Spinner Wants You to Cover SXSW!

Posted on Jan 27th 2010 2:00PM by Spinner Staff
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UPDATE: If you're going to the SXSW Music festival, check out our on-the-ground assignment opportunity.

SXSW is just around the corner, and Spinner.com is looking for reporters to interview all 2,000 bands participating in advance of the annual festival. That's something that no other music outlet has accomplished. But with a combination of our ace Spinner team, plus some new talented contributors (perhaps including you), we're going to try it this year in partnership with AOL's new writing and photography site Seed.com.

You don't need to have written a cover story for Rolling Stone to participate, but you do have to be a resident of the United States. If you are passionate about music, attend shows and talk to bands (or just want to), this is an excellent opportunity to get your byline in front of millions of fellow music fans around the world.

If you're selected, we'll send you the name of a band. You'll research them, interview them and write up the interview in a simple Q&A format, as well as compose a brief biography. If we run your piece, you'll pocket $50. That's a bellyful of BBQ down in Austin, Texas. Plus, if your interview is published and you enjoyed the assignment, you may have the opportunity to contribute more.

If you're attending SXSW, check back with Spinner.com for more paid opportunities as the March kickoff of the festival nears, including show reports and photos from Austin. You do not need to be attending SXSW 2010 to participate in band interviews.

If you're interested in interviewing a band now, contact us at SXSWSeed@aol.com with the subject line "Writing for SXSW." In the body of the email, you must include the following information:

- Name (Legal name -- no pen names accepted)
- Physical Address
- Preferred phone number
- E-mail
- AIM screenname (If you have one. If you don't, get AIM here.)
- Will you be attending SXSW 2010?
- Highest education completed (students welcome -- just let us know)
- Describe your writing experience, if any (100 words max)
- Describe your musical tastes (100 words max)
- List all employment or connection to the music industry or other potential conflicts (if any)
- Feel free to append one writing sample or a link to a published work of yours (optional).

Please note that all assignments would need to be completed within a specified deadline, typically one week, and you need to follow our standards of responsible reporting and accept our publishing program agreement, which can be found here: http://www.seed.com/publishing-agreement/

When contacting the band for an interview, you may say you are requesting the interview for Spinner and AOL. You may not describe yourself as working for AOL or Spinner in any other context, nor request press passes or tickets on Spinner or AOL's behalf.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
The Spinner Staff