In 1998 I formed a very small musicians cooperative organization and we collectively called this EvO:R..At the time it really had no meaning, just a series of letters and a colon (:) for sport. The Letter eventually became something of importance as the letter represented the Elite Veterans Of Rock..

I had no proven idea about attracting musicians so I did the only thing I knew how, I simply approached musicians that had similar ideas to mine and asked them to join or little group. I felt that every new musician could bring additional knowledge and a service to our organizattion. It also became obvious that we could eventually use our numbers to create discounts for services that starving musicians pay through the noise for, like CD duplication, discounted compilation participation, indie radio broadcasting, and more (at that time an indie artist had to pay to be listed on a website). We could also band together and support each other by voting for fellow EvO:R bands when they are up for vote on those popularity contest sites.

After a few months we grow to over 100+ members but only about 15 people actively participating in the process to help achieve our vision for EvO:R. We created a message and a logo and I set up a modest website to explain what we planned. Shortly I began adding bands to the site and interest sky rocketed (because I did all the work), so I began to ask members that wanted to join our website to help me in some way s/a website design, page proof reading, check pages on multiple browsers, search engine submissions, radio DJ's, MP3 encoding and uploading, newsletter editing, as well as to participate in some of the other above mentioned projects.

As soon as I began asking for help I noticed that 90% of the artists made great cheer leaders and lousy helpers. So I took on the job of doing most of the work myself relying on a handful of members for outside help (rather than the original message that asked each member to pull his/her weight).

With the help of a few tireless members we built our website from the ground up. I had no idea how to write website code and I had to learn as I went and relied on a number of people to help nurse me along. Slowly I got better and the website began to take shape.

This simple little website has gone from about 1,200 visitors per month to well over 350,000 monthly with pages viewed reaching over 1,466,000 per month. MP3 downloads are now at an all time low at about 10,000 monthly because I'm trying to slow this down by moving MP3 files to other servers. The flow of support keep coming and now the flood gates are opened.

What are some of the EvO:R projects under way?

   Development of "evor-fans"

This is a club with music lovers all over the world interested in new and exciting music. An EvO:R artist can post a new song sample and ask members to listen to it and vote how they felt about it. This give fans a chance to network with really good bands and it also gives EvO:R bands a focus group to give them opinions. When was the last time Metalica asked you to sample a new song and let them know how you liked it? What? Metalica, they are already trying to sue you for listening to their music

---

   A Real E-Zine and Newsletter!

We have Frank Cotolo joining our staff to write our news letter. With the help of Frank and many additional writers we have made great headway into the world of Independent music. Having great writer like Frank Cotolo, Roberto Luz, Jean-Paul Tertocha, Jef Peace, Bob Baker, just to name a few adds instant credibilty to our whole effort We have been launched for a full 2 years and the results have been revolutionary.
Click Here to Have a Look

---

   A Real Publishing Company

I have tried for years to develop a relationship with a publishing group that would give us more than the time of day. The successful publishers have enough clients and the weak sisters have fewer contacts and less music than we do. After almost giving up, I realized that we had the answer right under our own noise as one of our members was actually involved in the publishing business and he had contacts with some real heavy hitters. His clients included, National Geographic, Disney, PBS, among many others.
So EvO:R Members now have a contact that will shop your music to media, film, radio, and other projects that need music.

---

   A Virtual CD Mall

To the best of my knowledge we are the first website to offer a full fledged Virtual CD Mall. We are offering over 12,000 CD titles and have been responsible for selling thousands Independent artist's CDs during the first year of operation. Had it not been for this Virtual Mall most of those same CDs would still be sitting on shelves at National online distribution houses. We have proven to many people that this idea can work to help the Independent artist sell more CD's.
Find out more about the Virtual Kiosk..

---

What do you require to join?

I'm asked daily about how a band/artist can get posted with pages on EvO:R.

The answer?

I personally pick every artist that appears on the site, I also delete every artist that is no longer on the site. After a band notifies me that they want to be a player on the site I take some time and visit their website, I look for professionalism in design and check to see if they are up to date. If they post concert info from 4-6 months ago I'm gone. I also listen to the music, read messages posted on club boards, and basically follow the band for a couple months. I may even track MP3 downloads via a number of sites that they are listed on. After I am convince that they have what it takes I submit the band for approval.

By not allowing any out of tune guitarist with a problem with vocal pitch to grace our pages I can usually give a new visitor a great musical website experience.

To be considered you will need to visit the contact page and follow the instructions.

---