Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 23), industry members came together at BMI to celebrate Parmalee‘s hit “Take My Name.”

The atmosphere inside felt as warm and sunny as it did outside in the summer heat as everyone gathered around the black high table-tops sprinkled throughout the room. BMI’s Josh Tomlinson stepped on stage to host and called the Stoney Creek recording group and the songwriters up to join him.

Tomlinson began by congratulating BMI writers Ben Johnson, David Fanning, and band member Matt Thomas. “I have a feeling this song is probably the soundtrack to a lot of couples’ memories around the world,”  he said. The BMI Director of Creative then introduced ASCAP’s Mike Sistad, who welcomed ASCAP CEO Beth Matthews and praised songwriter and Tape Room Music owner Ashley Gorley for his success “at a level never seen before.” Sistad added, “Ashley, we’re proud you’re part of the ASCAP family. Thank you so much for being a part of us and congratulations on another No. 1.”

The wedding song written on a snow day marks Gorley’s 62nd No. 1 hit and his first No. 1 with Sony Music Publishing. The 8-time ASCAP songwriter of the year and 4-time Billboard country songwriter of year will be recognized as Songwriter of the Decade by NSAI in the weeks to come. Toward the end of the event, Fanning reiterated his co-writer’s talent by sharing the voice recording Gorley sent him while the snow was falling in which he shares the idea for the song and sings a portion of the chorus.

Next up was Blain Rhodes from Tape Room Music. Beer in hand, he marveled at how “this band and [BBR] are putting out smash after smash.” Rhodes brought to everyone’s attention that Johnson is not even 30 and has already accomplished so much in his career, noting his seven country No. 1s; awards for BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC’s Song of Year; and his Grammy nomination for Rock Song of the Year. The Track45 band member is also a producer and has worked with artists such as Kylie Morgan and Hunter Phelps.

Sony Music Publishing’s Rusty Gaston was on deck to speak next. “This is an exciting time for country music and a crazy exciting time for the band Parmalee,” Gaston said. “What I love most about the music business, and getting to work with songwriters in general, is the fact that we get to have a front row seat to watch dreamers go to work and then watch those dreams come to life. We are all getting to watch Matt Thomas’ dream come true right now.”

Gaston noted that, like many artists, Parmalee’s journey has not been an easy one, “but Matt and the guys in his band never lost heart.” He praised BBR’s Jon Loba and JoJamie Hahr for their success and also gave shout outs to Sony Music Publishing’s Tom Luteran, 33 Creative’s Tina Crawford, and Fanning for having the band’s back since the beginning.

“This is the first No. 1 party I’ve had to speak at, and I can’t believe I have to follow Rusty Gaston,” joked Lindsay Will of Round Hill Music. She sung her praises to the songwriters, noting that in lieu of a plaque, Round Hill Music would be making a donation to the My Life Speaks foundation of behalf of Gorley.

Reservoir’s John Ozier declared that “everything about the song was perfect.” Ozier congratulated Fanning on his first No. 1 as a songwriter and reminded everyone that he also co-wrote and produced Parmalee’s first single “Musta Had a Good Time” in 2012. He also acknowledged Crawford and the risk she took on the band, as well as Reservoir’s VP of Creative Greg Gallo and the significant role he played in bringing Fanning to Reservoir.

Jim Landers from Pinnacle Bank reminisced on celebrating the group’s hit “Carolina” in 2014 and congratulated them on their achievement. Landers announced that in place of plaque, Pinnacle Bank made a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Loba stepped up next to talk about the band’s future. “If these guys are not nominated for Group of Year at the CMAs and ACMs, it will be criminal,”stated the label president.

Gorley followed and thanked his co-writers, his publishers, and ASCAP. He also thanked God, his family, and the crowd for coming out. Gorley commented on the fact that “Take My Name” had remained in the top echelons of the chart nine weeks after hitting No. 1. “Thank you Stoney Creek. Everybody has echoed it but they have been up here a lot lately because they work like crazy. They believe in these songs and they push them,” he said.

A long-awaited moment for the artist/producer/songwriter, Johnson hopped on stage to share his excitement for his first No. 1 party and to applaud his co-writers, the Tape Room Music team, and BMG.

“I’m pretty sure every single publisher in all of Nashville told me ‘no’ at one point, and then Ashley told me ‘yes’ and changed my life,” he shared. “It is so special that not only is this with Tape Room, but it’s with BMG, who believed in me, my music, and [Track45] two years ago. We are signed to Stoney Creek as well, so just another reason I’m glad this is my first No. 1 party.” He concluded by thanking his wife Lauren—who is “more important to [him] than any No. 1 [he has] ever had”—his sisters who were unable to attend, and everyone involved in the project.

Finally, an emotional Thomas took the mic. The band leader said, “So many people in here have been with us since day one, and it’s awesome to stand  on this stage right here 10 years later.” Thomas acknowledged his family’s presence in the audience and went on to thank everyone that has accompanied Parmalee on their journey to success.

“We’ve been a band for a very long time and we’re all brothers,” added band member Barry Knox. He took time to recognize all of Thomas’s hard work and made known how much the band appreciates him and his efforts.

Co-writer, Parmalee manager, and producer Fanning recapped how the hit came to be, sharing that the group agreed that the song was “the coolest way to ask, ‘will you marry me?'” He told the crowd how proud he is to work with everyone at Stoney Creek, and brought it home by emphasizing Loba’s view on the CMA and ACM nomination. “Voting is come up!” he said with grin.

Luke Combs pops into the top 10 on the MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart this week. The country superstar checks in at No. 9, up two spots from last week. He’s a co-writer on his own “The Kind Of Love We Make” and “Tomorrow Me,” as well as on Zac Brown Band’s “Out In The Middle.”

Ashley Gorley maintains his spot at the top this week for a third consecutive week with eight songs on the country charts, including Dierks Bentley’s “Gold,” Michael Ray’s “Holy Water,” Dylan Scott’s “New Truck,” Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me At Heads Carolina,” Parmalee’s “Take My Name,” Carly Pearce’s “What He Didn’t Do,” Brett Young’s “You Didn’t” and Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof.”

Ernest Keith Smith (No. 2), Morgan Wallen (No. 3), Mitchell Tenpenny (No. 4) and Chase McGill (No. 5) round out the rest of this week’s top songwriters.

The weekly MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart uses algorithms based upon song activity according to airplay, digital download track sales and streams. This unique and exclusive addition to the MusicRow portfolio is the only songwriter chart of its kind.

Click here to view the full MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart.

Cole Swindell takes the No. 1 spot on the MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart this week with “She Had Me At Heads Carolina.” Swindell is a co-writer on the single along with Ashley Gorley, Jesse Frasure, Thomas Rhett, Mark D. Sanders, and Tim Nichols. The track gained an additional +107 spins for a total of 11,929 cumulative spins since its debut on the chart.

The music video for “She Had Me At Heads Carolina” features a cameo appearance by “Heads Carolina, Tails California” singer Jo Dee Messina. Watch the video here. 

Swindell will hit the road in September for his headlining “Back Down To The Bar Tour” with support from Ashley Cooke and Dylan Marlowe.

Click here to view the latest edition of The MusicRow Weekly containing the MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart.

In today’s world, the power and influence of digital marketing is something that we experience every day. From the rise of social media and the takeover of streaming services for music, TV and movies, it is hard to imagine our lives today without the digital world at the center of it.

This concept also extends into the music industry.

With so many artists being discovered on social media platforms, most notably TikTok in recent years, as well as the constant digital consumption of music through services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube and more, digital marketing has become quite a critical component in the modern day artist’s toolkit.

None understand this better than Jade Driver and Cassie Petrey, the co-founders of Crowd Surf.

As one of the leading digital music marketing companies, Crowd Surf provides catered and specialized marketing services to a roster of established and rising artists and major labels, including past and current clients Jimmie Allen, Eric Church, Matthew West, Backstreet Boys, Camila Cabello, Britney Spears, AJR, Duran Duran, Loren Gray, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Hollywood Records and RCA Records, among others.

As students at Middle Tennessee State University, the two women couldn’t have realized that the countless days of sitting in dorm rooms perusing the internet and their local band’s MySpace pages would lead to their now 15 year-old company.

“I always give credit to Cassie for seeing a business model and an opportunity in digital. I didn’t see it that clearly at first, but I trusted her,” Driver explains to MusicRow. “Cassie was a real visionary in understanding how that can be used as a marketing tool, especially in the MySpace days.”

“I came across MySpace through a local band that had a flier and they talked about MySpace on it. I went and checked it out and started thinking, ‘Why don’t big bands use MySpace? Why is it just for college bands?'” Petrey recalls.

Petrey, who was a Warner college rep, ended up putting her money where her mouth was, taking over early-2000s band The Click Five‘s page. After showing promise with this underutilized platform, Petrey was quickly tasked with running all of the country music MySpace pages for Warner’s roster. Driver was also working at Warner in a temp position.

“I knew nothing about country music at the time because I just didn’t grow up with it, but I figured it out. I immersed myself in those artists and the demand grew,” she notes. “They also wanted help with Christian and comedy, but I was a temp so I couldn’t work more than 37.5 hours a week and I simply couldn’t do everything they were asking me to do in that time.” She adds, “And it was beyond MySpace. I was also the catch-all for everything else regarding helping build and run websites.”

However, during the early 2000s, there were no social media or digital marketing departments and, by extension, no budget for it either. As the pair were gearing up to graduate from MTSU, they realized that in order to find their pocket of success in the music industry, they would need to expand their offerings.

And so they did.

“At that point, it was all word of mouth and we started getting calls,” Driver shares. “We cut our first contract and started working on things together and then, before we knew it, we needed to get an intern. All of these things were happening and this business was bubbling, but there wasn’t a conversation of ‘let’s make a business plan’ or ‘we need to get money.’ It just happened,” she says with a chuckle.

Before they knew it, in August of 2007, they were down at the Murfreesboro Chamber of Commerce filling out paperwork and leaving with a business.

Now 15 years later, the company has offices in Nashville and LA, as well as remote employees stationed all across the country. While mostly tapped for digital marketing strategies, the Crowd Surf team explains that at the end of the day, they just want to help people, whether that’s through social media marketing rollouts, creating assets, making content calendars, single and album announcements, and more.

The team doesn’t stop there, though. Since digital touches nearly every part of an artist’s career in today’s industry, Crowd Surf has also been helpful in setting up music videos, and matching artists with producers and writers, Petrey explains.

“I was doing a pitch call for an independent artist who doesn’t have team members. She was posting TikToks of her doing acoustic songs and one of those songs started to go viral, so we matched her with a producer so that song could continue to have a trajectory.” She continues, “Arguably, that’s not digital’s job, but also digital can’t do their job if that song doesn’t continue to progress and exist. So, in a way, I do feel like that’s part of digital’s job because if I don’t figure out how to get the song produced, there’s nothing more to digitally market. It’s all really so intertwined at this point.”

In the last few years, Driver and Petrey have taken Crowd Surf’s offerings to an even higher level as they’ve taken on artist management, with multiple artists utilizing their services and experience. As something that originally developed organically, the pair explain that it has become a much more serious endeavor and a larger part of the daily task and bandwidth of the company.

“The face of digital consumption has completely changed over the last 15 years. At the end of the day, people are consuming music digitally, they’re consuming music videos digitally, they’re buying things digitally, and these are all things that weren’t the norm when we started,” Driver states. “Now that is more the norm for everyone in their everyday lives, which has really expanded what we do. It’s not just the social media part of it anymore because everything’s digital and that’s really helped change the course of where we fit in and what we’ve added to our plate.”

As the dynamic duo look ahead to the next 15 years of Crowd Surf, one of their major goals is to continue to expand their management client roster, as well as continuing to support their narrative as strong females in the music business. However, as their past clearly demonstrates, Crowd Surf will continue to change and grow in order for their client’s dreams to become a reality.

“We’ve changed a lot in the past 15 years. Honestly, we’ve changed a lot in the past 3 years,” Petrey notes. “Our service offerings have evolved a lot. We started off running MySpace pages and now we have a full service marketing agency and have launched an artist management branch to the company. We’re constantly evolving, and chances are we probably do a lot more than most people realize!”

“We help brands and artists tell their story,” Driver sums. “We really weave together who they are, what they stand for, and how their image and artistry reflects all of that.”