TGEFM gets more promos than we can shake a stick at, and a lot of good music ends up unreviewed. As such, TGEFM is always looking for reviewers. If you’re interested in becoming a TGEFM reviewer, continue reading!
For your try-outs, your review submissions can be of just-released albums or older ones (TGEFM’s Album Releases section is a good place to start for the former). Although TGEFM is primarily about the punk genre, our motto “punk. punk adjacent. and everything else.” should be a clue that we basically cover anything we want. The whole premise of the site is built on non-exclusivity, so review what you feel comfortable with.
Putting all of our cards on the table, reviewer positions are voluntary and, currently, unpaid. Compensation is in the form of perks like hearing new music before it comes out, getting into gigs for review, and more. On the flip side, we NEVER assign reviews, or require a regular quota (except for the try out process). You drive your involvement, and do as little or as much as you are comfortable with.
Reviews you submit via the try-out process may or may not be published, but they will be used to assess your writing. Please submit at least four reviews in two months so that the TGEFM editors can look them over, and also to gauge whether or not you are really interested. An editor may also contact you about your review and, if your review is published, the author will be as Guest Reviewer. Should you make it through try-outs and become a staff contributor, the author for your previously published reviews will be changed to your name specifically.
Ideally, this could be over a period of two months, but the quicker you submit, the sooner we can determine if you want to come onboard (some people have come onboard after a week). If you make it through unscathed, we’ll commit to the full onboarding process, including joining TGEFM officially so you can access our Discord server and, more importantly, gain access to our Reviews channel where you can volunteer to review promotional copies of albums before their release dates, or request a promo if we haven’t already gotten one.
The TGEFM Try Out process is pretty simple:
1) If you haven’t already, sign up for a TGEFM account. Once done, email us and let us know what your username is, and that you are interested in trying out (so that we can keep an eye out for your submissions).
2) Once you have an account, you can submit reviews via our Reader Reviews Submission form.
If you make it through and are brought on board, TGEFM editors will get you access to our Discord Server, which we use for internal communications. Discord is a free service and can be accessed via apps or browser. We will work with you to match our “few” editorial guidelines but, as long as your writing ends up clear and coherent (even after edits), you’ll make it in. Perseverance is the quality we look for at this point.