Phone interviews

You conduct a telephone interview by accepting the interview assignment, writing interview questions, and then scheduling a phone call with the interviewee.

Phone interview advantages

Interviewees find telephone interviews more relaxing and laid back than in-person interviews.

Casual answers

You may find that you get great casual answers which make for an informative article.  Phone interviews make it easy to take short breaks, give someone time to think, and worry more about what they will say than they do about their facial expressions.

Less preparation for artist

Artists feel comfortable when they don't have to "look" their best as well as sound their best and giving the best answers.

Podcast

You can make an audio file or "podcast" of the interview which you can embed in your article or other online content. You can also upload the file to YouTube as a video; include photos of the artist, or a video of yourself conducting the interview.

No travel time

The artist can participate in several interviews in a day, and you can also schedule more interviews and time for writing content, when you are not driving to a location to meet the artist.

Refer to your notes

You can reference notes during the interview without distracting the interviewee or looking away during an on-camera interview.

Conducting a phone interview

Research your subject and make several notes about other topics to discuss, other questions to ask if a line of questioning goes stale, and leading questions that should bring about long answers with good follow-up questions to continue prompting them. The ability to reference notes during the real-time interview means that you can have a variety of places to take the conversation.

At the scheduled interview time, you will meet the interviewee in a conference call service, or one of you will call the other. Make your introduction, then tell them that you will begin the interview. Give your "on air" introduction, then read the introduction you wrote for them.

Begin the interview casually. Ask questions easy to answer so that the interviewee does not give a lot of "Uh, uhm, err, you know, like," and other stammerings as they try to field what might otherwise be easy questions. Remember, you have notes on hand to prompt you with interesting questions, and they may not know what shots you might fire next.

Another alternative is to provide an overview of the types of questions you might ask, but not the actual questions, before the interview. This way your interviewee is prepared for your topics, but can still give spontaneous replies to your specific queries.

Detailed instructions

Link to detailed instructions [for HoT Music Pro accounts only]

Posting instructions

Link to posting instructions [for HoT Music Pro accounts only]

Interview advice

Link to interview advice [for HoT Music Pro accounts only]

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