Music Awards Show Begins Accepting Nominations and Votes for Indie Artists

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Tampa, FL (Billboard Publicity Wire) March 7, 2008 -- Officials have announced nominations are now being accepted for the 2008 Tampa Music Awards (TMA's). Text Voting also begins today. Nominations can come from fans or the artists themselves. Nominations are made online via the website or at select retail locations. Details can be found on the event's official website at http://www.TampaMusicAwards.com.

Each nominee is assigned a unique code that voters are asked to send via text message to 839863 (TEXTME). Votes sent from cell phones with major wireless carriers will count toward pushing nominees into finals. Only one vote per category, per phone number will count, however, artists are allowed to vote for themselves. SMS voting services are provided by Interactive Mediums, LLC, one of the event's official sponsors.

"We wanted to kick it up a notch by utilizing current technology," said Maurice 'Hot City' Evans, the event's executive producer. "The addition of SMS text message voting, puts us on the cutting edge of the Tampa Music Scene."

The Tampa Music Awards Web site will list artists as they get nominated for their respective categories. The site, which says it gets approximately 100,000 hits per month, gives independent artists a free blog to promote themselves and their music. Nominees are encouraged to solicit votes with their own promotions and are also given banners which they to put on their Myspace or other Internet sites.

The 2008 Tampa Music Awards will be held on November 13, 2008 at 7 p.m. at the Kapok Pavilion Special Events Center (http://www.KapokSpecialEvents.com) in Clearwater, FL. The TMA's recognize creativity in seven major genres of music: Rock, Country, R&B, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Christian and Latin.

Hosted by prominent local and national celebrities, the TMAs will be simulcast live via the Internet, have American Idol-style SMS text voting and will be rebroadcast on the CW Network in Tampa. The Awards are a star-studded evening of entertainment celebrating Tampa Bay's thriving music community and the unique and inspiring talent of individual artists. Organizers are expecting over 1000 people to attend.

This year's awards will also include a Music Conference featuring top music business professionals the day prior to the awards. "I believe this is Tampa Bay's biggest music business conference. It's been a long time since this many top (music) industry professionals have come to Tampa to network at a music conference," said Evans. "Artists of any-styled music will get to shake hands with the very people who can make deals happen for them."

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 several dozen more top A&R's, mangers, agents, producers and attorney's listed on their website.

To be eligible to receive an award:

More Than Half the members of a group must reside in an eligible Tampa Bay County. Eligible Counties are: Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Polk, Hernando, Manatee, Citrus and Sarasota. The exception is those that have been signed to a Major Label and were moved, but publicly state "Tampa Bay" as their "hometown". Examples would be Brooke Hogan or 2 Pistols.

Award nominations and voting begins at Midnight on Friday, March 7, 2008. The music conference starts at 10:30am on Wednesday, November 12, 2008. The music awards have its red carpet opening at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 13, 2008.

Ticketing and updated information on the music conference and the music awards ceremony can be found at the Web site at 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.

About Interactive Mediums, LLC

Interactive Mediums (developers of TextMeforBusiness.com) provides the platform and tools necessary to create and execute successful text message mobile marketing campaigns. From simple out-of-the-box campaigns to complex custom solutions -- our unrivaled know-how will enable you to create targeted text message mobile campaigns and get them to market quickly.

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