Advisory bodies
www.musiciansunion.org.uk	Musicians' Union The Musicians' Union takes care of payments for the musician's performance and its subsequent usage. The MU has written agreements with various organisations employing musicians on terms of employment and pay and has been the main representational body for professional musicians for over a century, though you don't have to be a pro or prove a track record to join. Many sign up for the instrument insurance deal and the free legal advice on contracts. The web-site has useful advice pages on areas like management agreements, gigging abroad and merchandising, backed up with an FAQ page. It also runs features from the in-house Musician magazine, carries members classified ads and holds a database of instruments reported stolen. Parts of the site are off-limits to non- members.
www.prs.co.uk	Performing Rights Society PRS collects air-play and broadcast royalties. If you are a composer, a songwriter or a music publisher, there is vital reading here. Copyright, contracts, distribution, music licensing and music on the Net are some of the topics addressed in easy to grasp question-and-answer format. The contacts page leads to the PRS legal referral and accountamcy services and to other organisations you may need. PRS also issues licences for Internet broadcast in tiered rates according to size and scope.
www.mcps.co.uk	Mechanical Copyright Protection Society The MCPS in alliance with the PRS is one of the world's largest royalty collection societies. It grants licences to record, film and video companies to use and sell the intellectual property of MCPS members - composers, song-writers and publishers - licensing the recording and use of music in their repertoire, then collects and distributes the money.
www.britishacademy.co.uk	British Academy of Composers and Songwriters BASC is Europe's largest composer/songwriter organisation, representing over 3,000 UK music writers. The Academy's aims are to raise the profile of composers and songwriters, and to protect the value of copyright with publishers, collecting societies and broadcasters.
www.pamra.org.uk	The Performing Artists' Media Rights Association PAMRA emerged in the mid-90's as the result of a change in UK law. It pays out money to performers for the broadcast of their recorded performances. The right to receive 'royalties' for such came into law on December 1st, 1996. If you are a qualifying performer and have made a commercial recording since 1946 then you may be due some money. The PAMRA site contains a total of 132 words and has no direct contact facility, but their details are up on the Performing Rights Society site and registration forms are available from the Musicians' Union.
www.ppluk.com	Phonographic Performance Ltd and Video Performance Ltd PPL is a music industry collecting society representing over 2,500 record companies from the big multinationals to the small independents. It collects licence fees from broadcast and public performance users on behalf of the record companies and distributes the money to them and to performers. Details onsite.
Press and media
www.nme.co.uk	NME On the ball with daily news, reviews, features and charts. Packed with content but not overwhelming and mercifully easy on the eye thanks to sensitive use of colour. The most comprehensive national Gig Guide on database via band or area search. Online music, audio interviews, webcasts and NME TV limbering up for broadband. Features galore.
www.organart.com	Organ Organ started life as a hand-made labour-of-love fanzine in 1986. Now it's one of the biggest and best e-zines on the Net. Their policy is that if they like it they'll tell you about it, if they don't they won't. There's a front page full of news, review pages for albums, singles and demo's, free MP3 downloads, editorial, chat-list pages, letters, a gig guide plus tour and festival details and more. Packed but not unwieldy and true to its roots.
www.intermusic.com	Intermusic Enormous site pooling resources from the Future Publishing magazine empire. Everything you need to make music is the claim, which would take years to dispute. Over 1,200 gear reviews and well on the way to 3,000 features, plus an artist index, DJ pages, a gear index, gear auctions, free software, contests, and links to all the magazines in the Future Network.
Publishers
www.boosey.com	Boosey & Hawkes An "unrivalled" classical catalogue of music by leading composers and an extensive selection of printed music available for performance and tuition. Plus a growing media division handling music for film, TV, radio and advertising. Search by composer with full licencing details online.
www.music.indiana.edu	Music Indiana Over 200 music publishing companies world-wide in this basic alphabetic directory list from the Indiana University School of Music. Publishers are a Dickensian lot in the main and relatively few of them are online as yet.
www.fabermusic.co.uk	Faber Music Classical, contemporary, educational and media manuscripts from the music wing of one of the UK's leading publishers. Search by genre, instrument or composer. At the core of Faber Music's sales catalogue are tutorial, repertoire and educational publications with a burgeoning choral publishing programme. Publications for teaching and recreational environments by leading composers, arrangers and authors in the field are also available.
www.emimusicpub.co.uk	EMI Music EMI Music allows you to search the database collection by song title, writer, major artists who have recorded the piece in question, the year of publication, genre of music or key words in the title itself. Full licencing details are here for a catalogue spanning 3 centuries.
realworld.co.uk	Real World Music Real World Music Publishing covers three companies licencing music for use in films, television, multimedia and advertising. Real World Music is the catalogue of Peter Gabriel and associate writers, Real World Works has numerous musicians and songwriters, and WOMAD Music handles artists signed to Real World Records, including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Afro-Celt Sound System. The Samples section of the site has a diverse range of music in RealAudio (no relation) and can be searched by artist, nationality or mood.
Zines
www.clicks-and-klangs.com	Clicks and Klangs A bi-monthly slice of all that crackles, beats, twangs, swings, samples or soothes. Clicks and Klangs is a music e-zine covering adventurous music from hip-hop to Krautrock, free-jazz to drum and bass, post-rock to psychedelic punk, country blues to electronica. Featuring interviews, articles, special features, its own streaming audio radio station, a links directory and discussion forums.
www.thewire.co.uk	The Wire Adventurous coverage of electronica, avant rock, breakbeat, jazz, modern classical and sounds from the outer limits of music. The Wire reports from the commercial twilight zone with interviews, reviews, news, a select event guide and 'Rewind' charts compiled from contributors' favourites of the last few years . Features are divided into think-pieces and interviews, some unpublished in the magazine version in the shops. All content treated with trademark depth and erudition.
www.bristolsound.co.uk	Bristol Sound Bristol Sound provides a focal point for a vibrant city. The list of local luminaries reads like the roster of a major record label. News, interviews and competitions dominate a lively front page while inside content is accessed by nine categories of genre, demonstrating the variety of fare on offer. Plus venue details, MP3 promo's, a toolbox full of software and plug-ins, and streaming audio from DJ's.
Courses
www.lcm.ac.uk	The Leeds College of Music offer a variety of undergraduate courses in music - covering Jazz, Contemporary Music, Performing Arts, Music Production; Commercial Music Production and Management: with post-grad courses for advanced study. The site gives chapter and verse on the various modules involved in each of the courses of study offered.
www.jazzschool.fsbusiness.co.uk	JazzSchool Set in the Dordogne region of France, this summer school offers week-long courses aiming to provide an intimate environment for practical group music- making and education in the jazz genre. Improvisation, jazz harmony, an exploration of various jazz idioms, and group performance are the main areas covered. Reading is an advantage but not essential. The styles of jazz will include standards, bebop, modal, Latin and contemporary.
www.rncm.ac.uk	Royal Northern College of Music The Manchester-based music college goes back to the late 19th century when Sir Charles Hallé, (founder of the Hallé Orchestra) established the Royal Manchester College of Music. As a conservatoire the emphasis is on preparing students for a professional career in performance (including composition). In addition to tutorial programmes, the College also serves as an Arts Centre, hosting over 100 student performances annually among other events. RNCM offer intensive individual tuition in modern and flexible programmes of study at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with high quality facilities and interactive partnerships with regional professional performing groups and musical organisations.
www.rcm.ac.uk	Royal College of Music London's Royal College of Music offers undergraduate degree and postgraduate qualifications to doctoral level. The RCM's commitment to scholarship is reflected in its range of research activity focussed on performance, historical musicology and the education and training of performers and composers. Founded in 1882 the College is a listed building in South Kensington containing an impressive concert hall, a Museum of Instruments and the Britten Theatre.
Portals
www.ubl.com	The Ultimate Band List started as a big long list but the Artist Direct Network of today is such a vast database you could spend half your life reading it and the other half waiting for it to load. Find artists by genre and the rest of the business by topic. Plus news, features, contests and gig tickets for sale.
www.imusic.com	i-music The main Artists Direct Network site hosts a artist database 100,000 strong. Chat and discussion topics include the Top Ten best and worst albums of the 90's. The local notice-boards operate state by state in the U.S. and Canada and city by city in Europe and Australia, inviting participation and self-publicity from indiginous acts. Post your URL in a message and hope for a visit.
www.hitsquad.com	Hitsquad The Hitsquad Musicians' Web Centre covers just about everything. A complete music resource and industry information web-site, Hitsquad boasts two software sections rammed with free shareware downloads, an international database of musicians. Guitars and synths have a large sub-site sections each. Music-Charts show online music software developers, equipment manufacturers and product retailers, the sheet music library opens onto over 310,000 titles, there are links to musicians' newsletters and weekly news arenas for MP3, guitars and software.
www.worldwidepunk.com	World Wide Punk Webzine links The anyone-can-do-it ethic is alive and well in cyberspace, with thousands of doorways to the spiky sub-culture on this link-station. From single-page fan-sites to top-notch web-zines in one long unorganised list full of obscure treasures.
www.britishclassicalmusic.com	The British Music Page The site dedicated to 20th century British classical music
www.coma.org	COMA Contemporary Music-making for Amateurs promotes participation in contemporary music among musicians of all abilities.
www.cmntours.org.uk	Contemporary Music Network presents touring projects of contemporary culture
www.afouk.org	Folk Arts Network
www.jazzservices.org.uk	The Jazz Site promotes and develops jazz in the UK through information, education, tours, marketing and publishing.
www.manchester-music.org.uk	Manchester city music network Online directory. Support and information includes advice on research, development agencies and funding.
www.metamusic.org.uk	META Brings together music makers and workers across country.
www.mmda.org.uk	MMDA Music development agency for Merseyside.
www.musicpreserved.org	Music Preserved Music archive at the Barbican Centre Library, containing recordings of live performances from the 1930s to the present day.
www.musicscotland.com	MusicScotland Scottish and Celtic Music Directory.
www.musictank.co.uk	Musictank guide for musicians to sources of free or low-cost information about the industry, including support, facilities, professional contacts, services and suppliers.
www.soundsense.org	Sound Sense Sound Sense is the national development agency for community music.
	.

---