Hi everyone, Reflections here.
As some of you may know (either because you’ve guessed or because I’ve talked with you about it,) I’ve set up this website because I saw a gap in the way that we promote local drum and bass events in Jacksonville. I thought that I would take a few moments here to tell you more about the backstory of JaxDnB, how it began and how we got to where we are today.
We have all come to rely on social media platforms, perhaps a bit too much. While they are great platforms for reaching a wide audience, the content is so ephemeral that it can be easy to lose sight of the full context of everything that is associated with our scene. Social media places so much emphasis on engagement and stats. I wanted to create an online property that we can send people to at any time to learn about our events, artists, relevant news, and possibly much more. A place they can come back to and find out about the next event, or some new music coming out of Jacksonville and beyond.
More info about the history of JaxDnB
As I described on our history page, the JaxDnB name has been around since it was created in 2005 by my longtime good friend and fellow DJ/producer Chris Megatron. Back then, message boards like eNation Online were the place to go and find out about events as well as network and socialize with people before and after the party. There was so much activity around that time from the dnb scenesters that it made sense to set up our own dedicated message board. That’s exactly what happened when JaxDnB.com was born. Chris would take on the task of securing the domain and hosting, and then setting up the message board.
It lived on for a few years until Facebook really took over as the most popular social platform. As the activity on the board dwindled down, the decision was made to retire it and eventually the domain too. It would be re-registered by an offshore company or individual who probably intended to resell it for a hefty sum (short domains names tend to be very valuable due to their relative rarity.)
The post-message board days
As years went by the Jacksonville drum n bass scene would experience a roller coaster of activity. This was mostly due to many of the frequent players moving out of state to seek greater opportunities personally, professionally and musically. JaxDnB name began to resurface and be associated with events around 2015. The domain name was still owned by someone who probably had no idea what it was meant to represent. However there were a couple of Facebook groups had already developed which would fill the gap from the old message board days. Over the next 2-3 years, the JaxDnB name would evolve into a brand that would be an umbrella for producing local events. Fast-forward to today, and JaxDnB has been gaining statewide and even some national recognition for our dedication to producing high quality drum & bass events.
One of those dedicated individuals is Chris Kelly aka XMSN (pronounced “transmission”) who hosted a weekly Work Night Sessions in 2016-17. He would go on to start Invasive Ceremonies in early 2020. The idea began as a simple small gathering of friends at his house (i.e. a “home invasion”.) Eventually it would spill over into events at public venues. Once the dust began to settle from the pandemic and venues were opening for business again, Chris got to work and would resume the DnB Invasion as a semi-regular event. Fast-forward to now, he and I work closely together to produce these events at various venues around Jacksonville. Most recently we’ve had the honor of producing some bigger shows featuring world renowned headliners.
Years of hopeful waiting finally paid off
So how did we end up with this new website? Well, I had been occasionally checking on the registration status of the jaxdnb.com domain. I was hopeful that maybe that other person/company had decided to let it expire or sell it for a reasonably price. At one point they had it listed on a domain marketplace for around $3000.00!) After several years of disappointment, finally in the early part of 2022 I decided to check the registration status again. This time I was excited to find that it was no longer registered and it was available!
Without hesitation I logged into my domain account and purchased it. I didn’t have any immediate plans for what to do with it, I just knew that I finally had rescued it from certain peril. At the time, it made the most sense to just point it to the JaxDnB Facebook page and that’s exactly what I did. Later on in the year I started getting some ideas for setting up a new website which would include an event list/calendar and some info about our local deejays and producers. I sat on it for almost a year as other projects took priority.
How this website came together
Finally in July 2023 I decided it was time to make this happen. For those who don’t know, my regular “day job” for the past eight years has been managing website development projects for a digital marketing company. This experience means that I had the knowledge, skills and resources to create and execute a website strategy. It took about four weeks to pull it all together. I started with the initial content plan and production, then setting up the site framework and designing the pages, and finally publishing the whole thing. Admittedly it wasn’t perfect at the time of launch, and my understanding of the product launch lifecycle meant that I shouldn’t wait for perfection to launch this thing and let it start generating value for the local community.
What this means is that you can expect this site to grow and evolve, adding more artist profiles, adding more event flyers from years past, and of course posting new events as they get announced. It’s a continuous work-in-progress, just as all great websites are. Make sure you check back frequently for new events, artist info, and other news. You can also subscribe to our newsletter so that you’ll get these updates sent to you by email once or twice a month.
Stay tuned as this thing continues to unfold. We look forward to seeing you all at an event real soon!