David Tolliver Extends Agreement With Three Hounds Music

/by

Pictured (L-R): Tom Harrison, CEO/Founder, Three Hounds Music; David Tolliver; Tyler Bell, GM, Three Hounds Music

David Tolliver has extended his exclusive publishing agreement with Three Hounds Music. Best known as half of the duo Halfway to Hazard, Tolliver is also a veteran songwriter. Along with co-writing the majority of Halfway to Hazard’s three albums, he has also had cuts by Tim McGraw, Jerrod Niemann, Brantley Gilbert, Wynonna, Neal McCoy and numerous others.

“I’m so happy to be part of the Three Hounds Music family,” Tolliver says. “Tom Harrison and Tyler Bell are good people, they believe in me and I’m looking forward to a great future with them.”

Three Hounds Music is also home to writers Sarah Beth Terry and Bobby Terry.

Kelly Bolton Named VP/Creative At Tape Room Music

/by

Kelly Bolton

Kelly Bolton has joined Tape Room Music as VP of Creative. The Lexington, Kentucky native joins the Tape Room staff after previous stops at Big Deal Music and Black River Publishing, where she served as Creative Director.

“I’m so excited to have Kelly on board. She’s the perfect fit for our roster and our staff and I look forward to watching her help our company grow. Go Big Blue!”, says Tape Room Founder Ashley Gorley.

“We are pumped to add Kelly to the family!  Her A&R abilities and passion for working with creatives made her an obvious choice as we continue building Tape Room Music,” says Blain Rhodes, Tape Room GM.

“I am excited to begin my next chapter at Tape Room Music, joining this innovative team created by Ashley and Blain. I can’t wait to get to work with the extremely talented writers.” says Bolton.

Gorley launched Tape Room Music in 2011 and since then, Tape Room writers have accounted for 16 No. 1 songs and numerous top ten singles by artists such as Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Keith Urban, Dustin Lynch and many more.  

Bolton can be reached at [email protected]

Given Music Publishing Enters Into Joint Venture With Gary Baker

/by

Pictured Back row (L-R): Jenny Hall, Creative Director, Given Music Publishing; Given’s Michael Hollandsworth; Given Music Founding Partner Cindy Owen and Gary Baker.
Front row (L-R): Danny Wilson and Graeme Hogg.

Given Music Publishing and Gary Baker’s Baker-san Music have entered into a joint venture deal, according to an announcement made today by Given’s VP/GM Michael Hollandsworth. The agreement reunites Baker and Hollandsworth, who worked together at both Fame Music and Zomba Music. The joint venture includes Baker-san writer/artists Danny Wilson and Graeme Hogg (Justin Bieber’s “Believe” and The Wanted’s “We Own the Night”) as well as writer/producer Matt Johnson.

“I’m very happy to be reuniting with my long-time publisher Michael Hollandsworth,” Baker said. “I’m excited about being a Given writer but equally excited about bringing the remarkable singing and writing talent of Graeme and Danny to the team. We are looking forward to getting in the studio and showing Nashville what a rare talent these guys really are. I’m just as proud to bring my long-time songwriting partner Matt Johnson to the team. I look forward to what the future brings at Given and working with the talents of Cindy Owen and Jenny Hall. This just feels like a perfect fit for me.”

Under Hollandsworth’s guidance, Baker and Frank Myers co-wrote one of music’s most enduring songs, “I Swear,” which was a multi-week No. 1 record on both the country charts (John Michael Montgomery) and the Hot 100 charts (All-4-One). The songwriters were also three-time ACM and CMA nominees for Vocal Duo of the Year as the recording act Baker & Myers. As a writer, Baker went on to have great success with the international pop act the Backstreet Boys, as eight of his songs appeared on a number of the group’s multi-million selling records. He has just finished producing a Special Edition Greatest Hits & Fan Favorites on the Backstreet Boys, set for release this fall. He will also be involved with writing for the band’s upcoming studio album, scheduled for release in 2019.

“Gary and I started our association over thirty years ago,” Hollandsworth said. “It’s a publisher’s greatest reward to connect with a young writer and see them go on to earn a Grammy award, write a Song of the Year, have hundreds of millions of record sales, produce a superstar pop act, and still have incredible momentum all these years later. This definitely has been one of the most rewarding partnerships of my career.”

Pictured (L-R): Owen, Baker, Matt Johnson, Hollandsworth and Hall.

Tucker Beathard Signs Pub Deal With Little Louder Music

/by

Pictured (L-R): Jefferson Brown – Little Louder, Taylor Lee Titus – Red Light Management, Mary Hilliard Harrington – Red Light Management, Tucker Beathard, Arturo Buenahora – Little Louder, Laura Wright Alexander – Kobalt Music Group, Jesse Willoughby – Kobalt Music Group

Singer/Songwriter Tucker Beathard has signed a new publishing deal with Little Louder Music. Beathard, best known for his former BMLG single “Rock On,” is currently working on new music.

Little Louder Music was founded by Arturo Buenahora Jr. and Eric Church.

“I’m most myself when I’m writing songs, it’s where I can be personal and really the way I’m most comfortable expressing my emotions,” said Beathard. “It’s been awesome getting to know the team at Little Louder Music, they just get me. I’ve learned a lot over the past few years and feel like I’ve been able to grow as an artist, so we are fired up for the world to hear this new music and to start building something fresh!”

AIMP Nashville Pubcast Launches Second Season

/by

AIMP Nashville has launched season two of its AIMP Nashville Pubcast.

Hosted by AIMP Nashville Board Member Tim Hunze of Parallel Music and sponsored by Jammber and SoundExchange, the podcast’s first episode features an interview with Tyler Hubbard, member of Florida Georgia Line and co-owner of Tree Vibez Music.

Future episodes, which will be posted weekly on Wednesdays, will feature writer-publishers Ashley Gorley, Jesse Frasure, Luke Laird, and Josh Osborne, among others.  Each week, Hunze sits down with music industry professionals to address topics such as Sync Licensing, Publishing Deals, Legislative Issues, Administration and A&R’s role.

Nashville Songwriters HOF To Welcome K.T. Oslin, Ronnie Dunn, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Byron Hill, Joe Melson

/by

Photo (L-R): Inductees Wayne Kirkpatrick, Byron Hill and Joe Melson; NaSHOF Executive Director Mark Ford; Inductees K. T. Oslin and Ronnie Dunn.

The latest inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame were announced during an event this morning (Aug. 7) in Nashville.

K.T. Oslin, Ronnie Dunn, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Byron Hill, and Joe Melson will be inducted during the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame gala slated for October 28 at Nashville’s Music City Center, according to an announcement from Pat Alger, chair of the organization’s board of directors.

These five writers and artists will join the current 208 members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Oslin signed to Elektra in 1981, which yielded two modestly-successful singles. By 1987, she had moved to Nashville and signed with RCA Nashville. Her self-penned song, “’80s Ladies” would earn the CMA Song of the Year in 1988. The same album also launched the singles “Do Ya” and “I’ll Always Come Back.” Her second album produced the singles “Money,” “Hey Bobby” “This Woman,” “Didn’t Expect It To go Down This Way,” and “Hold Me,” which earned a Grammy for Best Country Song in 1988. She was named SESAC’s Songwriter of the Year in 1988, 1989, and 1991. In 2014, she was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Hill moved to Nashville in 1978 and was signed with ATV Music group, where he wrote the songs “Pickin’ Up Strangers” (Johnny Lee) and penned George Strait’s first No. 1 “Fool Hearted Memory.” He left ATV in 1984, but continued writing hit songs, including “Born Country” (Alabama), “Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous” (Tracy Byrd), “Nothing On But The Radio” (Gary Allan) and more. To date, his songs have generated more than 700 recordings, he’s earned 91 RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum Awards, 10 ASCAP Awards, and more.

Kirkpatrick spent his early songwriting career penning hits including Michael W. Smith’s “Place In This World,” and Amy Grant’s “Takes A Little Time,” and “Every Heartbeat.” In 1996, Wayne’s “Change The World,” co-written and recorded by Eric Clapton, earned a Grammy for Song of the Year. In 1999, he played, sang, and co-wrote 8 of the 10 tracks on Garth Brooks’ Chris Gaines project. In 2001, Kirkpatrick began collaborating with Little Big Town, resulting in songs such as “Boondocks,” “Bring It On Home,” and “Little White Church.”

Melson’s early writing career was launched in the mid-1950s, when he met a then-unknown Roy Orbison. In 1960, their co-written “Only The Lonely” launched Orbison into stardom; the single would be entered into the Grammy hall of fame in 1999. In 1961, they co-wrote the smash hit “Crying,” with Orbison’s recording being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2002, Melson was also inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Dunn recorded with Kix Brooks as part of Brooks & Dunn from 1991-2011. Together, they earned the CMA Vocal Duo of the Year 14 times. Dunn is the sole writer on hits including “Neon Moon,” “Hard Workin’ Man,” “She Used To Be Mine,” “She’s Not The Cheatin’ Kind,” and “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” which earned the ACM’s Song of the Year honor in 1992. Dunn was BMI’s Country Songwriter of the Year in 1996 and 1998. Dunn was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

Downtown Music Publishing Acquires Rights To Alabama’s “Dixieland Delight”

/by

Downtown Music Publishing has added a classic hit to its catalog, having acquired 100 percent of the rights to “Dixieland Delight,” which was written by Ronnie Rogers and appeared in 1983 as the lead single from Alabama‘s The Closer You Get album.

The track has been covered by Tim McGraw and Old Crow Medicine Show, and has become a staple of football games around the Southeast.

“Modern music publishing is often equated with chasing the charts or signing a new artist,” said Andrew Sparkler, Downtown’s SVP Business Development. “While we’re extremely enthusiastic about our roster of active songwriters and the work of our global A&R team, we will always be humbled by the opportunity to represent iconic songs like “Dixieland Delight;” words and music that have stood the test of time and become such an integral part of the fabric of America’s diverse popular culture.”

Downtown’s Nashville office has been aggressively expanding its catalog in the past year, with the signing of John Prine, acquiring the catalogs of Major Bob Music and launching Songs Without Borders. In the past year, Downtown has had 11 singles on the country radio charts, including three No. 1 singles.

Natalie Hemby Inks New Publishing Deal

/by

Natalie Hemby

Natalie Hemby, known for penning No. 1 songs including “Downtown” (Lady Antebellum) and “Pontoon” (Little Big Town), has inked a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.

The Nashville native has also written chart-topping songs including Little Big Town’s “Tornado,” Miranda Lambert’s “White Liar,” “Only Prettier,” “Baggage Claim” and “Automatic,” in addition to 10 tracks on Lambert’s double-album The Weight Of These Wings. Other hits in Hemby’s catalog include Kelly Clarkson’s “Don’t Rush” (ft. Vince Gill), Justin Moore’s “You Look Like I Need A Drink,” “A Little More Love,” with Jerrod Niemann and Lee Brice, and the Labrinth hit, “Jealous.”

“Universal Music Publishing has always been a company not only passionate about music and songs, but also about the songwriters. I am beyond excited to be a part of such a dynamic group of people who are heartfelt and dedicated to their writers,” said Hemby.

“We’ve always had a deep admiration for Natalie’s writing and artistry. She is an extremely versatile tunesmith with a once in a lifetime voice who can balance hit songs with lyrical integrity,” said Kent Earls, UMPG Nashville’s Executive Vice President and General Manager. “Natalie is a dream come true and we’re elated she chose UMPG to represent her.”

In addition to writing hit songs for other artists, this singer-songwriter released the documentary and album Puxico in 2015. She co-produced and co-wrote the songs featured in the project. Last year, she opened shows for Faith Hill and Tim McGraw’s Soul II Soul Tour, as well as shows for Amy Grant and Gill. Most recently, she’s opened shows for Lambert and Little Big Town on their The Bandwagon Tour.

EXCLUSIVE: NSAI’s Bart Herbison Talks MMA Agreement, And Next Steps Toward The Senate Vote

/by

Bart Herbison

MusicRow spoke with NSAI’s Executive Director Bart Herbison on Friday, Aug. 3, to discuss the compromise to the MMA and how the industry is moving forward in support of the proposed legislation.

As previously reported on Thursday, Aug. 2, The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Songwriters of North America (SONA), and SESAC announced unconditional support for the Music Modernization Act (MMA). All parties endorsed a provision to the proposed legislation to amend the Mechanical Licensing Collective’s (MLC) administration of voluntary licenses outside the scope of the Section 115 compulsory license in order to ensure private vendors can continue to participate in the open market.

This amended provision in the agreement states the MLC will administer songwriter royalties on blanket mechanical licenses. For any direct mechanical licenses, those negotiated between a publisher or self-published songwriter and streaming services, the streaming service will select the administrator of those copyrights. These admin functions can be provided by the MLC, as well as other vendors such as the Harry Fox Agency, owned by SESAC’s parent company, Blackstone. This provision allows competition and free market to continue as part of the agreement. For other non-mechanical royalties such as synchronization and lyrics, the MLC will not administer those licenses.

Performance royalties will continue to be administered and licensed by the Performing Rights Organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC.

MusicRow: The announcement on Thursday (Aug. 2) that all parties are now fully on board was great for the industry. What are your thoughts in light of the announcement?

Bart Herbison: First I’m glad we are passed a family disagreement. Family disagreements are the hardest, because you love your family, and we love SESAC. Nothing has changed. SESAC is very important in our ecosystem and we need to already be passed this.

An overarching way to say it is that things beyond Section 115 of the license, we are not going to get involved in, and for the most part we never were. We always wanted to preserve the right for music publisher or self-published songwriter to make a direct deal with the services if they thought they could get a higher rate than the government. Under those circumstances, this clears the ability for anybody that the streaming services choose to administer those deals. I think that is also in the spirit of the bill. That preserves business for whoever can do the best job.

MR: What have those conversations within the industry been like since the agreement was announced on Thursday?

Since we’ve reached an agreement, I made it a point to reach out to SESAC songwriters yesterday, especially those that were vocal, to make sure they understood this and to make sure they understood that SESAC had a job to do, and that we have a job to do. All of the writers were grateful we had those conversations. I reached out to others who had been particularly vocal that we’ve moved on.

There had been differences in the direction of this bill for a few years. That includes songwriter groups, music publishers, other groups, performing rights societies, the record labels, before we ever got to the streaming companies and broadcasters and everybody else. There were differences philosophically as to where this bill should go. Unfortunately, this one became public. The rest of those did not.

NSAI has been criticized, not by SESAC, but by others for making compromises. Legislation is the art of compromise. As difficult as this has been, I don’t think there has been a greater art of compromise. At the end of the day, songwriters prevailed in most of those areas, and that’s what is important because our whole industry has suffered in the digital era, but nobody like the songwriters. So now there is a path forward to give us tools to change that with this bill.

MR: What hurdles are left going forward and what is the timeline for the Senate vote?

There are some issues left, and they are surmountable, definitely. There’s been progress made on all of those areas. I don’t see anything, personally, that prevents a vote on this during this session of Congress and passage.

Because there were changes already made in the Senate during their markup that the Senate Judiciary committee had, the House has to sign off on it one more time. The House is out until Labor Day. They come back briefly, then they take another week’s break, so my guess is you’ve got a window sometime between mid- to late-September until the November elections.

Congress’ two-year cycle ends this year. Next year there will be a new Congress, and we would procedurally have to start all over again.

MR: There has also been confusion regarding how songwriters will be part of the MLC board. Can you talk about the makeup of the MLC board?

There will be four songwriters with statutory seats on the Board. Those are self-published songwriters, and NSAI as well as other groups is already working on that process. Songwriters will pick the songwriters, period. Once the MLC’s up and going, we have to make sure that becomes a rule of the MLC and that will be the first motion I make sure songwriters bring, is that songwriters pick the songwriters.

There are 14 seats on the board, so 10 other seats will be publishing seats. I am confident that some of those will also be songwriters who are publishers. Look at this town, the hottest publishers in Nashville are either wholly-owned or joint venture companies owned by songwriters. I am confident that this will be a fair process. But we have to pass a bill before we select a board.

MR: What other misconceptions have there been about this legislation?

There has been a lot of misinformation about the big music publishers and complete lies about black box payments.

One of our finest hours at NSAI is that the unclaimed monies is based on your number of streams. Yes, publishers will get payments based on the streaming activities the writers they have earned during that period of time. If a songwriter owes the publisher, that will be recouped, and then they will get their money. This will be the first time that unpublished songwriters who are not members of NMPA will also get an equal share of these funds based on their streaming activities.

All along from the outset of this, there are two very important words: money and control for songwriters, so at different points in this legislative process, we’ve had to work through preserving that. And this agreement absolutely does that, it preserves the money going through the MLC, that songwriters control. Their money, they control…unless somebody chooses to do it in a marketplace.

 

Jaden Michaels Inks Publishing Deal With Sea Gayle Music

/by

Pictured (L-R): Brendan Rich (UTA); Lance Roberts (UTA); Nick Barnes (UTA); Marc Driskill (Sea Gayle Music); Robert Filhart (ASCAP); Jaden Michaels (artist); Christina Wiltshire (Sea Gayle Music); Brandon Gregg (Sea Gayle Music); JD Groover (Sea Gayle Music); Sara Schoch (UTA); Alec Vidmar (UTA); Bryan Vastano (UTA); David Nathan (Manager, DD Endeavors)

Singer-songwriter Jaden Michaels, sister of fellow artist-writer Julia Michaels, has signed a publishing deal with Sea Gayle Music. Jaden is finalizing details for new singles that will be released in the next year.

“I am so excited to be apart of Sea Gayle, I knew the second I met with Marc Driskill and the team that it was more than just a publishing deal for me, it was a home,” Michaels says. “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now!”

Sea Gayle Music Publishing’s VP/GM Marc Driskill adds, “When we first met Jaden and heard her music, we instantly fell in love. We are thrilled to be part of her incredible team and extremely excited about the impact she and her music are going to make!”