• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 13, 2006

In an effort to expand its online music offerings, AOL has tapped Bill Crandall, former editor of RollingStone.com, to be editor in chief of AOL Music.

Crandall will run all editorial franchises that AOL Music currently offers, and is expected to beef up the site's news coverage of the music industry, said Erik Flannigan, vice president, general manager of AOL music, movies, and television.

"Bill is responsible for what I would call the consumer experience," Flannigan said, adding that Crandall will oversee packaging of the material--currently in a myriad of various formats, including photos, written copy, video, and audio. For example, Crandall will be charged with deciding whether to surround specific music videos with photo galleries, or whether an interview with a musician should be presented as an instant message chat, or in a more conventional format.

AOL lured Crandall from Rolling Stone just several weeks after announcing a content partnership deal with Rolling Stone rival Blender, published by Dennis Publications.

That deal, which went live last month, involved distributing Blender feature stories and CD reviews on AOL Music and building a co-branded Blender/AOL radio station, which will be housed both on AOL and Blender.com. With the Blender partnership, AOL Music was able to add music reviews to its vast library of music videos and other related content.