Organize! Y4ncy Strick1er's website idea for freelance music critic to unite on

i just skimmed but sounds kinda like premium content on mediabistro.

May I recommend this as a potential resource/role model:

http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nbt

Been on this mailing list for a while now, check the link on 'the NBT story' for further details -- as you can see, the focus is very much on the UK side of things for freelancers to 'talk shop,' exchange ideas and recommendations, and so forth. However, many of the issues Y. raises in his post are parallel to what has been discussed on NBT, and there are members of the list who are here besides myself that might be able to contribute and suggest more.

(Also I've googleproofed his name as I believe he always prefers it that way here.)

there are definitely places that offer things sorta similar -- mediabistro, writer's market (hadn't heard of nbt -- thanks ned) -- but none go far enough, in my mind. while this wouldn't go as far as, say, the freelancer's union or author's guild in terms of determining and upholding writer's rights (though i can tell you from experience that what the freelancer's union "offers" is very, very little), it would ease the nastier bits of freelancing (such as getting paid), provide valuable resources and create a more formal community among writers beyond the occassional drink meet-up. i'm still thinking about this steadily and considering how to get it off the ground, and i'm eager to see where conversation here might take it.

sorry to hear about the circumstances that led to your idea, yanc3.

perhaps it should have a dash of fuckedcompany too?

Sign me up for whatever you'd like to do, Y., I've been thinking more thoroughly about more actively pursuing a variety of things on the freelance front, and this would be a great help as well as something to contribute to.

long overdue. the uaw does have a writers union, but freelancers have been left in the cold; legislation written a few years back seems to have "stalled" if not been killed outright, and it was so weak as to be meaningless.

the stickiest part being that what's really at stake is coming up with a leverage plan to get paid.

CUE THE VANGELIS FUCKERS!

Wow, that is awfully ambitious. I think it's waaayyyy too ambitious to be reasonable, frankly. What comes to mind as a parallel.. I've been quite fascinated by the growth of an activist community over at the Daily Kos (the Scoop software that runs that site is open source, so worth looking into!). dKos grew from a blog to a Scoop community site, and now has regular features, a political encyclopedia, directs donations to candidates, has a media activist group, lots of readers in the mainstream media, and a number of members of Congress signed up and posting diaries. But all this growth was more or less organic - the site wasn't planned to be so massive from the outset.

What I am wondering, first off, is how many freelancers who work regularly for certain publications are really willing to give up their contacts and pay rates and so forth. Are they likely to think that access to information on a website is worth the risk of letting other writers get the scoop on their own gig? Perhaps it would, in fact, be best for the users of the site to be anonymous (i.e. have usernames), and have it be more of an open-source exchange of information and an attempt to grow a real community there. As that happens you'll naturally have frank discussion of topics like pay rates, practices at certain publications, and so on and so forth.

Well it all depends what's the main focus and what's being discussed. NBT is not anonymous and the information shared is done so openly. There are perfectly sensible caveats, though:

As the list is private and unmoderated, and given the sometimes sensitive nature of working matters discussed, full-time members of editorial staff are not allowed to join, even if they do some additional freelance work. This is to ensure that everyone on the list feels free to discuss problems with particular publishers without fear that their comments may be being passed back to staff, and that no staff member, however well-intentioned, would feel compromised by receiving such messages.

It is also expected that all list members will treat all list messages in the strictest confidence, and will not divulge potentially sensitive information to non-members.

i like the idea of having separate sections for staffers and writers, because the possibilities of using social networking kinda tools to connect w/ writers sounds great to me. each writer has a profile with clips, interests, etc. i know that in my editor position i would find something like that incredibly useful.

yr right daria that it might be too ambitious. that post was the first release of this gestating idea, and i wanted to get it all out there. soundscan subscriptions, for instance, are incredibly expensive, so that is not the most feasible idea. but the part of the site that would take the most work -- that promo calendar thing -- would be urgent and key, i think.

people might very well be nervous about giving out contact names, but it's not like it's that hard to find out who edits what! aside from some of the conde nast and time-warner publications, most of that information can easily be had or -- at the very least -- guessed. everytime i've ever pitched a mag that i've had no connection to, i've just sent my pitch to every possible email variation i could think of...

Can't someone just start a message board, already?

this is a cool idea, but i'll say that i have found the national writers union to be really helpful with legal/contract resolution, info sharing (on who's good, who's bad, who pays on time, how much, etc...), and health insurance matters (tho i haven't ever gotten insurance thru them, i *hear* it's pretty good)

www.nwu.org for anyone interested...

There is this already:

The Association of Music Writers & Photographers
http://www.amwp.org/

Think of the thousands of magazines, fanzines, alt weeklies, newspapers, books and web sites that cover music. Demand for music content has never been greater! The Association of Music Writers and Photographers is an organization for the people who provide that content.

When you join, you will become part of the largest community of music publishing professionals in the world. Use this power as a networking tool, source of advice, or just to meet others who share the same passions you do.

Members also receive:

Job listings
Industry directories
Contests
Your own profile page
and much more...

Regarding forthcoming releases, i have switched to using RYM as a content management tool this year - as the previous systems I used were just too time consuming.

2005 Releases including forthcoming
http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view/list_id_is_14969

Also a collaborative effort for tracking 2005 forthcoming releases is available at

RYM
Recently Added Albums with a release date of 2005
http://rateyourmusic.com/recent?year=2005
Unfortunately eps/ singles/ albums are all mixed together, and you need to click on each entry to find out.

Anyone can join RYM and add in new information.

You can also create your own new lists using the RYM database, e.g sequenced forthcoming releases by date order.

I have also compiled a set of links relating to 2005 [Forthcoming] Album Releases at
http://www.geocities.com/altmartinuk/2005lists.html

as someone who only very recently decided to start freelancing and only understands the profession/industry in whatever surface level ways can be gleaned from various ILM threads and blogs, I like the idea of such a resource.