Hearing Things is an independent, worker-owned publication covering music and the culture around it. Our mission statement is here. Please read this guide before you send a pitch.
We’re looking for features, essays, reporting, profiles, and reviews. If you’re pitching a review, think of it as a thoroughly argued piece of criticism or an essay; we are more likely to assign a pitch with an unusual angle than one that’s only about whether something is good or bad. We are unlikely to accept pitches for artist Q&As.
We love strong opinions and a sense of humor, cultural context and historical musings—think rigorous, but not stuffy; fun, but not frivolous. (Well, sometimes frivolous is OK.) Most of all, we are interested in publishing writers with original voices.
Pitch us on:
- Incredible artists and records that no one else is talking about.
- Amazing local scenes around the world that outsiders haven’t heard of yet.
- Weird, exciting, and/or confounding trends from the depths of the internet.
- Profiles that uncover the human story beyond the press-release talking points.
- Stories about music in all the delightful and surprising places where it happens every day. Got an idea about a legendary street busker? A 12-year-old who invented her own synthesizer? A forgotten video game with a mind-blowing original score? We want those.
We adhere to common journalistic ethical standards. Any potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed in your pitch (and, where applicable, will be disclosed in any published piece).
The minimum rate for shorter, written-out pieces (at least 800 words) is $350, and $1,000 for longer, written-out stories (at least 2,000 words).
Hearing Things worked with the Freelance Solidarity Project, an arm of the National Writers Union, to create a unilateral agreement for transparency and equity for all freelancers who work with us. It includes our commitment to let writers retain the rights to their work and our promise to indemnify and defend freelancers against third-party claims. Read the agreement in full here.
We will periodically update this page with examples of successful pitches as we receive them. Send your ideas to: pitch@hearingthings.co.