Songwriters' Muse Goes Live

The Muse's Muse Songwriting Resource Web site—at musesmuse.com—has recently expanded its services, with the addition of a message board that now has 600 members and a prerecorded Webcast radio show, Radio Muse.

The message board allows the nearly 8,000 subscribers to the site's monthly newsletter, The Muse's News, to contact each other directly and discuss such songwriter issues as overcoming writer's block, getting the most out of home-recording equipment, finding inspiration for songs, and getting radio airplay. Radio Muse, meanwhile, is a monthly show featuring the songs of the independent songwriters who use the Web site and newsletter.

The site has garnered praise from such publications as Keyboard Magazine and American Songwriter Magazine and earned Internet awards from music.top10sites.net and coolsiteoftheday.com. It was started in 1995 by Jodi Krangle, a Toronto-based software-gaming company marketing director and a songwriter and member of quirky female folk trio Urban Tapestry.

"I wanted something unique with the word 'muse' in it—because to me, songwriters have always been muses to other people and susceptible to the muse themselves," Krangle says. In creating the Muse's Muse, she adds, she wanted to cover everything from the creative to the business aspects of songwriting.

The site features original articles and regular columns on all aspects of songwriting written by industry professionals and amateurs. It has songwriter interviews, chat rooms and chat listings around the Web, song samples and music reviews, and a daily "What's New?" site update.

Also included are a list of international songwriting organizations, the newly instituted message boards, a regularly changing songwriting survey and responses to preceding ones, a publishing and administration question-and-answer (Q&A) section, classifieds, and listings of music publications and songwriting contests.

Additionally, the site holds a songwriting discussion room on Monday nights, which it co-hosts with three other popular resources for songwriters: Jeff Mallett's Songwriting Site, UNISONG, and the Songwriting Education Resource. It promotes books relating to songwriting in a "Suggested Reading" section and offers links for subscribing to Internet magazines and purchasing music.

A "Music Resources" database of links to other music sites is also provided, as is the latest issue of The Muse's News, together with an archive of previous issues dating back to its launch in March 1998.

"I've put together as much info into the site as possible," notes Krangle, who is happy to answer all questions except for "How do I become a songwriter?" and "Who should I talk to to get my songs noticed?" Both, of course,