The local music scene in south Florida has it's peaks and troughs. One night you'll see a hundred kids at a show, and then next month there will only be 5 people. I've been going to local shows with my friends since the 8th grade, and sadly I've seen a lot (I might even be able to say "all") of them disconnect from local music. I remember going to shows 2 or 3 times a week, always knowing I'd have friends upon friends who would be there to hang out with, and then as we grew up we grew apart, and I stopped having people to go to shows with. It wasn't only happening with my group of friends, though. Venues started closing left and right, bands started breaking up, and soon it was hard to find anything left. I started The Florida Scene as a network for the people who didn't want to see the local music scene die. It's for show-goers to find new music and to find out where shows are. It's for bands to get their name out and find venues to play at. It's for venues to find bands to book and to promote their shows. It's just one big place where everyone can find each other. I know it may be hard for everyone to understand who isn't a part of this. People might see shows as a place for kids to get into trouble and get a hold of drugs or alcohol. But I also use The Florida Scene to tackle these issues. For every event I put together, I remind everyone that it's a drug-free and alcohol-free event. Whatever they like to do on their own time is up to them, but when it comes to playing or watching shows at a venue, that stuff isn't welcome. I constantly remind people that shows are not about fighting, drugs, alcohol, stealing, or any destructive habit as such. Believe it or not, though, people know better and know that it isn't worth the risk of having another venue close.

When I was 16 years old I first experienced the local scene "dying", and it killed me to watch it fall apart. Suddenly all the venues I spent my weekends at were closing and all the bands I went to see were breaking up. That's when I started The Florida Scene (and also when when I realized I wasn't alone). The Florida Scene grew so rapidly that I had to update the site multiple times a day. People were coming up with great suggestions to make my site, as well as the local scene, better and we were able to collaborate and work together to turn things around. Bands, venues, show-goers, local clothing companies, photographers... everyone wanted a piece of what I had going. I can honestly say that they still do. What I have been doing is promoting everyone's shows, helping musicians find bands, and bands find musicians, booking shows for local and touring bands, promoting photographers, and have raised awareness for Save Darfur and Save Sisterhood (both are south Florida projects).

In the summer of 2006 I started The Florida Scene as a group so people who were interested in local music could promote, meet, interact, share, etc. They could post threads, pictures, and respond to polls to get their voice heard. I then invited anyone to the group who looked like they might have been interested, and had contests to get more exposure. Before I knew it, I was updating the "show" thread constantly and I had people left and right who wanted to know who I was. So I started The Florida Scene profile, where instead of people having to go to the group, they could have updates show up on their bulletin board every time I updated the page. I started out promoting myself like crazy: adding bands, people, promoters, venues, and other companies who may be interested in what I do. Now people come to me. Since then, I've booked numerous shows (even for touring bands) and have seen the amount of members climb to a total of over 1890 people and bands!

Many people help support by telling their friends, wearing a Florida Scene T-shirt, wearing the pins, or putting a Florida Scene banner on their website or myspace. Criticism and feedback are always welcome, as I only want this to grow and get better.