NEW YORK -- ArtistDirect Records has tapped promo vet Michael Whited as senior VP promotion, based in Los Angeles and reporting to chief exec Ted Field.
Exec, who spent more than a decade in the promotion department at Warner Music imprint Elektra Records, will oversee promotion for all of the musical genres that ArtistDirect services, including pop, crossover, alternative, rock and college.
Among the exec's first projects will be the latest single by hip-hop duo Smilez & Southstar, "Tell Me." He'll also be working rapper Stagga Lee's new track, "Roll Wit M.V.P."
Whited signed on at ArtistDirect in January 2002 as VP of pop and crossover promotion, under then-exec VP Marc Benesch. Benesch, 50, died earlier this year after a battle with cancer.
Before that, Whited spent 11 years at Elektra, starting as a regional promo man in Cincinnati and working his way up to VP of West Coast promotion. Exec also did a stint as VP of promotion at hip-hop imprint Priority Records, working on projects for such acts as Snoop Dogg and Master P.
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