• by December 7, 2005

Last night, AOL and Warner Music Group shot the final episode of "The Biz," their jointly-produced episodic Web-based reality series, and revealed the winner of the competition for "the best job in the music business."

The original series, a first for AOL, screened nine music industry hopefuls who competed "Apprentice"-style for the privilege of running their own music label via Warner. The series is being watched closely as a harbinger of original programming models for the Web. The weeks-long competition was down to two very talented and precocious individuals, Yancey and Greg, and we don't mind saying AOL put on a lively party at Aspen on W. 22nd St. to choose and fete the winner.

The party planners, including the beautiful and exceedingly organized Ann Junod Burkart of AOL's media team, Louise Bashi from RLM for AOL, and many others unknown to this here Minute, staged a mini red carpet with multiple photogs, journalists/bloggers, videographers, and of course, smokin' hot music industry people. You know, from the label. MediaPost's own effervescent, yet serenely calm, Jennifer Coleman put it best when she said the beautiful boy quotient was "higher than normal" last night.

Getting back to Da Biz, the event drew a convivial group of AOL execs who have an enormous amount of emotional capital invested in the series; it is, after all, a blueprint for what the company plans to deliver more frequently in 2006--engaging, original, and most of all, interactive programming.

Among the AOL partiers: Scott Schiller, Jordan Kurzweil, Michael Wolfson, Mark Weinberg (flanked by someone special), Bill Wilson, (wide-eyed and enthusiastic as usual), and still others who we couldn't quite put face and name to. The stalwart, hard-working, and polite Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks, and the imposing Lyor Cohen, chairman and CEO of U.S. Recorded Music for Warner Music Group, were there to do the honors. Both served as executive producers on "The Biz," which they helped conceive and develop. Cohen took on the Trump "Apprentice" role during the series.

Original programming wunderkind Wolfson tells us that there were some 9,000 videotapes submitted by music industry wannabes for "The Biz," many of which appeared professionally produced.

On a side note, Aspen outdid itself with the snacks last night--we all devoured the scrumptious fish tacos and mini-burgers. We think those AOLers know a thing or two about how to throw a party. A few celebs stopped by, too: Rapper TI, supermodel Petra Nemcova, who was injured in the tsunami last year, singer/songwriter James Blunt, Andy Hilfiger (brother of Tommy), and up-and-coming fashion designer Kevin Johnn, who's making his presence known on 7th Ave.

Now, the Minute has a confession: She didn't actually stay for the live taping! Damn. But, pssssst: word on the street is that Greg won. Tune in on Friday to www.thebiz.com to catch all the gory details. This guy's life is going to change forever!

On the site, the 23-year-old describes himself as the "Jerry Maguire of the music business," having started his own management company in 2002. Interestingly, he tried two years ago to get a meeting with Lyor Cohen. He loves rap and hip-hop and watched MTV every day after kindergarten.