2021. The year that we were all supposed to be back to normal. It’s also the year that just sort of became Diet 2020. But, as we all slowly came out of hiding, the creative types unveiled what they had been up to during quarantine. Music continued to push forward and shift despite minimal touring and virtual album promotion. Ways to reach the audience continued to evolve while that same audience spent more time than ever discovering new artists and music.

The word “breakthrough” can mean a lot of things. We hear that word now more than ever before with breakthrough vaccines, breakthrough variants and breakthrough cases. We’ve always heard of breakthrough artists who shot into fame with a singular project or song. It can also mean to advance or take a step forward which is exactly what these ten songs did for the pop format in 2021.

This week the Lakeside Entertainment Group blog features Kyd Money, discussing his latest release ‘Thankful’ and the power of positivity through challenging times.

Less than a month after pop singer/songwriter Mads Langer released his latest album, “Where Oceans Meet,” two tracks have already surpassed one million streams on Spotify: “Monsters in My Mind” with more than 3 million streams and the pop gem “Hanging With You” topping 1.3 million streams. At the same time, the album’s official single, “Lightning,” debuted at #35 on Billboard magazine’s Top 40 Indicator Chart.

This week we talk to Mads Langer about the songwriting and creation process of his new album, Where Oceans Meet, a collection of beautifully delicate pop songs about the dark and the light, love and hope, “Where Oceans Meet” was produced by Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Eg White (Adele, Florence and the Machine, P!nk, Sam Smith) and features songs co-written by Evan Kidd Bogart (Rihanna, Beyonce, Lizzo), including both “Lightning” and “Hanging With You.”

Will Tenney is a music industry executive, entrepreneur, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Currently, as Head of Streaming Strategy & Promotion at Crush Music, he oversees campaigns for Lorde, Sia, Panic! At the Disco, Lennon Stella, and Green Day, among other artists. Tenney is also the co-founder of SunPop Music – an NYC-based record label and management consulting company.

In this feature Will shares his insights on streaming, offers valuable advice for developing artists, takes us through his journey in the music business, and much more!

Nashville-based sisters Caitlin and Sid combine modern alternative pop rock and electronic. Better known as NEONI, they have spent the past 2 years building an extensive catalog and accumulating over 50 million streams on Spotify. Neoni released their explosive new single “MACHINE” on June 18th off their debut EP ‘Wars In A Wonderland’ (out August 20th). They’ve been featured on some of today’s top Spotify editorials like SALT, Rocktronic, Alternative Beats, Friday Cratediggers, ALL New Rock and Alternative Generation, as well as on some of YouTube’s largest independent music channels including CloudKid, Trap Nation, Trap City, MrSuicideSheep and xKito.

This week the Lakeside Entertainment Group blog talks with Neoni about their biggest challenges, future plans, and more.

Founded in 2013, CloudKid launched as a YouTube channel for music discovery that focused on unique curation with a more artistic and visual focus. Now with over 2.1 billion total views on their channel, 5 million loyal subscribers, and 60 million average monthly views, CloudKid is a proven brand online and has built a valuable platform for developing artists within the electronic influenced alt-pop and rocktronic sphere. The company has now evolved into a full-service independent label headquartered in Berlin, with an international presence around the world.

This week the Lakeside Entertainment Group blog shares an interview with CloudKid’s COO & Head of Label, Yiannis Karavassilis.

Aisha Noel is a multi- talented singer, songwriter and musician. Born in the twin island of Trinidad and Tobago, she is emerging as one of the hottest new voices on the local music scene. She describes her music as Pop Soca - a fusion of Soca, Pop and Caribbean sounds. The artist welcomes innovation and brings a contemporary sound to traditional Soca music.

This week the Lakeside Entertainment Group blog talks with Aisha about her musical influences, future plans, and latest release “Sign Your Name.”

LAWRENCE, an eight-piece soul-pop band led by sibling duo Clyde & Gracie is back with a 2021 anthem that will instantly lift your spirits. "Don't Lose Sight", out now, is a song about perseverance and determination; in it, the band preaches the importance of staying strong and ignoring the haters. Co-produced by Jon Bellion & Jorgen Odegard and written by the band, the single is filled with high-energy vocals and explosive melodies that will make you want to stand up and dance.

In this feature Lawrence talks to Lakeside Entertainment Group about their journey, what it’s like to work with Jon Bellion, and their message of perseverance and optimism behind their newest single, “Don’t Lose Sight.”

Bedford New Canaan Magazine features Lakeside Productions this month in their May/June issue and on their blog online!

In this interview Lakeside Productions Founder, Dan Pearson, shares his journey through the record and entertainment business, discusses how Covid-19 has had an impact on the industry, and reveals the new and exciting ways his team is planning on producing events of all kinds as we transition to a post pandemic era.

Celebrations and private affairs of all kinds were forced to a halt last year as the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the vaccine rollout is kicking in and the warmer weather is upon us, it’s time to consider rescheduling that postponed event, throwing a birthday party for your kids, celebrating graduation, or planing a socially distant gathering.

Read more about hosting events and celebrating safely in 2021 from Lakeside Productions as featured in Westchester NY Moms here.

Snub: verb meaning rebuff, ignore or spurn disdainfully.

The 63rd Grammys are right around the corner and this year is going to be the biggest one yet (according the 4,389 promos currently running on CBS). Music’s biggest night has a common theme: the glitz, the glamour, the snubs.

This year was no exception. The very second the nominations were virtually announced, the snub debate started. The Weeknd had the single biggest song and album on the planet in 2020. That earned him exactly zero nominations causing him to tweet “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency...”.

The Weeknd has won three Grammys in the past, however there are plenty of HUGE artists that have zero. So, as we ramp up to this year’s awards, we figured we’d take a look at the ten biggest artists’ who were rebuffed, ignored and spurned disdainfully.

Inspired by music icons James Taylor, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, American singer-songwriter and pop-pianist BRENDAN JAMES has checked off some major career milestones over the past 2 decades. In this interview he sits down to speak with us about the art of story-telling, the balance between being a devoted parent and touring artist, the pros and cons to being signed to a major label, his journey around the world (pre-covid), and much more.

Lakeside Entertainment Group is proud to support the Ryan Seacrest Foundation and has had the opportunity to see the positive impact of their work first-hand over the past ten years. This week we had the privilege to speak with Meredith Seacrest Leach, the Ryan Seacrest Foundation Executive Director & COO and driving force behind the conception and development of the foundation since its inception in 2009. In her current role, Meredith manages and cultivates relationships with key partners and donors in entertainment, healthcare, education and technology, while strategizing financial campaigns and programs to help continuously advance the organization.

HARIZ is an LA based singer, songwriter and instrumentalist. Pronounced “huh-reez”, the 23 year old touts clever lyricism, uplifting energy and dynamic delivery which has led to millions of streams and a deep connection with his passionate fan base.

We sat down with HARIZ and asked him 10 high quality questions! We got his advice for breaking into the industry, the impact of COVID on the music biz and the first time he heard himself on the radio!

Check out HARIZ wherever you get your music!

Eric Tyler has spent his career programming major radio stations and entertaining millions of listeners across the country on stations including B96 Chicago, KBKS Seattle, and WNKS Charlotte to name a few. He is one of the most highly respected radio personalities, programmers, and content creators in the business and we are lucky now to have him as part of the Lakeside Family. In this piece you’ll find out how Eric went from being on-air full time to on the road full time, and living in a van with his wife and dog down by the river!

Let us introduce you to Young Borra, an insanely talented independent artist from NYC. He gives us the run down on his family’s musical background, his start in the music biz and the current state of affairs in the music industry.

He also runs “Artists Anonymous”, a networking group of independent music artists. They Zoom meet weekly to exchange ideas and share thoughts in a time when the whole music industry has been flipped upside down due to COVID. He shares his thoughts on the struggle of independent artists pre-pandemic and how those challenges have changed in 2020.

Lakeside Entertainment Group's founder, Dan Pearson, is the featured guest this week on Lennon Cihak's podcast, When Life Hands You Lennon's, tune in to hear Pearson’s perspective on radio promotion campaigns, social media, live streaming, and more during these trying times.

https://bit.ly/2YVqzeY

Even if you don’t know Dangerous Hippies, you know Dangerous Hippies! Cody Hanson and Marshal Dutton are 2/5th of the multi-platinum group Hinder. The duo have written and produced dozens of rock, alt, country and indie projects. Now, they have a new project that was conceived in their basement in 2011: Dangerous Hippies.

Danny Cocke is an LA based composer, artist, sound designer and maker of all things music. You’ve heard his work on video games, movies and much more! His list of credits are impressive: Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege, Tencent’s ARK Survival Evolved, ALIEN Harvest, Shadow, The Prototype, and Ridley Scott’s Martian “Ares Startalk” short film.

Danny's life and career are both interesting and inspirational. He talks openly about his cancer diagnosis, beating the disease, helping other cancer patients and what it all meant to his music career. He also discusses the challenges of doing what he does during a global pandemic and what’s next for him as slowly get back to normal.

Here are nine questions we threw at Danny (from more than six feet away while wearing a mask)!

Lakeside Entertainment Group Founder, Dan Pearson was a recent guest on William Patterson University's highly regarded Radio Show & Podcast Music Biz 101.

Listen to how Pearson broke into the business, what his first day at Columbia Records as an intern was like, advice for young people starting out today, and much more!

To listen to the full interview click here https://bit.ly/2Cl8rmn