PROJECT FACT SHEET: link

PROJECT WEBSITE: emgui.de

PARTNERS: 3/4 (Slovakia), Easterndaze (Czechia), Kaput Magazin (Germany), MMN Mag (Hungary). On Cologne (Germany)

PROJECT DURATION: December 2023 – July 2025

PROJECT SUMMARY:

EM GUIDE is a play with words from ’em dash’ (the character) and ‘music’ (the first letter) and ‘guide’ (to serve guidance for music lovers and professionals). In general, EM GUIDE aims at boosting independent and European music journalism with special focus on underrepresented (or “underground”) music genres and artists. We believe that such genres and artists play an innovative and pioneering role, and they often pave the way for future mainstream music and production, but they currently remain marginalized due to lack of exposure and funding. Specifically, the goals of EM GUIDE are to 1) set up an EU-wide, international network of independent music magazines for sharing content and editorial work, 2) provide a digitalisation tool and infrastructure to support a streamlined publication, sharing including translation support, 3) find a balance between online and traditional printed and live music formats to reach a wide audience, provide extensive coverage in terms of topics, and support journalistic traditions and culture and, finally, 4) share skills and acquire new knowledge for long-term financial and professional sustainability for independent music media organizations. The initial members of the EM GUIDE network are 6 magazines from 5 European countries. In the 20-month duration of the project, the network will publish and share in total over 600 original music-related content, a joint EM GUIDE printed magazine (the first in a series), improve the audience reach of the member magazines by factor 10, invite 3 new members to the network, organize 12 online knowledge development trainings for the member magazines and a public showcase event in Vienna. As a result of the project, the network and the individual members will rely on stable professional and organisational foundations and be ready for long-term operation.