magazines!!

Start at each magazine's website. Search for their contributors' guidelines. If they're not there, use the contact e-mail to ask for them. If you have a website, include a link to your best music pictures. If you have a specific story idea, pitch it. Try several magazines. Good luck!

"If you have a specific story idea, pitch it. Try several magazines."

Just be aware that you should NEVER send the same photos to different magazines at the same time. What happens if two of the magazines want to use your photos? They're not going to want to publish pictures someone else is publishing. Always give one magazine your photos, then if they can't use them, then you can send them to another magazine.

You might wait a long time on one magazine; indeed, you may never hear back from them. I see no problem in sending the same material (I send articles with my photos) to more than one magazine; however, once committing that material to a magazine, it's important to be totally honest with all interested parties: if another magazine expresses an interest in the same material, both they and the original magazine must approve or it's no deal. (It's kinda like dating.)

"You might wait a long time on one magazine; indeed, you may never hear back from them. I see no problem in sending the same material (I send articles with my photos) to more than one magazine;"

Always send photos with a request for them to be returned within a certain period of time. It's poor form to submit the same material to two or more possible clients at the same time.

My recent experience of sending images to magazines has been entirely digital.

Tim's being modest by omission, here - he just had some material published (way to go Tim!).

First of all, any new photographer is submitting digitally, and anyone who is involved with music magazines these days knows that. If someone is talking about submitting prints or slides in this market, they have no idea what they are talking about.

Second, I don't see any evidence of music photography by anyone posting so far here.

What you need to understand is that this isn't an easy market to crack. There are different tiers of magazines, with Rolling Stone/Spin/Vibe/Blender at the top, with musician-oriented magazines like Guitar Player in the middle, and fanzines, which are headed primarily for online, at the bottom. Getting into the top tier requires a crackerjack portfolio that shows you can work in the studio and in a stadium setting. Getting into the middle tier generally requires some good live show work for name bands, or else some connections with labels and management. Fanzines are easier, as long as you hang out with the bands you will get published, but there is no money in it.

For the middle tier, you can generally get in through performers and their agents and promoters rather than the magazines. These magazines rarely assign out to photographers who they don't know or don't come through the bands. Often, the writers bring in the photographers, either because they know them or because they hear about them through bands, agents, and promoters. The best way to do this is to email the people involved and get passes and show them your work. I've been published through bands and labels this way.

Most music magazines outside the top tier pay bottom dollar. It's not going to make you much money. Even CD covers these days don't pay well except for the biggest names, because iTunes doesn't really need a full set of cover photos.

Local newspapers are a good place to start also since you will have some tear sheets you can use. The problem is that they often send their own people, but if there is a show they don't cover that gets an unexpected turnout, or you have interesting backstage photos, they may pick it up (typical pay is $25-50 per shot) and you can leverage that with the band.