Nominees for the 27th annual MusicRow Awards, Nashville’s longest running music industry trade publication honors, have been revealed. In 2015, the SONG OF THE YEAR category is filled with frequent collaborators.

“Girl Crush” was written by a trio of songwriters who work together so often they are collectively known as The Love Junkies. Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey penned the ballad of lustful jealousy. Little Big Town and Producer of the Year nominee Jay Joyce made it a No. 1 hit.

Likewise, Jaren Johnston, Jeffrey Steele and Tom Douglas write together often. They are the minds behind “Raise Em Up,” a thoughtful montage about raising everything from a whiskey glass to a child. Keith Urban ft. Eric Church made it a radio hit.

After a track record of success, Chris Tompkins and Rodney Clawson re-teamed for “Dirt,” filled with meaningful imagery of football fields, farms and burial. Florida Georgia Line made the song famous.

Frequent co-writers Chris DeStefano and Brett James had the idea for a song called “Something in the Water” at one of their regular appointments, but co-writer Carrie Underwood brought the twist of fate to the session, suggesting the phrase meant the baptismal water. She recorded the song and it went straight to No. 1.

Songwriter/producer Kevin Kadish didn’t know what to expect when he was paired with a young new artist named Meghan Trainor. They hit it off so quickly they ended up co-writing most of her debut album, which he also produced, including the mega-hit “All About That Bass,” which is now vying for Song of the Year.

The MusicRow Awards are often a key predictor for select CMA Awards. In past years Song of the Year honors at both ceremonies went to “I Drive Your Truck” (2013), “If I Die Young” (2011), “The House That Built Me” (2010) and “In Color” (2009).

Award winners are voted on exclusively by Subscriber Members of MusicRow. Honors will be presented during an invitation-only ceremony at ASCAP on Tuesday, June 23 at 5:30 p.m., saluting the Breakthrough Songwriter, Breakthrough Artist, Producer of the Year, Song of the Year, and the Top Ten Album AllStar Musicians. The eligibility period is May 1, 2014 – April 30, 2015.

Nominees for the 27th annual MusicRow Awards, Nashville’s longest running music industry trade publication honors, have been revealed.

The BREAKTHROUGH SONGWRITER award honors a writer who had his or her first Top 10 hit during the eligibility period (May 1, 2014 – April 30, 2015), but the nominees are hardly overnight success stories.

Michael Carter, longtime band leader for Luke Bryan, scored three No. 1 hits as a songwriter that helped him qualify for nomination. He had a hand in writing Bryan’s “Roller Coaster” and Thomas Rhett’s “Get Me Some of That.” Carter is also producer for last year’s Breakthrough Songwriter Cole Swindell, and co-writer of Swindell’s hit “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight.” Swindell returns this year as a Breakthrough Artist nominee. Also garnering a cut by Swindell were rising songwriters Josh Martin and Adam Sanders who teamed with the artist to pen his latest smash “Ain’t Worth The Whiskey.”

Heather Morgan is the sole female vying for Breakthrough Songwriter honors, as a co-writer of Brett Eldredge’s No. 1 “Beat Of The Music.” Also earning their first top 10 hits during the eligibility period were Justin Weaver and Jesse Frasure, whose respective songs went all the way to No. 1. Weaver co-wrote the thumpping Brantley Gilbert hit “Bottoms Up.” After tallying album credits as a writer and producer for years, Frasure scored a charttopper with “Sun Daze” by Florida Georgia Line.

Nominees Brent Anderson and Ryan Hurd are co-writers on “Lonely Tonight,” recorded by Blake Shelton ft. Ashley Monroe, which reached No. 1 at country radio. Additionally, Hurd scored Top 10s on the MusicRow chart with “Later On” (The Swon Brothers) and “Payback” (Rascal Flatts).

Before Breakthrough Songwriter nominees Matthew Ramsey and Brad Tursi started climbing the radio charts with their band Old Dominion, they penned their first top 10 hits recorded by other artists. Ramsey co-wrote “Chainsaw,” recorded by The Band Perry, and “Say You Do,” recorded by Dierks Bentley, both of which went No. 1 on MusicRow’s chart. Tursi is in the middle of major hit with Tyler Farr’s “A Guy Walks Into A Bar.”

Award winners are voted on exclusively by Subscriber Members of MusicRow. Honors will be presented during an invitation-only ceremony at ASCAP on Tuesday, June 23 at 5:30 p.m., saluting the Breakthrough Songwriter, Breakthrough Artist, Producer of the Year, Song of the Year, and the Top Ten Album AllStar Musicians.

Kobalt’s Creative Team at Global Creative Conference

Kobalt’s Creative team, led by Sas Metcalfe, met in Los Angeles, CA on April 20, 2015 at the annual Kobalt Music Publishing Global Creative Conference. Members of the Nashville office were part of the team which got together to educate each other on signings, listen to new songs and learn about Kobalt’s technology and evolving businesses. 

 

Copyright Society of the South Discusses Spotify Strategy

The Copyright Society of the South recently welcomed guest James Duffett-Smith, Global Head of Publisher Relations of Spotify. During the membership luncheon at ASCAP, Duffett-Smith explained Spotify’s strategy to encourage premium subscriptions.

Vintage King Audio and PMC Host Session At ASCAP Expo

For the sixth year in a row at the ASCAP “I Create Music Expo” in Hollywood, The Professional Monitor Company (PMC) and Vintage King Audio presented a session with music industry leaders. “Production Secrets For Songwriters” addressed songwriters and artists who want to learn the production, arrangement and mix tricks and tips. Leading the discussion were famed producers/mixers Rob Chiarelli and Michael James.

 

BMI honored the year’s most-performed pop songs at the organization’s 63rd annual Pop Awards, held May 12 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Nashville-based songwriters Barry Dean (Creative Nation) and Trent Dabbs (Ready Set) were among the honorees, for co-writing the Top 40 hit “Girls Chase Boys,” performed by Ingrid Michaelson.

Dynamic singer-songwriter P!nk received the BMI President’s Award for her outstanding achievement in songwriting and global impact on pop culture and the entertainment industry.

Taylor Swift, Tim Bergling a.k.a. Avicii, Benny Blanco, Ed Sheeran and Noel Zancanella all earned the coveted BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year title. Each penned three songs on the most-performed list.

John Legend clinched the BMI Pop Song of the Year honor for co-writing “All of Me.”

With 27 songs among the year’s most-performed, Sony/ATV Publishing claimed the prestigious BMI Pop Publisher of the Year crystal.

A U.S. District Court has ruled in favor of BMI in its suit against Pandora, determining that the music streaming service must pay 2.5 percent of its revenue to license and perform songs in the BMI repertoire. Pandora’s previous rate was 1.75 percent.

Separately, Pandora had been battling ASCAP in a federal appeals court, which recently ruled its rate for that PRO would remain at 1.85 percent.

Meanwhile, Pandora recently made a major step forward with the FCC in its efforts to launch a terrestrial radio station. The online music company is using a loophole to attempt to qualify for the lower licensing rates used by stations that operate both broadcast and streaming radio.

BMI released the following statement:

Today is an important day for BMI and a huge victory for the more than 650,000 songwriters, composers and publishers we have the privilege to represent.  After a nearly two-year legal battle over the value of the BMI repertoire to the Pandora digital music service, the Rate Court ruled resoundingly in BMI’s favor and concluded that our proposed rate of 2.5% of revenue was “reasonable, and indeed at the low end of the range of fees of recent licenses.”

The decision also establishes that existing marketplace agreements can be taken into account when determining rates, a key factor for us, and the industry. This is an important step forward in valuing music in the digital age.

BMI fully supports all new avenues for the performance of our repertoire, but we also believe that creators should never have to virtually give away their product for free in order to subsidize the development of someone else’s business. We were not about to stand by and let that happen to our BMI family. We went through a lot of time and expense to fight that notion, and we are gratified that the Court ruled in our, and ultimately, our affiliates’ favor.

And our efforts to protect the value of our affiliates’ creative work continue.  As you know, we have testified in Washington, DC about necessary changes to our Consent Decree and remain encouraged by our ongoing conversations with the Department of Justice.  BMI is also a strong supporter of the Songwriters Equity Act, a bill recently reintroduced in Congress that seeks to create a level playing field when determining rates and fees.  These efforts are essential to help modernize the music licensing system, creating one that makes better sense for the digital world we live in today and benefits all stakeholders.

My thanks to our friends at Milbank Tweed, who represented BMI at trial, to the in-house legal team of Stuart Rosen, Joe DiMona, Hope Lloyd and Reneé Wolfe, and to all of the BMI team members who gave of their time and expertise in contributing to this achievement.

I am excited for what’s ahead, and thank you for your continued support.

ASCAP also responded:

On Thursday, Judge Louis L. Stanton of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of BMI in its rate court proceeding with Pandora, setting the rate Pandora must pay BMI at 2.5% of revenue. In his decision, Judge Stanton cited market benchmarks ASCAP has long argued are relevant in rate court proceedings.

In response to the BMI ruling, ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams issued the following statement: “This decision is welcome news for music creators, but make no mistake, Pandora will stop at nothing in their ongoing effort to shortchange songwriters. ASCAP and the music community must continue to fight for the urgent reforms needed to enable all songwriters, composers and music publishers to obtain fair compensation for the use of our music.”

NMPA released this statement:

It is a positive first step to the entire publishing and songwriting community that Judge Stanton ruled in favor of BMI, requiring Pandora to pay them a higher percentage of its revenue. While still a small fraction of what music creators deserve, this decision sends a clear message that Pandora cannot continue to get away with growing its business on the backs of struggling songwriters – who deserve to be paid fair market value for their work. – NMPA Pres David Israelite