Tim McGraw, Faith Hill Prep New Album, Single

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill will release their latest collaboration, “Speak to a Girl,” to country radio at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 23. Subsequently, the new single on Arista Nashville, will be available to download and stream.

The track, penned by Shy Carter, Dave Gibson and Joe Spargur, and co-produced by Byron Gallimore, McGraw and Hill, will serve as the lead single from a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill album to be released by Sony Music Entertainment later this year. The couple announced their signing with the label last month.

McGraw and Hill will perform “Speak To A Girl” on the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, April 2.

Craig Wayne Boyd Inks Deals With Copperline Music Group, Reviver Entertainment Group

Pictured (L-R): Gator Michaels, Will Edwards, Craig Wayne Boyd, Rusty Harmon

Craig Wayne Boyd, winner of Season 7 of NBC’s The Voice, recently signed with Copperline Music Group, and has enlisted Reviver Entertainment Group for radio promotion, and BDG/RED for distribution.

Copperline Music Group is led by Rusty Harmon and producer Will Edwards. Best-known for his work with Hootie and the Blowfish, Harmon also runs Harmon Music Management. Reviver Entertainment Group, led by David Ross, also includes Reviver Records, Reviver Label Services, Reviver Publishing, Reviver Productions and 1608 Promotion.

“Will and I are both excited and fortunate to be working with Craig and his world-class fan base. With the addition of Reviver, we are preparing to release Craig’s first LP since winning The Voice,” Harmon said.

“Craig Wayne Boyd is an artist that his fan base is very passionate about, and I believe the music he is working on will excite them very much – in addition to adding many more fans to the fold,” said Ross.

During his run on the The Voice, Boyd hit the charts with his versions of such classics as “Old Rugged Cross,” “I Walk The Line,” “You Look So Good In Love,” and “Workin’ Man Blues.” After winning The Voice, Boyd was previously signed with BMLG’s Dot Records and released the single “My Baby’s Got A Smile On Her Face.” As a songwriter, he spent three years as a staff writer for EMI Publishing.

 

Jerrod Niemann, Lee Brice, Delta Rae To Play Westwood One Backstage At ACMs

Cumulus Media and Westwood One are presenting two days of backstage audio and video coverage and performances at the ACM Awards with Lee Brice, Mo Pitney, Jerrod NiemannDelta Rae and Walker McGuire on “Westwood One Backstage at the ACM Awards.” The show will feature exclusive private backstage performances from the artists and will be held at Lucky Live Lounge at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday and Saturday March 31 and April 1. Delta Rae will kick off the celebration on Thursday night, followed by Walker McGuire’s backstage performance on Friday, and the trio of Lee Brice, Mo Pitney, and Jerrod Niemann on Saturday.

“Seldom do you have this many superstars assembled in one location,” said Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Corporate Marketing for Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One. “We are honored to have country music’s most popular artists perform exclusively for us. It makes our backstage live experience even more special for our affiliates, brand partners and guests.”

The shows will serve as a finale for Westwood One Backstage at the ACM Awards Radio Row, where over 90 country artists will engage with more than 25 of the top country stations in the U.S. Cumulus and Westwood One are the official radio partners for the ACM Awards, which will air on April 2.

Weekly Chart Report (3/17/17)


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Weekly Chart Report (3/10/17)


Click here or above to access MusicRow‘s weekly CountryBreakout Report.

Jack Purcell Joins EM.co

Jack Purcell

Jack Purcell has joined management company EM.co as Sr. VP, Radio Promotion & Marketing. Purcell was previously Big Machine’s Sr. VP/Promotion.

In his new role, Purcell will “create and implement radio strategy” for EM.co’s artist roster, which includes Tim McGraw. The deal also involves working with Sandbox Management client Faith Hill.

“We are thrilled to add Jack to the EM.Co and Sandbox teams,” said Sandbox’s Jason Owen and EM.co’s Scott Siman. “He is one the most awarded radio executives and highly respected people in the industry and we look forward to working with him closely on new projects.”

Purcell joined Big Machine in 2006 as VP, Promotion and rose through the ranks to his current position in 2012. His career has also included 17 years at Warner Bros. and time at Adium/Koch.

Kris Lamb Named VP, Promotion For Big Machine Records

Kris Lamb

Kris Lamb has been named Vice President of Promotion for the Big Machine Records imprint, effective immediately.

“Kris has been on a mission since the day he joined Big Machine as a regional in 2010,” said BMLG President/CEO Scott Borchetta. “There’s nothing that I love more than young, smart, aggressive employees coming into the system and working their way to the top. I am so proud of Kris Lamb! This next chapter of his career is going to be the most prolific yet. Tighten your seatbelts…”

“To have the opportunity to take the promotion helm of Big Machine Records is a dream come true,” said Lamb. “Being reunited with the incredible staff and artist roster of one of the most dominate and respected labels on the planet is the opportunity I’ve been preparing myself for since I was a young executive. I cannot thank Scott Borchetta, Andrew Kautz, Jimmy Harnen, and the entire staff of Big Machine Label Group enough for their trust and belief. The next chapter for Big Machine Records starts NOW.”

Lamb has been an invaluable member of the BMLG team over the past seven years with past roles including Senior Director of West Coast Promotion for Big Machine Records and most recently Vice President of Promotion for Dot Records. He has been integral in developing the careers of Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Steven Tyler, Rascal Flatts, Maddie & Tae, Drake White and Tucker Beathard.

He can be reached at 615.846.7750 or via kris.lamb@bmlg.net.

Weekly Chart Report (3/3/17)


Click here or above to access MusicRow‘s weekly CountryBreakout Report.

CRS: ‘MusicRow’ Panel Station KZPK Discusses Small Market Promotions

CRS hosted a session called Objects Are Larger Than They Appear: Small Markets That Do Big Things on Friday (Feb.24). The panel included Sony Music Nashville’s RG Jones along with Jesse Garcia and Erica Ogle from WBYT FM – Federated Media, South Bend, Indiana, and JJ Holiday and Stephanie Theisen from MusicRow CountryBreakout panel station KZPK – Leighton Broadcasting in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It was moderated by Tom Baldrica.

Garcia and Ogle from WBYT talked about their annual B100 Birthday bash and how they grew the event from a small crowd of around 5,000 to an annual event that welcomes close to 40,000 people each year.

KZPK hosts an annual CMA Awards party at a local venue that has become a big part of their yearly non-traditional revenue events. Listeners win tickets to watch the CMA awards live with food, drinks, and sponsor prizes available.

The common theme from this panel was that even small market radio stations with small budgets can put on big events that benefit the station, the listeners, and the client.

“It has taken many years of building this event to make it where it is today,” said Garcia about their B100 concert. “But we continue to learn and continue to make it bigger every year.”

KZPK’s Holiday recalled having to work hard to “sell” the event to sponsors when they first launched the event. “Now we have businesses calling us wanting to be a ticket stop and sponsor.”

Amazon Music Predicts Future, Offers Insights During CRS

Amazon’s Ryan Redington at Country Radio Seminar. Photo: Twitter/CRS Official

In a predictable but necessary juxtaposition, Country Radio Seminar (CRS) welcomed Amazon Music’s Director, Ryan Redington, to speak to radio executives about how his digital service employs in-house curators and deliveries personal DJ experiences.

CRS’ Executive Director, Bill Mayne explained the prudent decision to bring CRS attendees up close with streaming music, assuring Garth Brooks’ appearance the previous day (Feb. 23) was “not a package deal” with Redington’s featured speaker slot—”completely coincidental.”

After exhaustively discussing pricing tiers, Redington explained Amazon Music’s relationship with country music.

“What was fascinating for us, and why I think Bill reached out to us, is engagement for country on [Amazon Music] has been incredibly strong,” said Redington. “We have a few ideas why. We still have physical music and we’ve built a very welcoming [streaming] product for those particular customers.”

Redington went on to note Amazon’s country station is the No. 1 station across their entire service. He compared Amazon Music statistics to un-cited “industry standards,” which he said showed different customers have chosen different services and Amazon works well with county music fans.

“We wanted to capitalize on those strengths, and when we looked at the landscape, there was one artist that had yet to move into the streaming space and just so happened to be the No. 1 selling solo artist of all time: Garth Brooks,” said Redington of his 2016 deal with Brooks.

The 45-minute program continued, mostly promoting its Echo. Valuable was information about Amazon’s Side-by-Side feature—built for a new album release. The exclusive promotion pairs audio commentary from artists with selected tracks to offer behind-the-scenes, insider info directly from the artist.

Redington concluded with Amazon’s outlook for the future of music consumption for the home and car.

Ryan Redington

“As we look forward, we [want to] bring streaming into the home,” said Redington. “You really don’t understand the friction a product creates when you have to walk in a house and want to listen to an on-demand streaming service: you have to unlock your phone, log in, choose Bluetooth/plug into receiver, find playlist/song and play. If we put an Echo in your kitchen and you get home from work and say, ‘Alexa, play music,’ the amount of music we see them listen to grows exponentially. The lack of friction is similar to jumping into a car and turning on the radio.

“We believe the next wave of on-demand/purchased music, streaming business, is going to be through the home and your voice being the vehicle that drives that next big phase.

“Interesting for people in the room is, what happens with voice in the car? As you think about radio with respect to your businesses and voice that impacts your future, and how you think about technology can fundamentally change how you think about music and build your catalog. It’s not just going to affect Amazon, but it will affect different industries over time, if voice does what we believe it’s going to do.

“The big takeaway from today is: as technology evolves, you have to rethink about what you’re going to do to meet the customer demands.”