. It’s a completely backwards approach to covering the best of what’s next, but it’s unfortunately become the norm. Publishers would rather cover artists who have found a way to make themselves known without the support of their magazine, and then hop on their hype train, rather than helping establish the talent’s identity in the first place because it’s more cost-effective to be a follower.

A perfect example of this approach to publishing in action is the career of Chance The Rapper. I cannot think of rap writer who hasn’t been following Chance for four years or more, yet many of the biggest outlets only started covering his career within the last 24 months. The reason for this is not a lack of pitching from writers, but rather a perceived lack of interest from people who negotiate ad sales. Online publications can be far more flexible than print, as all writing is often viewed as potentially good ‘content’ as long as it brings in clicks and doesn’t take too much time away from assigned articles. But you have probably noticed that is also beginning to change as the fragmentation of how and people consume media is more splintered now than ever before with no signs of reversing anytime soon.

And don’t get me wrong,the relatively recent burst of new ways to consume news and opinion is legitimately amazing. We are more interconnected now as a global species than at any other point in recorded history. The ability to express ideas to anyone willing to listen has never been easier or more accessible than it is at this very moment, which is why it is so important that we develop methods and platforms that allow writers of all varieties to find and tell the stories that really matter rather than the ones tied to someone’s click-generated bottom line. The corner of the internet populated by entertainment news and opinion may have been born from fandom before it was considered a business, but for countless writers, editors, site founders, and photographers around the world it is a full-time job that lacks any ability whatsoever to guarantee a return for time invested.

I wish I could tell you that I had a solution. For many months I’ve talked to friends and colleagues about these issues, and to be honest we haven’t made much progress towards finding a reasonable solution. Though we all yearn to see some shift in the respect and recognition given to those who cover the increasingly vast world of entertainment so everyone else can stay on top of what’s new we have long learned to not hold our breath. Things have gone from bad to worse, with the rates for advertising in all forms falling as the competition for those ads grows, and through it all thousands download software that prevents what ads publications can run from even being seen (and therefore helping the site).

Our culture seems to understand that following Star Wars on Twitter and calling yourself a supporter is not the same as buying a ticket to actually see a Star Wars film. Yet many do not understand the same logic applies to the sites and writers who deliver up to the minute Star Wars information on a daily basis. The same can be said for music, sports, or any other form of entertainment. Our culture demands access to the things we love 24/7, yet people seem to believe the people who service that demand don’t deserve much, if any, recognition. Even if a writer breaks a major story there is little to no credit to be found, in part because anything that goes viral is copied, screenshot, or otherwise duplicated and spread without any ties to its source. Remember ‘The Dress’ debate of last year? Buzzfeed was the source of that discussion (they found it on Tumblr), but as the picture went viral the person behind the photo didn’t seem to matter. I’m not saying that author deserve a pulitzer or anything of the sort, but some kind of recognition for creating a topic of global conversation should be given to them.

I’m not saying that every writer deserves minimum wage. The vast majority of people creating content online can barely string together sentences, let alone do so without more than one or two grammatical errors. That said, for those of us who have done the work required to be proficient in writing there needs to be an alternative to what we experience in the job field right now. Getting paid anything is a miracle, and getting paid enough to not have a side job is starting to sound like a feat equal to spotting a Sasquatch. We get the journalism we deserve, and by that I mean we get the journalism we deem worthy of our support. If you know a writer or a group of writers whose work you enjoy and want to see more of then you need to help us, the writers, find a way to continue creating without having to worry about whether or not our words will eventually leave us bankrupt. We can built a better future for everyone, but in order to make it a reality we must work together.

If you want to start supporting writing right now you can always contribute directly to the author of this post through PayPal: http://bit.ly/supportjames

James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records (RIP). Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.

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Music Writing 101: Coverage Confirmations

If the first goal of every young music writer is to gain access to albums from their favorite artists before those records arrive in stores, then the second goal is usually to see those artists in concert without paying the cover charge. Yes, free admission to concerts and festivals is one of the perks of writing about music, but just like advance access to music it’s a perk that doesn’t necessarily have to be extended to you.

No show or event is truly free to writers. Your currency in these exchanges is your voice and whatever audience (aka reach) you have through the outlet that shares your work. Upon receiving confirmation that you have been added to the list of any event you are entering into an agreement that you both will attend said event and that you will write about that event in a timely manner. For example, if you attend Van’s Warped Tour on Monday after promising a review to PR then it should not take a week or more to post that review online. If it does you will risk straining your relationship with the PR that granted you access in the first place. More importantly, you will develop a reputation that extends beyond that one relationship and follows you where you go in music. The industry may seem large to outsiders, but it’s actually quite small, and everyone who knows anyone will come to learn of your lack of follow through.

This is about good business as much as it is respect. People will get upset if publicists do not reply to their requests in a timely manner, but see no problem dragging their feet to complete content that was promised in advance of receiving a coverage confirmation. Those who respect others and their time/work will in turn receive the same respect.

Rey Roldan, founder of Reybee Inc., recently wrote the following on coverage requests and confirmations from the perspective of a publicist:

If you request music or tickets from a publicist and promise or confirm coverage, it’s your duty to make good on it… and if, for some reason or another, you can’t keep your side of the deal, it’s only respectful to let the publicist know. Don’t ghost them.

It’s understandable if you hated the show or the music and you don’t want to cover it because of that reason. But let the publicist know, so they don’t constantly hound you for the link.

If you confirm an interview date and time but something comes up and you can’t make it, let the publicist know ASAP. Don’t wait for the time of your interview to tell them that it’s a no-go. It only makes the publicist look bad and could create tension in your relationship moving forward.

If you get confirmation of guest list or photopasses to a show (especially the bigger, higher profile shows) and can’t make it, let the publicist know as soon as your can. There’s a chance that the publicist can use your spot to give to another writer/photographer who was cut from the list. We publicists do sometimes check guest lists after the show to see who showed up and who didn’t.

If you are requesting tickets to a show with multiple artists, either send one email with all the publicists on copy or make sure if you get confirmed on one list to let the other publicists know you’re all set. If you are on multiple lists for the same show, it can prevent other writers/photographers from covering that show. Or if we publicists cross-check our lists and see you on it more than once (or worse yet, see multiple names for the same outlet on different lists), it looks bad for you and/or your outlet.

Making relationships in this industry can be difficult. Maintaining them is easy. Just don’t fuck them up.

Respect and follow-through are everything in this business. Do your best to follow the golden rule (treat others as you want to be treated) and you’ll do just fine.

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Why music festivals should rethink their relationship with the media

Festival season is upon us, which means there are bloggers and journalists all over the world impatiently waiting to learn what – if any – events they will be covering this summer.

For those who have never attempted to cover a festival before, here’s a quick rundown of how the application process typically works, from beginning to your arrival on site:

  • Press applications open 2-3 months prior to the event and require your name, publication, traffic size, description of all planned coverage, publishing dates for planned coverage, and (sometimes) a letter of assignment
  • 2-3 weeks before the event, at most, approved members of the press receive letters of acceptance. These letters also include any artist specific coverage restrictions, as well as a photo release (when applicable) that must be signed in advance of the event.
  • Once approved, press must make good on any promise of preview content ahead of the event. This generally means a ‘must-see’ list of talent or similarly simple promotional content.  
  • In the week before the event the PR and labels for the artists performing are given your contact information. Requests for coverage consideration begin to pour in
  • Prior to arriving on site most festivals request a list of all desired interviews with talent. Submitting a list does not guarantee approval, but it does mean your publication will be considered. Some approvals may arrive in advance of the event, but decisions on other requests may not be made until you are on site.
  • Once at the event, you need to check in with the media tent and learn when the interviews you were approved for are scheduled to happen. This schedule is usually determined by the artist, meaning you have to cancel any conflicting coverage that might arise as the last minute in order to conduct your requested interview.

To be fair, a lot of this has to be last minute. It’s the nature of the beast, so to say. Artists come to festivals from all corners of the Earth for a single day and then go back to their tour, studio, personal lives, etc. Knowing when a particular artists will arrive and be available/willing to do press is something that can be hard to confirm in advance.

Coverage on site is another story altogether. Fourteen hour days spent running from stage to stage, trying to take in as much as possible while still being on time to grab photos from the first three songs of the next must-see artist’s performance. When you do have time to relax, you usually need to eat and find somewhere to charge your gear.

Once the festival is complete, all coverage is expected to be live by a certain date or a penalty may be incurred. These penalties range from not being accredited in the future (slap on the wrist), to a fine of $500 (or more).

Suffice to say, covering music festivals is a lot of work, and with each passing year it seems the demands from festivals of accredited press are growing as their interest in making coverage easy seems to wane.

This makes little sense because festivals need media, influencers, and conversation around their event more now than ever. The so-called ‘music festival bubble’ has ballooned to the point there are numerous major events happening every week all summer long across the United States. Aside from genre-specific events, most lineups are largely the same, with a handful of select headliners being relied on to secure the largest chunk of ticket sales.

The competition for consumer dollars in the festival market has never been as fierce as it is right now, and sooner or later many events are going to fold. The ones that survive will do so because of their marketing efforts, community development, and funding, all of which can be aided by great receiving – and enabling – great press.

A great way to do this, or at least to begin, would be for more festivals to consider granting publications more than a single press pass. Festivals are inviting publications to cover an event featuring dozens of artists spread across multiple stages and days on a patch of land several acres in size. Do organizers really believe it is possible for one person to adequately cover even one-fourth of this madness? One-eighth? The more publications can cover, the better, and with the right photo policy (where you credit photographers and only use images with their permission) you can capture countless moments that you would otherwise miss.

Everyone wins when festival media is empowered to do their jobs well. Solid wifi in the press area allows for on-site updates that can encourage walk up ticket sales, as well as amplified conversation over social media. A designated area to conduct interviews away from noisy stages allows for higher quality content to be produced, which in turn encourages greater engagement.

The truth is that every piece of media created because of a festival is an advertisement for that festival. It does not matter who creates the content, only what impression that content makes on consumers. A lot of this is out of the festival’s control, but there is plenty that can be done to aide members of the media in properly covering their events. To not do so would be to hinder future promotion, and that is the kind of mistake events of any size cannot afford in today’s marketplace.

James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the host of the Inside Music podcast and a ten-year veteran of music journalism. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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Can someone create a successful, sustainable music blog in 2017?

Not long ago the idea of launching a music blog was thought to be a smart way for aspiring music professionals to network and get their foot in the door of an otherwise hard to access industry. Anyone living anywhere who could string together sentences and navigate a ‘create your own site’ type blogging platform (WordPress, Tumblr, Blogspot, etc.) was suddenly able to be a part of the entertainment business, and many signed up to do just that. Sites of all sizes were creating original content, building communities, and – in some cases – catching the attention of the business world at large. Some site owners sold their creations for thousands of dollars, while others built writing teams largely funded through click-driven ad revenue.

Over the last few years however, things have gone downhill. Sites have been folding by the dozens, and any newcomers who dare try to launch a new project without some kind of celebrity backing or association often struggle to develop an audience. Patreon has helped in some cases by making it easy for consumers to support content creators, but when the majority of a site’s content (news) is easily available for free on a hundred other sites convincing people a single blog deserves even a dollar a month can be an uphill battle. This is especially with younger audiences, who have likely never paid to read news or opinions in their life. That demographic has only ever known the news to be something that was available on demand, for free, 24/7.  To make them think otherwise requires original thinking, innovative content, smart marketing, and relatable voices with in-depth knowledge of the subject matter.

But there’s a problem: All of those things require money, and anyone who is actually getting paid to write about music right now will tell you there is little of that to be found. Advertising revenue has been falling for years, which has no doubt killed many publications and forced others to drastically downscale their operations.  In turn, the rate(s) freelance writers receive for their work has continue to fall year over year. Some have found success by selling music related content to brands and social platform as a form of marketing, but even those jobs are increasingly hard to find.

With all of this in mind one has to wonder: 

Can we create a successful, sustainable music blog in 2017?

From my experience, the responses to this questions can best be described as coming from either optimists or realists. The optimists will tell you that people will support something they believe if it is done well. Realists will tell you there is a lot of great content from great writers available for free all the time, so why do you think anyone’s work deserves more than theirs?

It really comes down to money and content. If you ask former music bloggers why they quit the first response they are most likely to offer will relate in some way to money. Maybe they needed more of it, or maybe they never made any at all. Maybe they made it work for a minute, but in order to have any kind of life as a functional adult they needed to seek additional employment. That secondary job inevitably paid more than writing so, over time, writing faded into the background.

Seriously, you would not believe the amount of great music writers who would love to continue writing about music, but due to the simple fact they have lives they cannot reason the time needed when no payment is involved. It’s not a matter of whether or not they are writing for the right reasons, but that our society is not one where credits can sustain one’s continued existence. Clicks don’t put food in writer’s stomachs or pay for their kids to have school clothes. People need money to live and asking for it in exchange for their time and creativity should not be something they hesitate to do. They deserve it.

The other factor, as mentioned above, is content. What kind of content can a publication offer today that cannot be found elsewhere for free? The answer is two-fold: The voices of the writers involved, and the type of content they are able to create because they have funding. The possibilities are endless as long as their is support for the creative endeavors of those involved.

If it mainly comes down to money, how much do we need?

This is a good question. Perhaps, the only question. There is no exact answer, but reliable monthly income is a good place to start. The amount a writer feels their work is worth and the amount they’re willing to accept to create said work is often two different numbers. Those with a passion to develop a sustainable brand and home for their work will be willing to take less to begin if they believe in what is being created. With the backing of an audience that reenforces the necessity of their work through financial support writers can be positioned to do great things on even modest budgets.

The thing is, most career writers will not jump into a non-paid project for an unknown site if there is no guarantee of money down the line. They may be willing to contribute an article or two, but they are likely too busy with paying work to take on something for credit.

How do we get around this?

It is possible that there are consumers who want quality content related to alternative music/entertainment enough to financially support a site at launch. With the right team of influencers, each bringing their own audience to the site, a community of passionate readers could theoretically support a new site from launch.

Right now, the best way to approach this appears to be through a funding site like Patreon, which allows consumers to give creators a few dollars a month, every month, in exchange for continued content creation. One could create a Patreon page promoting the launch of a new music site from a group of writers who have agreed to write as long as the page maintains X amount of money per month. Readers wishing to see the site launch agree to contribute a few dollars a month, and once a certain threshold is reached the site goes live. From that point, the amount of money generated per month directly correlates to the amount of content created.

For example: Let’s say MUSIC BLOG X starts a Patreon Page promising to launch once the site is receiving $250 a month in contributions. Prior to reaching this goal, all subscribers who sign up to donate early will receive a weekly newsletter with headlines and short reviews. Once the page is bringing in $250 a month, the site goes live. At this point all money donated to MUSIC BLOG X is split into three groups: Site costs, operational fees (taxes), and paying contributors. The first two groups could be covered with $100 a month. If the site continues to generation $250 a month, this leaves $150 to pay contributors. If the site pays writers $15 per feature (a low rate), the site can run 10 features that month. As more contributions come in, more content can be afforded. Writers get paid, readers get quality content. Everyone wins.

But we still come back to the first problem: Finding consumers who ‘give a damn’ enough to pay for a new publication.

It’s one thing to find subscribers to established brands, even if you have to lowball yourself to do so (Example: Alternative Press selling $5 subscriptions), but starting something new is an entirely different story. Many people equate something new with presenting risk, and no one likes to think they are risking their money. It may take a ‘proof of concept’ beta site to win over consumers, and even then it will be an uphill battle to gain followers.

This does not mean we should not try.

If you look around the digital space you will find there are small revolutions happening all the time. Every week there is a new idea or site or trend that grabs a corner of the internet by the collar and hooks them into whatever is being sold. It is unclear how large the market for a music blog is in 2017, but suffice to say there will always be an audience for quality music journalism. We as creators have to believe there are consumers who understand that the content we provide is not created out of thin air, and that every keystroke comes at a cost of time and money to the content creator. Just because consumers cannot hold our creations does not mean they do not have value, but convincing a generation of consumers raised to believe otherwise is a problem plaguing much of the digital space. The answer appears to reside in people and the community that can be created around their voices, as well as through empowering those who support them. When everyone feels like they are not only being heard, but respected, then we can move forward a global music community.

We need a revolution. Who will lead us into the future?

James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the host of the Inside Music podcast and a ten-year veteran of music journalism. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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Music writing advice from music writers

Becoming a full-time music writer in 2017 may seem like a pipe dream, but there are hundreds of people around the world making it happen. Thousands more are writing part-time, be it as a hobby or a way to bring in extra cash month to month.

But how do you, someone just starting out, navigate the often tricky waters of music journalism in the digital age?

There is no one way to become a successful writer, but as with any field there is much that can be learned from those who came before. We recently asked the writers of today what they wish someone told them early on, and we have collected the best responses into this post.

Please take the advice below to heart, but remember: You are your own person. No one can tell you what your voice is or how it should be conveyed other than yourself. Find a path you enjoy and follow it as far as you can.

“The thing I tell everyone who wants to work on the professional side of music is to pick one career path and practice being great at it every single day. If you want to be a writer you need to wake up every morning and write. Set a word count goal and hit it, no matter what. If the resulting article or piece is trash, don’t share it. All that matters early on is that you get into the routine of writing every day and slowly, over time, you will see the quality of your work improve.” – James Shotwell, Marketing Coordinator for Haulix / Managing Editor at Substream Magazine

“I think the most important tip that I’ve ever received is “act like you belong and no one will question it (most of the time).” – Ali Nugent, Music Director at WMCX 88.9 FM

“Always remember you’re there to do a job and gather information, not become creepy and try to be best friends with the artist.” – Rey Roldan, founder of Another Reybee Production

“Plan, but also allow yourself to be in the moment. Whether it’s for an interview, review, or entertainment, music is an experience. Let it guide you.” – Scott Fugger, writer at 36 Vultures

“Your writing, like your passion for music, is a journey… do not look to the end for that passion, but find the love in every opportunity along the way.” – Michael Pementel, writer at Metal Injection and New Noise Magazine

“Don’t lose focus of why you started writing in the first place. It’s tempting to get caught up in the numbers game, but nothing will kill your passion faster.” – Angela Mastrogiacamo, Founder of Muddy Paw PR and Infectious Magazine

“Be polite to everyone–tour managers, road crew, merch, stage crew, EVERYONE. This industry is small. Good manners go a long way; shitty manners get you no where.” – Jackie Cular, freelance writer

“Do your best to be unbiased, write news as it is, write reviews fair and balanced- the good along with the bad. Also appreciate everyone who helps you along the way. From the bands to the PR teams and their interns to your contributors and your readers.”  – Daniel M Dread, Founder of Dread Music Review

“Do not corner an artist at a show, requesting an interview. Not only is that unprofessional, it is also poor form and puts the artist in defensive mode. If you want to ask them a question, find the tour manager and ask permission from them. They will know the artist’s schedule and if he/she minds doing post/pre show interviews.” – Rey Roldan

“Don’t share your Haulix promos with pirate sites. You will get busted and your site’s reputation will be ruined” – Craig Nicholas Roxburgh, Founder of Emo Night South Africa

“Leaking privileged information may lead to a spike in short-term traffic, but this industry is small and publicists don’t forget.” – Joshua Wielding, Founder of Digital Tour Bus

“Be prepared to challenge yourself. Take on a band or genre you don’t know much about as you can’t always cover music that you like. Also be respectful to everyone you work with.” – Sean Reid, Founder of Already Heard

“Write about bands and music that you’re passionate AND knowledgeable about, it shows in what you write, and it benefits those artists A LOT more. But also keep an open mind about what excites you. Personally, I’ll listen to ANYTHING, and enjoy it, except super hate/racist/mysoginist lyric filled music. But there are certain genres–and you can tell which ones–that excite and inspire me to write more insightfully. However, that being said, go outside your comfort zone periodically; like your taste buds, your music interests change based on your life experiences and age.” – Tracy George, Founder of TAG Publicity

“It’s never personal, unless directly stated otherwise.” – Jake Denning, Social Media Manager at Mediaskare Records

“Don’t be afraid to learn everything. In this day and age where the competition is so fierce, it is vital to be a jack of all trades. Learn how to write. Learn how to edit other people’s writing. Learn how to work a DSLR. Become familiar with social media outlets. Also, before every assignment, do your research. Know that this job can be stressful and usually doesn’t pay well, but in the end, it’s worth it because it’s a hell of a lot of fun.” – Brittany Woosely, freelance writer

“Even if you think you know everything, you don’t. In fact if you think you do, you almost definitely don’t.” – Molly Louise Hudelson, Founder of Circles & Soundwaves

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