There’s nothing like being friends with the DJ, lol. I shot this video from the booth at Aero (off 23rd and Collins) on Saturday night, March 28, sometime around 3 AM. The club was jumping as AVH kicked his classic hits, including My, My, My, Witch Doktor, Full Moon and more. The crowd was having such a good time, this dude started throwing money around…literally! He threw a stack of dollar bills up in the air. Too bad it wasn’t C-notes. I guess it’s the economy and he must have been holding back.

Seeing Armand giving the punters what they came for, over twenty two years since we’d first met in Boston in the late 80′s, got me reminiscing. I remember when we used to drive home from the East Boston studio of Mega-Mixx, the remix service we worked for back then. While Armand was remixing tracks til the wee hours of the morning−like Shawn Christopher’s Another Sleepless Night−for the long defunct service, I was in the back room calling mom and pop vinyl shops in Japan, Australia and Germany to sell them the latest issues.

We’ve both come a long way and have enjoyed success doing what we love to do. My career took me toward the Internet, while Armand pursued making great house music (and we can’t forget about hip-hop with Sampleslaya).

Shout outs to Ricky, who’s in one of the photos below. Ricky is a long time friend of Armand and he’s such a stellar guy. He told me he was making tracks now, so look out for Ricky’s studio sessions, soon to hit an MP3 player near you.

Also in the booth, Dan Ross from X-Mix, Mark Farina (jumped on the decks after Armand), Atrak, Kimyon, Ricky and Australia’s Ashley Grey from Xelon Entertainment.

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WMC 2009 Blogging, Podcasting and RSS Panelists

The Blogging, Podcasting and RSS panel at WMC 2009 focused on the various ways to get out the message through blogging, podcasting and RSS. Although BPM.FM and Play.FM are more streaming services than podcast outlests, the point was that Dance music radio has moved online and is where many people are accessing their favorite mix shows and artists.

The conversation turned to the new Flip video recorder, which is, for some, equivalent to the iPod for music. It’s a nifty $150 device ($200 for more storage) that has a built-in USB output, which means not having to worry about carrying around a USB cable. And, it syncs your video direct to YouTube for instant web channel publishing. The company was recently acquired by Cisco.

Flip Video (Photo courtesty of Pure Digital)

We also covered the power of WordPress and it’s over 2,500 3rd party supported plug-ins, which enhances the power of the popular Open Source to a full blown CMS, if that’s what you need.

From left to right: panel moderator Laura Betterly (Yada Yada Marketing), Stuart Miller (Smart Move Music), Jamie Peterson (BPM.fm), Diego Sanchez (DMSR.com), Tony Zeoli (Netmix.com) and Thomas Buchstaetter (Play.fm).

Here’s a short clip of New York’s Dance music leader, Pulse 87.7 Program Director, Joel Salkowitz, discussing how the station came about, his role in it, and the recent action by Arbitron to add stations in the 87.7 range to their regular books. Other panelists included Vic Latino from Long Island, New York pop station, Party 105.5; Mike Spinella, Director of Industry Relations at AOL Music; and Skyy from Sirus Satellite Radio.

Fresh of my set at the Adidas store, I’m hanging with superstar Entertainment Attorney, Matthew Kletter and DJ Elyse (Ft. Lauderdale – systemaddix.com) at Cafe Del Sol somewhere on Collins Avenue. We’re getting ready to head to the IRIS rooftop party, then to the X-Mix event at Aero. Stay tuned for more updates from WMC.

I just got this pill bottle from DJ Elyse (systemaddix.com). It’s got a USB drive containing her latest mix show. I knew this was gonna happen one day, I just didn’t know when. Props to Elyse for the ingenuous marketing idea of the day.

On the label, she wrote:

“Take as often as needed”

“Unlimited Refills”

“Making Productions America Trusts”

“May Cause Euphoria. Alcohol May Intensify This Effect. Use Care When Operating A Car Or Other Damgerous Machinery.”

This is just genius!

Yahoo Music! GM, Michael Spiegelman hosted today’s panel on Social Media and Revenue at the Winter Music Conference 2009. Guest panelists included Andrew Fox from ClubPlanet.com, Ron Sperling from ConcertSceneTV.com, Micahel Lucero from Microsoft’s Zune digital music platform, Jim Mahoney from A2IM and Ron Suarez from LoudFeed.com.

Most of the discussion centered around using social tools to build an audience and then take your perceived reach to brands to capture discretionary spending dollars that brand manager have to play with. Andrew Fox implied that in today’s music market, brands are were the dollars are coming from, taking up where major labels have cut back.

The colorful Ron Sperling from ConcertSceneTV.com gave his perspective as a media producer and former ad agency executive who has created experiences. He impressed upon the room the importance of the live element of music and how larger dollars are won because of the importance of the fans personal connection to the music and how that effects what they’ll spend.

Yahoo Music! GM, Michael, Spiegelman did an excellent job in his first year moderating the panel, pulling an impressive list of guests to the table. In year’s past, WMC has had a difficult time pulling executives from this level of the Internet industry, but this year was an exception.

Micahel Lucero from Zune briefed the audience on brand deals with artist through Microsoft products like the X-Box and let artists know that Zune does have programs for new artists to get exposure through the service.

Rod Suarez was making his first ever WMC appearance both on a panel and as a delegate to the conference. His company, LoudFeed, is providing artists with viral marketing tools.

An extraordinary discussion led by BT around the implications surrounding the mainstreaming and commercialization of dance music. One conference delegate questioned the push for greater exposure for electronic dance music and DJ culture, wondering why we seek greater exposure when our audience is perfectly content keeping the music for themselves.

There has always been a push for greater access to the mainstream by underground artists, but those artists may get co-opted in the process, leaving them without the recognition due for their genius and musicianship, while enriching others on the mainstreaming of their work.

BT says, “People knowing it, doesn’t make it bad.” But, he validated the delegate’s question with a very distinct viewpoint on the issue. “Why can we acknowledge that guy that made the record” right now?, before it’s “saturation” into the mainstream.

Sharam points out that it may be someone’s dream to win a Grammy for their work, so why not push for that type of accesibility in the same way others have in the past, with the realization that with mainstreaming comes a trade-off, and there is little control over music once it leaves an artist’s studio.

I really enjoyed this discussion and think it’s one of the finer moments in Winter Music Conference history.