Media Five Entertainment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Media Five Entertainment is a artist development, management and talent agency assisting the careers of musicians in the music industry, originally founded in Easton, Pennsylvania and now operating out of nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In addition to regional headliners, the agency has worked with some of the biggest names in music over the past 20 years.

1 History
2 Worldwide Success
3 Billy Joel
4 Current operations
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

Media Five was founded in 1970 by David Sestak, a musician and artist, and was initially created as a booking agency, however the agency soon became notable for representing and managing Pennsylvania area bands such as Live, Fuel, and Breaking Benjamin, which have sold a combined 20 million albums worldwide. Other notable bands include The Collective, Solution AD, and The Badlees. Early on, the agency formed under the name of Extensions of Man Concerts and promoted hundreds of shows headlining such artists as Aerosmith, Billy Joel, and Kiss. ^[1]

[edit] Worldwide Success

In 1990, Media Five further expanded to create an artist management division, striving to nurture local bands from the ground up and guide them through recording, album releases, radio promotion, marketing campaigns and touring, in particular with the bands Live and Fuel. Sestak gets credit for bringing Live, once just a local band from York, Pennsylvania, to super-stardom in the mid 1990's with their breakout sophmore album, Throwing Copper fueled by the #1 hit single, Lightning Crashes. Sestak was the band's general manager until mid 2000, and is thanked first in the liner notes of Live's first four major label albums, Mental Jewelry, Throwing Copper, Secret Samadhi, and The Distance To Here. In 2000, Sestak also played a vital role in the success of Fuel, another Pennsylvania band with the top 20 album Something Like Human until singer Brett Scallions left the band in 2006. In his spare time, Sestak is also an established photographer and painter. ^[2] ^[3]

[edit] Billy Joel

Media Five played an interesting role in the career of Billy Joel. In particular, all but one performance by Joel in the Lehigh Valley area was put together by David Sestak himself which created a bond between Joel and local residents that continues to this day. Joel’s familiarity with the area undoubtedly inspired the naming of one of his best-known songs, Allentown,” which was released in 1982. In December 2007, continued interest of Joel's music in the Allentown-Bethlehem area led Sestak to persuade local music director Bruce Bond to start a petition drive asking Joel to play in Allentown, which was eventually signed by more than 10,000 people. When Joel’s fall tour was announced there was no Allentown date, however Sestak had been collecting news clippings and sending them to Joel’s publicist, Elaine Shock, who apparently passed them on to Joel. Joel personally phoned radio station 95.1 WZZO FM to discuss, and on December 27, 2007, Joel performed for 6,300 people at Lehigh University’s Stabler Arena. “Everyone was there,” said Sestak. “Billy Joel finally played `Allentown', in Bethlehem.” ^[4]

[edit] Current operations

Media Five Entertainment currently represents and books nearly 40 original and cover bands in the eastern United States. Recently New Jersey native singer-songwriter Laura Warshauer, who has a debut album set for release this year with Island Records, was signed also. ^[5] Sestak also chaired the "Managers, Agents and Promoters" panel this past February at Pennsylvania's annual Millennium Music Conference, which for the past 12 years has become one of the premier music events on the East Coast. ^[6]

Notable artists that Media Five Entertainment have represented include Live (band), Fuel (band) and Breaking Benjamin.