MusicRow’s Touring & Next Big Thing Issue Features Multi-Genre Touring, Joe Galante, More
MusicRow Magazine released its 2023 Touring & Next Big Thing Issue last week, with Verge Records’ Trace Adkins gracing its cover.
The print magazine highlights the ninth annual Next Big Thing class of artists, which includes Chayce Beckham (19 Recordings/BBR Music Group/Wheelhouse Records), Tyler Braden (Warner Music Nashville), Ernest (Big Loud Records), Chapel Hart (JT3D), Kylie Morgan (EMI Records Nashville), MacKenzie Porter (Big Loud Records), Conner Smith (The Valory Music Co.), Nate Smith (Arista Nashville), Alana Springsteen (Columbia Records New York/Sony Music Nashville), Morgan Wade (Arista Nashville), and Bailey Zimmerman (Warner Music Nashville/Elektra Records).
This issue also features the N.B.T. Industry Directory Class of 2023, which spotlights rising Nashville music business professionals who are having a major impact on the industry. MusicRow’s N.B.T. Industry Directory is the first and only list of its kind. These industry members occupy important roles at their respective companies, and are on a trajectory of excellence to successfully lead the Nashville music industry into the future.
For editorial features, MusicRow‘s Touring & Next Big Thing includes articles focused on both the touring sector of our industry, as well as professional development.
In this issue, MusicRow taps CAA’s Meredith Jones and WME’s Aaron Tannenbaum to discuss multi-genre touring, focusing on WME client Brantley Gilbert‘s time touring with metal band Five Finger Death Punch and CAA’s Filmore opening for global sensation Pitbull.
“I don’t think agents are doing their job if they’re not constantly trying to think creatively about packaging for their client,” Tannenbaum shares with MusicRow when talking about booking his clients.
Country Music Hall of Famer Joe Galante spoke with MusicRow about the importance of mentorship for this print edition. Deriving from the mentorship he received from the late Frances Preston, to the guidance he’s given as a mentor to many, Galante makes five keys points on how to create a healthy mentor relationship.
“The gray hair that we all get after a period of time is earned. You can learn from the experience that we have gotten over time,” he shares.
Elsewhere, MusicRow talks with music industry vet Louis Messina and his newly-promoted President of Messina Touring Group Nashville, Haley McCollister, about the company’s deepened footprint in Music City. The firm—who spearheads touring for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Eric Church, George Strait and more—has recently opened a Nashville office.
Also included in the Touring & Next Big Thing Issue is a look at the recent re-launch of The Neal Agency. After his grandfather Bob Neal started the company in the mid-60s, Austin Neal announced its reopening earlier this year, with Morgan Wallen, Chase Rice, Hardy, Ernest, and more on the roster.
“The core of being an agent is truly believing in an artist and being willing to see them through until the end, the good times and the bad,” Neal shares. “If they didn’t know before, every artist knows now that I will completely up-root my life in order to stick with them, because I know what kind of person each one truly is.”
TNDV’s Nic Dugger is profiled in the Touring & Next Big Thing issue. From humble beginnings learning live broadcasting from a small TV truck in Jackson, Tennessee, to owning one of the largest production companies in the state, Dugger walks through his career path with MusicRow for this issue.
Additionally, MusicRow catches up with Reliant Talent Agency founders Steve Lassiter, Matt McGuire and Heath Baumhor to talk about the last two years of business. Also included is an overview of Taylor Swift‘s upcoming “The Eras Tour.”
Single copies of MusicRow’s 2023 Touring & Next Big Thing Issue are available for purchase at musicrow.com for $45, and are included with yearly MusicRow subscriptions.
