CMA Music Fest Special Wins Ratings

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martina

Martina McBride was one of the numerous performers on last night's show.

CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock won last night’s (8/31) ratings for ABC with 7.8 million viewers according to Zap2It.com. It came in first at both the 8 and 9 PM/ET slots, and second at 10 PM.

Year-to-year ABC’s CMA Music Festival special posted huge increases, jumping by +2.5 million viewers and by +43% over its year-ago telecast (on Monday 9/8/08). In fact the show generated its biggest audience in four years and tallied its highest Adult 18-49 rating in three years.

ABC had 7.8 million viewers and a 5.0 rating/8 share. Next in line for the night was CBS (6.9 million, 4.6/8), followed by NBC (5.6 million, 3.8/6), FOX (4.1 million, 2.7/4), and The CW (1.4 million viewers, 1.0/2).

The program was up against repeats on all the other networks. On CBS it was How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and CSI: Miami. NBC was showing reruns of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Dateline NBC. FOX had repeats of House and Lie to Me, while CW showed One Tree Hill, and Gossip Girl.

Sony Courts Kindle Readers

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sonyreader

Sony's readers: (L-R) The Pocket Edition ($199), e-Reader ($299) and the newly announced Daily Edition ($399) with 7" touch screen.

They say “those who do not study history are bound to repeat the same mistakes…” Well someone at Sony Electronics must be paying attention. Especially regarding how Apple came in and pushed Sony’s Walkman music players to the curb. Now Sony is trying to do the same thing to Amazon’s Kindle book reader.

Sony has just announced its Daily Edition electronic reading device. Readers can use the unit’s touch screen to swipe (turn) a page plus view pages both vertically and/or horizontal (2 at a time). Also significant is that, unlike the Kindle, this unit can download books from a variety of sources including free books from your local library, if you have a library card.

Kindle users are only able to download books from Amazon. iTunes at first used the digital rights management approach to keep iPods tied to its store, but later decided to eliminate the DRM restrictions, as did many other sites. The net result of no DRM was that the music and players became more platform independent, something which Amazon may now reconsider in response to Sony’s new offering. Sony is using the EPUB format which can be read by a variety of different readers, while Kindle uses a proprietary format that can only be read using the Kindle.

Amazon has also been under fire for its Kindle content deals with newspaper publishers who object to giving up 70% of the subscription generated revenue. Sony promises to do better, but has not yet revealed its plans.

Priced around $400, the Daily Edition is priced about $100 under the Kindle. The new device has a 7″ screen and uses AT&Ts 3G mobile broadband service for downloading. Other Sony offerings include the Pocket Edition ($199) and the Sony e-Reader ($299).

Chesney Pens ESPN Song, Heads For “Austin City Limits”

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chesneyIt’s widely known that Kenny Chesney is a huge football fan, and now he has put pen to paper and written a song about the game that will be used exclusively by ESPN this fall.

“It was one of those moments of spontaneous inspiration,” he recalls. “We were talking about how much goes into getting on that field, what it means to those guys out there… and Bill Bonnell turns to me and says, ‘You oughta write a song about it… ‘I mean, there we were at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse with [announcer] Brett Musburger, [sports analyst] Kirk Herbstreit and the head producer of ESPN Saturday Night Football on ABC [Bonnell]—and the next morning I’m gonna do College Game Day—and it just hit me! I asked for a cocktail napkin, and started writing the verses and the chorus.”

“This Is Our Moment” debuts across the ESPN properties, including their ABC network live college telecasts as part of Football Kickoff Weekend on Sept. 3.

Chesney is also set for PBS’s legendary concert show Austin City Limits, debuting Oct. 17. The special will feature stripped down performances of some of his biggest hits such as “Beer In Mexico,” “Summertime” and “Young.” Chesney also reaches into his more contemplative songs with “Anything But Mine” and the never before performed “Somewhere In The Sun.” Joining him are percussionist Drummie Zeb from the Wailers, and singer/songwriter Mac McAnally, who appears on the duet “Down The Road.”

CMA Names Awards Co-Hosts, Plans Tweet N Greet

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carrie-underwood-and-brad-pBrad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will return as co-hosts of the CMA Awards when the show airs live from the Sommet Center Wed., Nov. 11 on ABC. They are the respective reigning Male and Female Vocalist of the Year. See the full story at People.com.

Since Paisley won the Horizon Award in 2000, he has garnered 11 CMA Awards. Underwood also won the Horizon Award in 2006, and has gone on to claim a total of five CMA trophies.

The second round of voting for the awards ended yesterday (8/24) and the Final Ballot will be sent Fri., Oct. 16. Voting ends Tues., Nov. 3 at  5:00 PM/CDT.

Tweet ‘N’ Greet
In related news, the CMA will host its first-ever live Twitter feed on ABC.com, Monday, Aug. 31 (8:00 – 11:00 PM/ET), during CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock, airing on the ABC Television Network.

Fans can log on to see Tweets from artists including Trace Adkins (@traceadkins), Dierks Bentley (@dierksbentley), Lady Antebellum (@ladyantebellum), Martina McBride (@martinamcbride), Reba McEntire (@Reba), Kellie Pickler (@therealpickler), and the Zac Brown Band (@zacbrownband). Each artist will be posting their observations about the show as well as behind-the-scenes tidbits, anecdotes about other artists performing on the show, as well as memories from past Music Festivals.

“Twitter is one of the best ways right now to directly connect with fans – especially ones on the cutting edge of technology,” said Dan Bowen, CMA VP of Strategic Marketing and Communications. “We’re excited to work with ABC.com to be able to bring a great group of Country Music artists together with their current fans and hopefully some new ones.”

The “Tweet ‘N’ Greet” will create an interactive feed between the fans and artists. Fans will have a direct connection to some of their favorite performers, not only allowing them the opportunity to ask questions, but also providing them with behind-the-scenes access. In addition, CMA (@CountryMusic) will be updating fans with information on the participating artists’ upcoming album releases, tour dates, and appearances.

“CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock,” expanding to three hours for the first time, features high-voltage stage performances by chart-topping superstars, along with revealing special segments about fan favorites. Scheduled to perform are Adkins, Jason Aldean, Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Julianne Hough, Jamey Johnson, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, McBride, McEntire, Jake Owen, Brad Paisley, Pickler, John Rich, Darius Rucker, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, and Zac Brown Band. In addition, Kid Rock performs his smash hit “Picture” with McBride, while Wynonna and Naomi Judd reunite as The Judds to perform together for the first time at the CMA Music Festival in six years.

“CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” is executive-produced by Robert Deaton and directed by Gary Halvorson.

Carroll Makes Video, Darling Chats, Ingram Tries For World Record

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jmc

Carroll searches for a runaway in his new video "Hurry Home."

Jason Michael Carroll’s latest video, “Hurry Home,” tells the story of a father anxiously awaiting word from his runaway daughter. Carroll portrays a friend helping search for the missing girl.

The story hits close to home because when he was a child, Carroll’s aunt was missing for more than 15 years after running away. “I felt that if we were going to make a video for ‘Hurry Home,’ it was important to try to do something to help, even in a small way,” he says, “and that’s why we chose to include information at the end of the video about the National Runaway Switchboard.”

The video for “Hurry Home” is online now at www.jasonmichaelcarroll.com.
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CMT.com will be streaming live as country star Jack Ingram attempts to break the world record for most radio interviews in a 24-hour period beginning Tuesday, August 25 at 8:00 a.m., ET.  A first for CMT.com, the website will have video and audio of this event live from New York City as Ingram conducts 215 total back-to-back radio interviews during this time. CMT Radio Live host Cody Alan will conduct the final interview with the singer as the event concludes on Wednesday morning. The live stream will be available beginning Tuesday by going to CMTLive.CMT.com.

This event is to promote Ingram’s new album Big Dreams and High Hopes, out tomorrow (8/25).

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sarahdTomorrow (8/25) Black River artist Sarah Darling will conduct a live, on-line chat for fans. The chat will take place at 7:00 PM (Central) on Darling’s StickAm page. Fans can connect via www.sarahdarling.com. Questions are now being accepted at [email protected].

Love And Theft’s Multimedia Launch Week

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Love And Theft's Brian Bandas, Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson played their hit single "Runaway" on NBC's top-rated morning program the TODAY SHOW and were excited to meet host Kathie Lee Gifford. Love And Theft's debut album, World Wide Open, will be in stores Tuesday.

Love And Theft's Brian Bandas, Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson played their hit single "Runaway" on NBC's "Today Show" and were excited to meet host Kathie Lee Gifford. The band's debut album, "World Wide Open," will be in stores Tuesday.

With their debut album World Wide Open set for release tomorrow (8/25), Love And Theft’s Brian Bandas, Eric Gunderson and Stephen Barker Liles are preparing for a jam-packed launch week.

In addition to their Friday (8/21) performance of their Top 20 hit “Runaway” on NBC’s Today Show, Love And Theft can be seen in coming episodes of CMT Insider, CMT Top 20 countdown, GAC’s Headline Country and GAC’s On The Streets.

Release week for the Carolwood Records album kicked off with a performance at a radio station show in Atlanta Sunday night after which the band returned to Nashville for four days of satellite radio tours, set to stream live on AOL’s “The Boot.” The remainder of the week will include a visit to Sirius XM’s Music Row Happy Hour along with more satellite radio tours, radio station visits and concert appearances in Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.

Various stores will have different limited edition versions of World Wide Open. Stephen, Brian and Eric spent tens of hours on buses, airplanes and in hotel rooms autographing the signature edition that can be found in Target stores. At Wal-Mart and walmart.com the album will contain a code to download demo/acoustic versions of three songs. And the CDs at Best Buy will contain a poster of Love And Theft inside the package.

Online outlets will also offer up some love from Love And Theft. At iTunes fans who download the full album will receive two previously unreleased bonus tracks. Amazon will offer up a bonus track as well.

Love And Theft has also created an exclusive website for its first record. With a visit to www.worldwideopencd.com, fans can preview and pre-order the album, access free Love And Theft wallpaper and buddy icons, participate in a “Tweet Your Love” contest and register for a wake up call from the band.

Fans can also text the word ‘WAKEUP’ to 66937 on their cell phone to register to receive a phone call from the band on Tuesday morning, release day. Love and Theft even made a commercial for the album, and the code can be found at www.youtube.com/loveandtheft.

Social Media: Revolution Or Fad?

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This video presents a strong case for the “Revolution” answer…

MusicRow Strategy Swells Stats

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twitterMusicRow.com is pleased to announce it has been enjoying record-setting traffic. Recent weekly page views from the week of August 10 jumped over 35% compared with the week of July 20.

The record for most number of views in a single day was established on July 28 topping over 5,600 and then reset again slightly higher on August 13. Another top tier traffic level was scored Aug. 17 becoming the site’s best-ever Monday.

Based upon ongoing results, total August 2009 views are expected to leap 53+% compared with the total June 2009 views.

facebook1MusicRow Publisher David M. Ross attributes the traffic spikes and overall surge to the publication’s new content strategy and social network marketing. “Positioning content in the appropriate venue has been key,” says Ross. “Our marketing interviews, sales analysis and other proprietary features are going into the subscriber-only @Musicrow morning reports, aimed at our most professional readers. The more general stories and press release items wind up online, open to all.”

Ross also points to Twitter and a Facebook Fan page as playing a role. “We’ve been nourishing our Twitter presence for a long time,” says Ross, “and it’s been well worth the effort and time we’ve invested. Currently we have over 9,050 followers. We’ve been careful to build trust with the people from all over the world that have elected to tune into our news feed and encourage all our readers and friends to join the fun (www.twitter.com/musicrow).

“Info distributors are facing many of the same challenges and engagement issues as the entertainment industry we cover,” says Ross. “It’s all about staying ahead of the curve, and giving our readers the content they need—when they want it, how they want it and in whatever format they want it. We’re very blessed to have so much support.”

Strait’s Sales, CMA’s Songwriters Series, Redmond’s New Company

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straittwangAs reported in this morning’s @MusicRow sales analysis article, George Strait’s new release is the top selling album in the U.S. this week. Twang debuted at No. 1 today on The Billboard 200 and the Top Country Albums chart selling over 155,000 units. This is the fourth time in Strait’s career that a new release has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and the 13th time debuting at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart.

King George co-wrote three songs on the MCA Nashville album, including the debut single, “Living for the Night.” His son Bubba also scored some writing credits. To view a rare on-camera interview with Strait, click here.

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Chuck Wicks

Chuck Wicks

The CMA Songwriters Series hits New York City once again as Joe’s Pub welcomes an evening with some of Nashville’s finest songwriters on Wednesday, September 9 (6:30 and 9:30 PM/ET). It will be hosted by renowned tunesmith Bob DiPiero (“Blue Clear Sky,” “Can’t Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl”), and other participating songwriters include Chuck Wicks (“Stealing Cinderella,” “All I Ever Wanted”), Marv Green (“Amazed,” “Wasted,” “It Just Comes Natural”), and Ashley Gorley (“All American Girl,” “Don’t Forget to Remember Me,” “You’re Gonna Miss This”). Tickets are $25 each. For information about Joe’s Pub or to order tickets, visit www.joespub.com.

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Joe-Redmond-07

Joe Redmond

Joe Redmond has launched Redmond Promotional Services in addition to retaining his position as a promotion executive with Nashville-based Edgehill Music & Media. His extensive experience in record promotion includes senior posts at Warner Bros. Records Nashville, Mediabase, MJI Broadcasting, Lofton Creek Records, Robbins Nashville and Imprint Records. Redmond began his career in radio, working throughout Louisiana as a station manager, sales manager, operations manager, PD and MD.

Redmond Promotional Services has already secured three clients. It will specialize in tracking and analyzing information about song activity at radio, including chart numbers, adds, stations spins, syndication and frozen playlists. It will strive to deliver that information in an easy to understand package.

MySpace Purchases iLike, Stops Auto-Song Play

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myspace-logoMySpace has purchased music based social networking site iLike for an estimated $20 million. The sites will continue to operate separately but will begin sharing technology, such as iLike’s search capabilities, syndication network and discovery tools. MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta says the acquisition is about technical talent, as well as promoting MySpace across the broader social web.

Brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi founded iLike in 2006. It eventually grew to be the largest music application across all social networks with 55 million total users and 1.5 billion monthly impressions. The Partovis will stay on at the company.

In related MySpace news, the company expects to save a significant amount of money in licensing fees by turning off the feature that makes music play automatically whenever the site is visited. Reports say the company is spending around $10 million a month on paid streaming of songs, with autoplays accounting for a billion or more streams per month. It is expected that stopping this feature will give artist handlers more accurate listening data. Some users and MySpace execs saw this as one of the site’s distinguishing features. Accordingly, users can still opt-in to autoplay songs.