Over 20 Years of Heavy Rotation As Jeff Dorenfeld prepares to retire, we celebrate decades of his contributions to artist development through Heavy Rotation Records and the Berklee Popular Music Institute.
By
Bryan Parys
May 4, 2022
When Jeff Dorenfeld first arrived in 1996 as a faculty member in the Music Business/Management Department, he quickly founded the student-run label Heavy Rotation Records (HRR) in an unprecedented partnership with Epic/Sony Records. After that initial deal with Sony ended, Dorenfeld and his students used HRR as a way to release compilation albums they dubbed Dorm Sessions.
I didn't want to hear what students were performing in their classes; I wanted what they were creating in their dorm rooms, Dorenfeld said of the compilations genesis.
Jeff Dorenfeld
Dorenfelds idea was to give both business students and artists the chance to develop their careers, and thats exactly what hes done for over 20 years. It didnt take long for the concept to prove successful. Within the first few years, the labels output featured Annie Clark, the duo Nini & Ben, and rock band the Peasantry. Soon after their appearances on Heavy Rotation releases, those artists would go on to find worldwide acclaim, albeit under the names St. Vincent, HAERTS, and Passion Pit, respectively.
Once music streaming overtook physical album sales, Dorenfeld quickly shifted focus to the live music industry and founded the Berklee Popular Music Institute (BPMI), where he organized performance slots for Berklee artists at major summer music festivals. It was Dorm Sessions, but now it was live at Lollapalooza, Essence, Outside Lands, Osheaga, Governors Ball, and many others, Dorenfeld said. Live music was my first love, and I guess live music is going to be my final hurrah at Berklee as I retire on May 31.
I didn't want to hear what students were performing in their classes; I wanted what they were creating in their dorm rooms.
- Jeff Dorenfeld
Dorenfelds legacy is more than the number of careers he helped launch for his many students. The transformation of HRR to BPMI is also its own master class in how a career in the music industry should operate-with flexibility, ingenuity, and creativity, all fueled by passion.
In the following playlist, you can listen to some of the artists that Dorenfeld has helped develop during his time at Berklee. He said that if I look back at all the artists I worked with from HRR and BPMI, it's in the hundreds. So, while this list is far from exhaustive, it serves as a partial testament to Dorenfelds enduring contributions to Berklee, his students, and the music world at large. After all, how many students can say they played Lollapalooza before graduation? Whatever the number, its safe to say most of them have Jeff Dorenfeld to thank.
Related Categories
Playlists
Most Popular
Emilia Jones and Eugenio Derbez in CODA
Image courtesy of Apple TV+
CODA Wins Big at the 2022 Oscars The Berklee-connected film won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Latest
Over 20 Years of Heavy Rotation As Jeff Dorenfeld prepares to retire, we celebrate decades of his contributions to artist development through Heavy Rotation Records and the Berklee Popular Music Institute.
Francesca Remigi M.M. '21
Image courtesy of the artist
Can Jazz Provide a Window into the Mind and Help Us Heal? The Human Web by Francesca Remigi M.M. '21 explores complex issues of technology, mental health, trauma, and recovery through intricate arrangements and choreography.
Julian Wilson
Image courtesy of the artist
Aprils Two Track Series Explores the Theme of Renewal The YouTube series features Berklee students performing original music in an intimate setting.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Over 20 Years of Heavy Rotation As Jeff Dorenfeld prepares to retire, we celebrate decades of his contributions to artist development through Heavy Rotation Records and the Berklee Popular Music Institute.
