I can’t see myself reading any of this, but I could be wrong.
AOL is trying its most ambitious super-content project yet with freelance content site Seed.com: offering 2,000 $50 assignments on SXSW bands for its music site Spinner.com. New Seed programming director Saul Hansell sees it as the “perfect chance” to showcase reporting and journalism along with what Seed can do for sites within AOL. The basics: Spinner and Seed are recruiting U.S. “reporters” to interview all 2,000 bands for a Q&A and bio in advance of the March Festival. That doesn’t mean they’re looking for professional writers or even music experts, although they may get some of each. (full story)
Looks like Spinner is making a big play to have a lot of random content about all the bands in advance of SXSW. You know who else has a lot of content about all the bands? Google.
Robert-
Saul Hansell here of Seed. What makes you think the content will be random?
More to the point, as a music fan, is there anything we could do to add reporting to add to your enjoyment of SXSW. Our only goal is to deploy smart people to gather information that will be interesting and useful to others.
We need to keep experimenting to find journalism models that work in today’s world. Everyone’s ideas are welcome.
Saul
As someone who goes to SXSW, I don’t think I’d find any value in reading 2,000 interviews about the band. MP3s, video, some bio info, musical relationships to other artists, these are the things I’m into.. As well as a curated list of recommended artists…
But good luck! Could be interesting..
This is great news. Looks like I have potential to earn $100,000! How soon can I start submitting?
Unless they have an army of copy editors and fact checkers, I don’t see posting 2000 interviews before SXSW kicks off. Then again, if they just transcribe the interviews into Q&A format, it might work…
Without music samples and a listing of showcases/parties each band is playing, I’m not sure the bands will get as much benefit from this exercise as Spinner.com. Their music will get me to pay attention, not another anecdote about a van breaking down in the middle of nowhere.
I applaud Seed for exploring models that allow freelancers to earn money for their work. Very few media entities are willing to pay for content unless it appears in print.
I got chosen to interview a band from Malaysia and it has been super hard to get ahold of them. Other than that I think it is a cool opportunity.
I have a Indie Band performing at SXSW. Looking for avenues to expose them to the industry. Feel free to contact me for more info or interviews. I thank Seed for the 1 in 2000 opportunity. In my Eyes and the business model today, those are pretty good odds.
The Band: Warner Drive site info: http://www.myspace.com/warnerdrive
Michael Keeling artist manager site info: http://www.myspace.com/mkeelingpx
I tracked down a band from China through their facebook friends. It took a few days. The British band was much easier to interview by phone.