Industry Ink: BNA Signs Tyler Farr

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Farr Joins Sony Nashville
Singer-songwriter Tyler Farr has signed a recording contract with BNA Records. The Missouri native is in the studio working on his debut album.

(L-R): Gary Overton (Sony Music Nashville Chairman & CEO), Tyler Farr, and Jim Catino (Sony Nashville VP A&R).


Warner Buyer Eyeing EMI?
Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik agreed to a $3.3 billion purchase of Warner Music Group last week, and now has his eye on EMI according to the New York Post. Citigroup is prepping EMI for sale after repossessing it from Guy Hands’ Terra Firma in February. The auction was expected to launch in May, following the Warner auction.
Voorhis Adds Clients Grand and Gee
Grand and Gee Music Publishing has signed on with Chip Voorhis’ Voorhis Consulting for business management and bookkeeping services. Voorhis Consulting is an independent firm specializing in financial services for music publishers, songwriters, engineers and studios. Grand and Gee is enjoying the success of the current Chris Young hit “Tomorrow.” Voorhis may be reached at 615-977-4727 or [email protected].
CMA Songwriters Series Adds Second Night
Due to the popularity of the CMA Songwriters Series, the engagement will return to Joe’s Pub in New York for a two night run, June 21-22 with two shows per night. Easton Corbin will be the featured artist/songwriter on June 21 and Clay Walker will be featured on June 22. Performing both nights will be Carson Chamberlain, Mark D. Sanders, and host Bob DiPiero. Details here.
Naxos Purchases Altissimo!
The Naxos Group is proud to announce that American military music label Altissimo! Recordings has joined their roster. The Naxos Group has purchased Altissimo! and Naxos of America will begin physical distribution of the label in North America on June 1, 2011.
TCN Adds Five Stations
The Country Network (TCN), a country music video television network located on Music Row in Nashville, TN, is now broadcasting on Newport Television stations in Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Fresno, Wichita, and Little Rock.
ACM’s Award-Winning Program Book
The Academy of Country Music has been named the winner of the prestigious 2011 Maggie Award for “Best Annuals & Custom Publication/Trade & Consumer” by the Western Publishing Association, an honor bestowed specifically for the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards program book.

Cloud-Based Chromebook For Rent

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Google never sleeps. After announcing a new cloud-based music locker service earlier this week, the search giant has now revealed plans to offer an ultra cheap laptop based on its Chrome operating system as soon as June 15. The new device can be rented by students for just $20, or others at $28 month. The new “Chromebooks” will be manufactured by Acer and Samsung.
Features include an 8 second boot time, built in Wi-Fi and 3G wireless. 3G models will include 100 MB per month of free mobile data from Verizon. What makes the Chromebook unique is that it contains no apps or storage, all functions are performed in the cloud. An advantage is that the Chromebook can be shared among various users. Each user simply logs in to access their own data and files. Due to cloud based operating system all apps stay up to date automatically.
One drawback to the device is that its functionality is dependent upon having an online connection. As Google warns, “Obviously, you’re going to need a wireless network, be willing to use it subject to the provider’s terms and conditions, and be ready to put up with its real life limitations including, for example, its speed and availability. When you do not have network access, functionality that depends on it will not be available.”
Click the video below to learn more…

Zac Brown Launches Southern Ground Artists

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Country music’s most prolific Renaissance man is at it again.
Zac Brown has been using the Southern Ground Records moniker for a couple of years, and today announced the label’s official launch.
Southern Ground Artists, Inc. is home to Sonia Leigh, The Wood Brothers, Blackberry Smoke, Levi Lowrey and Nic Cowan. It is being distributed by RED.
The label previously released a compilation album including tracks from ZBB, and Southern Ground Artists as part of the “Letters for Lyrics” campaign. Fans who wrote letters to American service members received the free disc.
Brown’s label is dedicated to shining a spotlight on some of Georgia’s brightest rising stars. “I’d like to think there’s a movement coming out of Atlanta that’s like [Memphis-based soul label] Stax was, back in the ’60s,” he told The Tennessean. “The Wood Brothers are one of the best live bands you’ll ever see, and we just got Sonia Leigh’s record finished, and I’m super proud of it. There’s Blackberry Smoke coming onboard, and Nic Cowan and Levi Lowrey, and all the people that love our music will love their music, too, I feel confident.”

Sonia Leigh


“My Name is Money,” the lead single from Sonia Leigh’s debut effort is headed to country radio soon. It is from her album 1978 December, due out in September.
The Wood Brothers will release Smoke Ring Halo on August 2 and are taking the lead single “Shoofly Pie” to AAA stations.
Country and Southern Rock quintet Blackberry Smoke are performing 20 + dates with Zac Brown Band this summer and will also begin work on a new album.
Set for release this summer are albums by Levi Lowrey, co-writer of ZBB’s No. 1 hit “Colder Weather,” and pop songsmith Nic Cowan. Hear select tracks at SouthernGroundArtists.com.
Starting a record label is the latest development in Brown’s ever expanding enterprise.

Grammy Block Party Pics

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The 13th Annual Nashville Chapter GRAMMY Block Party was held Tuesday night (5/10) at Owen Bradley Park on Music Row.
The diverse talent line-up – all members of the Nashville Chapter – entertained a big crowd with jazz, country, contemporary Christian, bluegrass and Americana tunes. Performers included Laura Bell Bundy, The Civil Wars, Denny Jiosa, Jerrod Niemann, Old Crow Medicine Show, Royal Tailor and Chancellor Warhol. The private event is for Recording Academy members and is always one of the biggest industry mingle-fests of the year.

(L-R): Jarrod Ingram/Royal Tailor, DJ Cox/Royal Tailor, Tauren Wells/Royal Tailor, John Paul White and Joy Williams of The Civil Wars, Laura Bell Bundy and Blake Hubbard/Royal Tailor.


(L-R): Allen Brown, Sony Music Nashville; Jerrod Niemann; Daniel Hill, The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter president; and Fletcher Foster, Nashville Chapter trustee.


 

Colt Ford Has Career-High Debut Week

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Colt Ford scored the highest first-week sales of his career when Every Chance I Get entered the Billboard Country Albums chart at No. 3, making it the highest Country debut of the week. The release by Average Joe’s sold 19,145 units, including 21% digital.
Ford’s third studio project was co-produced by Shannon Houchins and Jayson Chance, and features the current single “Country Thang.” Guests on the album include Tim McGraw, Eric Church, Luke Bryan, and Charlie Daniels.
Ford’s collective paid digital downloads are now well over 1 million units. Across all titles, Ford’s albums have sold over 500,000 copies.
Average Joe’s currently has five titles residing in the Billboard Top 75 including Ford’s Every Chance I Get and Chicken And Biscuits, Brantley Gilbert’s Halfway To Heaven, Mud Digger (Various Artists), and The Lac’s Country Boy’s Paradise.

Colt Ford recently performed to a sold-out audience at The Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan and was joined onstage by Kid Rock to perform Rock's tune "All Summer Long" and Bob Seger's "Mainstreet." Photo: Jeff Mintline, MINTYPICS

Memorial Service Today For WSM Radio's "Johnny K"

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John Koval


Funeral services will be held today [Thursday, May 12] for Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame member John Koval.
Known professionally as “Johnny K,” the longtime WSM DJ died from complications of cancer on May 6 at the age of 77. He was a radio broadcast personality for more than 50 years. In addition to his tenure at WSM, he was also known locally for broadcasting on Madison’s WENO.
He was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 2005.
His memorial service is scheduled for 7:00 PM this evening at the White House First United Methodist Church. Visitation will be at the church from 5:30-7:00.
He is survived by his wife Betty June, two sons Mark and Joseph, daughter Mary, brothers Casmir and Tom and sisters Becky, Pat and Stephanie, plus four grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Luke Bryan Reveals New Album

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Luke Bryan used the power of social media to announce his new album Tailgates & Tanlines, which is due out August 9. During a live stream on his Facebook page, Bryan revealed the album’s title and played two songs live including “Drunk On You” and “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.”
Produced by Jeff Stevens, Tailgates & Tanlines is Bryan’s third studio album for Capitol Nashville and features his current single “Country Girl (Shake It For Me).” The song had a digital sales debut of 105k during its release week, a career high for Bryan.
“I’m so excited to be giving my fans new music!” says Bryan. “Writing and recording this project has been a blast. I feel like I continue to grow in my artistry and I hope that feeling never goes away. Being out there on the road so much and seeing what the fans want make it much clearer for me to know what to give them. I hope they are as excited to hear it as I am to know what they think!”
Bryan is currently nominated for two 2011 CMT Music Awards, and he’ll be on the road with Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic tour this summer.

Comparing 2011 Sales With 2010

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Table includes albums with 25 or less wks on the chart and with sales over 175,000 units.Data Source: Nielsen SoundScan (Wk. ended 1/2/2011)


It’s only May, but the question is starting to arise, “How will 2011 country album sales compare with the previous year?”
In the words of Nashville’s elected Criminal Court Clerk David Torrence, “It is what it is…” The true answer, of course depends upon many factors.
First we need to look at the upcoming releases planned for 2011. Secondly it would be wise to ask, where are we now? And finally, we must study last year’s successful albums. The present year’s new releases will need to match or exceed 2010 to stay even or improve.
(1.) As of the week ended 5-8-11 country finds itself down 8.5%, approximately 1.2 million album units behind this same time last year. This has been due largely to last year’s highly successful first quarter Lady Antebellum release which has not been matched this year.
(2.) Your Scribe hears unofficially about releases expected later this year from hit artists such as Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and more that will surely be announced. But the list is still pretty short when compared with the 18 titles on our 2010 table. New artists can break out unexpectedly, but experienced bin stuffers can also sometimes underperform.
(3.) Last year’s story is easy to decipher. The graph above shows 18 current 2nd half year releases that at the end of 2010 (week ended 1/2/2011) had been on the chart for 25 weeks or less. They also must have sold 175,000 units or more. We didn’t note holiday CDs since they return each year with the frozen temps. Together these 18 albums were responsible for almost 9.23 million units or about 21% of the total 2010 country album sales. Consider them as the “bar” for 2011. (Note that Lady Antebellum’s 2010 release which earned 3 million units isn’t included in the table, since we are dealing with 3rd/4th quarter releases. We already know the results from the first half year—down 8.5%.)
Eyeing the Future
One question to ask is, will we have a new Taylor Swift album? That will make a huge difference considering the singer/songwriter’s 2010 release shifted almost 3 million units. Dividing the 9.23 million units by 18 albums, calculates to average sales per album of 515,000 units. (In reality, only one third of the 18 titles shown achieved this Gold status.) If we take Ms. Swift’s considerable units out of the mix then we get 17 albums sharing 6.3 million units or a more modest 371,000 units each. So one must ask, “Do we expect to launch 17 new releases in the last half of 2011 that can each sell at least 371k?” That is far from a slam dunk.
Looking at the bright side, there is also a real possibility that an unexpected artist will catch fire and burn up the sales charts. In the meantime, “It is what it is.”

Live Nation/Groupon Team For GrouponLive

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Live Nation and Groupon have partnered to form a joint venture to sell event tickets. GrouponLive will offer local deals for Live Nation concerts, sporting events, theater and more. It will also offer deals through Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation.

Like Groupon, GrouponLive deals will only be available for a limited time. The service is expected to launch in time for the summer concert season.
“Our success is based on selling tickets and filling seats and GrouponLive gives us another platform to achieve this,” said Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. www.grouponlive.com

Hirings at Webster PR, Fifth Third Bank

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Anita Mandell


Mandell, Felso Join Webster & Associates
Webster & Associates Public Relations & Marketing has hired veteran publicist Anita Mandell as Senior Dir. Media/Marketing, and added Montine Felso as publicist.
Mandell’s 20-year career in the music industry began at PLA Media working with Brooks & Dunn and more. Later she shifted to in-house publicity duties for Alan Jackson’s management team. By 1996 she joined Decca Records (subsidiary of MCA Nashville) handling publicity for Lee Ann Womack, Gary Allan, Mark Chesnutt and Dolly Parton. Then Mandell enjoyed a seven-year tenure at Sony Music Nashville working with then Sony acts Mary Chapin Carpenter, Billy Gilman, Jack Ingram, Marty Stuart and Little Big Town.
Felso most recently lived in California and worked at the San Francisco Opera and at NBC Universal in Burbank, working on Days of our Lives and The Tonight Show. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Communications.
Anson Lewis Joins Fifth Third’s Music Division

Anson Lewis


Music Row banking specialist Anson Lewis has joined Fifth Third Bank as a Credit Manager. His expertise is in handling wealth management issues for artists, songwriters, producers, publishers and performing rights organizations, as well as others in the entertainment and professional sports industries.
Lewis comes to Fifth Third with 13 years of professional experience in banking, including five years exclusively overseeing underwriting and credit approval for the largest and most complex loan requests within SunTrust’s sports and entertainment group.
Fifth Third launched its music and entertainment division a year ago when it hired producer Will Byrd to lead the group.