Musicworks invites writers to submit brief query letters.
Musicworks articles dig into the experimental practices of concert music, electronic music, improvisation, instrument making, avant jazz and pop music, sound art, and interdisciplinary art involving music or sound.
Musicworks explores innovative music and sound art from a variety of places and perspectives. Our readers are passionate and knowledgeable about experimental music and expect to discover compelling storytelling about creative music artists and ideas.
Before submitting a pitch please read a print issue and familiarize yourself with our content and tone. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. We do not accept submissions of previously published work.
While we do publish stories on music and sound artists, ideas, and events from places outside Canada, the majority of our print magazine content is about Canadian artists, ideas, and events, and written and photographed by Canadians.
Our lead times are long. We publish tri-annually and plan issues well in advance of their publication dates. The Spring / Summer issue article assignments are before the end of the previous year. The Fall issue is planned in early in the late spring and the Winter issue is planned in the summer. Please keep this in mind when pitching articles that are linked to events. We prefer our stories to be evergreen. We rarely commission a feature on an artist or group that has previously been featured in our pages.
Musicworks has a small staff and receives pitches frequently, however we generally reply to pitches within a couple of weeks.
Please make your query succinct. It should explain what you will be writing about, your unique point of view on the story matter, what makes the story timely, and why it is a good fit for Musicworks.
If you haven’t written for us before please attach links or documents with examples of your writing.
Send your query to [email protected].
Features
Long (3000 words) and medium (1500 to 2000 words) features provide our readers with compelling stories about experimental music artists and ideas that are typically not featured in mainstream music media. Your pitch should offer our readers background to your subject, and ideally include at least one core interview, while digging deep into the sound, creative process, and context of what you are covering. We welcome ideas for artists profiles or themed pieces.
Sound Bite
Short pieces on emerging artists, pop-up projects, sound installation, sound sculpture, a work-in-progress, instrument design . . .
Reviews
We publish short reviews of experimental / creative / innovative music recordings, events (mostly festivals or exhibitions), labels, and publications. We prioritize reviews of new recordings of music composed by Canadians and significant Canadian music or sound events that feature a significant amount of Canadian work, but also cover select U.S. and international releases.