MARCHING.COM: The 15th Season starts now!

Marching.com celebrating milestone season

MARCH 20, 2010 — The idea took off immediately. When Ken Martinson founded Marching.com in March 1996, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Band directors, music students, booster parents, event coordinators and related businesses began bookmarking the site that quickly became an authoritative source of marching information.

The growth has continued steadily over the past 14 seasons. In 2009 Marching.com served more than 600,000 unique visitors. The site extends a positive voice across a broad array of content that now includes events, links, resources, news and photos. Coverage encompasses marching activities from coast to coast and around the world.

"A big thrill is seeing how Marching.com makes connections," Martinson said. "Whether it's a band finding a great event to attend, a director finding a music arranger, or a student learning something new about the activity, Marching.com provides information to enable all of that."

In terms of years, the beginning may not seem that long ago. But in terms of the Internet, Marching.com was a pioneer. Amazon had launched only nine months earlier, and Marching.com was breaking new ground for the marching community.

"We had to create our own approach of how to organize and present marching information online," Martinson said.

Marching.com has worked closely with leading music organizations including WGI, Music For All/Bands of America, DCI and Disney plus premier events including the Tournament of Roses, Fiesta Bowl and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In recent years, Marching.com has increased its coverage of music advocacy and recently joined the SupportMusic Coalition.

"We recognize the role marching bands play in developing life skills and adding excitement to life," Martinson said. "We see the research that shows music students tend to score higher on college entrance exams, and that strong music programs lead to higher graduation rates. This type of information re-energizes our commitment for Marching.com to be a positive voice and resource for the marching activity."

Traffic on Marching.com is still climbing, and Marching.com promises to continue serving as a one-stop resource for all things marching.

"This is a reason to pause and celebrate," Martinson said. "As we begin the 15th Season in 2010, we say thanks to the visitors, friends, advertisers and contributing writers who participate on Marching.com with so much enthusiasm."

Copyright 2010 Marching.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published or redistributed without permission.

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The 15th Season starts now!