UNPOP's mission is to present uninterrupted 8-channel audio pieces from dusk until dawn on every night of the Burning Man event. Each evening will feature a curated playlist of unique works. In order to pull this off, we need your pieces!
Speaker diagram, with channel numbering scheme

If you are interested in having your work programmed as part of our playlists for UNPOP @ Burning Man 2024, please fill out and submit the form below.

Here's everything you need to understand about participating in UNPOP:
  • There is no artist fee. All artwork shown/played/given at Burning Man is intended to be a gift, in keeping with the event's ten principles. This is an opportunity to have your work heard in a unique outdoor environment by audiences who will really listen with open ears (and may also have enhanced their perceptual capabilities).

  • We will not be passing out programs, listing names, announcing order, etc. So, while your piece may be heard by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people, your name and the name of the piece will be unknown to most people. This is in keeping with the uncredited nature of much Burning Man art. However, we will be listing your name and the title of your work here (on our website), as well as where it fell within each evening's playlist, so dedicated listeners who want to figure out what they were listening to will be able to look it up.

  • We are seeking diverse pieces that can include field recordings, academic electroacoustic pieces, ambient/drone music, textural tone sculpture works, experimental sound art, AI/algorithmic generated sounds,etc. However, the one thing we WON'T play is beat-oriented dance music - since such music is already widely available throughout Burning Man. We are looking for music that is different. This doesn't mean it can't contain beats or pulses or rhythms or whatever, but if it is primarily a dance track, it probably won't fit in with our programming goals.

  • SOME TECHNICAL INFO: The system through which the works will be played is based on 8 custom-built Isobel Hemisphere speakers, and two subs. There is nothing special to be done to prepare your octophonic piece for playback in this system -- the wide dispersion angles of the speakers combined with the walls/baffles simply create an ideal listening environment with an unusually large sweet spot. We may apply a slight corrective EQ to your piece, in order for it to sound as good as possible in the speaker system.

  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
    1. We are looking for fixed-media multichannel works. We do not have the capacity to run generative audio software in this installation *yet* (though, if you have a proposal along these lines, let's talk...)
    2. The installation operates with 48000 Hz/24-bit .WAV files. If you can submit your piece in that format, great, otherwise we will convert whatever you send us into that format.
    3. You may submit your piece as a set of mono files, stereo files, or as one 8-channel file. The important thing is to make sure the channels are clearly labelled so that we bring your piece into the system properly. You may use the above diagram for channel numbering reference.
    4. The system will not accomodate a separate sub channel; our two subwoofers receive a crossover mix from the 8 channels. See diagram above for speaker channel numbering.
    5. Your piece should be compressed into a single .zip archive file. Feel free to include a readme.txt file or equivalent for any special instructions, program notes (we will read them & enjoy them), or anything else you want to include.
    6. Pieces with fewer than 8 channels will be considered, but please let us know how you'd like the channels to be routed/mapped.
    7. There are no length requirements. The piece can be very short or very long or anything in between. Currently, some pieces in our collection are 90 seconds long, others are just over an hour. Most fall between 8-30 minutes, but we welcome whatever you want to send us.
    8. There is no limit to the quanitity of pieces you can submit.


  • We are ESPECIALLY interested in & welcoming of pieces by composers/artists identifying as women, non-binary, LGBTQ+, and traditionally under-represented minorities.

  • SUBMISSION PROCESS: Please upload the .zip file containing your submission to the file-sharing service of your choice (Google Drive, DropBox, etc.). Then, please paste a link to your submission into the "Download Address" field in the form below. Please fill out the rest of the form with with the other requested information, then submit the form.

  • Deadline for submissions: August 10, 2024 (though we'd love to get them sooner, too!)

  • If you have questions about submitting or about this project in general that are not covered here, please reach out to us at speaker@unpopularmusic.camp and either Scott or Stephan will get back to you as soon as we can!