Guest posts and advertising

Music Insight is a good home for guest writing that another editor could cite: a rights explainer, a recording-classroom exercise, a touring-safety briefing, an instrument-technique note. It is a poor home for the kind of posts that parked on this domain after the magazine faded — blinds, vapes, visas.

Heritage /advertise/ creatives (leaderboards, skyscrapers) redirect to this page. If you want attention here, write something true.

What we run

• Original explainers on Australian music practice
• Gear education that describes a job, not a leaderboard
• Classroom or studio teaching notes
• Corrections-as-essays when a common rumour needs a primary source

Length for a guest guide should meet the same floor we use internally: a hub-like piece of substance, or a genuine 1,500-word procedure if it is billed as a guide. Thin posts will be returned.

What we reject

• Reprints of work published elsewhere, including the old magazine
• Invented statistics, chart positions, sales, or ticket prices
• Rankings with no method
• Profiles that extract a living person without a new, consented conversation
• Undeclared affiliate or sponsor copy
• Anything that needs the reader to think we are APRA AMCOS, ARIA or a label

How to pitch

Use the contact form. Include:

1. Working title and the question the first sentence will answer
2. Outline of the procedure
3. Primary sources you will link
4. Whether anyone is paying you, loaning goods, or offering affiliate value
5. A short bio that is about competence, not a follower count we cannot verify

If we proceed, we will edit for house rules: answer first, cite or cut, fleet disclaimer at the foot. You keep copyright in your words unless we sign something else; we need a licence to publish. See permissions.

How a pitch is edited

When a pitch is accepted, the first edit is structural. We check that the opening sentence answers the question in the title, that every procedure step can be done by a reader without a private phone number, and that every fact has a door: APRA AMCOS, PPCA, ARIA, Arts Law, Fair Work, Support Act, or a document the writer actually holds.

The second edit is subtraction. Adjectives that imply a ranking (“leading”, “biggest”, “fastest growing”) come out unless a primary source used that word about itself. Dollar figures come out unless the writer can point to a public schedule. Chart talk comes out unless ARIA is cited for a method, not a rumour.

The third edit is voice. Guest pages should still read like Music Insight: Archivo-plain, Source-Serif headings in the layout, no press-release throat-clearing. You may sound like a teacher. You may not sound like a brochure.

If we reject a pitch, we will say which rule it broke. Rewrite once if the idea is sound. A third send of the same ranking listicle will not be a charm.

Old advertisement-slot URLs — leaderboards, skyscrapers, sidebar GIFs — remain 301s to this page. They are not inventory. If you need a commercial relationship that is not a written explainer, say so clearly and expect a no unless we can label it under the disclosure policy.

A worked example of a good pitch

Title: “How to log a community-radio play so a work can be matched.”
First sentence: “Keep the registered title, the duration and the writers identical to the APRA AMCOS work record, then file the log the station actually uses.”
Sources: APRA AMCOS registration guide; the station’s current log instructions.
Disclosure: the writer is a volunteer programmer, unpaid by any distributor.

That pitch can be taught. It can be cited. It does not need a celebrity. Send that shape.

Rates for guest writing

If we commission a long guide, we will say in the email whether it is unpaid community inventory or a paid piece. We will not invent a public rate card on this page, because a classroom worksheet and a 1,500-word rights explainer are not the same job. If money changes hands, the page will say so under disclosure.

Do not offer us a “free” article that is actually a product brief. That is not a discount. That is an undeclared advertorial, and it will be rejected even if the sentences are pretty.

After publication

You may reprint your own sentences elsewhere with a link back. We may update the piece if a primary URL moves. If you disagree with an edit that removes an unsourced number, the number stays out. That is the house.

Heritage /advertise/ slot URLs remain one-hop 301s. There is no banner inventory hiding behind this paragraph.

Pitch via contact. One procedure. Sources. Disclosure.

Who should not pitch

Publicists seeking a reprint of a release. Brands seeking a ranking. Anyone who wants us to impersonate APRA AMCOS. Anyone whose only source is another blog. Anyone who cannot say whether they are being paid.

If that is you, the contact form will still arrive, and the answer will still be no. The door is open for teachers, crew, administrators and artists who can teach a step.