By Steve Oppenheimer

(April 2005)

Before EM‘s redesign, which happened with the February 2005 issue, the “Letters” column used to contain a small table of contents for the emusician.com Web site. It listed some of the regular features on the site, which was okay up to a point. That point came when we decided to offer more content on the site and promote it in the magazine. That meant saying farewell to our little Web TOC.

Adding value to the site is an ongoing effort, and we plan to do a lot more of it in time. But we’ve already expanded the site’s features, and to reflect that, we have implemented a full-page table of contents for emusician.com (see p. 18). Many of the items promoted in the Web TOC have been around a while, such as the eMusician Xtra newsletter, weekly online news updates, and EM Web Clips, which are supplemental files that accompany stories in the print magazine. We also have the EM Cool Tip of the Month, in cooperation with Thomson Course Technology.

Incidentally, the Cool Tips are archived, so you can go back and check out previous tips.

To supplement these items, we have expanded one Web section and introduced two more. For starters, we’ve expanded our online reports from major music-tech shows. Naturally, we’ll report on the Summer and Winter NAMM shows, the Audio Engineering Society’s U.S. convention, and the Frankfurt Musikmesse. But we’ll also deliver special coverage of events that we might not have covered in the past.

The Editor’s Picks section is brand new; in it, one of the EM editors selects and introduces a group of favorite EM stories each month that are related topically. For example, in February, Associate Editor Geary Yelton waxed rhapsodic about his favorite compressor stories. Last month, Associate Editor Rusty Cutchin chose several outstanding studio-monitoring stories. For April, Senior Editor Gino Robair has assembled three of his favorite EM articles about microphones.

Of course, you have long been able to find topically related EM stories by choosing a product category on the home page, but that’s a shotgun approach in which you find all related articles on the site. Editor’s Picks are carefully selected by our team to ensure that they are up-to-date and complement each other. And we archive these collections so you can refer back to them.

But the new Web feature that I’m most excited about is the EM Spotlight. EM Spotlight stories are exclusive to emusician.com, and we will publish a new one each month. We’ll archive them, as well, so you can revisit them and share them with your fellow electronic musicians. Some Spotlights are classic EM interviews from years past; we’ve already posted our interviews with John Cage (from the March 1988 issue) and Laurie Anderson (from the September 1985 issue).

Most current EM readers have never seen these stories, but now you can see them at emusician.com! Other Spotlight stories are brand new, including this month’s delightful interview with former Byrds cofounder Roger McGuinn. These will be published only at emusician.com — and that’s no April Fool’s joke.

So check out our new Web TOC, fire up your Web browser, point it to www.emusician.com — and enjoy!