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I am currently seeking submissions of original writing for a music blog project. I intend to establish some sort of long-term arrangement with a few freelancers.
The project: Put simply, it is a song-a-day blog. Every day, there will be a new post, consisting of an existing song, new or old, and a little bit of original writing about it, ranging in length from about 300 words (500 at the outside, maybe even 800 on odd occasions) to a few succinct (but impactful and information-rich) sentences. A high degree of musical diversity ought to be represented, ranging from free jazz to Thai traditional music to arena rock to minimalist neo-classical to Eurodisco, but the general focus is on music that people who like music ought to enjoy — some degree of "accessibility" is to be maintained, but we're working far from the mainstream here.
What you're doing: You're thinking of songs you like, any songs at all, and writing about them. What are you writing? Anything worth reading. You can choose to go "behind the music" or you can talk about the recording by itself. If you can totally nerd out and tell three paragraphs of amusing stories about the production of "Thriller", great. You could also choose to nerd out about the music itself. Or you could simply write a brief synopsis explaining what it is and what it might be considered comparable to. Whatever you do, it should obviously be worth reading and discussing, and entice people to listen to whatever it is you're talking about. That's really all there is to it.
Who you'll be working with: Mostly me. I (and possibly an Unnamed Collaborator) will be your editor. You won't need to collaborate with other writers or anything like that. Generally speaking, you'll just go on a website, fill out a little form, paste your finished piece in a box, and whack Submit, and it will go to me for editing and appear on the site a few days later.
What your obligations will be: The "post-a-day" system will run itself. I'll build up a backlog of a couple dozen posts before even turning on the server. It's not a situation where someone has to actually write something every day and post it before a deadline. I'm looking to establish an arrangement with a few writers to keep that backlog topped up by generating 365.242199 quality posts a year between them. There is no actual long-term obligation, and in fact I intend to ask a few people to just do "guest weeks", but I generally don't want all my writers to all drop off the face of the earth one week, so I am sort of looking for people who think they'll remain interested for a while.
What you get out of the deal: I actually have some pretty clear ideas in my head of how to turn a profit from the whole mess, but I can't guarantee anything just yet. I expect I'll discuss this in detail with anyone I choose to work with. Basically, though, you can expect to be paid. I'm looking at something like a profit-sharing scheme for the first few months. I think I'll be able, at least, to spot a nominal flat rate out of my own pocket for the earliest submissions.
Qualifications: No prior experience in writing necessary. Know about a lot of music, and write interesting things about it. I will probably quiz any candidates a little bit about what sort of music they listen to, just to gauge their enthusiasm and capacity to discuss this sort of thing, etc. If you sort of specialize in one particular genre of music, that's okay! People who say they listen to "every kind of music" are liars anyway. I'm definitely looking for folks who can fill a few niches that I anticipate will need filled.
When this all goes down: I would say that the unveiling of the actual site is still on the order of four months off. I am developing all the software and such myself, and there is work left to be done on that.
How to apply: Drop me a writing sample at tgies ат sound-club.org. Pick a song or three that you like, and write me a little bit about them, between 80 and 300 400 words or thereabouts. You can also send any questions I haven't answered here to that address. I can't promise that I'll respond Immediately, because I'm rather busy with a piece I'm working on for a client, some Personal Matters, and the still ongoing process of moving, but I'll try.
REVISED SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Submissions between 80 and ~400 words in length. Word length is flexible as long as you make every word count. Writeups on the actual website could go to 500-800 words at the outside on occasion, but I won't expect most writers to write this much. Please submit in plain text — you can attach a text file to your email or paste it right in. I will read MS Word doc or RTF submissions, but I don't really like to. Submissions to tgies ат sound-club.org. Deadline is indefinite, at the moment, but I'd love to start seeing things this weekend.
Check back later for more details on the project, and remember:
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