Check Out the New www.amc-music.org!

Just in time for the 2003 NAMM Show in Anaheim, the American Music Conference (AMC) has unveiled its new Web site at www.amc-music.org. The same address that has already earned a reputation as the one-stop resource for music making is now home to a new site that’s a better fit for today’s users—and today’s AMC.

“AMC’s activities, and its use of the Web, have grown beyond the largely informational setup of our previous Web design,” explains AMC Executive Director Rob Walker. “For one thing, there’s a much greater volume of news coming through AMC these days, and we want to present it to the public in a way that reflects the pace of events. We’ve also seen a great expansion in the interactive uses of our site, with programs such as the ‘Best 100 Communities for Music Education’ Survey, the online petition to Congress we created last summer in partnership with the Justin Timberlake Foundation, and our successful drive to distribute Sesame Street Music Works materials last year. This new site design embraces that trend.”

The redesigned site also offers streamlined navigation and a more vibrant graphic approach that will appeal to experienced Web users, while providing rich multimedia content and ease of use to users with slower connection speeds. “Our mandate was to offer the very best without leaving anyone behind, and we’re satisfied with the result,” Walker notes.

In addition to graphic and technical updates, the site redevelopment included a top-to-bottom update of all written content from the old site and the addition of substantial amounts of new material, ensuring that AMC will remain the first and last online destination for the scoop on music-brain and music-wellness research, educational trends, public policy issues, local advocacy, family music making, current AMC initiatives and other vital topics.

The new design has also enhanced the site’s established value to retailers and other members of the music and music products industries. In addition to providing the American public with positive messages about music, music making and music education—especially in light of the continuing decline of public school music instruction—the site’s resources are ideal for planning local marketing efforts, or to download for in-store use.

The Global Economic Summit held in Spain last March advocated for the development of a centralized global Web site for the music products industry—one that would store and promote product industry research findings, dispense messages promoting both music education and recreational music making, promote the benefits of music making to communities around the world and actively advocate for music education. “The AMC site has been redeveloped with this goal in mind, and will develop into a ‘Music Central’ for the world,” Walker concluded.

The American Music Conference is a national nonprofit educational association dedicated to promoting the importance of music, music making and music education to the general public. To view the new AMC Web site, visit www.amc-music.org.