Rolling Music Writers' Thread

xpost Yeah, but I rarely write about stuff I wouldn't listen to and think about anyway, and I think about all music I hear as if I'm writing about it. So at this point it's like monetising breathing.

what DL said.

That's fair enough (obviously!). I guess I quite often reviewed music regularly I wouldn't ordinarily otherwise be listening to - these days when I write (which is infrequently) it's only ever about something I'm listening to / thinking about a lot. Over the last couple of years other hobbies (playing sport, essentially) have really encroached into time where I might have been listening to other stuff.

xpost This^ but also I feel like I kind of have to listen to the album if I know I'm gonna write about it, and that involves listening to it in a variety of contexts, maybe even at times when I'm not in the mood for it. This can actually kill my enjoyment of a record that I really like and more often than not, even with albums I write very favourably about, I find it very hard to return to them once I've submitted my work.

xp That's why I don't play sport. I will die prematurely in the service of album-reviewing.

Played handball at lunchtime, it was awesome. Played ultimate frisbee on Tuesday, that was awesome too. 5-a-side tonight and tomorrow night, Bike ride Saturday morning, then down the allotment. Awesome.

yeah rates vary hugely from one outlet to the next. i try to write for small/new local publications as much as i can to support and contribute to that community, but one thing i've found really unnerving is when some of those places ask ME to give THEM my rates. i mean wtf am i supposed to say? "well, this place paid me $100 for a piece of this length and that place paid me $1,000, take your pick"?

i can't wait to give up promoting shows and start concentrating on some other stuff. Sicko's freetime sounds awesome compared to me patiently designing (and redesigning) flyers and setting up facebook events only to have to start all over again when a band pulls out.

By no stretch of the imagination is it great pay but I find the pre-writing bit (unless it's a time-devouring box set) folds into my everyday life quite easily.

Yup.

good company during the office day

cold chill down the spine at the idea of this

the occasional realisation that "lustening to music" COUNTS AS WORK is totally amazing for me! i mean, it's not like i'm writing every day. haven't done any "writing for money" today. or yesterday. don't intend to do any tomorrow. but i've been catching up on various bits of music which totally doesn't feel like work but it's definitely part and parcel of what i have to do, even if it doesn't directly lead to £££ in my account. but it's also what i'd just do all the time left to my own devices anyway.

that said there have been a few times where i've just ended up resenting albums that i have to listen to repeatedly to get an angle on and which reveal themselves to have diminishing returns. the really average ones are the worst.

music totally goes with exercise too, i don't listen when i go running but it's ESSENTIAL to working out. DL and i disagree over this but i consider a good work-out album v high praise indeed. WORK ME GODDAMNIT as armand van helden once said.

i loved your bit on Dylan btw lex - really well handled considering all things and a lot of fun to read too

thankyou btw. it was half written while sunbathing in the hammock in my garden and finished off while watching the us open final.

that said there have been a few times where i've just ended up resenting albums that i have to listen to repeatedly to get an angle on and which reveal themselves to have diminishing returns. the really average ones are the worst.

This happens to me a lot, and it's especially frustrating if it's an album that I was initially excited to hear at first but slowly became a drudge. Suddenly all the interesting things I wanted to throw at it are dribbling down the wall and accumulating in a pasty puddle somewhere near the skirting board. There's something to be said about writing a first draft on the very first listen - something I very rarely do. In fact I'll listen to an album at least 5 times before even beginning to start writing, often finding that what I originally wanted to say has spun completely out of view, like I'm not just observing the album from outside but looking deep inside it and its inner workings, unable to see the proverbial forest for the trees.

Having been writing professionally for 15 years or so, I've gone through various cycles of heavy wotk followed by fallow periods. But I have noticed that when I lose a regular gig that's kept me pretty busy - an this happens a lot/eventually if you keep at it long enough; publications fold, editors move on, budgets vanish, etc. - the sudden availability of time and concurrent decrease in writing commitments reopens my listening in some incredibly striking/disturbing ways. It gives me a vacation from listening critically, at least for a while, and allows me to listen almost exclusively for pleasure, with no pressure, real or implicit, to formulate a response. It's like having a veil lifted, and in fact completely changes my mood/disposition for the better.

the really average ones are the worst

^^^ this. It's easier to assess an average record in a long blog post or even here than in a publication (which I have to do in a couple days for a certain average new album). I can't suppress the feeling of "Well, if it's an average record, who gives a shit?" Salvage jobs are easier.

Average records are great for generic word salads. "Let's see, say something about 'reasonably professional'..."

Does that include thinking time? Because whenever people have said to me "oh £50 for a 120 word review seems quite good" and then you say, "yes, but I maybe wouldn't normally listen to this record, so I have to find time to listen to it, and think about it, and maybe research it, 'sit and type' time might not be much, but..." I'm pretty sure I'm not getting anywhere near dayjob pay, and I'm not paid all that much.

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 27 September 2012 14:10 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd bite your arms off for £50 for a 120 word review!

I guess the fact that the print places I write for are free publications is the reason why I'm not making dollar from bashing out reviews of the Daphni LP when I'm hungover at work etc.

Though I am hoping that the magazine I interviewed DJ Harvey for this week will reimburse the 50p the Skype call to LA cost me. It's the front page feature actually...maybe I should ask for a little cash for this? Should I?

you can always ask. it's not the end of the world is it? Even if you phrase it in such a way that says you'd like some sort of contribution so that your efforts are at least recognised/remunerated etc..

the occasional realisation that "lustening to music" COUNTS AS WORK is totally amazing for me!

ha, same, although while I was in my previous job the pace abd atmosphere were such that it sometimes seemed like listening to recorded music was beside the point.

(cough)

It's funny. For years and years I wanted, prayed, for a music editor job. It didn't happen for a variety of reasons, and I was sad, but ultimately now (look back from the age of 35) maybe that was for the best. I still love music but I'm selective about what I spend time with, and actually writing about music as a profession would require me to care about way, way too much awful shit. Also as I get older I'm just not as screaming obsessed about tunes and muso minutiae - I'm more inclined to view what I like through the non-muso lense.

Also, I'd like to play more SPORTS

(no, seriously)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1828132368/uncool

Hmmmm. New online "publication"

We’ll be running exclusively longform writing -- in-depth profiles of fascinating musicians, thoughtful criticism, archaeological discography expeditions, personal essays and much, much more. They'll all have one thing in common: length. Our monthly "cover story" feature will be a minimum of 3,000 words and some might crack 10,000, with our other articles going long as well.

...

We’re also going to pay our staff. Great journalism is a profession, not a hobby, and that's where we need your help. We’re going to run a single piece a week, not 10 or 20 or 100, which means we'll be able to pay our writers a fair rate for good work.

seems sort of bizarre to discuss this as a viable publication considering they need to raise 45k in the next 9 days

Who says its viable?

Maybe writers could have something like online busking: put a piece out there, and see who tosses something in the PayPal? On Bandcamp, lots of name-your-price (or even set price)downloads can also be streamed for free, h'-m-m... Or offer an excerpt of your literary goodness for free, and for more, make a donation.

x-post--

UNCOOL is being edited and run by founders David Greenwald (Billboard, GQ, Rawkblog) and Daniel Siegal (Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times).

I'm not familiar with these two.

Dow, that's an interesting idea!

Toward the end of this piece, about the return of serial fiction via Twitter, there's a success story about offering first taste free; also a way of gauging overall audience response. In this author's case, it's still a way of getting an established publisher, but might work out anyway, depending on the writer's goals: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/05/jennifer-egan-black-box-twitter/?utm_source=Contextly&utm_medium=RelatedLinks&utm_campaign=Previous

Hey I agree with your opinion on Miguel, here's 50p.

lol

let my paypal adorn you

"Uncool" failed to get the money they wanted on Kickstarter

Anyone know what's happening with the Best Music Writing 2012 anthology (which was supposed to cover writing published in 2011)?

Yeah, I'm still at the point where I just really want to read it, rather than the point at which I'm starting to get a little concerned about where the money I sent them has gone to.

http://funboring.com/BMWeditorialboard

Anybody know anyone on their board and ask them?

This week we launched our new website for Feedback Press, the new home of Best Music Writing. Soon we'll be making it a comprehensive resource for all things music writing, and this March we'll be launching another series. Check it out and stay informed!

http://www.feedbackpress.org/category/best-music-writing/

March...

One of our writers was informed that they were going to be in the anthology when it comes out. And this was probably only about a month or so ago. They said more information would be forthcoming but nothing as of yet...

Finally some news!! Thanks folks

Yeah, the writers chosen were informed at least a couple months ago. That's all I know, really.

good to hear. the BMW twitter account follows me so i sent a DM recently politely asking if there was any news forthcoming and got no response.

BRAGGIN 2013

well it was the big baller move i had to do to placate raymond so he'd stop reviving threads about it

i know that a certain ilxor is appearing in the new edition, i believe, and very much deservedly too.

Discussion of the failure of "Uncool" web zine and what it represented and whether it was just more white boys writing about Mumford & sons and over on this thread:

This Is Uncool

Pretty good xgau interview--don't agree with every bit of it, but some is prob all too true:http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102822/Concision-and-Clarity.aspx

And some is rights on!

The National Arts Journalism Program blog that Christgau has contributed to, has gotten pretty quiet

http://www.najp.org/articles/

That whole site is pretty much dead, actually.

So once every few years at work a student gets sent to me or finds me and asks how to get into music journalism. I have one such student who I'm meeting on Thursday, who (sensibly) just wants to write as a hobby around a day job. What should I tell him?

Tell him the outlets that pay are getting fewer by the day, and pay less by the day.

That is kind of top of my list.

My local paper no longer has a freelance budget. And yet, every week, features are printed that were written for free.