DJ Expo Artist Panel.
(l–r): Chris Willis, Jessica Jarrell,
Cary Vance,
Kaci Battaglia, Alexis Jordan, Jump Smokers, Lilian Garcia, Blake Lewis, Chris Kirkpatrick
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What A Great Time
Wow, now that was a networking
event! The Promo Only Summer
Sessions took place in Atlantic
City from August 16 to 18 and
was a major success. The events
kicked off a day early on Sunday
with a party thrown by ILL Miss Musick’s
Candi Lynn for the
release of her new single, “Hop’
N Pop’ N.” A lot of the mix
show and radio programmers came
out to support. Needless to
say, everyone had a fantastic
time as the sights and sounds
were incredible.
Monday was the first official
function of the Summer
Sessions. The day kicked off
with a breakfast for the dance
radio programmers that was
sponsored by Promo Only. After
that, it was time for the
internet radio panel,
co-moderated by Will Calder
(iParty & 92.3 Now-FM in NYC)
and myself. Panelists included:
Jeff Z (Goom Radio), Manny
Esparza (Fusion Radio Chicago),
Mike Oaks (Energy 98), Thomas Chau (AOL Radio) and
Tony Crisp
(1Dance.FM). The discussion
covered everything from branding
to the royalty issues that are
the black cloud hanging over
this medias head. What we
thought would be a soft launch
to the Summer sessions, since a
lot of people were due to arrive
on Monday, turned into a panel
with 400% of the expected
turnout. Not a bad start!
Since it was the day that most
people were coming into Atlantic
City, there wasn’t anything else
scheduled until that evenings
networking cocktail party. This
year the cocktail party was
broadcast on Sirius XM’s BPM as
Cato K, DJ Leony,
Riddler,
Flipside & Johnny Budz were in
the mix live. In one room of
the party you had video
interviews being taped, in
another artists and celebrities
were being interviewed live on BPM but the real show was
watching all the people doing
what you rarely see in the dance
industry anymore, pure
networking.
Sometimes, ok for us industry
people most times, a 4 hour
cocktail party just isn’t
enough! That’s when Sea To
Sun’s Sylvia Tosun and
Anton
Bass came to the rescue and
hosted a brilliant soiree in
Cary Vance's suite. Not sure how
many people actually stuffed
themselves into the large suite
but when you see people sprawled
out in the hallway near the
entrance you know it was a good
time.
Tuesday was the day when you
barely had time to breathe. It
kicked off with the Promo Only
sponsored Mix Show breakfast. A
great opportunity for the
Dance/Rhythmic/Pop mix show djs
to get together and see what’s
going on across the country with
their peers. After the
breakfast was over, the artists
that were in town were invited
to come in and met the guys that
are the unsung heroes of our
industry.
Everybody was then let into the
meeting room where they were
treated to a performance by Kerima who performed her dance
hit, "This Night." After the
performance, it was time for the
first panel of the day, the mix
show panel that was hosted by John Suraci
(Promo Only
Promotions) and Brian Fink
(WFLZ). The panelists were:
Riddler (Z100/WKTU/KKHH), DJ
Prime (WKTU), DJ Flipside
(B96/Chicago), Maurice Halsted
(WKSC/Chicago), DJ Shortstop
(WKQI/Detroit), DJ Orion
(WNOU/Indianapolis), Darin Taoka
(Hot Mix), DJ Gonzo (Spin
Cycle). A great discussion was
held with stories of what kinds
of music are working in the
shows to the effects of PPM on
one’s show. But the story of
the week came from Darin Taoka
who almost didn’t make it to the
Summer Sessions as the night
before he was DJ’ing and there
was a double murder outside his
club. His car became part of
the crime scene as the people
collapsed right next to it.
Unable to move his car for
several hours, he missed his
first flight but the airline got
him on the next flight out. You
can’t make this stuff up.
After the lively discussion,
everyone was treated to an
energetic Chris Willis show that
featured 3 songs including his
brand new one “Louder”.
The final panel of the day was
the Radio panel. Hosted by Cary
Vance (Promo Only Promotions)
and Bob Burke (FMQB) the panel
had a great cross section of
programmers. The panelist
included: Bartel (WKTU/NY),
Rob Wagman (WXRK/NYC), Erik Bradley
(B96/Chicago), Maxwell
(WIOQ/Philadelphia), Kannon
(WRDW/Philadelphia), Vic Latino
(WPTY/Long Island &
WWAC/Atlantic City), Stan Priest
(WKSS/Hartford & WKCI/New Haven)
and Mike Abrams (Sirius XM).
Plenty of great topics were
touched upon but it seemed that
PPM and the ongoing debate about
performance royalties are still
the big topics of discussion.
The final treat for the
attendees of the days panels was
the acoustic performance by
Alexis Jordan of her #1 Dance
record, Happiness. People are
still talking about how great it
was on Facebook!
Taking a
quick breather was in order
because although the “Summer
Sessions” portion of the day was
over, there was still plenty
more business that needed to be
attended to. Over at the
DJ
Expo at the Taj Mahal, Cary
Vance put together an artist
panel that consisted of artists
that were performing, and
presenting, at the Promo
Only/Pioneer Summer Sessions
concert later that night. On
the panel were: Jessica
Jarrell, Chris Willis, Kaci
Battaglia, Jump Smokers,
Lilian
Garcia, Alexis Jordan,
Blake Lewis & Chris
Kirkpatrick. Artists shared
some great stories and some of
their stranger moments in the
world of performing.
From there it was time to get an
hour of down time before the big
concert at the House of Blues.
Every year this show gets bigger
and bigger. This year we had
stellar performances from the
likes of Mike Posner, Kelly
Rowland, Shaggy, Salt N Pepa,
Judy Torres, Kaci Battaglia,
Jessica Jarrell, Alexis Jordan,
Tiffany Dunn, Tino Coury,
Auburn, 2AM Club, Jump Smokers.
Also performing were Video mixologists
DJ 2nd
Nature, DJ Kris P, DVDJ Unique
and Scotty B handled the music
between acts. The show was
hosted by Lilian Garcia, Joey Fatone &
Blake Lewis.
But for me the act that stole
the show in my opinion was Salt
N Pepa. It never ceases to
amaze me at how some of the acts
from the 80s are so much bigger
than life than some of the
artists you see touring now. It
should be mandatory for any
artist that is going on tour to
go to YouTube and look up live
performances from Cyndi Lauder,
Salt N Pepa, etc.
The final panel of the Summer
Sessions took place on
Wednesday. It was the Record
Executive panel hosted by Issy
Sanchez. Panelist included:
Ayelet
Schiffman/Columbia, Eddie O’Loughlin/Next Plateau,
Frank
Murray/Robbins Entertainment,
Joey Carvello/Phase One/Upstream
Music,
John Strazza/Jive Label Group,
Noah Sheer/Island Def Jam and
Phil Nieves/Ultra.
Discussions here were quite
interesting with the panelist
split down the middle between
the old school promoters and the
newer school promoters. It was
great to see all of these top
level execs taking the time out
of their busy schedules to talk
to the attendees about how they
see things.
The last event of the Summer
Sessions was the Awards lunch.
This was the first year that
awards were given away at the
annual lunch. Award winners and
category nominees were selected
in earlier voting by their
peers. A select number of
categories were also voted on by
subscribers to Promo Only. Here
are the winners:
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Best Artist
Lady GaGa
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Best Dance Station
Sirius XM BPM (Satellite)
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Best Major Label
Interscope
|
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Best New Artist
Ke$ha
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Best Internet Station
Energy 98
|
Best Independent Label
Ultra Records
|
|
Best Video
California Gurls – Katy
Perry
|
Best Radio Station
WHTZ/Z100 (NYC)
|
Best Label Executive
Ayelet Schiffman
|
|
Best Song
OMG – Usher
|
Best Mix Show DJ
Rich "The Riddler"
Pangilinan
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Best Promotion
Executive
Frank Murray
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All in all, this was one of the
best networking events I’ve been
to, ever. Next year promises to
be even bigger and better.
Watch this space for the
announcement of the 2011 Promo
Only Summer Sessions dates
coming soon, that way you can
block out your calendar and not
have any excuses not to be
there!
Coming next week
we will have extensive and exclusive
photo coverage of the Summer Sessions.
Other news:
Last Thursday marked the launch
of Club Phusion to the hugely
popular world of iheartradio.
Club Phusion is the first pure
dance station available amongst
the already amazing line-up of
stations. Programmed by
Brian Fink from WFLZ/Tampa, Club
Phusion plays every genre of
dance music, from house to
trance to breakbeat, from all
the biggest names in the
Electronic scene, as well as
remixes of the biggest Top
40/Mainstream tracks on the
chart. And with all the talk
lately being about getting free
programming on your cellphones, the
re-emergence of dance music in
the US has finally found a home
on iheartradio...in Club Phusion.
Send us your noteworthy news to
john.parker@promoonly.com.
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