In Pictures: BMI’s Third Annual Maui Songwriters Festival

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Pictured (back row, L-R): Danny Goodfellow, Woody Harrelson, BMI songwriter Micah Nelson, Steven Tyler, BMI songwriter Casey Beathard, Claudia Goodfellow, Storme Warren, BMI Icon Bob DiPiero, BMI songwriters Jon Pardi, Luke Dick, Ed Roland, and Randy Houser; (front row L-R): BMI Songwriters Lukas Nelson, Lily Meola, Maren Morris, Willie Nelson, Ashley McBryde, and Heather Morgan. Photo: Courtesy BMI [CLICK TO ENLARGE]

Several songwriters and artists escaped Nashville’s chilly temperatures to attend BMI’s third annual Maui Songwriters Festival Nov. 29-Dec. 2 in Hawaii.

The three-day festival included intimate sets from an all-star lineup including headliners Eric Church, Maren Morris and Jon Pardi, and country music hitmakers Bob DiPiero, Casey Beathard, Lee Thomas Miller, Ed Roland, Ashley McBryde and Randy Houser.

The event was hosted by Storme Warren of Sirius XM’s The Highway and a portion of the proceeds benefitted Dorvin and Betty Leis Charities, Inc., the Maui Arts & Cultural Center and the BMI Foundation.

Pictured (L-R): Stan Cohen, Allison Warren, Storme Warren, BMI’s Nina Carter, and Woody Harrelson. Photo: Courtesy BMI

Pictured (L-R): Songwriters Ashley McBryde, Ed Roland, and Heather Morgan gather at BM’s Maui Songwriters Festival. Photo: Courtesy BMI

Eric Church performs at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center during BMI’s Maui Songwriters Festival. Photo: Courtesy BMI

Maren Morris performs Saturday, December 2 at the Maui Arts and Culture Center at the Eric Church and Friends show during BMI’s Maui Songwriters Festival. Photo: Courtesy BMI

CMA’s New Artist of the Year, Jon Pardi, performs during BMI’s Maui Songwriters Festival. Photo: Courtesy BMI

Legendary songwriter and BMI Icon Kris Kristofferson makes a surprise appearance with Eric Church at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center during BMI’s Maui Songwriters Festival. Photo: Courtesy BMI

Randy Houser performs during BMI’s Maui Songwriters Festival. Photo: Courtesy BMI

Pictured (L-R): Audience member brought up to play guitar with Ed Roland, Bennett Dean Lewis, and Maren Morris. Photo: Courtesy BMI

ole Inks 360 Deal With Singer-Songwriter Austin Jenckes

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Pictured (L-R): John Ozier, ole, VP Creative; Ben Strain, ole, Sr. Creative Director; Singer/​Songwriter Austin Jenckes; Emily Mueller, ole, Creative Director; Mike Whelan, ole, Sr. Creative Director; Catherine Fogarty, ole, Creative Administration Coordinator

ole has inked a worldwide 360 deal with Nashville singer-songwriter Austin Jenckes. The deal includes exclusive publishing and recording rights and exclusive admin of properties on YouTube.

Duvall, Washington native Jenckes relocated to Nashville in 2012 and has penned songs including Lee Brice’s “American Nights,” and the track “Same Beer Different Day” from Jenckes’ own upcoming album.

A talented songwriter his credits include, “American Nights,” from the forthcoming self-titled Lee Brice album. Jenckes also recently released the song “Same Beer Different Day” from his upcoming album and plans for extensive touring throughout the coming year.

“We are pleased to welcome Austin to the ole family,” said ole VP Creative, John Ozier. “We look forward to working with him and seeing him have continued success.”

“I feel very fortunate to have found a home base where I can create music. Thanks to Neil Mason, John Strohm, Ben Strain, John Ozier and all the folks at ole for making this possible,” said Jenckes of the deal.

Exclusive: Centric Entertainment Launches Align Music Group With Abbey Adams

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Abbey Adams

Centric Entertainment has launched the publishing and recording group subsidiary, Align Music Group, led by former Sony/ATV Sr. Creative Director, A&R Abbey Adams.

The company is currently in the process of building out its artist/writer roster, with new signings to be announced in early 2018.

Adams, a 2016 MusicRow Rising Women on the Row honoree, says Align Music Group will have a strong focus on creating new, beneficial approaches to artist development and publishing.

“I want to create situations where I can do some extremely artist-friendly deals and I feel with being an independent company, we can do that,” Adams tells MusicRow.

Centric Entertainment is the latest venture from entrepreneur Larry Beckwith, who also co-founded Iconic Entertainment Group with Fletcher Foster.

“We’ve been fortunate to attract some of the best talent in the industry to lead within our companies,” Beckwith says. “Fletcher continues to do a phenomenal job at the helm of Iconic, and I’m confident that Abbey will do the same with Align.”

“At this level, we have to go into it with as low of a risk as we can, asking everyone involved, artists and producers, to take a risk on themselves as much as we are taking on them, and make it really affordable on the front end and give everybody more on the back end, to make it worth their time. We are trying to do deals that include publishing and masters—deals that allow us to do it in a low-risk way—but also to invest in different aspects of the artists. I want to look at it as an indie label, in as much as we have to do to get them—streaming, building social media following, getting them on the road to connect with fans, and really being intentional with their artist branding. It makes it a lot easier to present artists to the labels for those partnership opportunities or to upstream them to a major label when you can say, ‘This is the following they have created. It’s ready for you to take it to the next level.’”

Align Music Group currently operates from the WeWork co-working space located at One Nashville Place (150 4th Ave. N.).

Adams’ previous career roles include time at Sony/ATV and Blacktop Music Group. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University.

For more information, contact info@alignmusicgroup.com.

Exclusive: Concord Music Announces New Nashville Location

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Concord Music has expanded into a new office space located at 1201 Demonbreun Street, also home to the relocated Sony Music Nashville offices and the WME Nashville offices. Staff members from Concord Music labels Rounder Records and Sugar Hill Records have also moved from their previous Nashville locations into the new space.

Jim Selby, Concord Music General Manager

Additionally, Concord’s Chief Publishing Executive, Jake Wisely, has relocated to Nashville, as has Concord Music’s Chief Operating Officer Glen Barros and Concord Music’s Chief Financial Officer Bob Valentine. They are some of approximately 30 Concord staffers who have relocated to Nashville thus far. Barros says the company plans to continue adding to its Nashville-based staff.

“We are trying to make a significant resource of people in Nashville,” Barros tells MusicRow.com. “It’s a combination of people moving here and filling open positions here. It may be that someone has a position in L.A. or New York and if they leave, then we will fill that position in Nashville.”

Concord Music occupies 21,000-square feet on the sixth floor of the 15-story building on Demonbreun, which is located in Nashville’s Gulch area. The new office’s airy, open concept layout is outfitted with two performance spaces and views of downtown Nashville.

 

Jake Wisely, Chief Publishing Executive, Concord Music Publishing. Photo: Beth Herzhaft

“We put the offices on the inner side so everyone can enjoy the views,” Concord Music’s General Manager Jim Selby says. “In fact most of the cubicles have better views than the offices, because they are against the windows. The offices are smaller than what you would typically see, but the idea is you use the whole space. There are breakout areas and lounges and a cafeteria. A lot of people actually have meetings there. We wanted people to use the entire space, so you can have department meetings and company meetings and there are smaller private spaces for phone calls and private meetings.”

The plan to expand the Nashville operations began two years ago.

“As we started integrating companies, it became apparent that having people centrally located between L.A. and New York would be beneficial to many people so from an operational perspective it came from having people all over the country,” Chief Financial Officer Bob Valentine says.

Glen Barros, Concord Music Chief Operating Officer. Photo: Beth Herzhaft

He continues, “It’s becoming more and more expensive to do business in those states, and it’s becoming harder for people to live in those cities and retain talent. Because we are in an industry that this town specifically has focused on so much, it became a long-term planning process, and we started thinking about other towns we may want to move our operations to. Nashville naturally came out in the conversation. There are a lot of people here already in the music industry, so if you are moving positions here, you’ve got a great pool of talent to draw from already and that’s not necessarily true in any other city other than New York City or Los Angeles.”

Bob Valentine, Concord Music Chief Financial Officer

The Nashville expansion comes on the heels of Concord’s recently-announced international representation of Dolly Parton’s publishing ventures, and as Americana-flavored music has seen a surge on the sales charts in recent years.

“The whole Americana scene is really expanding. We felt that a few years ago when we moved Rounder from Boston to here and of course adding Sugar Hill, so it’s just a continuation of that,” says Barros.

David Israelite Inks Five-Year Extension Deal With NMPA

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The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) Board of Directors have announced that David Israelite has accepted a five-year contract extension to continue his role as President and CEO through 2022. David joined NMPA in 2005 after serving in senior positions at the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate.

“David has led NMPA into a new era of recognition of the value of songwriters and music publishers,” said NMPA Board Chairman Irwin Robinson. “He has brought songwriter struggles to the forefront of the debate, and he is leading the charge for creators to be treated fairly by working to modernize laws and policies that govern the music industry.”

Israelite added, “Serving music publishers and songwriters as NMPA’s President and CEO has been the greatest honor of my career. Working with the NMPA Board is a privilege, and I am grateful that they have asked me to continue leading the fight on behalf of all songwriters and music publishers.”

Israelite is responsible for overseeing all aspects of NMPA’s operations, from legal strategy and implementation to government affairs and advocacy. NMPA’s legal program has amassed over $600 million for songwriters and music publishers.

Prior to leading NMPA, Israelite held high level posts in various capacities for the U.S. government including at the Department of Justice where he was appointed Chairman of the Department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property and in the U.S. Senate where he was chief of staff for Missouri Senator Kit Bond. Israelite earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri and his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College. David lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two daughters.

Rezonant Music Publishing And Wrensong Publishing Enter Into Joint Venture Deal

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Rezonant Music Publishing and Wrensong Publishing have joined forces to partner in a co-publishing joint venture deal. The announcement was made today by Rezonant CEO Tim Wipperman and Wrensong Owner/President Ree Guyer.

Rezonant Music Publishing was established in 2016 by founding partners and publishing veterans Wipperman (Nashville) and Garry Velletri (New York), along with financial consultant Alan Walter (Los Angeles). The company’s roster includes Ross Copperman, Kevin Kadish, Hillary Lindsey (in partnership with BMG,) Jake Scherer and Isaac Fox, and Matt Jenkins’ catalog (in conjunction with Combustion Music).

“I have great respect for Ree and the publishing company she and her father Reyn created in 1983,” Wipperman said. “Ree has guided the careers of many talented songwriters who have written some of country music’s most memorable songs. We can’t wait to see what additional milestones we can accomplish together.”

Wrensong/Reynsong/ReHits was established by father/daughter team Reyn and Ree Guyer. Ree Guyer moved to Nashville in 1985 after celebrating her first No. 1 song, “Little Things,” written by Billy Barber and recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys. The catalog has had three CMA/Grammy songs of the year: “Where’ve You Been,” “Whiskey Lullaby” and “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye,” and has also had 24 No. 1’s.

“Working with Tim and his incredible team at Rezonant will be the next great story for Wrensong,” Guyer said.  “While we will remain in our current location, and will continue to operate as a small boutique publisher, partnering with Rezonant will give our current roster and those writers we sign in the future a deeper reach.”

Dolly Parton Inks International Deal With Concord Music Publishing

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Dolly Parton. Credit: Fran Stine

Concord Music Publishing, the newly consolidated music publishing operation of The Bicycle Music Company and Imagem Music Group, has entered into an exclusive international publishing agreement with country entertainer and songwriter Dolly Parton.

The agreement, covering the UK, Germany, France, Latin America and other key territories around the world, includes Parton-penned classics such as “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5,” “Jolene,” “Two Doors Down” and hundreds of songs in Parton’s Velvet Apple Music catalog.

“Dolly Parton is simply one of the most important and influential artists in popular music history,” says Concord Music’s Chief Publishing Executive Jake Wisely, who recently relocated to Nashville from Los Angeles. “We’re extremely grateful for this opportunity to work with her and her team and protect her incomparable legacy.”

Over the course of her 50 years in music, Parton has enjoyed diverse career roles including singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist. She has earned 25 RIAA-certified Gold, Platinum and multi-Platinum awards, and 26 No. 1 country songs. Parton has had 42 Top 10 country albums and 113 charted singles in her career. She has topped 100 million records sold worldwide, and has earned eight Grammy honors, 10 CMA Awards, five ACM awards and three AMA awards. She is one of only five female artists to win the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year honor, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

“I am very proud and honored to be represented by such a capable and prestigious company as Concord Music Publishing. As I’ve always said, my songs are my children and I expect them to support me when I’m old and I’m expecting [Concord] to help me with that. I feel very confident that this is a perfect partnership,” Dolly shares.

Concord Music has offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Cleveland, London and Berlin. Following the combination of The Bicycle Music Company and recent Imagem Music Group acquisition, Concord’s publishing activities now count more than 380,000 copyrighted works, spanning nearly all musical genres. Concord Music’s publishing is managed via Bicycle, Boosey & Hawkes, Imagem, Razor & Tie Music Publishing and Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Concord Music’s recorded music portfolio contains more than 10,000 active album recordings and includes 244 GRAMMY winners and 371 titles that have been certified by the RIAA as either Gold, Platinum, multi-Platinum or Diamond. Concord Music’s record labels – Concord Records, Fantasy Records, Fearless Records, Loma Vista Recordings, Razor & Tie (including Kidz Bop) and Rounder Records – collectively release more than 100 new recordings per year within numerous musical genres. Concord Music’s historical labels, which are managed by its Craft Recordings division, include such storied imprints as Milestone, Musart, Nitro, Pablo, Prestige, Riverside, Specialty, Stax, Telarc, Vee-Jay and Wind-up.

Disney Music Group Signs Johnny Dibb

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Pictured (L-R): Josh Tomlinson (BMI), Austen Adams (Dickinson Wright PLLC), Ciara Shortridge (Disney Music Group), Johnny Dibb, Leslie Roberts (BMI), Dustin Kovacic (Dickinson Wright PLLC), Sarah Schumacher (DMG)

Johnny Dibb has entered into an exclusive worldwide agreement with Disney Music Group, announced by Mio Vukovic, SVP A&R/Head Of Creative.

Originally from Plymouth, England, Dibb grew up in Social Circle, Georgia after moving to the U.S. when he was 5 years old. A multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, he began producing music at 15, and became involved in leading worship at churches around Atlanta through his high school years. He moved to Nashville at 17 to attend Belmont University where he studied music business and production.

Dibb says, “I’ve been waiting on this for a while – having a passionate team behind me that is going to push me forward and help me become the best songwriter I can be. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and I’m extremely honored to be a part of such an amazing company.”

Pictured (L-R): Peter Lloyd (DMG), Barbara VanderLinde (DMG), Dibb, Mio Vukovic (DMG), Brandon Kitchen (DMG)

Dean Dillon Movie Preview Attracts George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney

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Pictured (L-R): Dean Dillon, George Strait, Robert Earl Keen, Cole Claassen (film director). Photo: Jon-Paul Bruno

A new songwriter documentary has been released.

Tennessee Whiskey – The Dean Dillon Story chronicles the songwriting and influences of legendary BMI tunesmith Dean Dillon.

“There’s a lot of people that go to Dean for songs,” cited George Strait in the film. “But I don’t know how many of ’em have his songs on every record they ever recorded.”

In addition to appearances by Strait in the film, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Kix Brooks, Robert Earl Keen and Sony/ATV’s Troy Tomlinson were cited.

During an exclusive industry gathering at the Franklin Theater on Tuesday, Nov. 14, A-list Nashville talent gathered surrounding the film. Among them were Leslie Satcher, Jeffrey Steele, Pam Tillis, Brandy Clark, Rory Feek, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Stapleton, Chesney, and Strait with his wife Norma. Hosted by the film’s director Cole Claassen, BMI and Sony/ATV, the VIP cocktail reception and preview began with a short welcome from the man of the hour.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think anything like this would ever happen, to be quite honest,” said Dillon. “I want to thank my way-better half, Susie. And most of my kids are here tonight—that’s important to me.” Strangely, no family member interviews notably stood out in the 80-minute film.

Claassen and Dillon met at the Mountain High Music Festival in Mount Crested Butte, Colorado.

“I said, ‘Dean, let’s make a movie about you. I want to tell your story.’ He hemmed-and-hawed and finally said, ‘Let’s do it,'” said Claassen. “This is a highlight of my career and life. I appreciate Dean and Susie for letting me in their life. I am humbled to have that opportunity.”

BMI Icon songwriter Dillon has written more than 26 No. 1 songs, with the majority of those recorded by his longtime friend and “King of Country” George Strait, including “The Chair,” “Nobody in His Right Mind Would’ve Left Her,” “Ocean Front Property,” “Famous Last Words of a Fool,” “I’ve Come to Expect It From You,” “If I Know Me,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “She Let Herself Go” and “Living for the Night.” Dillon also wrote the classic “Tennessee Whiskey,” most recently popularized by Stapleton.

The film is available for rent or purchase in iTunes.

Tennessee Whiskey: Official Trailer from Cole Claassen on Vimeo.

Round Hill Music Teams With Music Licensing Company Zync Music

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Round Hill Music has partnered with music licensing and publishing company Zync Music, which specializes in music sync placements in film, advertising, television, trailers, sports and video games. Zync Music is known for its work with emerging independent artists. The two companies have also launched a joint venture publishing business to support and expand Zync’s rights representation business and to offer funding for developing and signing new publishing deals with new artists.

Zync’s LA team is lead by sync & publishing veteran Marisa Baldi (formerly of Universal Music Publishing) who heads up the West Coast operations, and Zync founder Sanne Hagelsten (formerly of Ultra Records) who heads up the East Coast Operations.

Under the new arrangement, Zync’s creative team will remain intact and work alongside Round Hill’s sync staff. Baldi and Hagelsten will co-head the combined sync teams with offices in NY, LA, and Nashville.

“We cannot be more excited about Zync, Powered by Round Hill!” says Zync CEO Hagelsten. “We are so happy to find a partner who shares our passion for music and appreciates the importance of strategic synchronization. This collaboration means more opportunities to bring great music and amazing artists to our friends in the sync world. Round Hill’s funding guarantees financial resources for our creative team to continue developing and expanding an incredible roster. It also adds the benefit of Round Hill’s publishing and administration expertise.”

“We are extremely proud of the reputation we’ve established as curators of cutting edge music,” says Zync CEO Baldi. “Round Hill’s worldwide network of resources gives us the ability to dramatically grow our business, while maintaining what has made us successful – our boutique, hands-on, personalized service. As music fans, we feel this is such an incredible fit and auspicious time to join forces, as we now get to represent Round Hill’s ever-growing catalog of multi-genre classics and hits. We look forward to signing (and syncing) great music together, in a climate brimming with possibilities.”

“The synergy between the Zync frontline and the Round Hill catalog is compelling. Zync has arguably the best synchronization in the business and Round Hill can further back up our claim that we excel in sync. We are thrilled to have Sanne and Marisa, and the entire Zync staff, join the Round Hill family,” adds Round Hill Music CEO Joshua Gruss.