Wouldn't you love to write for Spin?

what if your two favorite songs are weird interstitial 20-second tracky things? will spin get angry letters from itunes downloaders who want their money back?

I'm sorry, were you talking to me?

then it became "we need to chew their food for them."

if there are reviews that he disagrees with, or happen to take a position on one of his faves that he doesn't like, he will change them without consulting the writer or kill them.

If we were comparing this memo to a Pitchfork, AMG, VVM, etc. memo, then fine, but this is a SPIN memo. I don't see the big new horrible shock in the new guidelines here, compared to what must have been the guidelines before.

The only thing I thought was funny was the "we're going to start covering hip-hop, but don't worry.. there'll still be indie" line.

when i started to work for him, he would say "your granny should be able to understand what you're talking about…"
then it became "we need to chew their food for them."

I discovered Tall Dwarfs and Spacemen 3 in high school thanks to Spin.

Obviously, Spin has a history of changing.

However, Donut is correct in his "what's wrong with having guidelines" comment.

however, this particular change bodes ill in that this diplomatic memo obscures up the fact that the gentleman in question is hostile to a.) american writers and americans in general and to b.) original thought…

just to confirm, his idea of "insider references" generally involves pop culture refs of the sort practiced around every water coolers in every workplace in the USA for the past twenty years. one time, he looked up from a page he was "editing" and exclaimed "WHAT WAS THE MOVIE ABOUT ERIN BROCKOVICH???!!!!"

i wonder that about half the music titles on the newsstand. i figure a fair number of them must be running on habitual readers -- people who read them in high school or college and still subscribe because it's cheap and they want something to read on the john.

Don't hold back. I could care less.

It's just silly to project that onto some memo.

Is Melissa Maerz expected to say "Look, I KNOW our new boss sucks, but c'mon GUYS!" in the memo instead?

Never mind that it was pretty shitty to publicize this memo to ILM in the first place.

both of them.

"HA HA HA...I kid, of course. All reviews are now twenty words, tops -- and the first person who tries that cutesy haiku shit gets their ass fired toot sweet."

only once or twice though, probably.

"Boobie sucky nipple nipple slurp boobie tanned nipple boobie suck (ass ass) tit squeeze milk slurp suck slurp oh mama!" ***

"Titty titty tit. Nipple rubber bra, ass rubber vagina suck (nipple peek), squirt milk slurp. Upskirt school knickers -- saucy photos!" ****

i would hide them under my mattress.

The other half sounds like typical management "think outside the box" "we respect creatives" "...but let's not get crazy here..."

When I was at SXSW, I got a shitload of music magazines for free at registration, and I was reading through a lot of them in my hotel room, and I was just sorta stunned by a) how directionless and personality free many of them were, especially the ones that were newish and b) how completely awful the writing was, whether it was reviews, features, or editorial commentary. It really made me appreciate what people on blogs, Pitchfork, and Stylus et al are doing a lot more, because even the lowest quality stuff was a cut above the random faceless writing that I found in Filter, Synthesis, Blender, etc etc.

I could still live if every reviewer stopped doing this, myself. (Not sure if that's really a "pitchfork-ey" quality anymore, though.)

.....so i guess the deal is - copy 40 words from the groups press kit/ bio...then a quick 10 word non-snarkey review of the album.....that'll be a great help !

so you've only got 50 words...but please mention the last OC appearance...sheesh

"This is everything I won't be doing."

It's WAY easier to deal with stated writer's guidelines rather than just shoot pitches into the ether and hope you are in the ballpark of what the editor is looking for. It's not only easier for aspiring writers, it makes the editor's job easier as well. Maerz is trying to make her workload manageable rather than suffer through a zillion rewrites (hilarious that she notes they will be "rewrites" from his top-edits; as EIC this guy is actually doing top-edits for 70+ reviews per month?)

52 words counting the abbreviations right there.

bottom-edits?

I've been reading my free copy of Blender the last few days and have kind of enjoyed it--I think that kind of music reviewing really needs to exist, and people like Ann Powers and Douglas Wolk do manage to work some ideas in there. But yeah, I agree that there's no need for another magazine like that when there's already a Blender and an EW. Spin either needs a even somewhat distinct voice or to stop existing.

(a) Is it just me or do those tentative words sound ominous?
(b) Spin: reaffirming our culture's lack of memory for anything that happened more than 23 hours ago.
(c) Writers good, new editors bad.

I don't see the point of deleting this thread unless a legal threat compels as much. It's unethical to post private messages unless they are explicitly intended otherwise.

Maybe this doesn't technically infringe on anyone's rights or convictions or anything, but I think that for a lot of people (imo anyone who might actually read Spin to find out about good new music), reading something like "Andy just wants readers to get the sense that we're passionate about listening to music, that we still occasionally find new albums that we love in the way we did when we were 16" might come off just a tad manipulative.

maybe what AP wants to convey is the passion for listening and how a passion for listening sometimes results in finding greatness; maybe he thinks that the snarky element inherent in SPIN's legacy is destructive, that it connotates unnecessary cynicism about the listening process. I think that's a valid point, and maybe a necessary one.

among other things, this is quite germane, and he would hardly be the only editor with such concerns…

That said, I don't think that the main target of advertising for SPIN (or RS, or any general interest music rag) is label advertising. The money's better from booze, cars, retailers, etc.

Sony/BMG just ain't what it used to be, man

that's a fair argument on its face. but what about posting private messages from, say, an enron VP about the company's overseas business dealings? or a private message from a sony executive announcing the layoff of hundreds of his employees? where do you draw the line? is this one different because a lot of ILM posters happen to know the person who sent it?

you wouldn't know that from some of the responses on this thread!

By chance I have the most recent (AP-free) issue next to my desk (actually, it was in the garbage next to my desk.)

3 half page ads that are branded by the retailer (1 Tower & 2 BestBuy)
1 quarter page ad branded by BestBuy
1 half page bought by Epitaph for Matchbook Romance (p71)
1 half page bought by Victory (Hawthore Heights massive attack shockah)

That's it. ZERO major label straight buys, and the coop redirection doesn't signify much of an active major interest in buying display ads at SPIN.

I'm pretty sure this trend is a few years running.

Maybe you should put a disclaimer signature at the bottom of all your correspondence:

"ANY EMAILS SENT TO ME WILL POSSIBLY BE POSTED IN A PUBLIC FORUM. YOUR RIGHT TO DISCRETION IS FORFEITED IN YOUR CORRESSPONDENCE WITH ME."

also, you can argue with momus.

well, i'm not saying that it isn't rude to post e-mail that you get, but i don't think it is "unethical".

Other people prefer to do the whole label mate thing, ex: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone RIYL The Books, Patrick Wolf, Les Georges Leningrad. Presumably, if you like these acts, then you, like the label heads, might enjoy other acts on the label too, because of shared tastes, etc. This tends to work more with techno/electronic music, probably because those labels tend to coalesce around a particular type of sound, so this probably fits more under that first category.

Others still prefer to search for subconscious/spurious connections between music. Maybe there's a whole BPM connection that subconsciously attracts people to certain music, no matter how disparate on the surface. Or maybe both bands have songs about Jodie Foster, or like apple juice or whatever. Animal Collective RIYL The Animals, erm... Collective Soul, er...The Stray Cats, whatever.

Finally, there's that little known subgrouping of reviewers who prefer to branch out beyond direct comparisons to other music. Example: The Beach Boys RIYL going to the beach. Blondie RIYL Dagwood. MF Doom RIYL comics, weed, food.

Please note that all reviews must be submitted in blue sharpie.

this seems totally obviously meant to increase online music sales, right? i mean all of the "new" rules here do, though. "keep your voice, though." aw shit do i HAVE to?

i think you should write about it in your next novel, which should have glossy photos of will on the inside. you can call your book "our fallen prince"

Great post.

What, you think it's laughable that he could be a New Robot Overload at Spin rather than just his ordinary Eggerbot self?