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, are extensively covered by various experts throughout the site.

Meanwhile, The Muse's News continues to grow. The August issue featured a copyright and publishing Q&A concerning international and U.S. copyright laws that was conducted by Nashville entertainment lawyer Duff Berschback and Carpe Diem Copyright Management president Nancy Reece. The issue also featured indie-music reviews, Krangle's book review of Mark W. Curran's Sell Your Music: The Musician's Survival Guide to Direct Distribution on the Internet, articles by songwriter/recording artist/author Harriet Schock and musician/publisher Charles Katz, and notes on songwriting contests and marketing information.

Krangle followed the August newsletter with a bulletin about October's Nashville New Music Conference, at which the Muse's Muse and SongScope.com will co-sponsor a showcase night.

"Every day things change," Krangle says, adding that her site has just received a "pretty major mention" in English publication Sound on Sound. "All sorts of little things get added to the site all the time."

When she began the Muse's Muse, she says, there was only one other similar site, but "it was basically a page of links that had everything under the sun—not an interactive community, which I've tried to make out of mine."

While Krangle says that it isn't a full-time gig, the site—which, along with the newsletter, she produces at home—is "a very obsessive hobby. There wasn't a lot out there six years ago, and I sort of thought that if I put something together, maybe people would get involved. So I put together a page with an article or two, a classified section, and a songwriting survey, and asked people what they thought about the subject—and answers came in from everywhere. Before I knew it, people were offering articles and columns, and it just ballooned into something I have a blast doing."

The only downside, apparently, is the negative effect it has on Krangle's own songwriting. "I've been a songwriter a long time, but unfortunately, the site's bleeding me dry," she says. "But I'm fine with being a facilitator for other songwriters."