Artists Photos

I’ve been humbled yet again by the people in this town.

We work hard, but we’re seeing results and Ventura really does Rock more and more every day.

A lot of effort is put into Ventura Rocks. We have a website we update every day. We generate a lot of two-way communication via Facebook hoping to get people out to support the shows. We also work on projects like Ventura Music Week attending meetings several times a week and meeting with the venues and artists to make sure they are included. There are the emails and messages coming in to “tweek” or fix a listing on our site, or to add an Artist, or to ask my thoughts about a certain artist and whether they’re a fit for a certain show. I love it.

I also work three paying jobs, I’ve been going to school four nights a week working on a degree, plus there are the basketball playoffs on top of having a teenage daughter I actually enjoy spending time with.

But more than that, I enjoy the fruits of our labor and I go out and support our music scene. I attempt to do this at least two-three times a week. And when I do, I make it a point to “check in” on Facebook with a photo of the band in hopes of getting others out to do the same.

The point is, I’m really freakin’ busy!!! So I was sidelined recently when a local musician, someone I admired, sent me an email requesting we get permission from Artists before posting their photos anywhere on the internet.

I’m positive this was a direct hit at me personally because I can not imagine how a local artist in a town the size of Ventura would be opposed to receiving free publicity.

I’ll be honest. It hurt. And perhaps I should have suppressed my feelings but I did two things.

1. I responded with a nice lengthy explanation and then I promised I would never take their photo again without their permission.

2. I went on Facebook and posted the following message along with a photo of my dog Sammy expressing how I was feeling:
Sammy

“It’s been requested from a local musician that we get permission from Artists before posting their photos anywhere on the internet.
It hadn’t occurred to us that some musicians/artists would prefer not to have free publicity and help promoting them.
If we have posted your image in the past and you were not OKAY with it, please let us know and we will immediately take it down.
Seriously, we’re just trying to help”

The response was overwhelming. I will never doubt again that we’re making a difference in this town. And the support and thanks for what we do was just inspiring. I honestly cried more over these comments than how disappointing that email was. And no, not one Artist has sent me a Private Message to request we not post their photos. I did get one Private Message, but no, I’m not going to divulge who it was who made the request!

But I do want to be clear that we will endeavor to ensure Artists are fine with us posting their photos. I just don’t want them to feel beholden to us, or think we’re just looking for “thanks.”

And just so you know, I try to be careful with the photos I post ensuring the Artist(s) look good, avoiding glowing eyes, or unflattering expressions. If when I scroll the photos and I don’t see a good one, I’ll go back up and take some more until I do. If the lighting sucks so much that I can’t get the shot, I’ll just not post anything.

So if for any reason (you don’t have to give me an explanation if you don’t want to), you prefer not to have your photo on our website or Facebook page, just let me know, send me a private message. Of if there is a particular photo you don’t feel comfortable with, I’ll be happy to take that down for you. Again, we’re here to help.

All that being said, we’ve been doing this for four years now, and we’ve been talking for two years about how www.VenturaRocks.com has not made a dime since going live. We continue to pay for all costs out of pocket including our personal time to do updates daily and how we would like to change this eventually.

That’s going to happen soon. And it feels really f***ing weird that our purely goodwill effort is now going to be a commercial venture. But know this, we will never ever charge the venues, or the Artists be listed just like we’ve always done. But we are going to start offering banner ads (taxi services, out-of-town venues, hair salons, etc…), and we’re working on creating an online store for VenturaRocks.com t-shirts and other items.

Ventura is such a great place to live, we have these incredible musicians and Artists who deserve support. We have a community and network of resources that encourage the music scene and we’re privileged to be a part of it all because like I always say, Ventura really does Rock!

Pam

VenturaRocks.com 4th Anniversay

newVRWell, it’s been four years since we launched VenturaRocks.com and we couldn’t be happier.  We want to thank you for your support and encouragement.When we launched VenturaRocks.com we had a goal in mind and we’ve stated it on more than one occasion:  “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.”

That still holds true today.  But there was more to this goal and it seemed too lofty to put down in words, but as it is coming true, we might as well come out in the open and express want we’re really trying to acheive.  We want Ventura to be a music community where artist thrive in an environment that supports them.  As a result, our artists are making a living, the venues are prospering, people are happy because they have music in their lives. It’s all a win-win scenario.  Ventura is on the cusp of being the next Austin, Texas.  This town has so much incredible talent that it’s a reality that is no longer so far fetched.

We’re here to help get the word out.  Not only do we update our official website twice weekly, but we update our website calendar and Facebook page daily.   EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!  We make it a point to get out several times a week and support our musicians and venues ourselves, we check in, we take pictures, in other words, we walk the talk.

People have come to depend on VenturaRocks.com to determine how they’ll be spending their evening out on a date or out with friends. That’s awesome! And we love when people share our pages and recommend us to their friends.  Getting the word out about VenturaRocks.com helps to support our goal, which we think is your goal too.

And of course people always want to know how do we make money.  We have “day” jobs.

Eve and myself have not made a dime off of VenturaRocks.com to date.  We have NEVER asked for anything for free including concert tickets, or to get in to see an artist with a cover charge.  We have paid our way.  We go out and support our venues, we buy our dinners, we take our own pictures, we pay our own way and we are not indebted to anyone.But there is going to be a way to help support our efforts in the very near future.  We are going to start providing some banner ads on our website, and we are going to start selling VenturaRocks.com t-shirts and other items.

But know this, we will never ever charge the venues or artists for what we already do.  If a venue wants to buy a banner ad to go above and beyond what we already offer, that’s great! But we will always provide the service we’ve been doing for them as long as we can keep this going.

VenturaRocks.com is not a non-profit.  To date, it’s been nothing but a goodwill effort to help.  Seeing the music scene gradually change has been the greatest compensation.  But more needs to be done.

So what is needed and wanted? We need people to fill up the venues. To drop a buck or two. Make it worth our while! We’re starting to see this town come to life and people out enjoying some of our most incredible assets, our musicians.

And like I said before, we’re going to start offering banner ads (hair salons, tire shops, taxi cab services, venues outside of Ventura) and selling shirts and other items.  If you like to support our efforts, we will welcome your help.

We love this town, we love our musicians and artists, we love our venues, and we love that we’re making this happen.

VENTURA really does ROCK!!!

Love you guys!

Pam
VenturaRocks.com

VenturaRocks.com Mission Statement



We post
ed 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