VenturaRocks.com Mission Statement

Posted on October 7, 2012 by venturarocks

We posted the following NOTE on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/venturarockswebsite) for our Third Anniversary so we could let everyone know what our vision is behind VenturaRocks.com.
We would like to repost it here for future reference!

Dearest Friends of VenturaRocks.com:

On the eve of our anniversary, we’d like to thank all of our Facebook Friends for being so awesome! Almost a year ago we posted a note on what our Mission is all about and now it’s as good of time as any to revisit this, especially for those our newer Facebook Friends who don’t know. So here we go…

Our Mission is to help stimulate the economy in our favorite city in the whole wide world by promoting venues who offer music and to the artists who live in and around Ventura as well as those who travel here to play.

We want people to get out and support our music scene.

We promise never to charge the venues or the artist to be listed on VenturaRocks.com.

Very few people know that there are only two of us running our official website as well as our Facebook page. We have our families and we have full time jobs. This is a labor of love, something we truly believe in doing to help the city we love…which is almost as much as we love music.

There are two points to this note:

1. We apologize, but we are only providing information for the city of Ventura itself. We don’t have the time and/or resources to do more than that at this time.

Believe it or not, we have been “unfriended” because we would not promote this person’s venue outside of Ventura. He ranted on his Facebook page about half-ass promotions and attempted to belittle our efforts to help.

To this we say, “Oh well.”

So if you find that we delete your posts from time to time. This is probably the reason. Your gig is outside of the city of Ventura.

2. Our official website, www.VenturaRocks.com has not made a dime since going live over three years ago. We continue to pay for all costs out of pocket including our personal time to do updates daily.

We would like to change this eventually however. And while we will never charge our artists or venues, perhaps other businesses might want to advertise on our site, or maybe we could sell items like t-shirts.

These are ideas we’re throwing around at this time.

So dear VenturaRocks friends, thank you for reading up to this point and thank you for your continued support. We love this town, we love music, and we love the people who align with our purpose of making this community a better place for all.

As we embark on our fourth year online, we say to you, “Rock on! And get out and support our music scene!!!”

Pam and Eve

Ventura County Music Awards

Posted on August 8, 2012 by venturarocks

The practice of pitting bands against one another is not a new idea. For as long as I can remember there have been talent shows and award shows. Giving honors to artistic merit (subjective on so many levels) or a popularity contest (where the most votes win), are both valid concepts. Professional artists can further their careers economically when they win a Grammy, and amateur and Indie artists have a chance at gaining momentum and mainstream popularity by showcasing their talent and hoping for the top prize. Fans eat up American Idol and The Voice, and even The Warped Tour offers up a local battle of the bands whereby the band with the most votes gets to play when the tour comes to their town.

I wouldn’t even call it a necessary evil. It is what it is.

This year, VC Buzz Magazine is trying its hand at introducing The Ventura County Music Awards and from what I understand, it’s by popular vote.

As stated on their official website thevcbuzz.com:

The Ventura County Music Awards are a premier annual music event, honoring the best and brightest in local talent. Our goal is to provide a platform for local artists to gain recognition and exposure in one of the nation’s most talented music scenes. This must-see music event features live performances by national and local artists as well as celebrity presenters.

The selection process is described as the following:

Prior to the awards, local artists have 6 months to be nominated in one of the 23 music award categories. Our Showcase series starts in June with live shows at local venues where the top artists in each category get to perform with live voting after the show. Winners will be chosen through online popular vote and will be awarded at the VC Music Awards ceremony on November 9th.

So then, this is a popularity contest whereby the bands and artists have to rally their friends, family, acquaintances to go online and vote and show up at a showcase, which some cost to get in.

I like VC Buzz, Buzz Radio and all their ventures. I don’t see VenturaRocks.com as a competitor at all. All our efforts have been solely voluntary to date, and we have yet to make a dime. We are hoping to change that before long, but we don’t begrudge VC Buzz from making a living. We applaud their efforts to promote the music scene throughout Ventura County, just like we support Kat’s efforts with Totally Local VC.

I’m a bit ambivalent when it comes to the Ventura County Music Awards though. On one hand, the artists get a chance to showcase their talents…always a good thing. But on the other hand, they have to rally up the troops to get out and vote…and we just can not take sides. I get a bit sad that we’re pitting our local artists against each other. I guess it’s just the softy in me, my motherly instincts coming to the surface to protect my offspring. I know, I know, “Man Up.”

We will continue help to promote the showcases & final Music Awards Show by listing them on our official website. But, VenturaRocks will not be showing favoritism, and it’s with a heavy heart that we have to ignore requests for us to vote for our Artist and Band friends.

But know this. We are here to support you guys…whether you win or not. Whether we think you suck or not! As long as we continue to create VenturaRocks.com, you will always have a free place to promote your gigs here in the City of Ventura, because without you, Ventura would not Rock!!!