What We Do
Gary 17‘sToronto Moon Magazine is a digital daily magazine that documents and promotes the live venue music scene in the Greater Toronto area. It produces articles about artists who in many cases no one else has written about (many of whom have gone on to have award-winning careers) and listings of upcoming shows as well as profiles, reviews, etc., of artists and venues along with articles of general interest to the constituents of the GTA live music scene.
Pages in a computer monitor-friendly magazine format are delivered several times a week to paying subscribers as their choice of pdf or jpg attachments to emails and are archived on various subscriber-only website groups, now including www.torontomoon.ca.
We also produces occasional Toronto Moon TV videos and the Toronto Moon Radio podcast show hosted by Gary 17.
Vision & Mission
The Toronto Moon Magazine vision and mission is quite simple: we aim to create greater awareness of the rich diversity of talents in all musical and related genres in the GTA, with a special focus on original artists. In addition to enriching the cultural experience and awareness of the general public, we endeavour to encourage artists to continue creating and performers to continue entertaining by giving them a pat on the back and a leg up in the world by demonstrating that what they do does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.
To that end, we strive to emphasize the positive. While not shying away from the reporting of negative news when it is pertinent, we mostly write about what we find enjoyable and inspiring. When criticism is made, it is done so in a constructive spirit. Our aim is to uplift and enrich both our audience and the subjects of our articles.
A Brief History
Toronto Moon Magazine is the digital descendant of to-nite magazine, which Gary 17 began publishing in 1992 (for the first year as The Open Season) as a hard-copy bi-weekly, then weekly magazine distributed in music venues across the Greater Toronto area, from Oakville and Milton in the west to Stouffville and Oshawa in the east and as far north as Aurora. Between 1999 and 2004 the publication also appeared online at the now-extinct to-nite.net website.
While to-nite was primarily supported by advertising from clubs and others, in September 2008 the subscriber-financed model was adopted in conjunction with the introduction of digital pages to supplement hard copy editions.
The magazine’s name was changed its name to Toronto Moon in September 2009 after the to-nite name was sold to a group producing a daily news publication and since that point on has been entirely digital and over 80% financed by subscription revenues.
Who is Gary 17?
Gary 17 is a songwriter, poet, former daily newspaper journalist, editor, magazine & special interest publications publisher, show producer and promoter, emcee and open stage host who relocated to Toronto in 1992 to pursue his love of live music and best make use of his skills as a writer and publisher. In addition to publishing Toronto Moon Magazine he also has put on nearly 30 SpringRise Celebration concerts along with a number of other special events, emceed at music festivals for a variety of genres, hosted an open stage in the city since 1998 and often performs his originals at his own and others’ open stages and shows.
He can be reached at [email protected] and has a Reverbnation page at www.reverbnation.com/gary17 as well as a Facebook profile at www.facebook.com/gary17 and Facebook artist page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gary-17/104699747217
