Greetings!

For once I'm going to bypass my usual "rant" about what's going on in the music industry in favor of updating our loyal readers on what's happening with AMZ. We've had some pretty exciting things and landmarks to celebrate in the past several weeks.

I suppose I should hold this one for next month, but it IS part of the good news! As of 11/10/99, ACCESS to the MUSIC ZONE will celebrate it's 3rd anniversary of publication. The very first issue of AMZ was written, edited and published by myself, and I managed to cover "Ozz Fest" in that issue, along with "Love In Reverse" for our Feature. Considering that I didn't have a whole lot of contacts back then, was working off my personal home page, and did about 10-15 reviews total (with about 500 hits/mo.), I'm TOTALLY amazed at what's been accomplished in only 3 yrs. ONE thing we're proud of is that we're still here and still going strong! Not a lot of e-zines can say that!

I work so closely with the day to day things to keep AMZ running as smoothly as I can, I hardly ever take a minute to stand back and see what's been accomplished. From a litte home page of mine, to our own domain in 9 months, to the fact that we now have 19 journalists all over the country, plus 2 Assoc. Editors and myself that don't get much of a chance to write reviews any more because of the business end of AMZ - and the editing of course! LOL

In addition to celebrating our 3rd Anniversary in just a few weeks, some REALLY exciting things have happend to AMZ in the past month. About a 4 weeks ago, I was contacted by TROMA ENTERTAINMENT to see if I was interested in making AMZ a part of their new E-community, "Tromaville.com," which is scheduled to debut on the Net around 11/15/99. We are the first music review site that has contracted with Troma, we will have our own page in "Tromaville.com," but there will be other exciting areas to visit there, so check them out through the AMZ links. There will be movie and video reviews, an extreme sports area, several retail establishments, and many other things to check out or participate in. For the many readers that support AMZ, it will help AMZ if you support "Tromaville.com" as well!

About 2 weeks after TROMA contacted us, we were invited by CDNow to join their new "Cosmic Newsstand" due online about mid-November as well. We will have several areas where we can be featured in the "Cosmic Newsstand," since we cover so many genres and so many new artists. CDNow is trying to assist regional bands, self-producing bands and Indie bands to get them the recognition they deserve. Since this has ALWAYS been the policy of AMZ, I'm sure this partnership will also be advantageous. Please use the CDNow links that we put with our reviews so you can purchase products, and once the "Cosmic Newsstand" link is operating, again you can assist AMZ by following the links and supporting this area of CDNow as well.

At this time I'd like to thank the Tens of Thousands of people who have supported AMZ since the beginning, our many new readers, our subscribers, and any of you just finding us, the record labels and PR Firms, and anyone else that has pitched in by linking to us. Without you, we would NEVER have come this far in this short period of time! We've built a good reputation in the Music Industry for giving honest reviews, bringing you the latest info as we get it on new music, concerts and interviews, and we fully intend to keep that up. I will be changing our format somewhat, so that we can update the AMZ site more frequently and get you the information you want quickly. Because of this change, you'll have to check in with us more often to get all the latest.

The statements expressed in the editorial are mine alone as Editor of this magazine. If you would like to send your comments to me, keep tuning in, and keep those letters coming. Without you, we wouldn't be one of the top Music Review E-zines on the Net!

E-mail AMZ at: ACCESS to the MUSIC ZONE at marellg@music-reviewer.com

See You In Cyber Space! Mary Ellen Gustafson, Editor In Chief