The International Bluegrass Music Association is overhauling much of its online content in order to create Bluegrass Nation, an online community for bluegrass lovers around the world. Here’s a list of plans IBMA has set forth as the new service’s goals:

Bluegrass Nation (BN) is IBMA’s first-ever initiative to harness the power of digital media and social networking. Fully integrated into a comprehensive redesign of IBMA’s web site, Bluegrass Nation will be a community and a platform for news, information sharing, promotion, education and all kinds of media. Its goal is to get more bluegrass fans to shows, remind them of events they might have missed, connect them with musical opportunities, and attract new fans into the bluegrass fold. It will be:

A SOCIAL NETWORK FOR BLUEGRASS FANS AND ORGANIZATIONS

BN will be a free, membership-based community of bluegrass fans, musicians and organizations. Members will create a profile that can connect seamlessly with other social networks like Facebook. Or they may enjoy BN benefits exclusively through e-mail. Our goal is 200,000 members in the first year and more thereafter. It will be an evolutionary platform for information sharing and collaboration that will adapt as the internet and social media landscape changes.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST DATABASE OF BLUEGRASS FANS

BN will give IBMA members access to thousands of new potential fans by creating a mass e-mail list with the help of scores of artists, bands and festivals. This list will allow members to reach out to proven bluegrass fans, on a permission-only basis, divided by zip code, musical interests and other variables.

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For more information contact IBMA at: 1-888-438-4262 or info@ibma.org

Best of luck to IBMA and Bluegrass Nation!