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At the end of January to mark the 10th Anniversary of Music Street Journal the site will go through its third redesign and this one will be the most extensive to date. Not only will the site look and operate differently – it’s going to be changed over from a purely html site to a database oriented one – but it will also have a number of new features. While all the things that everyone has come to expect from Music Street Journal (CD and DVD reviews, interviews, concert reviews and book reviews) will still be there and still be free to everyone, there will be more! For starters bands, publicists and labels will now be able to post press releases and tour dates in two new sections at the site. In addition there will be a “members only” section giving lots of additional content for an annual fee of 50 dollars – shorter memberships will be available. Members will have access to audio files from a number of musical acts. There will also be video files, a gallery of higher resolution concert photos (some that have been published at MSJ as part of our concert reviews, some never before seen), audio files of some of our interviews, blogs by musicians and a Q & A section where members will be able to pose questions to participating musicians and get their responses. In addition the book The Strange Sound of Cthulhu – Music Inspired by the Writings of H. P. Lovecraft (www.lulu.com/strangesound) – written by Music Street Journal’s publisher and creator – will be available in its entirety for members to read on the internet. The members only content will be updated more regularly than the every two months that the zine is published.

If you’d like to be featured at Music Street Journal you can drop an email to musicstreetjournal@musicstreetjournal.com - or you can scroll on down to the "I'd like to meet" section. To be informed as soon as memberships are available you can email MSJ at memberships@musicstreetjournal.com – that will also get you registered to win some cool prizes (CD’s - a few autographed - and DVD’s will be available and twelve names will be drawn for the “grand opening” of the new site). For more information check out Music Street Journal at www.musicstreetjournal.com. With a history of covering artists from Yes to Otep and just about everyone in between you can expect great things from Music Street Journal. It should be mentioned that the website design is being done by Greg Johnson with Studio Fyra, Inc. The new logo has been designed by the world renowned artist (a legend in the neo-prog community) Ed Unitsky. These two talented individuals have added their special skills to helping MSJ do its job (of keeping the readers informed) in even better ways.

Next up in order to have your CD or DVD reviewed it has to meet a couple of criteria. First, it needs to be available for the readers to get their hands on. If they can't get it there's no point in us telling them how great it is. So, it needs to be available, either as a download, a CD to purchase somewhere or in some way available for them to acquire.

Next, we need to like it. We don't do negative reviews. The theory is that there is so much good stuff out there that we shouldn't waste our (and our readers') time with something negative. If we don't like it more than dislike it, we won't review it at all.

You also need to know that half of every issue is progressive rock. We started as a progressive rock only publication and as we've grown to add more stuff, that's how we keep our core of long time readers happy. That means that if your music doesn't fall into that category it might take us a while to get to it. It doesn't mean we won't cover it, though. We cover all kinds of music. It just might take a little longer to work something that's not prog into the mix.

That brings up another issue. I personally am buried in promos that I'm trying to get reviewed. The best bet is to get it into one of the other writer's hands. The easiest way to do that is to send me an email (not through myspace - can't forward that email - but to greg@musicstreetjournal.com) with some links where they can hear the music. Then if one of them wants to cover it, they will let me know and I'll have you send it directly to them - and work with them to coordinate possible other coverage. If you don't hear back after a week or so it means I didn't get any bites back from the other writers. So, then you can decide if you just want to try back in six months to a year or send it directly to me - and probably wait that long for me to get to your CD or DVD. Sorry about having to put it that way, but I always try to create realistic expectations.

Next up, here's an explanation of the promo opportunities coming up next year at Music Street Journal. YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN THESE WHETHER YOU ARE REVIEWED AT MSJ OR NOT.

Q: What will the changes mean for me as an artist, publicist or label?

A: Additional opportunities for publicizing your act(s) will be made possible. We’re adding both a press release and a tour dates section to the main (free) portion of the site. These will be accessible to artists, labels and publicists to post pertinent items to have them put in front of the Music Street Journal readers (over five million last year).

Q: What will this cost me?

A: Well, there are two ways you can gain access to post your press releases and tour dates. The first is to submit material to be available in the members only area. Acceptable material includes: Audio Files Video Files Artist Blog A Question and Answer session (MSJ subscribers will be able to send through questions which you respond to and the Q and A section would be posted in the members only area) As long as you provide content for that section you will be able to post as many (no multiples of the same one) press releases and tour dates as you like. I’d like to keep new content showing up, so while for now I’m not going to set a specific number of items needed for each month of using the service, that might change depending on how the postings are handled by participants. I mentioned that there are two ways you can gain access to post your stuff. Well, if you don’t want to submit items for the members only section you can still get to post your press releases and tour dates, but there will be $1,000 a year fee to do that. Certainly it’s a lot less expensive to post items in the members section.

Q: How do I get in on this?

A: Just drop me an email (musicstreetjournal@musicstreetjournal.com) and tell me that you want to participate. I'll get you all the information you need to get on board.

Q: What about banner ads?

A: We have new prices for our banner ads now as they are a bit different. The ads will be in rotation on just about every page of the new site - with the exception of the main page. They need to be 180 pixels wide by as much as twice that size in height. The new pricing is 60 dollars for a year - or 35 for six months.

Q: How do I get more information?

A: Again, drop me an email (musicstretjournal@musicstreetjournal.com) and I’ll answer any questions you might have.

Thanks