About Paste
PasteMagazine.com focuses on signs of life in music, movies, TV, videogames, comedy, books, tech, travel, drink and politics. We focus on a variety of musical genres—whatever else we think will grab music-lovers seeking something a little deeper. Paste strives to cover the best music in this eclectic mix, devoting space to independent musicians alongside more established artists. The tagline, “Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture,” refers to the depth and meaning we feel the best art is capable of conveying.
Solicitations & Assignments:
Paste no longer accepts unsolicited articles or pitches. We work with a limited team of freelance writers. We occasionally add to that team. If you’d like to join that group, you’re welcome to reach out to any of the editors on the masthead, but you may not receive a response unless there’s an opening you’re being considered for.
NOTE to Paste freelancers: Solicitation of record labels, promoters, artists, and publicists on behalf of Paste must be done in coordination with Paste editors. If you want to pursue a story and need to use the name of our publication for access, please authorize it with Paste staff directly.
Submissions may be edited and may be published at any time. Writers will be paid upon publication—payment usually takes 4-6 weeks. Paste retains the right to also publish everything that appears on PasteMagazine.com on other sites that use our content.
Issues & Deadlines:
PasteMagazine.com: Published on a rolling basis.
Writing Guidelines:
Personal Style
Develop your voice, express your opinion, but be concrete in how you formed that opinion and distinguish the subjective from the objective. Your writing should display maturity and emphasize substance over attitude. But do personalize your writing; inject your life into your writing as appropriate. Search for a sense of place or a narrative. After all, cultural criticism is not an objective, quantifiable science.
Fact-Checking
Be thorough. Never do an interview without a tape recorder, and save the tapes in case there’s an alleged discrepancy. If you are unsure of any facts in the article, please call this to our attention at the beginning of the article. We can help you verify the facts or remove them from the article.
Style
Use italics for titles of recordings, videos, books, films, and television programs.
Song titles, chapters titles, and article titles should be placed in quotations; punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.
Write out numbers nine and under and numbers that begin a sentence (if necessary); otherwise use numerals.
Use numerals for decades, except at the beginning of a sentence. Use four digits for the first reference, with no apostrophe, and then two digits with an initial apostrophe (e.g., 1990s then ’90s).
Write-out the complete title of a song or album on first use; it may be abbreviated subsequently. Generally, credit songwriters rather than performers (e.g., unless you’re commenting on something specific to Hendrix’ or U2’s version, it’s Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”).