Ronnie Dunn. Photo: Steven Martine

Fresh off the release of Brooks & Dunn’s Reboot effort, which found Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks collaborating with several of today’s top hitmakers such as Luke Combs, Kacey Musgraves and Kane Brown, Ronnie Dunn has announced his newest solo album, RE-DUNN, will release in January 2020.

The 24-song project will feature covers of country and rock songs that have influenced Dunn’s own music, such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “I Won’t Back Down,” and Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band’s “Against The Wind.”

In anticipation of the album, Dunn is releasing his versions of George Strait’s “Amarillo By Morning” and the rock classic “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress),” originally recorded by British rock group The Hollies and covered by artists including Clint Black and T.G. Sheppard. Every four weeks, Dunn will release two new tracks from the album—one country and one rock.

“This is a passion project for me. If you put together a group of songs that define the soundtrack of my life, this is what it would look like,” Dunn says.

The project follows Dunn’s previous solo efforts, including Ronnie Dunn: Peace Love and Country Music, and 2016’s Tattooed Heart. Dunn, along with his Brooks & Dunn partner Kix Brooks, will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year.

RE-DUNN Full Track List:
“Amarillo by Morning”
“Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)”
“That’s How I Got to Memphis”
“It Never Rains In Southern California”
“How Long”
“Drinkin’ Thing”
“Together Again”
“Peaceful Easy Feeling”
“Against The Wind”
“If You Don’t Know Me By Now”
“I Won’t Back Down”
“Cowboy Rides Away”
“Showdown”
“Wonderful Tonight”
“Ashes By Now”
“That’s The Way Love Goes”
“I’m Not In Love”
“Brown Eyed Girl”
“You Don’t Know Me”
“Ridin’ My Thumb To Mexico”
“A Showman’s Life”
“Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues”
“Aime”
“I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)”

Brandi Simms. Photo: Angela Talley

After more than 17 years as a member of the Country Music Association staff, Sr. Director of Awards & Industry Relations Brandi Simms is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

“Brandi has contributed significantly to the growth and success of CMA during her time with the organization and we wish her the very best in her future endeavors,” said a statement from the CMA.

Simms can be reached at [email protected]. CMA does not plan to immediately fill the position.

In her role at CMA, Simms was charged with overseeing all balloting for the CMA Awards, CMA Broadcast Awards and the Country Music Hall of Fame elections. She also updated the CMA Awards balloting process and worked on the re-launch of the CMA Touring Awards. She is a 2013 MusicRow Rising Women on the Row honoree, and member of Leadership Music’s Class of 2019.

Music recorded retail revenues in the United States grew 18%, to $5.4 billion, in the first half of 2019, according to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) Mid-Year Report for 2019. In 2018, the U.S. music industry’s retail revenues had reached $4.6 billion.

That double-digit growth rate is driven by the number of paid streaming subscriptions totaling more than 60 million for the first time (up 30% from 2018)—this represents an average of more than 1 million new subscriptions per month over the past 12 months.

Streaming revenues alone grew 26% to $4.3 billion in the first half of this year (up from $3.4 billion in 2018), and includes revenues from subscription services, digital and customized radio services including those revenues distributed by SoundExchange, and ad-supported, on-demand streaming services. Paid subscriptions made up 62% of overall industry revenues and account for 77% of U.S. streaming music revenues for the first half of 2019.

Streaming now generates 80% of music business revenues.

“This continued growth lets record companies do more than ever to discover, promote, and protect great artists,” RIAA’s Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a statement. “Worldwide, labels now spend nearly $6 billion a year to find talent, enable artists to record, cut through the noise, and be heard. Finding and developing new talent is the lifeblood of the business, with 20% of a major label’s roster of artists signed fresh each year. 7 in 10 unsigned artists want a label deal to help them make it in an increasingly complicated and high-tech business.

“Labels have worked for years to build powerful new tools, infrastructure, and teams to help artists navigate the global streaming ecosystem and protect and promote their work. Whether it’s fighting to shut down industrial piracy and stream-ripping operations or standing up to Big Tech platforms that have avoided accountability to exploit artists and grossly underpay for music. And more than anything, it’s a reminder of what we can accomplish when the whole music community—and our music service partners—work together. Collaboration and cooperation work. We’ve proven that by establishing the right to be paid for streaming in the early days of the internet, to the technical and data collaboration that made modern music services possible, to even more recent problem solving like the Music Modernization Act that finally won justice for artists who recorded before 1972. Let’s keep it going,” Glazier said.