While perusing the World Wide Web, you may come across a nicely stylized site complete with a bulletin board, a chat room and listings for local bands. You've stumbled across the Athens Musician Network.

AMN was founded about three years ago by Matt Toledo, a former Ohio University student and current Frognet employee. "It was about this time of year," Toledo recalls. "I started it in an attempt to find people for my first band." Toledo's first band, Fred's Front Wheel, was short lived. AMN, however, survives to this day.

The site features some of the most helpful services for musicians: Descriptions of venues, maps to venues, chat boards and message boards for bands looking to swap shows or people seeking musicians. AMN has reviews of local acts, opinions and links to web pages of bands.

Initially the site was simple. "At first it was just a collection of programs that you could get on the net for free," Toledo explains.

Anyone who has tried to form a band in Athens knows it's hard work finding possible members. "My goal is to try to facilitate musicians find other musicians," Toledo said.

In trying to form a "brotherhood" of musicians, Toledo found the best medium to be the Internet. "When I came to OU I didn't know anything," he said. "I felt like it was a big clique. People hang up signs, but those get covered over within two seconds. I figure the Web's the best place because it's designed for text."

Becoming a member of AMN is as simple as clicking and filling in your name. Posts listed on the AMN can be edited, and members can chat with other musicians.

The site also gives bands exposure, both in town and out-of-town. The site gets about 2,000 hits per month, Toledo says.

Toledo has learned more about the Athens music environment while running the site than could be gleaned in another manner. "I guess the most exciting thing is that I've gotten to know the scene really well."

Visit AMN at www.frognet.net/~amn.