Holy Moly, can you believe it?  It’s been ten years since launching VenturaRocks.com and as you probably realize, a lot has changed over the years; for instance, venues come and go (Zoey’s, The Good Bar, Watermark, Peirano’s, Amigo’s, The Wine Rack…) as well as musicians moving out and moving to our area. It’s a fluid state supporting an eclectic mix of music which is available on most any night of the week.

I started VenturaRocks.com to help out during economic tough times in 2009.  Our mission statement has changed very little:

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 to inspire people to get out and support Ventura’s music scene.
We promise never to charge the venues or the artist to be listed on VenturaRocks.com.

And we have never once charged any Ventura venue to be listed, nor have we charged any artist who plays here, but a year ago, the decision was made to expand our listings to neighboring cities and for a very small fee have allowed venues outside Ventura to be listed for only $10 a week.  Many thanks to Topa Mountain Winery in Ojai (first to join us), as well as The Shores, and 1901 Speakeasy in Oxnard for being on board. And, for the past few years we’ve offered advertising opportunities on our homepage for additional coverage (a link for costs can be found at bottom of homepage).  We are not a non-profit; in fact, for almost six years VenturaRocks.com was solely a goodwill effort to help out whereby we covered all costs associated with the website.

Because of its popularity, I’ve been asked over the years to work on other projects such as producing half-hour Ventura Rocks shows on CAPS Media where local bands had the chance to play original music; I am the Music Scene columnist for The Ventura Breeze newspaper, I produce an hour-long radio show featuring mostly local artists on KPPQ-LP, and I just partnered with GWC Productions producing VenturaRockSpot highlighting local artists Q&A.

I’m proud of what VenturaRocks.com has accomplished over the years.  Supporting Ventura’s music scene has been a pleasure and though I’ve thought about quitting on several occasions, I still get up every single morning and upload today’s music before heading off to my day job at 7 am.

But I have to warn, I am sincerely tired of badgering venues for their music.  So if you don’t see a venue listed, and you know they have music, it is only because they won’t take the time to let me know, but trust me, I ask. Do with that what you may. Can you tell my patience is wearing thin?

This is how I look at it:  collectively, all the venues in Ventura (and now surrounding cities) contribute to this music scene. It is bigger than one bar or venue, yet they get to reap the benefits when people get inspired to go out and support live music. Am I right?  Isn’t it the best when you can go venue to venue and hear jazz, then rock, then indie-folk, and whatever ever else is available?  Those are my favorite nights.

If you’re wondering what you can do to help, send me information on events you think we might be missing.  Is a venue now offering music?  Let me know.  But most of all, get out, rally the troops and support.  Remember, there are three elements to making this music scene, the venues, the artists and us music lovers. It’s like I always say, “Together, we make Ventura Rock!”

I love you man!
Pam Baumgardner
Pam@VenturaRocks.com