Get Featured in Paste Magazine

Paste Magazine covers music, film, television, comedy, games, books and drink with reviews, interviews, lists and essays. Its writers hear from far more artists than they can cover, so attention tends to go to releases with a label, a publicist or existing critical momentum behind them. A guaranteed placement removes that uncertainty: the piece is arranged with the publication in advance, you approve the draft, and it publishes on pastemagazine.com inside a written window, usually one week. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What Paste Magazine covers

Paste Magazine began as a music publication and grew into a broad culture title while keeping music at its center. It reviews albums and tracks, interviews artists, records live sessions and compiles widely read best-of lists. The same critical approach extends to film, television, comedy, video and tabletop games, books, and food and drink, with particular attention to independent and lesser-known work.

The writing is thoughtful, enthusiastic and willing to go long on why something is good. Paste Magazine cares about craft, so the stories that belong there explain how the work was made: a songwriter describing the sessions behind a record, a director on a low-budget feature, a comedian developing an hour, a game studio with an unusual design, or a distiller or brewer with a method worth describing.

Who reads Paste Magazine

Paste Magazine readers are enthusiasts. They buy records, go to shows, follow independent film, keep up with television and stand-up, play games and read reviews before spending their time or money. Some work in or near the arts themselves, as musicians, writers, bookers, radio programmers and venue staff. They are mostly in the United States and they trust recommendations that come with an argument.

For an artist, a feature in Paste Magazine carries weight with the people who decide what gets booked and heard. Talent buyers, festival programmers, college and public radio staff, independent labels, music supervisors and grant panels know the name, and a mention of it strengthens a one-sheet, a tour pitch, a festival submission or a funding application.

Paste Magazine treats culture seriously, so a story works when the work itself can carry it. Describe the record, film, set or game in specific terms: the influences, the process, the decisions that shaped it and what it was like to make. Honest detail reads better here than big claims, and a release date gives the piece its timing.

We weigh the angles below against your material and choose one. Artists tend to undersell the making of the work, which is usually what an enthusiast most wants to read.

What weakens a pitch

• Hype without description. Calling a record groundbreaking tells an enthusiast nothing, while describing how it sounds tells them a lot.
• Nothing released or scheduled. A story needs work people can hear, watch or play, or a firm date when they can.
• Inflated comparisons. Likening yourself to legendary artists invites doubt, and we only write what the work can support.
• A business story with no creative work. Paste Magazine is about culture, so a company profile alone belongs somewhere else.