This issue is the first part of a double issue entitled "Access to Waxes – The Collections from the Arab World of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv: Between Digitization, "Repatriation," and Online Publication". Issue 12 (2) includes a General Introduction to the double issue plus a set of five articles, written by Nadia Bahra, Lando Kirchmair, Matthias Pasdzierny, Albrecht Wiedmann, Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, Susanne Ziegler, Jean Lambert, and Ruth F. Davis. Issue 13 (1), the second part of this double issue, will be published in a few months from now. It includes contributions from Dörte Schmidt, Mèhèza Kalibani, Christian Czychowski & Lea Riechers, Souheir Nadde, and Lando Kirchmair. All articles of this double issue will also be available in Arabic translation.

–Birgit Abels 

We are pleased to announce that the world of music (new series) has switched to an open access model. Starting with the first issue of this year, our journal will be freely accessible online (Diamond open access). We have a new homepage and are now published by Göttingen University Press. VWB Publishing, the journal’s previous publisher, will continue to publish a print edition. The new model will make the world of music (new series) more easily accessible around the world, and we look forward to exploring the various possibilities of the journal’s increased visibility.

–Birgit Abels