Music Journalist (volunteer)

At Parlor City Sound, we’re dedicated to reporting on and promoting the music acts, locally-owned small businesses, and live music events that make this region so sonically special. Our magazine is unwaveringly pro-music and pro-Binghamton. And we’re looking for music journalists, aspiring or experienced, to help us tell the stories of this region’s versatile and innovative music scenes.

As a volunteer music journalist, you’ll play a central role in fairly and objectively reporting on music-related news in our region. You’ll promote local music acts and the locally-owned small businesses that help them reach for their aspirations. With your help, we can shine a grand spotlight on the versatile and immensely talented music scenes that bring unfathomable entertainment to audiences throughout the 607 region of New York State.

Volunteer music journalists may contribute with written articles, video content, photo galleries, or any combination thereof. Whatever your preferred medium is, there’s space for your work at Parlor City Sound. And we’ll share with you everything we know about search engine optimization (SEO) along the way. Not only to help enhance the reach of your contributions here, but all of your content with or without us in the future.

Responsibilities

  • Reporting news stories factually and objectively
  • Pitching story ideas and/ or taking on assignments you’re well suited for
  • Interviewing music artists, business leaders, event organizers, local political figures, and others
  • Using SEO best practices to ensure all of our content can reach audiences with ease (if you don’t know SEO, we’ll show you the ropes)
  • Getting content published in a timely manner—we don’t usually have deadlines, but we do strive to be at least somewhat reasonably punctual

Requirements

  • Must be at least 18 years old. We may make exceptions for younger aspiring music journalists, but only after communicating directly with a parent/ legal guardian
  • Laptop or desktop computer in good working order, with a reliable Internet connection
  • Reliable transportation for occasional local and regional travel is a big plus. You may need to sometimes meet with interview subjects, attend live music events, etc.

Compensation

Unfortunately, Parlor City Sound doesn’t yet generate enough revenue to pay our team. When we do establish monetization and start making more money than we’re spending out of pocket to produce this site, we’ll be compensating everyone on our team financially to the best of our ability. Until then, this is an unpaid volunteer position. We’re cool with asking for personal donations within your content so long as you follow our guidelines—we won’t allow anything deceptive or janky.

Apply Here!

  • Your first and last name as you'd like it to appear on your byline. We don't accept screen names here ... sorry Fruitninjalvr69
  • We don't need your actual address. We just want to know what area you're generally located in and what area would be on your beat. If not in the United States, please include your country too.
  • Please check all that apply. You must choose at least one. You don't have to pick more than one, but you can if you want.
  • Let us know why you'd like to write for Parlor City Sound. We'd also love to hear about your favorite genres, your writing experience, etc.
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