Music Council Schedules Industry Conversation

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Click To RSVP

“A Conversation with the Nashville Music Council” is scheduled for June 29, 4-5 p.m. at the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School, 1125 8th Ave. S.

The Nashville Music Council under the leadership of Mayor Karl Dean and Mary Ann McCready, of Flood, Bumstead, McCready and McCarthy, has been meeting for over a year. The purpose of the upcoming session is to hear from the music community, find out what issues are uppermost on their minds and inform the music community about the initiatives the Council has already undertaken. Industry executives expected to attend who serve on the Council include Rod Essig, Nancy Shapiro, Mark Montgomery, Tim DuBois and Janet Miller. Valet parking will be provided.

To RSVP, please email Molly Shehan at [email protected] by June 24. For questions please contact Honey Hopkins at 615-743-3079.

Voorhis Departs Skyline

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Chip Voorhis

“The past seven years have been incredible,” says Chip Voorhis who started Skyline Music with Paul Worley and Wally Wilson. “I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to build and accomplish. It was truly an honor to be able to work with the writers and artists, and enjoy such amazing music.”

Voorhis, who served as VP/GM, can be reached at 615-977-4727 or [email protected]

More Photos From Music Fest Week

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Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam, Josh Turner’s dance contest, Josh Thompson and more…

Marty Stuart’s (L) Late Night Jam at the Ryman Auditorium raised over $30K for MusiCares Nashville flood relief. His guests included Keith Urban (R), Vince Gill, Gene Watson and Stuart's band the Fabulous Superlatives.

Josh Turner hosted a dance contest at The Family Zone stage during CMA Music Fest. Winning first place were sister and brother Julie and Jedi Willis, from Ashland City, Tenn. Pictured (L-R), front to back: Julie and Jedi Willis, MCA Nashville’s V.P. of National Promotion Van Haze, Universal Music Group Nashville’s Sr. V.P. of National Promotion Royce Risser, Turner, and FOX’s Tennessee Mornings host Shane Tallant

Columbia Nashville's Josh Thompson performed a set of songs including his current single "Way Out Here," and his debut Top 20 "Beer On The Table," in front of a lively crowd at the CMA Music Fest River Stage on Thursday. Pictured (l-r) Renee Bell, EVP A&R Sony Music Nashville; Casey James, American Idol Season 9 Finalist; Thompson; Sheri Warnke, CMA VP/Strategic Partnerships.

Country artist Matt Gary took first place in the Andy Griggs Celebrity Poker Tournament at Cadillac Ranch on June 10. Sponsored by Digital Rodeo, winnings benefited charity organizations, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Middle Tennessee flood victims. Participants included Jeff Bates, Bo Bice, Due West, Chelsea Field, Buddy Jewell, O’Shea, The Roys, and more. Pictured (L-R): Matt Gary (1st place), Tuff Hedeman (2nd place) and Lucas Hoge (3rd place). Photo: Bev Moser.

Blake Shelton at the Nightly Concerts at LP Field. Photo: Alan Mayor

Darius Rucker at the Nightly Concerts at LP Field. Photo: Alan Mayor

Jason Meadows jams on a mini guitar before he signs it for a fan in the Waggin Train Booth at the Fan Fair® Hall at 2010 CMA Music Fest.

Sherrie Austin at the annual CMA Music Fest Parade, the official start to the CMA Music Festival.

Twitter Places Tweets Location

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Where are you? Where were you a few hours ago? Twitter users will find answers to these important questions when the social network rolls out its new Twitter Places functionality over the next week or so. “It helps to know where a Tweet is coming from,” says the Twitter blog. “Is that person watching the game on TV or is he actually in the stadium?”

Users will be able to tag tweets with specific places and create new Twitter Places. It will also be possible to search for recent tweets from a specific place. Naturally there will be API functionality to let programmers incorporate the new information streams into applications and widgets. Location-based social networks Gowalla and Foursquare will also be integrated into the mix.

Twitter expects to “roll out” Places in 65 countries over the coming week. Watch for an “Add your location” link below the Tweetbox to explore. Twitter devotees can follow @geo for updates about this new functionality which is expected to work with multiple browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Explorer.

BamaJam Attracts 300,000 Fans

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Dierks Bentley and the Grascals, Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images North America

Rodney Atkins at BamaJam, Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images North America

Bamajam 2010 organizers say the event was a success, drawing about 109,000 fans each day, for an aggregate gate count of 300,000 over three days.

Held June 3-5 in Enterprise, Alabama, The Verizon Wireless Bamajam Music and Arts Festival 2010 hosted a musical variety including Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band, Train, Rodney Atkins, Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Gregg Allman, and Buddy Guy.

Kenny Chesney, Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images North America

Early results show that the estimated economic impact from the festival is $6-8 million for Enterprise and the county. If nearby Dothan, AL is included, the economic impact rises to $10-11 million for restaurants, hotels, gas, air, stores, shops and labor employed for the festival. Every hotel in a 50 mile radius was booked. BamaJam created over 2,000 temporary jobs.

Fun Photos From Music Fest Week

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SunTrust hosts Hot Dog Day, Kellie Pickler plays LP Field, Miranda Lambert wins at the CMT Awards, and tons more.

SunTrust hosted its 12th annual Hot Dog Day last week at its Music Row branch. The bank served over 1,500 hot dogs to lunch guests. Pictured (L-R): Ed Theis, Andrew Kintz, Diane Pearson, Mandy Gallagher, Daniel Hill, Lori Badgett, Ryan Carrothers, Kyle Young, Marion Williams, Billy Lynn. In front: Mustard (Shellien), Hot Dog (Gray Williams), and Ketchup (Stephanie).

Kellie Pickler helped close out CMA Music Festival 2010 with a Sunday night performance at LP Field. Pictured backstage before the show with Sony Music executives. (L-R): Skip Bishop, VP Arista Nashville Promotion; Gary Overton, Sony Music Nashville CEO; Tom Baldrica, Sony Music VP Marketing; Pickler; Paul Barnabee, Sr. VP Finance and Operations; and Bryan Frasher, VP Promotion, BNA Records.

Republic Nashville’s The Band Perry attended their very first CMA Music Festival last week, performing on the Riverfront Stages Friday morning then delivering the national anthem at LP Field later that evening. Pictured post-performance at the riverfront (L-R): Republic Nashville’s Stacy Blythe, Kathleen Drosey and label president Jimmy Harnen, Reid Perry, Kimberly Perry, CEO of Big Machine Label Group Scott Borchetta, Neil Perry and Republic Nashville’s Megan Whalen.

Among the winners at the June 9 CMT Awards was Miranda Lambert, who took home her first trophy for Female Video of the Year for "White Liar." Pictured (L-R): Manager Marion Kraft; Miranda Lambert; Brian Philips, President, CMT; Joe Galante, former Sony Music Nashville CEO. Photo: Krista Lee

Pictured at the Billboard Country Music Summit (L-R): Time Life Indie Radio Regional Adelle Borchetta, Time Life/Saguaro Road Records artist Bo Bice, and Time Life Indie Radio Manager Mike Borchetta.

Jett Williams made the radio rounds at Music Row Live! during CMA Music Fest in support of her dad’s box set on Time Life, Hank Williams Complete Mother Best Recordings….Plus!. During interviews, Williams got a chance to catch up with friend Aaron Tippin.

A Google iTunes Entry?

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Apple’s iTunes store has a comfortable lock on music sales. According to NPD Group’s recent May 2010 report, the online Cupertino-based retailer now accounts for 70% of the digital music market and around 28% of all music purchased during the first quarter of 2010. For a company to successfully challenge Apple’s dominant position it would have to be extremely large, say as big as Google. And according to CNET.com, that is exactly what could be happening, as soon as this fall.

According to insiders, Google’s new service would offer both downloads and streaming music. An obvious tie-in is the search giant’s Android mobile operating system which has been rapidly gaining market share. Unlike the iPhone, Android OS is available on a wide variety of phones from a wide variety of carriers.

Reportedly, Google met with leaders from the four major record labels during the Consumer Electronics Show last January to discuss features that a possible service might offer. Techcrunch.com reported several weeks ago it found a “Google Music” logo hosted on Google’s domain.

Reportedly, labels would welcome a strong iTunes challenger to give them a stronger negotiating position in the marketplace. Amazon and MySpace have not been able to significantly weaken Apple’s dominance. Google recently purchased Simplify Media a sreaming, cloud-based service. iTunes bought LaLa last year, a similar company. Clearly all parties are working to launch some kind of cloud based streaming offering.

Garth Adds Vegas Dates

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Garth Brooks’ ongoing concert series at the Wynn Las Vegas has drawn sold-out crowds and rave reviews. Now he has revealed the next set of dates, with shows scheduled through November.

Tickets for the upcoming series will go on sale Saturday, June 19 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets are available exclusively at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-877-65-GARTH. Tickets are $125 plus fees and tax.

Concert Dates:
September 10, 11, 12
October 1, 2, 3
October 22, 23, 24
November 5, 6, 7
November 19, 20, 21

Concert times:
Fridays 8 p.m., Saturdays 8 p.m. & 10:30 p.m., Sundays 8 p.m.

Nashville Artists Well Represented at Teens Choice

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The Teen Choice Awards will be presented on Aug. 9 on Fox. One of the main draws of the show is its numerous awards where fans pick the winners. The categories cover TV, Movies, Music, Comedy and Sports. Today (6/14), the voting begins for fans age 13-19.

Gloriana—(L-R) Cheyenne Kimball, Rachel Reinert, Tom and Mike Gossin.

Nashville artists are represented in numerous categories including Taylor and Miley Cyrus in the Female Artist division and Swift also gets a nod in the Female Country Artist list. Kings of Leon and Paramore got recognized for Rock Group, and the complete list of country artists nominated for the country Teen Choice trophies are listed below.

“We are just so blown away and excited by this nomination for a Teen Choice Award,” said Gloriana’s Cheyenne Kimball, who is in the running for Country Group. “It’s amazing to be recognized, especially by all the teens who have shown us so much support and continue to show us support – this is just such an honor – thank you!!”

Winners receive mini size surfboard trophies.

Choice Music: Female Artist
Miley Cyrus, 
Ke$ha
, Lady Gaga
, Shakira
, Taylor Swift

Choice Music: Rock Group
Kings of Leon
, MGMT
, Muse, 
Paramore, 
Train

Choice Music: Male Country Artist
Luke Bryan
, Kenny Chesney, 
Brad Paisley
, Darius Rucker
, Keith Urban,

Choice Music: Female Country Artist
Miranda Lambert, 
Martina McBride, 
Taylor Swift, 
Carrie Underwood
, Gretchen Wilson

Choice Music: Country Group
Gloriana
, Lady Antebellum
, Rascal Flatts
, Sugarland, 
Zac Brown Band

Festival Attendance Booms, Up 16 Percent

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Fans at the Nightly Concerts at LP Field in Downtown Nashville during the 2010 CMA Music Festival. Photo: Donn Jones / CMA

CMA Music Festival attendance hit an all-time high this year. Each night at LP Field was a complete sell-out, with average nightly attendance topping 49,000, for an increase of 16.7 percent over last year. This tally includes four-day ticket packages, promotional and single night tickets. 
In all, 37 artists participated in the 40 hours of star-packed Nightly Concerts at LP Field.

Estimated daily attendance throughout the Festival in 2010 was 65,000 compared to 56,000 in 2009. The increase was felt in the free zones, public events, and concert venues, including Riverfront Park, which experienced a daily increase of 6.4 percent over 2009, when the area was opened to the public for the first time.

When the final counts were tallied, there was a 33.3 percent increase in the sale of four-day ticket packages, which resulted in a decline in the sale of single night tickets.

“After all we have been through, and all the hard work everyone contributed to getting the venues and businesses ready for our fans, this is a huge win for everyone who cares about Music City,” said Steve Moore, Chairman of the CMA Board of Directors. “This community needed a big win and we got it.”

According to the NCVB, the direct visitor spending generated by CMA Music Festival in 2009 was $22 million. Figures for 2010 are expected to be even higher and will be released by the NCVB at a later date.
 
Businesses in Downtown Nashville that suffered catastrophic flooding were motivated to jump-start their recovery by re-opening in time for CMA Music Festival.

CMA will donate half the net proceeds from the event to music education through a partnership with the Nashville Alliance for Public Education called “Keep the Music Playing,” and the remaining half to flood relief via The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Festival partners including the ABC Television Network, Chevy, and Manwich also stepped up with flood relief donations.

Fans enjoy the activities, free samples and giveaways in the Fun Zone on Saturday, June 12. Photo: Donn Jones

“The Sixth Annual CMA Music Festival Kick-Off Parade” drew an estimated 14,000 cheering spectators. Following the procession, the fun kicked into high gear with “The Fifth Annual CMA Music Festival Block Party” on the Chevy Music Stage at the Bridgestone Arena Plaza before an estimated crowd of more than 7,000.

The Greased Lightning® Fan Fair® Hall at the Nashville Convention Center drew appearances by 253 artists and celebrities. Exhibit booths sold out in record time. Attendance over the four days was 55,385 – an increase of 4.25 percent from 2009’s high of 53,000. Highlights included visits from Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, The Judds, Kix Brooks and Taylor Swift.

New digital applications were a big success. More than 4,500 fans downloaded the new CMA Music Festival iPhone app; more than 7,000 created their own custom schedule of Festival events via the Web site; digital promotions added more than 34,900 subscriptions to the CMA, Chevy, GAC, and Jason Aldean mobs; and more than 54,000 texts were sent to the jumbo screens at LP Field.

According to Music City Merchandise, which designs and produces the Festival’s merch collection, the event experienced record merch sales in 2010, up 10 percent over sales in 2009.

The Festival was filmed for a three-hour television special “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” hosted by Tim McGraw and scheduled to air Wednesday, Sept. 1 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on ABC. Robert Deaton is the Executive Producer. Gary Halvorson is the Director.

2011 CMA Music Festival will take place Thursday through Sunday, June 9-12, in downtown Nashville.

The Riverfront stage. Photo: Donn Jones