New Restaurants Slated For Midtown And Gulch

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Photo courtesy Anthony Marlow and LDN Interiors

Rendering of Union Common Steakhouse. Photo courtesy Anthony Marlow and LDN Interiors


Nashville will soon be home to two new restaurants as the area expands its number of dining options.
Union Common Steakhouse, 125-seat social concept steakhouse, will soon open in the Midtown space at 1929 Broadway, previously occupied by Great Escape. Chef Bobby Benjamin, who worked at Flyte and at the Governors Club in Brentwood, is developing a menu for the restaurant. Partnering with Benjamin for Union Common are sommelier Brett Davis, brothers Steven and Michael Ton, and lawyer Chip Hamm.
A new Southern fried chicken and Nashville-style hot chicken spot is also set to open in the Gulch in August. Party Fowl will be located at 719 Eighth Ave. S., at the intersection of Eighth Ave. S. and Division Street. The restaurant will offer 4,000 square feet of open-air dining with garage doors on all sides, with seating for 145 people. Party Fowl will serve 50 wines by the glass, along with a menu of cocktails and beer on tap. In addition to chicken, a smoker will allow for smoked chicken and wings. The kitchen will be open 11 a.m. until 10 p.m., though the bar will offer a late-night menu until last call.  The announcement also promises numerous televisions for sports enthusiasts.
Party Fowl co-owners Austin Smith and Nick Jacobson also operate fine dining spot 360 Bistro.

Songwriter Don Devaney Passes

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Don DevaneyHit country songwriter Don Devaney died on Friday, June 6.
His friends and family will gather at Brown’s Diner (2102 Blair Blvd.) to celebrate his life on Saturday, June 14, at 5 p.m.
Devaney hit the top of the charts with 1978’s “Someone Loves You Honey,” sung by Charley Pride and with 1988’s “Cry, Cry, Cry” by Highway 101.
The songwriter also made the country charts with “Ever Lovin’ Woman,” recorded by both Pat Garrett (1981) and Marlow Tackett (1982), as well as with Mary Lou Turner’s version of his “Yours and Mine” (1979).
He wrote the bluegrass standard “Listening to the Rain,” which has been recorded by The Osborne Brothers (1970), Special Consensus (1996), Pam Gadd (1997), Doc & Merle Watson (1998), Ronnie Reno (2002), Monroe Crossing (2003) and others.
Other notable cuts include Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t Gonna Hobo No More” (1982), Rick Trevino’s “Serious Love” (1996) and The Wilburn Brothers’ “Signs Are Everywhere” (1970).
“(Drinking Beer And) Singing a Country Song” (Dick Curless, 1972), “You Keep Right on Loving Me” (Jim Ed Brown, 1972), “Comin’ Home to Kentucky” (Kenny Price, 1972) and “If I Had Yesterday Again” (The Wilburn Brothers, 1968) are also Don Devaney songs.
“Someone Loves You Honey” has been revived by Brenda Lee (1982), Ronnie Dove (1996), reggae artists June Lodge (2000) and Dwight Pinkney (2002) and by Neal McCoy (2013). Devaney’s songs have also been recorded by George Jones, Ray Price, Johnny Russell and Barbara Mandrell, among others.
Don Devaney was 78 years old. He is survived by daughter Heather D. Graffagnino (Chris), brother Gerald Devaney (Barbara), sisters Joy Sullivan (Brian) and Marilyn Smith and by grandsons Joseph and Zachary Graffagnino.
Prior to the gathering at Brown’s Diner, a memorial mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday at St. Henry Catholic Church. Harpeth Hills Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to MusiCares, 1904 Wedgewood Ave., Nashville TN 37212.

Given Music Publishing Signs Clay Mills

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Pictured (L-R): Given Music Publishing VP/GM Mike Sebastian; Given Entertainment Partner Cindy Owen; Clay Mills; Given Entertainment partner Jim Kacmarcik.

Pictured (L-R): Given Music Publishing VP/GM Mike Sebastian; Given Entertainment Partner Cindy Owen; Clay Mills; Given Entertainment partner Jim Kacmarcik.


Nashville-based Given Music Publishing has signed songwriter Clay Mills to its roster.
Mills is perhaps best-known for songs such as “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” (Darius Rucker), “Beautiful Mess” (Diamond Rio), “Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love” (Trisha Yearwood), and “Fall” (Kimberley Locke).
“Clay Mills is a proven hit songwriter, whom I’m very excited to be working with,” said Given Music Publishing VP/GM Mike Sebastian. “He is extremely talented, hard working, diverse and can cover all genres. I am confident we will make a great team and predict we’ll be very successful together.”
Mills began performing in rock and Country bands in his early teens, and moved at age 19 to New York City, where he wrote and programmed tracks for rap and hip-hop artists. In the late ’90s, he was introduced to Nashville producer Mark Bright. Mills was later signed to a publishing deal.
Mills has had over 75 major artist cuts, including three No. 1 hits, six Top 5 singles and 12 Top 40 singles. His songs have been recorded by a diverse range of artists, including Babyface, Lady Antebellum, Easton Corbin, Reba, Bill Gaither, Lonestar, Clay Walker and Joe Nichols.
“This is a cool, unique opportunity signing with an exciting new company, Given Music Publishing, and at the same time working with respected veteran publisher Mike Sebastian,” Mills said. “I’m really looking forward to being a part of this team.”

Amazon Prime Music Debuts

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amazon prime musicAmazon Prime Music launched today (June 12) offering over a million songs for on-demand streaming or offline playback. The service is available to members of Amazon Prime, which costs $99 per year, and already offers free two-day shipping, access to books, and streaming TV shows and movies.
Sony and Warner Music signed on to Amazon’s music service, but Universal has not. Most new music releases are not expected to be available via Prime.
The tens of millions of Prime members—Amazon won’t release the exact number—will receive unlimited, ad-free access to songs at no extra cost. In addition to on-demand streaming, there will be expert-programmed Prime Playlists, personalized recommendations, and unlimited skips and repeat plays.
Prime Music will work on Kindle Fire HD/HDX, iOS, Android, PC, Mac and any Web browser. Prime members in the U.S. can start listening at www.primemusic.com, and others can sign up for a 30-day free trial of Prime at www.amazon.com/prime.

Samples To Be Allowed in All Grammy Songwriting Categories

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GrammysThe Recording Academy‘s Board of Trustees has approved a number of field and category changes to the Grammy Awards’ process. These changes bring the total number of Grammy categories that will be recognized at the 57th annual Grammy Awards (to be held Feb. 8, 2015) to 83 categories.
“The Academy’s Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its passionate commitment to keeping The Recording Academy a relevant and responsive organization in our dynamic music community,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. “This year’s changes to our Awards process are thoughtful, inclusive, and reflective of the current musical landscape, and we look forward to implementing them for the upcoming 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards.”
Samples To Be Allowed: The Recording Academy will now allow samples or interpolations of previously written songs in all songwriting categories, including Song of the Year, Best Country Song, Best Rock Song, Best R&B Song, Best Gospel Song, Best Contemporary Christian Music Song, Best American Roots Song, and Best Song Written For Visual Media. Previously, samples or interpolations were allowed in only the songwriting category of Best Rap Song, in recognition of the unique craft of writing rap songs.
American Roots Music: A new category, Best American Roots Performance, has been added in the American Roots Music Field. The new award will encompass all of the sub-genres of the Field (Americana, bluegrass, blues, folk, regional roots music), and recognizes singles/tracks only as well as solo artists/duos/groups/collaborations. This puts the Field in line with the Pop, Rock, Rap, R&B, Country, and Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Fields, all of which have performance categories.
Dance/Electronica: The Dance/Electronica Field and album category has been changed to Dance/Electronic Music Field and Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Gospel/Contemporary Christian: The categories of the Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Field have been restructured as follows.
Previous Category Structure
• Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance
• Best Gospel Song
• Best Contemporary Christian Music Song
• Best Gospel Album
• Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
New Category Structure
• Best Gospel Performance/Song
• Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song
• Best Gospel Album
• Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
• Best Roots Gospel Album
The same number of categories remains in the Field (five), and now both the artist(s) and songwriter(s) of new material will be honored in the Best Gospel Performance/Song and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song categories. Changes to the Field were made in the interest of clarifying the criteria, representing the current culture and creative DNA of the gospel and Contemporary Christian Music communities, and better reflecting the diversity and authenticity of today’s gospel music industry, including:
• Place the growing and increasingly popular rap and hip-hop music into the contemporary category where the industry and fans feel it belongs
• Provide a category for traditional Southern gospel and other “roots” gospel albums as both a protector of the heritage of this music and an acknowledgement of the growing interest and support of these genres
• Recognize the critical contribution of both songwriters and performers by combining songwriters and artists into the Best Gospel Performance/Song and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song categories
• Appropriately integrate artists, songwriters, albums and songs along creative and aesthetic lines.
Changes were also made to Classical, Instrumental and Alternative fields. For a full list of changes, visit grammy.com.
The nomination process for the 57th annual Grammy Awards will be open to active Recording Academy Members on the following dates. The first round opens July 1 and closes July 23, 2014. This round is for recordings released between October 1, 2013 and July 31, 2014. The final voting round opens Aug. 13 and closes Aug. 27, 2014. This round is for August and September 2014 releases. The awards eligibility period is for recordings commercially released from Oct. 1, 2013 through Sept. 30, 2014.
Additionally, The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter presents “Grammy Awards 101,” with Bill Freimuth (Sr. VP, Awards) on July 24, 2014 from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at Ben’s Studio, located at 30 Music Square West, Ste. 100. The meeting will discuss important upcoming dates and deadlines, an explanation of eligibility for submitted product, how to submit product for Grammy consideration, what’s new for the 57th annual Grammy Awards, and a step-by-step narrative of what each submission goes through once it has been submitted to the awards process. Non-members are welcome. For RSVP information, visit grammy365.com.

Weblinks: Spotify, ROK Mobile

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spotifyAccording to Digital Music News, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Group are anticipating a Spotify acquisition, IPO or liquidity situation, in the wake of the recent $3 billion Beats-to-Apple sale.
Major labels reportedly now carry collective ownership share of roughly 20 percent of Spotify, and value equity more than upfront payment guarantees in exchange for the rights to their catalogs.
 
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John Paul DeJoria

John Paul DeJoria


John Paul DeJoria, the billionaire entrepreneur best known for Paul Mitchell shampoo and Patron tequila, now aims to tackle the wireless phone business, according to Forbes.
ROK Mobile, which DeJoria co-founded with British entrepreneur Johnathan Kendrick, will offer unlimited talk, text and data, as well as free music streaming. The contract-free ROK Mobile will cost $49.99/month.
DeJoria has signed agreements with Warner Music, Sony and Universal, which will allow users access to more than 20 million songs. DeJoria says, “Everything you can find on iTunes, we have.”
ROK Mobile will launch on T-Mobile on June 16 and on Sprint July 4. “The official launch is the Fourth of July because it’s freedom from cellphone contracts.”

NMPA Reports $2.2 Billion Publishing Industry In 2013

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nmpa publishing revenueThe National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) today released 2013 revenue data for the U.S. music publishing industry. Revenue across all income sources totaled $2.2 billion, but the organization estimates even more, $2.3 billion, was lost due to outdated copyright law and government regulations.
“We are finally able to capture what the industry is worth and, more importantly, what our industry is losing,” said David Israelite, NMPA President and CEO today at the organization’s annual meeting in New York City, where the data was revealed. “The new digital marketplace is changing how songwriters and their music publishing partners can thrive. As the marketplace evolves, it is essential our industry no longer be hamstrung by outdated laws and government regulation.”
For the first time in history, NMPA can quantify the total industry revenue and value through information collected from NMPA’s recent modernization program. The program requires music publishing members to provide revenue data and captures market share information. The total industry revenue is based on numbers reported to NMPA by its members for 2013. The lost revenue calculations are based on projected fair market value of the industry in the absence of government regulations.
Where the money comes from:
(according to NMPA)
Performance License, 52 percent: Public performance royalties are the largest income stream for songwriters and music publishers. While the performance right is not explicitly regulated by law, the Department of Justice imposed consent decrees on the performance rights organizations ASCAP and BMI in 1941, which are still in effect today.
Mechanical License, 23 percent: Section 115 of the Copyright Act imposes a compulsory license that dates back to 1909. As a result of this law, songwriters and music publishers are denied the right to negotiate the value of their intellectual property in a free market. For every song downloaded on iTunes, songwriters receive only 9.1 cents – the current rate set by the Copyright Royalty Board.
Sync License, 20 percent: Traditionally this has included using music in movies, television shows, and commercials. Newer forms of this right include music videos produced by record labels as well as user-generated content such as videos on YouTube. For songwriters and music publishers, this is a free market right not regulated by law or consent decrees.
Other, 5 percent: Examples include sheet music and lyric websites.

Music Drives Honda's New Marketing Campaign

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Screen shot 2014-06-11 at 2.40.15 PM1American Honda has partnered with Clear Channel Media and Entertainment (iHeartRadio), Live Nation, REVOLT, Vevo and YouTube to produce and distribute music content available under the new Honda Stage name, through dozens of live events and exclusive online content. The company estimates that millions will be spent on using music to reach more than 1 million younger consumers at more than 200 live events.
“Breaking through the clutter and reaching younger buyers through traditional advertising is proving more and more difficult in this always-on, digital generation,” said Tom Peyton, assistant vice president of Advertising and Marketing for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “Honda is making an even bigger investment in music than ever before. To bring this type of experience to music lovers we had to assemble a program from scratch bringing together both live and online elements that can only be found through Honda Stage.”
Honda Stage will offer music fans access to custom online music programming and performances via a new YouTube channel.
Additionally, the Honda Stage at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles will offer a concert series to be promoted via Clear Channel radio stations. Additional custom Honda Stage concert events, produced by Live Nation, will be held throughout the U.S.
Honda Stage at REVOLT Studios Hollywood will deliver regular live interviews and in-studio performances, which will be broadcast via REVOLT TV, the iOS and Android REVOLT apps, and the Honda Stage YouTube channel.
“This just pencils out as a smart program due to the massive content distribution platforms. With an expected reach of billions of music fans, the Honda Stage program will reach potential customers far beyond traditional TV advertising,” said Peyton.
Initial artists included in the campaign are pop act American Authors, as well as alt-rockers GroupLove, and Portugal.

Industry Ink (6/11/14)

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While celebrating four back-to-back No. 1s last week, Capitol’s Luke Bryan was surprised by UMG Nashville Chairman & CEO Mike Dungan with the news that his Crash My Party project is now RIAA-certified Double Platinum.

Luke Bryan and Mike Dungan. Photo: Rick Diamond

Luke Bryan and UMG Nashville Chairman & CEO Mike Dungan. Photo: Rick Diamond

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Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group


Nashville-based Bluewater Music has signed Blue Man Group to an administration agreement covering the world, excluding the United States.
Blue Man Group produces theatrical shows and concerts that feature percussion-heavy music, as well as comedy and a multimedia stage presentation. Blue Man Group has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.

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Kelly Keagy and museum founder, Joe Chambers. Photo: Jay McDowell

Kelly Keagy and museum founder, Joe Chambers. Photo: Jay McDowell


Night Ranger lead vocalist and drummer Kelly Keagy has been selected as the inaugural ambassador for the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. The new program is designed to engage national and international concert fans with the museum’s work.
“Kelly is the perfect person to be the first ambassador for our work at the museum. We strive to honor the unsung heroes of American recorded music; those who contributed so much to the music that became the soundtrack of our lives,” said Joe Chambers, Founder of the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. “We are looking forward to working with Kelly, as well as other touring musicians who have dedicated their lives to their passion for music.”
 
 
 
 
 

CRS Names Director of Brand Marketing & Strategic Partnerships

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Holly Lane


Country Radio Seminar officials have announced the appointment of Holly Lane as Director of Brand Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, beginning June 16, 2014.
Bill Mayne, Executive Director of CRS said, “I am very excited to have Holly join our amazing team. She brings a wealth of energy, enthusiasm, and experience to her new position. It takes very special people to serve our mission and Holly is exactly that.”
Before joining CRS, Lane served as Sponsorship Manager for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Prior to that, she held positions with Cornerstone Communications and The Grand Ole Opry.
Lane can be reached at [email protected] or 615-327-4487. Lane fills the position that was previously held by Michelle Kammerer.