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*Spotlights are interviews! @sndbox reaches out to creative individuals and communities of all experience levels. Our goal is to raise awareness towards new users, seasoned Steemians and impactful Steem-powered projects.*

## @sndbox: Welcome, @heymattsokol! Tell us about yourself and your experiences with Steemit. 
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**@heymattsokol:** I’m an eccentric electronic musician. My main focus is on fusing drums and guitars with with radically psychedelic tunes.  I love to collaborate with another Steemian, Elijah (@emelanson). The two of us together are known as “The Walding Family”. 

https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://i.imgur.com/zkBe3R1.png

I’m one of the world’s first full-time Steemians. You may not know what that means, yet. But, it’s something like a full-time YouTuber. A Steemian is an up-and-coming social media influencer. We’re just less famous and more financially stable than YouTubers. 

So far my experience with Steemit (and Steem in general) has been a complete Utopia. I never imagined a dream world like this could be possible. It is a place where genuine content is rewarded fairly and incentives are designed to enable projects that are ethical and inclusive. In other words, Steem makes the typical “problems” of artists go away. I can work with other people, get honest feedback and watch my passion become my life. 

It is worth noting, though, that this environment could go away in an instant. We need to work as a community to hold it together and make sure Steem continues to grow to its full potential. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4O9kQue4qg


## @sndbox: Agreed about the community rallying together to make this new model happen. We need to think of the big picture, which is going to require some hard work. Speaking of big picture topics, we're excited to learn more about your Musician's Guide project, tell us all about it!

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**@heymattsokol:** The Musician’s Guide to Steemit is a manifesto of sorts. It explains how to be a part of the Steemit music community in a productive and healthy way.  Reading it will give you great insight on how working in conjunction with the Steemit community can be a benefit to those who engage with it. 

Our goal is to create the best possible guide that is absolutely free. Our book is professionally written and edited. It contains great imagery and a fantastic cover. There is no need for anyone to spend money on other guides that only contain nonsense. 

https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://i.imgur.com/LWYhOa5.png


I want everyone to be empowered and take part in this new experiment. It is going to be so excellent that is the first thing every musician who joins here will read. 

We plan on making new editions every year or so until Steem matures. Then, we’ll reduce the frequency of the updates. We plan on this publication being beneficial for the entire Steemit family. Just the thought of this book affecting future generations gets me excited! 

https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://i.imgur.com/2h1Mbr6.jpg

## @sndbox: You've made some great headway in fundraising for this project. It's great to see the music community rallying around it. Why do you think this project is significant to particular industries and Steemit, specifically? 
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**@heymattsokol:** At its core, Steemit is an alternative media ecosystem for the internet. It is being built up from the bottom without any major powers-that-be chipping in, as they might with other entities on today’s centralized web. No one like Zuckerberg, the Kardashian clan, or Bezos has chipped in . . . yet. 

When more established players start to join Steemit, even they will be a  bit confused. Despite their experience, Steemit is so large that those familiar with other platforms will still need to start from scratch. One of the most influential music reviewers posting on Steemit is The Needle Drop. He generally posts between three and five times every day. Believe it or not, he can earn up to $30 per post! I love the fact that he is humble enough to do this for us, despite how influential he is in the music world. 

Ultimately, I see this guide as being a great resource for those who are just joining Steem and need some help figuring everything out and getting started. This guide will be the obvious place to start. 

Another great use for this guide is as a marketing tool that will encourage people to join Steem. So, it is a great manual and a marketing tool all in one! 

## @sndbox: What are ways interested Steemit community members can contribute or be involved in the Musician's Guide project?
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**@heymattsokol:** The way people can be involved is completely dependent on their Steem situation. Newbies, or “minnows”,  who are just starting out and hungry to work should look for upcoming job listings from the @musiciansguide account. We are hiring graphic designers, an editor, a cover artist, a book designer and an administrative assistant. That’s just the beginning. Anyone who can fill one of these positions will get paid, but will also be helping us out in a huge way! 

Those with a little more experience with Steem, or “dolphins”, help by upvoting and resteeming. When we can get a broad base of support from this group of Steemians, it adds up to regular income and awareness stream for the project. Sending a few two-dollar votes or one-dollar resteems for our fundraising posts will go a long way to helping us reach “orbit” and capture the attention of larger influencers. We are hoping to interview some of the biggest influencers in the music industry, those we like to call “whales”. If you fall into this category, please contact me to set something up! We’d love to include these interview as exclusive content in our book. If whales are looking for a philanthropic project to get behind, a great way you can help us is casting a vote that helps us hit the trending page. My dream is to see the Musician’s Guide to Steemit become the number-one trending post on Steem. This would be a major boon for the project, as it would help to raise its profile. 

If you want to talk about a trending page push for our project, you can reach out to me directly. Anyone who can give us a trending-page-level vote, or who wants to team-up with people to do so, is eligible for a front-of-book executive producer credit (or something similar that suits you!)

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## <center>Learn more about @musiciansguide by [clicking here.](https://steemit.com/music/@heymattsokol/fundraising-post-can-you-spare-an-upvote-to-fund-the-musician-s-guide-to-steemit)</center>

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**A big thank you to Matt for doing the interview!** For more updates on his work, make sure to follow @heymattsokol. **Please consider making an SBD or Steem donation to @musiciansguide as they continue their fundraising endeavor!**

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<center>Help us spread the word. Follow our [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/sndbox_daily) and [**YouTube Channel**](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpVfdOCUVZ2PbwAEk8ydA7w)!</center>

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**Want to support Steemit content like this?** Consider joining our curation trail! **You can learn more about the [@sndbox incubator mission here](https://steemit.com/incubator/@sndbox/how-to-become-a-sndbox-fellow) and our 2018 program schedule, [here](https://steemit.com/incubator/@sndbox/sndbox-s-new-incubator-program-schedule).**

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