By Adam Waldman
The words under my high school yearbook photo read…“Dream on, dream until your dreams come true.” It never dawned on me when I used that famous Aerosmith lyric that I didn’t really know what my dreams even were. When you’re graduating high school, the world is your oyster and the possibilities are endless.
It wasn’t until I started working in the music industry that my dreams started to take shape, and even then, it was several years later that I found my true calling. To quote Aerosmith once again…“Life’s a journey, not a destination, and I just can’t tell, just what tomorrow brings.”
Truth be told, when Hard Rock Daddy launched three years ago on this date, there were no maps for the path ahead. It was, for all intents and purposes, a road trip with no planned destination. Over the past three years, there have been moments of triumph and moments of defeat, all of which helped to shape the site into what it is today.
By no means has Hard Rock Daddy reached its destination. It’s a work in progress, and I suspect that it always will be. As the saying goes…“If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind.” Anniversaries are the perfect time to take a moment to reflect back on the journey so far, while at the same time, planning for the road ahead.
Over the past three years, Hard Rock Daddy has become a destination for hard rock music fans around the world to keep tabs on Active Rock radio with the weekly recap of the Octane Big ‘Uns Countdown and the HRD Radio Report, and the top selling hard rock albums with weekly Billboard reports. Most importantly, Hard Rock Daddy has become a resource for those looking to discover hard rock and metal artists who don’t otherwise get the attention that they deserve on Music Discovery Monday.
2015 was a breakthrough year for Hard Rock Daddy, as the site eclipsed 1,000,000 annual page views. Looking back to March of 2013, I never would have imagined such a fast growth trajectory. While the journey so far has been amazing, it is the future that has me so energized.
Starting this month, Hard Rock Daddy will be introducing some exciting new features, with more planned to be announced in the coming months. On Friday, March 5th, we will be launching a new monthly column called “The Inferno Of Rock Report.” This new feature will take a look at hard rock news, industry news and trends, and offer up some challenging hard rock trivia questions. Written by Ian Liberman (creator of the Inferno Of Rock trivia game), this column promises to be something totally unique.
Also making its debut this month is a new feature that will give Hard Rock Daddy readers a backstage pass into the lives of a number of hard rock artists. The details of this new feature will be revealed in an upcoming announcement. Suffice it to say that this is the biggest undertaking on the Hard Rock Daddy journey so far, but it is well worth it.
To the readers of Hard Rock Daddy around the world, I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude for your continued support. Without you, the site never would have been able to make the impact that it has. I also want to give special thanks to Jon Loveless, Rob Dell’Aquila and Chris Herzegovitch for the weekly contributions that they each make to give our audience an even greater breadth of music to discover.
Stay tuned for more announcements to come in the near future…
Reblogged this on Jon's Three Cents.