Back in 1995, Fly launched as a web-only magazine dedicated to jazz, hip hop and new beats. Despite early success and recognition from Time Out and Wired, many of the people involved got caught up in the rise of the internet and could spend less time on Fly than it needed.

Now the Editor, Damian Rafferty will be dedicating himself to it and we are really excited to welcome editorial consultant, Phil Meadley, known to many through his writing in Songlines, The Independent and HMV magazine among others.

As you can see, Fly is now the definitive guide to global music culture. The number of visitors is doubling every few months. By autumn 2005, we were getting around 60,000 visits a month from over 40,000 unique visitors.

Fly has had a major design overhaul led by Neil Clavin, whose work for the RCA, the BBC and Maria Chen has earned him his reputation as one of Europe’s top web design experts.

Just like you, we think that there is an awful lot of great music about that few people get to hear because it is not a top chart priority. It is our intention to help change that and create a community of passionate music fans discussing and reviewing less heard music and turning each other on to new sounds (and for that matter films and other cultural stuff) from around the world.

Every review allows others to comment on it and even kick off a debate. So we would really welcome artists and labels adding their own comments to our reviews whether they be factual (ie when the release is due) or discursive.

We need your help to make this happen though! First of all we need to receive CDs/Books/DVDs for review. And we need to expand our network of writers from around the world.

Please do get in touch…

Damian Rafferty, Editor