Timeline

Planet Verge began as a print mega-zine in 2002.

Every issue of Planet Verge was funded by founder, Joelle, DIY and full of our sweat and tears. Worldwide contributors were based around the USA, Scotland and New Zealand. The staffers included professionally trained music business, public relations, marketing, graphic design and A&R students and recent graduates. Music has always literally been the lives of the Planet Verge staff.

While Planet Verge currently prides itself on its all-female staff, we have nothing against Y-chromosomes, and had many contribute as past designers, photographers and writers. But the core production team of Planet Verge always was girls only.

After its inception, Planet Verge quickly built up a stellar reputation among the indie music community. While Vice President of Promotions at Virgin Records, Steven Leeds told Planet Verge “I think it’s great to see people who support music. It’s really, really important because there’s always a Rolling Stone and a Spin and a Circus and those metal magazines from the UK. But what you guys do is write about bands that are not on most folk’s radar yet. You provide a launching pad at a very crucial point.”

During the summer of ’03, Drive-Thru Records chose Planet Verge to produce its first fanzine, which was distributed at that year’s Vans Warped Tour.

That fall, Planet Verge entered the retail world and hit newsstands of independent music stores, as well as select Barnes and Noble and Tower Records locations.

The staff continued to support indie  musicians by launching a music publicity division, Planet Verge PR (now Audio Crush PR).

By summer ’04, lostprophet guitarist, Lee Gaze, used pictures taken by Planet Verge in his MySpace profile (this was a big thing back then!). However, he was not the only musician to give us props.  Then-Epic Records artist Val Emmich sent Planet Verge fan mail after reading his cover story in Issue 6 and said “It’s so nice to have someone writing about me focus on the live performance and the passion instead of whatever else…all the shit that doesn’t matter.”

Planet Verge hit the mainstream in ’05, once Teen People magazine ran a full-page feature on PV and Joelle, in its Hot Summer Music issue.

Around that time, Planet Verge was nominated for three Asbury Park Music Awards: Top Journalist in Support of Live Music (Joelle), Top News Publication in Support of Live Music and Top Music Web Site in Support of Live Music. At the ceremony, Planet Verge staffers were also presenters.

The recognition continued when Planet Verge was featured on an episode of The Style Network’s The Look For Less, when staffer Jordana interviewed acclaimed producer/musician Butch Walker (who also appeared in the episode).

There was no stopping Planet Verge as the publication jumped into the digital world the summer of ’06, by teaming up with CinemaElectric to create On The Verge- weekly indie music news reports for the company’s Portable Vinyl show. Hosted by Shira Lazar (a 2009 LA Local Emmy Award nominee for her current work), each episode was available for download to mobile phone (VCAST) and archived on You Tube.

It was only a matter of time before Planet Verge went completely digital. After  a brief stint producing online-only issues that were downloadable for Playstation Portable (PSP), the last issue went to print in ’07. Nevertheless, Planet Verge went out in style, with a full-color, glossy issue.

Planet Verge continued to champion the indie music scene through a constantly updated blog. The recognition kept coming and this time included an interview with Joelle in popular UK music magazine, Black Velvet.

In 2008, newly-launched digital network Ambush.tv recruited Planet Verge to co-produce a show. In October of that year, filming for the On the Verge Web-TV show began and has been going strong ever since, gaining fans and acclaim for bringing viewers What’s Hot and What’s Important.