Many magazines are moving into the online arena. On the forefront are music “webzines.” Online publication offers options not only to readers but to publishers as well.

One example is Streetsound, which has been in print circulation for nine years, according to Streetsound “spokesentity,” Todd Bronson. Streetsound has made the move to online publication.

“The Web’s a natural direction for Streetsound, impossible not to take,” Bronson said. “It opens up an incredible range of possibilities at an unbelievably low cost that the print version of Streetsound couldn’t come near.”

More than a marketing and money-saving environment, Bronson explains his online publishing perspective. “The Web isn’t magic; it won’t make everyone a publisher or provider except maybe in their own minds,” he said.

The playing field is leveled, however. “We can actually compete against all media,” Bronson said. “It’s like a horde of Davids and a pack of Goliaths all charging around, waiting for the dust to settle. It’s cool.”

Many special interest music webzines exist on the Web. Yahoo, a “yellow pages” for the Web, lists over 40 music webzines. Titles such as Rock n’ Roll Reporter, which is dedicated to local and national level artists, to a techno and industrial The Plague, to Canadian Musician, which focuses on professional and amateur Canadian artists.

There are music webzines which allow viewers to buy CDs and tapes, offering a real-time interactivity which television cannot. Sony, BMI and Fuji have all set up sites to sell music and release updates.

It’s All the Blues! is the webzine version of the like-named print publication based in Brevard County, Fla. It’s All the Blues! is “dedicated to the blues, the whole blues, and nothin’ but the blues,” according to the page at http://orchid-isle.com/blues/blues.html.

The monthly newsletter is published by Gary Zajac, and AM blues disc jockey known as Mr. Z. It’s All the Blues! features blues album reviews by Zajac and will soon be providing audio clips along with the reviews.

Bronson is impressed by the possibilities open to webzines. “You always hear about things that’ll boggle your mind, but from an in-the-trenches frontline view, this is what being truly boggled is really like,” he said.

“So much is moving so fast: it’s all manmade, structured, a mass effort, yet it’s still freaking out giant sectors of the public and the business world.”

Streetsound is available at http://www.streetsound.com/zone/.