The time has come, friends. I got word a couple of months ago that About.com has decided to discontinue this world music site, my home on the web since 2006. Now that the 2013 Readers' Choice Awards are finished, so am I -- here, at least. The site will remain live and searchable, but my position is finished and no new content will be added. Naturally, I'm terribly sad to see this site retired, mostly for selfish reasons (I liked doing this job!) but also because I'm sad to see yet another world music editorial outlet fall by the wayside.
Still, I'm not discouraged about the state of world music in general. If anything, I think this segment of the industry is stronger than ever, we've just seen a massive breakdown of genre walls in the past decade, and the "world music" designation carries less weight in and of itself, even as we see our favorite artists gain more and more recognition, our favorite festivals sell out earlier and earlier, and other positive signs of progress.
I'm certainly not done with world music, and in just a few days, I'll be taking up a writing/blogging/tweeting/editorial position at the dynamic up-and-coming website WOBEON (World Beat Online), where I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty with some exciting multimedia tools, so follow me there to see what I'm up to. You also might keep an eye here at About.com, where I'll hopefully be a semi-regular (or even more frequent) contributor to our Travel channel in the near future. If in doubt, you can always find me on Google+ for updates about where I am and what I'm listening to. Onward!
