Two categories of music and genre information sites are currently to be found on the Internet - industrial sites, i.e. those created and maintained by music companies, bands and/or independent distribution companies, and aficionado sites, i.e. those created by enthusiasts of particular genres, artists or movements. [17] Until recently, both types of sites have primarily acted as information sites for a particular genre, or for an artist and/or their products, and many music web-sites are still only electronic brochures, featuring mainly text information, graphic elements such as band photographs and logos, and some sound and/or video examples. This is not far removed from what IUMA were achieving five years ago.

Since the Internet has become a medium for fans to publish their own content more freely and more open to the world than any other medium than any other before it, many of the online music-based sites are created and maintained by the fans of the genres or artists they promote. For example, there are currently 67 sites devoted to Madonna (Yahoo listings, September 1998), though only the Madonna" target="_blank">Warner Music site is officially endorsed. Many of these fan sites are constructed from existing promotional material such as press cuttings, press releases, sleeve notes, music videos, albums/singles and publicity/press kits. Some music fans knowledgeable in original digital design techniques for the Internet have been fortunate enough to gain employment as the official Web designers for record labels/bands who wish to have an Internet presence, but who have little knowledge of the technology involved. One example is Steve Price, author of the Orbital fanzine Loopz, who was recently commissioned to redesign the official Orbital web-site.

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