In this time of recession, many people could rightly argue against the merits of launching a new magazine. Nevertheless, since September last year when the editorial and consultant staff were being appointed, one outstanding factor was evident. That everyone involved in E&MM's plans for the future was overwhelmingly enthusiastic about a magazine that brought together electronics and music, in a way that would appeal to a wide age range of hobbyists at all levels.

One development that was not envisaged was the receipt of a large number of subscriptions even before the first issue was available! We are already on international distribution with a lot of demand for E&MM copies from Australia and even as far away as Norway, Iceland, Poland, Finland and India.

I have personally been very excited about the response to our cassette as an aural complement to the magazine, for in my years of reviewing electronic instruments I found that a recording of an instrument's sounds always prompted a more objective response to its capabilities. The E&MM cassette is not like a commercial recording, but provides in the best stereo quality we can get a means of assessing for yourself what our electro-music projects sound like. It also helps us maintain our aim of updating our readers in electronic music developments as soon as they are available, and in the past it may have been impossible for many to ever hear the sounds of the most expensive instruments making music.

Schools and colleges should also benefit in the educational and informative presentation of E&MM and a special competition for hobbyists projects is planned. This will also allow musicians to perform their compositions on their own electronic instruments.

So many people today are eager to build projects for the home and now that music making in the home involves computers as well as electronic instruments we have an unique opportunity to promote 3 main areas of leisure interest for the future — electronics, computing and music.