The New CYBERGRASS® has a purpose! The purpose is for our members to open dialog and to easily submit news about issues of independent artists, labels and acoustic music. Basically, any topic relating to acoustic music is acceptable.

Some people have asked why the New Cybergrass. The answer is simple -- to give you more of what you're looking for. This is a web site for you so please tell us what you want here.

We now offer a great deal more than our previous site and most other sites.

1. Forums and Newsgroups for our members. These are much more friendly than E-mail lists, Yahoo groups and such. Because all of the discussions fall into different categories (and we'll add new ones if you want them), you don't have to wade through a lot of what doesn't really interest you. If you do want to read it all, one click will show you all the posts since your last visit.

2. Private Messaging and Chat provide an interactive way for our members to communicate either publically or privately with each other. We may even add web-mail but there are some anti-spam issues that need to be resolved first.

3. An advanced events calendar that also displays all the upcoming events for the next 14 days in a user friendly way. Members may click on the events for more detailed information. They're color-coded and easy to enter, find and read. Cybergrass had the world's first data driven bluegrass events calendar in 1994 and its even better today. It is also syndicated (see our FAQ on Syndication for more information).

4. Free Classified Ads for our members. These non-commercial ads can be for anything that is clean and musically related. Feel free to use these whenever you want. These too are also orgainzed in a manner that's easy to navigate.

5. Advanced search capabilities. Not only can you search the articles, topics, forums, web links and such, we can also pass your search terms to the main search engines too. Again, we make it easier for you.

6. We support other advanced features such as AvantGo - a simple table of contents providing direct URL addresses to our last 10 articles. We have XML based news and forum syndication for sites that want to directly get our most recent content. We're totally database driven so we don't need to manage 1000s of HTML pages any more.

We're a lot more interactive so you can easily participate, post information, and interact with our members. We've made it easier for you and more pleasant for the reader.

All it takes is for you to become an active participant. Open up topics in the Forms, post your web site links with us, promote your festivals on our calendar and most of all, have a great time on Cybergrass.

You won't find a better engineered bluegrass web site on the net. Engineered for you to have the best experience you can.

The Bulletin Board is for your use. Use it to promote festivals in your area, new or existing bands, events or general information.

We don't advertise that we have thousands of web pages as they are generated as you request them. We also don't say we have thousands of entries in our calendar as we don't count past events or use multiple counts for a single event that spans several days. You get an honest and ethical service on Cybergrass.

Registration is not manditory. All areas of the site may be read without any registration.

Registration gives you an identity. If everybody was "Guest", the site wouldn't be very interesting. Registration is simple and free. You control what others can see about you. Registration is requiredfor many of the submission areas (bulletin board, news stories, topics of interest, etc.) so that every post isn't from "Guest". This adds both credibility and personality to the web site.

We want to achieve a large dialog of Acoustic Music ideas, news, and other topics related to what is going on with Acoustic music.

Registration also allows you to access premium content on Cybergrass. This includes downloads and the IBMA Awards Show webcast.

Some of the old Cybergrass material is still here -- only the domain name has changed. If you were looking for a page on banjo.com, simply substitute our new domain name, cybergrass.com, for the old domain name and the file may still be available. If the file isn't there, search on our home page for the information. More popular material has been integrated into the new site and you should be able to find it here now.

Many of the artist profiles were way out of date and they have been removed. Our links area carries many of the artist's official web pages where you can get the real scoop on your favorite artist. For a short time, the banjo.com domain will carry automatic links to the new site but those will go away shortly.

Basically the answer is simple. We sold Banjo.com. The banjo.com is selling banjos and accessories. It didn't make a lot of sense to have a business operating on a different domain name and this domain was just a copy of banjo.com. When we finally got the new site working, we started the migration to the CYBERGRASS.COM domain which we already owned.

Yes. News and Forums require registration however, the calendar, classifieds reviews and other areas are open to anybody. Everybody is encouraged to add web links, articles, bulletin board discussions, or submit new ideas to Cybergrass. If you have something of interest in your acoustic music world, let us know.

We've added a classified ads section and syndicated the news and calendar. An album database of various information is being written now and other features will be made available as time permits. As these become implemented, they will be announced in the Forums.

The music died with DMCA. Also, royalty licensing became a royal pain. Not only did BMI and ASCAP charge us (we didn't mind) but so did the equivalent organizations in every country start to put their hands into our pockets. With DMCA, they also want label and producer royalties. Eventually, royalty payments exceeded 200% of our total gross revenue. We couldn't afford it. Once they ever get the blanket licensing worked out, we'll gladly return music to the site. We need your help though. We can't pay for the music if we don't get a lot of traffic so spread the word about the new Cybergrass!

CYBERGRASS® is a private company that began operating on the web in 1992. Cybergrass has had a lot of firsts on the Internet but the most important is that the site has always been a great place for Bluegrass and Acoustic music information. We used to carry music and other entertainment however modern licensing has made that option go away. Even with the support of most record labels, it just isn't feasible at this time.

Our purpose is to promote bluegrass music. Help us by promoting your music in your area too. Please become active on our forums and submit major items of news interest to our web site. In that way, it becomes your web site too.

Bob Cherry created the first bluegrass web site on September 9, 1992 while working on an electronic documentation project. This was the world's 7th web site. It got the name Cybergrass in 1995 thanks to Karen Quick.

Bob worked at Xerox in research doing imager design, electro-optical VLSI, Artificial Intelligence, advanced reprographics, computer graphics and electronic documentation from 1980-1995. As a member of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 80's, he helped write the test suite to validate LISP language compilers.

From 1995-2003, he worked on advanced networking protocols including Voice Over IP (VoIP), security systems for financial institutions, and E-Commerce.

He was active in the Microsoft anti-trust case providing remedy input to Drexel Sprecher for the prosecution in the Microsoft Antitrust case. His primary input was regarding the OLE interfaces and functionality as well as input on operating Windows software on non-Windows platforms.

He is now a consultant and independent contractor as well as a licensed real estate broker in Colorado.

He was the past president of the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society (CBMS), on the Telecommunications Committee for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and remains active in bluegrass music.

Welcome to CYBERGRASS® - The Internet's Bluegrass Music Magazine!
Where There's Always Something New in Bluegrass!

We're not your normal blog - many are here today and gone tomorrow. Many become obsolete and stop losing interest over time. Cybergrass has been in continuous operation longer than anybody. Our history speaks for itself. We're the first blog and news source dedicated to bluegrass music.

Why Cybergrass? The answer is simple. We're an innovator and a leader of providing bluegrass music information on the Internet.

1.  The first bluegrass web site (September 9, 1992)
2.  The first web site to carry a music awards show (Grammys) (1995)
3.  The first web site to carry the IBMA awards show (1996)
4.  The first web site licensed (BMI) to carry music on the net (1997)
5.  The first web site to have a free, searchable bluegrass festival calendar database online. (1994)
6.  The first web site to carry artist profiles (1993)
7.  The first web site to carry bluegrass music news (1994)
8.  The first web site to carry syndicated bluegrass content (2003)
9.  The first web site to carry syndicated bluegrass content from others (1998)
10. The first web site to carry current/daily bluegrass news (2000)
11. The first bluegrass blog (2003)
12. The first bluegrass News Network - BMNN (2004)
We've had many firsts. Cybergrass was one of the first 10 web sites using the NCSA/Cern implementation in the world. Cybergrass is the best news and events resource for bluegrass on the net. Why? Because we're the first to use new technology for the benefit of bluegrass music information.

We created the first IBMA and IBMM Web sites. We helped many others get started on the web and most of those sites are still operating today.

While some other bluegrass sites claim they were the first, we were on the net many years before the others. Some sites added features we had years earlier and claim they are the first. Cybergrass has always been the site others follow. Through true innovation, we continue to be a leader in bluegrass music promotion.

We've started the Bluegrass Music News Network (BMNN) and post press releases and news of bluegrass music to a wide audience.

Cybergrass has been promoting bluegrass music since 1992 - longer than any other web site and we have an established readership of over 2000 registered users. Our content is carried on sites around the world and all over the U.S. Bands, other bluegrass sites, news outlets and many others carry the Cybergrass news. Why? Because it is reliable, accurate and current. News is posted daily on Cybergrass.

Visit us often and thank you for reading Cybergrass.

Yes! Cybergrass is registered with BMI for publishing music. We only handle bluegrass and acoustic styles. If you need a music publisher, feel free to contact us through the "Contact Us" item in the User Menu on the left.

CYBERGRASS® is a United States Registered Trademark and our logo and morphing graphics are a part of that trademark. The name Cybergrass, the domain name cybergrass.com and all references are protected.

Our content protected in two ways.

Cybergrass Originated

Content which we write or create is Copyright by CYBERGRASS® and all rights are reserved. Syndicated Cybergrass content is governed by the Creative Commons License requiring no derivitive works and attribution for it's authorship. Commercial use is permitted.

Other Author Originated

Articles, music, software or other content provided by people not a part of Cybergrass is Copyright and the Property of the poster. The use on Cybergrass is covered bya secondary Cybergrass Copyright. The poster retains their primary copyright.