• by Wendy Davis , February 13, 2006

Dennis Publications' music magazine, Blender, this week will start distributing feature stories and CD reviews on AOL Music as part of a partnership with America Online. The deal also involves building a co-branded Blender/AOL radio station, which will be housed both on AOL and Blender.com.

Blender hopes the AOL exposure will help build subscriptions to the magazine, said Editor in Chief Craig Marks. "It's a way to put Blender in front of readers who may not be perusing the newsstands any more," Marks said.

For its part, AOL Music--which already houses a vast library of music videos--will for the first time add music reviews to its site, said Erik Flannigan, vice-president, general manager of AOL's music, movies, TV, and radio.

At launch, the AOL site will include Blender's March feature, "The 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars," which includes pictures and biographic information about musicians like Johnny Cash, The Notorious B.I.G., and Elvis Presley.

Flannigan added that AOL might in the future incorporate in its site CD reviews from Blender's back issues. Blender magazine additionally will start printing AOL Music charts showing the most downloaded, streamed and searched tracks.

Separately, Blender intends to relaunch and redesign its Web site, Blender.com, in the next few months, Marks said. The upcoming site will be more interactive, and will incorporate blogs and video, he added.