V13 MEDIA GROUP
V13 Media Group (VMG) is an independent, artist-first media ecosystem. Born in 2005 as the underground music zine PureGrainAudio and reimagined as V13 Media in 2020, VMG now spans a full suite of divisions: flagship publication V13 Media, artist development and PR arm V13 Music, publishing imprint V13 Press, business and web agency V13 Promo, video production house V13 Video, and merch hub V13 Store. Headquartered in Vancouver, Toronto, and London (UK), VMG operates as a global network with a distributed team of writers, photographers, and creators.
Our guiding mantra is “Lead with Love & Logic.” We pair data-smart strategy with genuine passion to help creators keep their rights, grow their audiences, and make a living from their art. Twenty+ years in, the mission hasn’t moved: amplify real voices, celebrate cultural variety, and build a more equitable creative industry.
WHO WE ARE
We are a collective of visionaries, storytellers, and creatives pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in music, entertainment, culture, and literature. Our mission is to champion the unheard and celebrate the pioneers, building a platform that transcends genres, borders, and expectations. Everything we make carries our trademark balance of Love & Logic.
// c’est la V13
HISTORY OF V13 MEDIA GROUP
V13 Media, formerly PureGrainAudio, started as a simple drunken idea in early 2005. Two friends, Christopher Gonda and Aaron Willschick, were frustrated with their stagnating socio-political website but weren’t ready to give up on the internet. A few late nights later, they built a site around their real shared passion: music. Loud music.
PureGrainAudio launched in the last week of March 2005 to a monthly audience of 58 people, most of them presumably family. A horrific start, and we say that with love.
But the site grew. In 2015, UK writer and photographer Graham Finney folded his site PlanetLoud.tv into PureGrainAudio and joined the team. Mike Bax brought Lithium Magazine in 2016. BrokenAmp.com and its staff arrived in 2018. By 2019, the network had expanded well past heavy music, launching the classical, jazz, blues, soul, and folk publication Sax&Violins, socio-political coverage on V13.ca, and acquiring the electronic music site MaxMuzik.com.
In March 2020, Gonda, Willschick, and Finney consolidated everything into one home: V13.net. One flagship, every genre, and a global team of writers and photographers free to cover the music, film, TV, and culture that means the most to them.
Hard work, constant hustle, and perseverance are the name of the game. VMG wouldn’t exist without our staff and readers, past, present, and future, or the countless artists, publicists, and industry players we’ve worked with along the way. Long story short: we’re not going anywhere.