My name is Laura Snapes. I am NME’s assistant reviews editor, and have been since July 2010. I edit the gig guide, assist on the live and albums review sections, and write features, reviews and reports for all parts of the magazine. I also commission the On Repeat page at the front and the singles column at the back.

I have also written about music for The Guardian, Uncut, The Quietus, Under The Radar and eMusic.

If you are a band/label/PR, please don’t send me MP3 attachments, the office email gremlins will delete them automatically and I will never know they were sent. If you have found my mobile phone number or Facebook account, please do not contact me that way – I am all yours via email - laura underscore snapes at ipcmedia dot com – Twitter and my work landline.

In the past, I have spoken on panels at Leeds Festival, Swn Festival, and the Norwich Sound & Vision Conference. I greatly enjoy them, so if you’d like me to come and witter on at your panel/event/ribbon cutting/etc, do just ask.

My last.fm should give you an idea of the kind of music I like.

I get quite a lot of emails asking for tips on how to get into music journalism – I’d advise blogging, knowing your subject back to front and inside out, reading heaps of other amazing writers and figuring out what makes them so good, prostrating your services for free, working on student press, getting into a strong music-oriented community on Twitter, and generally being a tolerable pest. There is no single right way to do it – I got here through a combination of making fanzines, work experience, writing for my student paper and being a general nag. Learning how to pitch is a tough thing, but never underestimate the occasional power of firing an editor a super bon idea on Twitter.

If you’re want to do work experience at NME, you should email karen underscore walter at ipcmedia dot com.