The Mechanical Music Digest first appeared on the Internet 25 years
ago on April 17, 1995, in an announcement by Jody Kravitz titled
"Automatic Music Mailing List."

It consisted of seven messages mailed individually to persons on
an email list provided to Jody by Terry Smythe, who suggested creating
the list which eventually grew and became the Mechanical Music Digest.

I don't know when the digest form was introduced and articles stopped
being mailed out to subscribers as individual separate messages.  But
the very next mailing on April 18 carried a message by Jody: "Mailing
List Etiquette," which explained that the size of the first mailing
(12 messages and 29 KB) made him realize that a digest format would
eventually be necessary.

 [ See https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199504.html ]

Some of the first 1995 MMD subscribers are still active here --
familiar names like Terry Smythe, Mike Walter, John Grant -- but all
too many like Richard Tonnesen have been claimed by the Grim Reaper.

Jody Kravitz and his long-time editor Robbie Rhodes fully intended to
commemorate the MMD's twenty-fifth anniversary last month.  But the
press of MMD production coupled with Jody's and Robbie's normal lives
precluded that, it seems.

But congratulations, everyone!

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York

 [ Matthew, thanks for reminding us.  It seems like we should have
 [ made a big deal out of #25, but the Covid-19 pandemic has us
 [ both a bit distracted.
 [
 [ I do not remember exactly, but I think I started sending out the
 [ submissions to the Automatic Music Mailing List in Digest form
 [ within a week of starting the mailing list.
 [
 [ I greatly appreciated everyone's participation over the years.
 [ I hope we can keep community together.   -- Jody