The author has been online since 1997. At that time there were a few websites on Persian music. Some of them were not professional and among them only Kereshmeh (in English) was great. It is online since 1995 and is still online and even now its information is great.
In 2000, Iran Melody, started its activities in selling Iranian music productions. The website is in English and Persian and sill online. The other old website on Persian music is Shayda of M. R. Lotfi that is still online, though it is a long time that it has not been updated.
One of the professional websites that is online since 2000 and is still useful for Iranian percussion lovers, is Tombak Network (in English). Tombak Network was established by Hormoz Dilmaghani and perhaps is the best resource for tonbak and Persian percussion.
In 2000, also many Persian music lovers started to establish Yahoo Groups discussion forums. Today some of them are not very active.
In 2001, some big websites on Persian music came to existance. Among them one can mention to Persian Art Music (it was mainly in Persian and now it is about two years that it is inactive, though still online) and Iran Flamenco that later it became a part of Art Music (in Persian). At those years other websites for music became online like Soroush Press (in Persian) and IRIB (both in Persian).
One of the first Iranian artists that became online in 2001 was Reza Vali. In the same year the website of Beethoven Music Center was introduced that is still active.
In 2002, Peyman Nasehpour (Iranian hand drummer), was one of the first Iranian musicians who offered his personal website, peyman and his tonbak, powered by tripod, that is still online, though he published his first work in Internet on Nov. 30th, 2000 at Tombak Network. He has been so active in promoting Persian percussion in Internet.
In 2003 at least 50 Yahoo Groups discussion forum were active discussing about Persian music and musicians that still some of them are active, but perhaps the best is Iran Zamin Music (in Persian) run by Maziar Ansari and some other moderators.
In 2004, when Iranian blogging fever started, many wrote about Persian music in their weblogs hosted by Persianblog. Today only a few of them are active. In second round Iranian blogging fever, many bloggers started to use Blogfa that many of them are very active. One can mention to Tahrir, Siyahmashgh and so on.
One year ago a very important event happened. Some young musicians gathered to create a website for gathering all useful links of Persian music in one place and linking to important music news. This website is Sol.ir. Perhaps it is the best directory for Persian music websites and its music news section is updated every day.
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The main reference for this article is the great article of Sadjad Pourghannad published at HarmonyTalk.com.
