Music Niche for Community Site

A new community-oriented Web site will promote Windows as a platform for electronic music production—one of the few fields in which the Macintosh is prevalent. Launched in beta form in Mar. 2005, Crossfader includes editorial content about electronic music, as well as community forums for enthusiasts and professionals to discuss their work, share tips, post audio samples, and interact in other ways.

Crossfader was created by Vice President Vic Gundotra’s Platform Evangelism team, which is also responsible for Channel 9, a community site for general Microsoft developers. Although focused on an unusually narrow niche for the company, Crossfader fits into several broader Microsoft goals:

• Collect feedback from partners and enthusiasts about the difficulties of creating digital music on the Microsoft platform (such as problems with drivers), then share this information with Microsoft development teams, particularly those working on the next version of Windows (code-named Longhorn)
• Promote