Think Music Pays Badly? Try Writing About It
A Craigslist ad offers a glimpse into the world of music journalism. Online music and entertainment destination Prefix Magazine posted looking for writers with "an encyclopedic knowledge of music or film… previous experience in journalism preferred". The compensation? Less than a penny a word.
Excerpts from the ad:
"We’re looking for self-motivated writers that can work from home. Must have an encyclopedic knowledge of music or film. Previous experience in journalism preferred, but a lack of published clips can be overcome with entertaining, high-quality writing and a strong desire to be published.
Daily News Bloggers: Must submit a minimum of three news posts a day. (200+ word posts)
COMPENSATION: This is a freelance position. $2 per blog post with the possibility of traffic based bonuses. Because of the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot guarantee that we’ll be able to respond to each applicant.
To be fair, Prefix is not the only online publication that offers very small fees to writers, and some of the writing on the site is quite strong. In fact, many blogs and sites offer no compensation. That's true for most guest posts on Hypebot. The payback is often just a writing credit and a link back to the writer's site or business.
Think being a musician pays badly? When was the last time you bought a t-shirt or ticket to see a music blogger?
via The Daily Swarm
I wouldn’t even apply for this. Whatever original text you write you hold a copyright for it. If you sell it to another media it means selling a license (non-exclusive or exclusive) and there’s your income first, should be high. It’s your knowledge, experience, style of writing, years of researching things in terms of music. Blogs and magazines will deal with missing good writers yet we’re linked to the music industry tight and depended on one another. If listeners don’t buy music, bands can’t earn enough and spend on buying some articles or ads in magazines, then magazines can’t pay their writers, so traffic decreases due to no news or good articles, and magazines can’t attract both readers and bands. See a chain reaction? It all starts with the final consumer.
If you do what you truly love, most of the time it pays very poorly. Lets face it
Great point, I never thought about it in that way.. giving away music for free affects the industry, not just the musicians.
Ha! I have one better. I write about music for Huffington Post and get paid nothing. They call their writers “bloggers” so they don’t have to pay them, even though the work is article quality and includes interviews with musicians or whoever, as well as research, traveling, etc… They’re a major news outlet with massive advertising dollars and can afford to pay their writers, yet they don’t.
I write for them to build credentials and get my name out there, as well as build relationships and connections in the industry, but am resigned to just looking at it as a very long, extended un-paid internship until my portfolio is strong enough to move into a paid position of some kind.
That’s a good point. All these people expecting music to be free really don’t get how that affects the entire industry, and they don’t understand that most musicians are not rich like Bruce Springsteen and Green Day. The perception is that musicians as a whole, the labels, the magazines and news sites, etc… make a lot of money so they shouldn’t expect people to pay for the music, and they don’t realize buying the music is what sustains the industry. It’s a consumer-driven market that’s gotten completely and ridiculously out of whack.
This definitely explains the quality of music writing.