Could we have picked a better time?

Who remembers when the Winter Music Conference was all Freestyle? When you walked around the pool side of the then Fontaine Bleau Hotel and met up with the entire Freestyle community. From artist new and old, producers, writers, promoters, agents, labels, radio stations and DJs, it was a very exciting time. We tried this year to possibly bring Freestyle back to the WMC but we were just a bit late, so we will have to sit this one out.

We contacted the people who run the WMC and told them our idea, and even though their conference has been very successful without Freestyle, they did consider it and even offered us to join some of the already established panels. We had to decline for now, because the Awards were going to take up a lot of time and energy. next year the chances for us to re-start a Freestyle Panel looks really good. People who are not directly involved in the market really don't have a clue as to how much we have accomplished over the last few years, but that's cool, we have to just keep going, soon they will see.

We couldn't have picked a better time to hold our Freestyle Music Awards, and of course we couldn't have picked a better location. Who doesn't like to be in Florida? This year the WMC is expecting over 4,000 attendees from all over the world. Does anyone understand what that could do for the market? Freestyle is known throughout the world, from Japan to Germany, the UK to South America. The problem is, we have been out of sight, and therefore, out of mind.
In the last couple of years we have seen so many acts return to the scene. Concerts have been held all over the country and the fans are reawakening to a music that they thought was long gone.

To all those involved in Freestyle, from artist to fans, friends and foes, it very important that you make it a point to attend this important and historical event. The doors are open to everyone. it's time for all of us to wake up and for some of us to grow up and do what needs to be done for this market.

There is going to come a time when all Freestyle will be to us are a bunch of stories that we will tell out grandchildren. Let's not have any regrets, this will probably be one of the last chances we will have to do something positive for this market. We aren't getting any younger and the past has hurt many of us pretty bad. We have already obligated ourselves to this event for three years and hope to continue for many years after.

March 26th 2008 at the Miami-Dade Auditorium, come check out the Freestyle Music Awards, we'll be looking for you!