By Cary Darling
New York Times News Service

World music fans can have a tough time finding out about new sounds and artists. Getting little help from MTV or commercial radio, they usually have to rely on a patchwork of specialty radio shows, satellite/cable radio and magazines.

Enter Chondo.

The recently launched Web site (www.chondo.net) is a 24-hour subscription Internet radio station that specializes in the urban music of the African diaspora, including varieties of Brazilian samba, Algerian rai, South African kwaito, Caribbean reggae and salsa, and American and British hip-hop.

For Seattle-based founder Mike Eastman, it's the culmination of a passion. "I've been collecting world music for 15 to 20 years, and I lived in London for two years [where world music is big], so you put those two things together, and I built Chondo from that," he explains in an interview by phone.

Originally, he envisioned a wide-ranging service that would program music from all over. But Eastman -- who'd been an information technology exec at the Internet radio service Real Networks for five years -- thought that might be too ambitious.

"As I spent more time buying and listening strategically, the diaspora is really an interesting smaller market," he explains. "People of African descent have distinguished themselves around the world in music."

Those who subscribe -- at $6.95 per month after a free 14-day trial -- can choose which area of the world they want to explore (North America, South America, Africa or global) and the genre of music (hip-hop, divas, soul, jazz, reggae, chillin' [downtempo], jammin' [uptempo], and groovin' [midtempo]).

The artists they might hear range from Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club to Jamaican pioneer Bob Marley, from the U.S. group OutKast to Brazilian chanteuse Daude.

The audience for world music in North America is largely white, but Eastman, who's African-American, specifically wants to reach African-Americans. "A lot of African-Americans will be curious about music of African descent," he says.

With Chondo, named for an East African drum, Eastman hopes to convey a positive image of Africa and its peoples. "There's a lot of negative media out there, and we want to show a different picture," he says.