The Biggest Music Biz Conference and Music Award Show hits the Tampa Bay Area in November. Top Industry Professionals will teach at the conference and celebrity’s will walk the red carpet at the televised awards. Tampa Bay, FL is Arbitron ranked market number 19 and has a thriving independent music scene.
Tampa, FL (Billboard Publicity Wire) March 9, 2008 — Officials have announced the highly anticipated 2008 Tampa Music Awards (TMAs) will be held this year on November 13. The red carpet ceremony will start 7 p.m. at the Kapok Pavilion Special Events Center in Clearwater.
Tampa Bay, Florida is ranked as market number 19 by Arbitron, the company that ranks US radio stations by market size. Even as a top 20 market, the “other Bay Area” has not had a major awards ceremony exclusively for music since the early 1990s.
This year Tampa gets its biggest Music Conference in recent history, featuring top music business professionals, held the day before the awards. Confirmed Panelists include celebrity agent to the stars, Mike Esterman, of Esterman.com, Grammy nominated songwriters Shanell Irving and Tenesha Blacks of Big Drawz Music, and many other top producers, managers and major record label A&R’s.
“I’m excited to have both a black tie ceremony, and a real music conference to help the Indie scene here in Tampa Bay,” said Maurice ‘Hot City’ Evans, the event’s executive producer, “The Tampa Music Awards and its associated conference will generate national attention as one of the year’s largest spectacular events held in the Tampa Bay area.”
The 2008 Tampa Music Awards will be a star-studded evening of entertainment celebrating Tampa Bay’s thriving music community and the unique and inspiring talent of individual artists. Hosted by prominent local and national celebrities, the TMAs will be simulcast live via the Internet, have American Idol-style text-message voting and will be rebroadcast on the CW Network in Tampa. The TMAs recognize creativity in seven major genres of music: Rock, Country, R&B, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Christian and Latin.
The two-day event is packed with educational seminars and networking at the conference, a new artist showcase, the awards ceremony and great entertainment for all music lovers, including an After Party. Organizers are expecting over 1,000 people to attend the event.
“There are a couple dozen people in the industry already involved (on the panel), and we are still looking for more, as well as a few corporate sponsors,” states Evans, “I can’t guarantee a group will get signed to a label, but I can’t imagine if a group or two from Tampa with talent, who comes prepared, won’t get some sort of deal or major contact at this event. In the least the 1000 that show up, will skyrocket past the rest of the indies in town with publicity tools, connections and resources.”
Conference attendees will each get a resource CD with forms, contracts and other tools to help them in the music business. They also have an opportunity to perform in one of the event’s 3 showcases and compilation CDs.
The Music Conference Starts at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 12, 2008.
The Music Awards has its red carpet opening at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 13, 2008.
Ticketing and updated information on the music conference and the music awards ceremony can be found at the website http://www.TampaMusicAwards.com.
About Tampa Music Awards, LLC
The 2008 Tampa Music Awards (TMA’s) is produced by Tampa Music Awards, LLC. Its mission is to be the premier event of the year for the Greater Tampa Bay Area of Florida. The TMA’s hosts Tampa Bay’s biggest music business conference in conjunction with the music awards as an annual celebration designed to educate aspiring musicians and recognize creative excellence in the Tampa Bay, Florida music scene.
###
tampa music conference