*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************


                                                         
                             EDITORIAL, ISSUE 10          
                                                          
                                                          

These are exciting times for us AM/FM'ers!  Not only have we reached our 10th
issue, but AM/FM is growing rapidly these days.  Not growing, as in number of
issues  per  year, or in more stuff on each disk - they are already filled to
the limits every time - but AM/FM is growing in distribution and popularity.

It  began  here  in  Norway  - I started AM/FM in June 1991, after I left the
demo-group  "Crusaders"  and  wanted to do something a bit more useful - so I
got  a  few  friends  with me, and started Amiga Musicians Freeware Magazine.
After  a  couple  of  months,  I  reached a distribution agreement with 17bit
Software  in  England,  who have ever since supported AM/FM and been our most
important  distributor.   (Thanks,  Steve, Marcus, Nicky and everyone else at
17bit!) Well, after a while, I also gave similar distribution rights to other
UK  distributors, and for some reason, it looked like UK was the only country
where there was any interest to speak of.


AM/FM REACHING OUT

It's  been  like  that all the time up until a few months ago, when AM/FM was
contacted  by  a Spanish and a French PD distributor, who both wanted to take
up  distribution of this exciting music magazine.  And finally, about a month
ago,  a US company approached me with the same offer.  The Spanish and French
distributors  are already shipping AM/FM now - the US company will start very
soon.  An Australian company has also expressed their interest.

This means:


MONEY TO SPEND

Up  until  just  a  few  months ago, I admit, the financial side of AM/FM has
been,  well, more or less non-existing.  As AM/FM Editor, Publisher, Manager,
Secretary,  Writer, Mail Assistant, Budget Responsible, Managing Director and
General  Lay-about, I have taken the costs on myself, and used quite a bit of
money,  and  countless,  probably thousands and thousands, of hours on AM/FM.
And  while  everyone  seemed  to like what I was doing, the money just didn't
show  up.  But that was ok for me, I had never started AM/FM to make money on
it anyway.  I did it for the love of the Amiga, the Amiga users and the whole
society around the Amiga.

Well, now that the money is starting to show, don't think I will sit back and
use the money on pizza and beer.  Whatever money comes into the AM/FM account
is put right back into the magazine, to make it even better.

How?


AM/FM LICENSEWARE !

First,  by  licensing  some  utilities to AM/FM, something which I've already
started.   Ladies  and  gentlemen  -  let  me introduce you to the first ever
AM/FM-program:   NPlay!   The  first  programmer  to  succeed  in licensing a
program  to  AM/FM  is  NPlay  author  Petter E.  Stokke from Norway with his
wonderful new utility, NPlay v2.0.  More about NPlay later on!

From now on, I will constantly be on the lookout for sound- and music utility
programs written as Public Domain, but for which the programmer is interested
in  earning  a  little money.  The way AM/FM licenseware works is that we pay
the  programmer  a  one-off lump sum for licensing his program to AM/FM.  The
programmer  gets his money and can use this for expanding his equipment a bit
or  whatever - and AM/FM gets more popular; because now, the AM/FM disks also
contains  utilities that will only be available on AM/FM disks.  You will not
be able to get hold of NPlay from a PD distributor who does not sell AM/FM.

A  thing  that  has  annoyed me, and thousands of other Amiga enthusiasts for
many  years, is PD distributors who keep selling other people's work and take
all the profit for themselves.  Afterall, the PD distributors don't really do
anything  but copy disks with other people's material on, do they?  And while
the programmers, artists, musicians and other enthusiasts sit there without a
penny  to spend - the PD distributors have grown bigger, stronger and richer.
Don't  misunderstand  me  - I don't hate all PD distributors or anything like
that  -  we need them too, don't we?  Of course we do - it's just that I feel
that the authors of the program should get a little share of the money.  It's
only right, isn't it?

Shareware,  I  hear you say, why don't the programmers release their material
as  shareware?   Ha!  Ask a programmer who's tried, and the answer you'll get
is that shareware on the Amiga is dead!  It just doesn't work.


LEARNING THE RULES

AM/FM  licenseware  is  aimed  at  programs  that  were initially meant to be
released  as  Public  Domain.   If  you  license  your  program to AM/FM, the
following will happen to it and to you:

 - The  program will still be Freeware, but not Public Domain.  Public Domain
   basically means that anyone can do anything they want to with it, which is
   no longer true with a program that is licensed to AM/FM.  The program will
   fall  in under the same terms and conditions as the magazine itself - i.e.
   it  may  be copied for free between friends, but it can not be sold by
   PD distributors, except as part of an AM/FM disk.

 - The programmer will get a bit of money.  Not a whole lot, but more than he
   would ever get by releasing it as shareware.

 - AM/FM  will  also  gain  from  this - not immediately perhaps, but after a
   while.   And  maybe this can bring in some money, to pay other programmers
   and license other programs.  Isn't this what we call a "good circle"...?

Well,  my  fellow  musicoholics  and  AM/FM readers - I hope you'll enjoy this
issue  as  much  as  all the others.  This issue features our first ever AM/FM
licensed program, NPlay, which is a wonderful new invention.  Also, of course,
there's  the  usual  heap of great tutorials, hints and tips, great utilities,
great  music  and all those other things you've been waiting for!  In fact - I
think  this  is  possibly  the  meatiest  issue  so  far!   In short:  Another
christmas day!

Bjørn A. Lynne
[Ed]