Rolling Music Writers' Thread

all creative people recycle.

I would be very pleased to have a current-day thought and then find that past-me had the same thought, as opposed to (as is typically the case) something infinitely more stupid, embarrassing, annoying, and long

oh man i would gladly swap one of my old long embarrassing thoughts for one of yours any day of the week. i find that not looking back at all is the key.

I know at least one really great ilxor writes for the site and I'm a dedicated daily reader so I don't want to bash them for a touch decision but, uh, seeing that Aquarium Drunkard is transitioning to $10/month for future access makes me really fucking depressed about the future of the internet.

Like, maybe that's not much, but when I'm suddenly being asked to pay $10 a month for every site I read? That's unsustainable.

"tough decision"

Don't get me wrong, paying writers to provide good, thoughtful criticism is totally valid!

Maybe it's just fatigue of being constantly bombarded by substacks and other outlets asking for money as well. I get it, the media landscape is fucking bleak. I don't know the answer. Just looking through my inbox right now, to buy in to all the great writers and thinkers I'd want to follow in an ideal world it'd cost me over $100 a month. That's not a sustainable solution, for anyone.

I grant that AD posts a lot of stuff, and it's mostly really good, but $10 a month is a lot.

I had a dream last night that a conglomerate that owned a lot of different media brands was going to be hiring writers for their publications and, I think, Chuck Eddy gave them my name. The thing was, you didn't know what publication you would be interviewing to write for. I got a call and I was interviewed with two other people. They were both much younger than me. One of them mentioned that their favorite live concert performance that they had ever seen was by Kelly Rowland. I felt totally unprepared. I was hoping i didn't have to answer any questions. Finally, they did ask what people thought about a release being "overhyped". I said that manufactured enthusiasm for a release was as old as time and a PR firm's number one priority but that the internet had created a monster of hype for EVERY release and that there weren't enough eyeballs or enough money to make that anything more than noise that people learned to ignore in favor of algorithms that did all the consumer's thinking for them and thus took chance or even possible disappointment out of the listening equation. The interviewer looked at me like I had three heads. i shut up after that.
The name of the magazine I was possibly being hired to work for: Formica Magazine

sounds like a dream job!

Jon, I think about that a LOT.

I subscribe to the substacks et al of a few friends but can’t really afford to do more than that. I feel bad about it.

It’s the decentralization of media, analogous to what’s happening to TV.

“What if you didn’t pay $120 per month for cable anymore? What if I told you that instead you could pay $200 per month for a variety of online services?”

Not the fault of the writers, or the creators, of course, but you know what I mean.

(I haven’t started a pay site of my own - or even a non pay site - because I’m not quite self-directed enough, and kinda need assignments and deadlines from others. I need the pressure! I salute those of you who can make self-schedules happen.)

Like I said, I get it - I want sites like AD to stick around in this bleak as fuck online media landscape and I 100% believe in supporting the writers. $10 just seems like a huge ask.

It just makes the future feel so bleak. Almost daily I like to check out AD, The Quietus, Stereogum for the metal and jazz columns, Pitchfork (for the occasional worthwhile review or feature), The Obelisk for stoner rock news, to name just a few off the top of my head (and set aside your personal opinions of each for now, or feel free to enter your own favorite daily bookmark). Are we looking at a near future where doing so costs me $45-50 a month? This isn't even considering individual substacks, Patreons or mailing lists that have a cost. I know everyone is scrambling to find a way in the current landscape, but this feels massively unsustainable.

I keep seeing enthused comments about the paywall saying things like, "what's the big deal? it's less than two cups of coffee a month!". Which, yes, correct. And that's fine if it's literally the only music site you care to pay attention to, but I don't know any music obsessive that limits themselves to only 1 or 2 sites.

Yeah it's a tricky thing. I subscribe to a few Substacks but right, I can't subscribe to every single person I like.

I mean, I live on the subscription model, literally — all of my income for the past 5 1/2 years has come from subscribers. So I am an evangelist for it, but I also recognize that what we're really talking about broadly is trying to backfill the loss of advertising revenue. And that was ~ 80% of the revenue that most print media used to rely on. So, are there enough individual subscribers out there who can afford to support the number of writers and reporters of any kind who used to be supported by advertising-driven print vehicles? Absolutely not.

I have a regular job (three of them, really), so writing Burning Ambulance is entirely a labor of love. Yes, I am willing to accept payment, but free and paid subscribers get the exact same thing, at the exact same dosage. Honestly, if everyone was reading the newsletter for free, but 10% of them bought a CD on the label, I'd be overjoyed.

I think I'm one of the last of the old school '00s bloggers, and I'm not sure I have it in me to charge for the service.

(I don't intend this comment as passive-aggressive anything against anyone here who does)

Well to be clear, the work that I charge for is NOT stuff I would do for free or out of love. It's going to County Commission and school board meetings and writing about budgets and zoning and state legislation and all that kind of thing. My free writing is all the movie/music stuff I post on Facebook (or ilx!) when I'm procrastinating from the day job.

tipsy, your stuff in particular enrages me! You should still be a staff writer covering a government beat. But it also works out: you've got editorial independence.

Yeah, it's a trade-off for sure. We're very fortunate there are people who will pay us to do what we do, but of course we lack a lot of resources. And, like, can't ever take a day off. Sad lol.

But to steer back to the music writing, and arts writing in general, which has gotten so hard to sustain — has anyone explored putting together some sort of cooperatives? Joining forces via mutual subscriptions, that kind of thing? Subscribe to any 3 of 5 for $10 a month, I don't know, I'm sure there are a lot of possible revenue-sharing models.

I suppose eventually you would just end up reinventing music magazines.

It's been fifteen years since someone asked about this, and that poster was interested in hearing from people who've been paid for their music writing, while I'd like to hear from anyone who has noticed themselves improve:

How do (or did) you get better at music writing? -- whether it's in terms of insight, voice/register, structuring, anything. I figure that, as with anything else, you've gotta write a lot, but that isn't quite enough, is it?

Curiosity and prolificity.

read a lot. of everything.

I barely do any music writing anymore, but when I was more regularly, I found that some of the writing I felt best about came via assignments — albums or shows that I might not have even listened to or gone to except someone asked me to. I think in those situations I was engaged critically in a way I maybe wasn't as much on things I was more enthusiastic about. A little bit of detachment from the material? I don't know.

But anyway I suppose even absent an assignment that could be replicated just by choosing to write about something that you normally wouldn't think to.

you can even do it here for practice! hey, at least 10 people will read it. that's pretty good for music writing these days.

Listen to an album you've never heard by an artist you never listen to and then tell us about it!

I will say, as someone who is currently working on a piece for Aqua Drunkard - and who has written many articles to paywalled websites in my lifetime - it is slightly de-motivating to know that this is going to publish and ... I guess the band won't be able to see it without subscribing? I'm sure far fewer people will read it than would've two weeks ago.

I support the effort fully and think everyone should be paid for their work, for sure. I just can't help but feel a little bit like I'm going to find myself directing some pitches elsewhere. Which is a bummer.

Yep. How many $70 paid substacks plus paid websites can people do although yes writers deserve to get paid

unfortunate

3 weeks ago i interviewed a trans artist, & the power of her voice made me realize the power of my own. this is the piece that got me fired from the fader, bc i believed trans girls deserve nothing less than the cover. please read it & share it if u can. https://t.co/tKWzQRK0ZF

— nadine on strike (@FakeNadine) April 17, 2024

you were not “fired” you quit after developing a wildly unprofessional parasocial relationship with an artist, who had to have her team intervene after you sent her 100s of text messages 👍🏾

and stop posting our emails asking people to “go stan mode” it’s beyond embarrassing 👍🏾👍🏾 https://t.co/C0RXiQ7Kj1

— vivian (@perlucidum) April 18, 2024

apparently, someone called the cops to do a wellness check on her, this is getting really fucking ugly, hope she has friends that could help her out