SoundProof Magazine started in the winter of 2005 with a few people who had access to a food court after-hours ("head office") as well as a photocopier to which no one paid much attention. Two of these fellas, Chris Stevenson and Scott Mckean, are still at the helm today.

After almost no planning or marketing research whatsoever, the first issue of SoundProof hit the streets of Toronto in March of 2006. 500 copies, crudely stapled together (with Magneta Lane on the cover) were delivered to some select locations on Queen West in Toronto, and SoundProof was born. A show was thrown together to celebrate the release and more than 150 people turned up to help us bring SoundProof into the world.

We were small, to be sure, but we seemed to resonate with a lot of people. In spite of the limited release, we were hearing extremely positive feedback. We covered young, up-and-coming Toronto bands and wrote with a sense of humour, but also with respect for artists and music itself.

For our next issue, we decided to try colour, and a much bigger run of 10,000 copies. This was a pretty big deal to us, as we then had things to consider like printing costs and figuring out how to get advertisers. We were lucky to have local companies who believed in what we were doing, and buy advertising from us on our word that we would distribute the copies across downtown Toronto, which we did.

We realized that print was limiting in many ways. We could only afford to print so many copies, and despite the fact that we were getting amazing responses to our full-colour second issue (with Ian Blurton and Katie-Lynn Campbell of C'MON on the cover), the competition was fierce, distribution was tough and we were killing a lot of trees that had never done anything to us except help us breathe.

One of the things that people really seemed to like about SoundProof, in addition to the great writing and photos provided by our rapidly expanding team (22 and growing as of this writing), was the fact that it was local. They liked that the people writing about the music were going to the same clubs and restaurants and record shops that they were, and that they really cared about the subjects they wrote about. The pictures were original and irreverent and creative, and didn't look like yet another PR shot done by people just making a pay cheque.

We realized there was an opportunity to create a place where music lovers could write about their own scene as well as take a look at others and communicate freely amongst each other. Chris and Scott worked to keep the SoundProof vision alive. Soon enough, mercy would arrive in the form of the editors who were not shy about telling them what they were doing right and wrong. Often.

Today we are proud to bring to life the very beginning of what we envision as the foundation for a much greater, more "robust" (to use cheesy tech-lingo) vision we have for the future of this site. Eventually we aim to provide a place where people like us can create, nurture and share with other people like us all around the world.

In the meantime, we are proud to be working with Canadian Music Week this year with a showcase under our name, a sponsor and supporter for The Toronto Independent Music Awards (Chris and Scott will be presenting the Best Indie Rock award for the second year in a row) and working in conjunction with NXNE as a media partner. Additionally, Chris and Scott recently shot a segment for Much More Music which we are told will air in mid-April. Coolness!

Music is the great equalizer — we all love, we all want to be happy and none of us wants to suffer — these are the things musicians write about. Stevie Wonder sang "Music is a world within itself/with a language we all understand." For those of us who are not touched emotionally by the latest Canadian Idol or blonde pop-tart, there is SoundProof; offering access to musicians who play from the heart and for the love of music, without focus groups to tell them what to write about or wear (something Chris and Scott could use).

What you see here today is just the beginning, and we fully expect to have to rewrite this "history" within a matter of months — at least we hope to.

Welcome to our home. We love music, we hope you do too.