How to become a music journalist?

[Madplant299]

No need for a degree. What you need to do is get started and see if you really like writing about music.

Start by creating a blog. Go to concerts or any music-related events in your area - bands, choirs, musical theater, singers, whatever - and review them on your blog. Also review every album you listen to, regardless of whether or not it's new. Have a trusted adult read your blogs and edit them for clarity. After each review is published, write the singer, band, producer, nonprofit - whomever presented the music event - and let them know it's there.

You can also review music-related books.

Welcome feedback - never get angry when someone comments on your blog in a negative way.

Start a Twitter account, and tweet out a link to every blog you publish, and tweet out every time someone comments on one of your blog entries. Create a Facebook page (you create this from your Facebook account) and have every Tweet you make posted to that page automatically (you do this via Twitter).

Read all the music journalism pieces you can get your hands on - everything in your local paper, in Rolling Stone, in any other music publications (all freely available at your local library), etc. Read some great music biographies. For instance, "Last Train to Memphis" is considered one of the greatest ever written.

Once you've done this for six months, take your best blogs and ask a journalism professor at a nearby college or university, or a music journalist at the nearest LARGE newspaper to review your work and advise you on how you could improve.

And after you do all of that, then you can decide if you need a college degree or not.