Ashley Monroe Celebrates Release at SXSW

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(L-R): Mark Robinson, VP Business Affairs, WMN; Justin Luffman, VP Brand Management, WMN; Ashley Monroe; John Grady, Manager, Crush Management; and Tree Paine, SVP Publicity, WMN

Pictured at SXSW. (L-R): Mark Robinson, VP Business Affairs, WMN; Justin Luffman, VP Brand Management, WMN; Ashley Monroe; John Grady, Manager, Crush Management; and Tree Paine, SVP Publicity, WMN


Ashley Monroe’s Warner Bros. solo debut entered the country sales chart at No. 10 today (March 13) with sales of 11k units. She celebrated the release of Like A Rose with a string of performances at SXSW in Austin, TX. Monroe performed last night to an excited crowd at the MTV/VH1/CMT Edge Stage, and made an appearance at The Warner Sound Stage earlier today. She will perform Friday, March 15 at the BMI Acoustic Brunch and the Crush Management Showcase at Vice Bar.
Monroe and Leno

Monroe and Leno


On Monday night (March 11) Monroe made the national TV premiere of her current single “Like A Rose” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. See the video here.
The critically-acclaimed Like A Rose, produced by 20-time Grammy award-winner Vince Gill and Justin Niebank, features songs written by Monroe and many of Nashville’s A-list tunesmiths.
Monroe has another new album in the hopper as part of trio Pistol Annies with bandmates Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley. Annie Up will be released May 7 via Sony Music Nashville and the lead single “Hush, Hush” was shipped to radio this week.

Nashville Signings

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Singer/songwriter Danika Portz from Remsen, Iowa has signed with Grin Like A Dog Songs in partnership with Green Hills Music Group for music publishing and career development. “I am thrilled to be working with Danika – she’s a unique artist with passion, intelligence and vision,” said Steve Mitchell, President of Grin Like A Dog Songs.  “Plus she is such a joy to work with,” adds Woody Bomar, President of Green Hills Music Group. Said Portz, “I am so excited and blessed to have found such a wonderful team.”
Green Hills Music Group was founded in 2007 and has recordings by Hunter Hayes, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Jake Owen, Bucky Covington and Luke Bryan.
Grin Like A Dog Songs publishes songs recorded by Joe Nichols, Kassie DePaiva of ABC’s One Life to Live, Canadian artist Sean Hogan and Christian artist Suzzette Michaels.

Pictured: Woody Bomar (Green Hills Music Group), Danika Portz, Steve and Leslie Mitchell (Grin Like A Dog Songs). Photo by Pam Boylan.

Pictured (L-R): Woody Bomar (Green Hills Music Group), Danika Portz, Steve and Leslie Mitchell (Grin Like A Dog Songs). Photo by Pam Boylan.

• • •

Amber Hayes

Amber Hayes


A-OK/GMV Nashville artist Amber Hayes has entered into an exclusive booking agreement with Nashville-based talent agency and marketing firm, Conway Entertainment Group.
“I first met Amber when she was performing with the Conway Twitty Musical in 2008. I’ve always been impressed by her talent and am excited about working with her and the opportunities ahead,” said Conway Entertainment Group President, Tony Conway.

To book Hayes or learn more about Conway Entertainment Group, contact 615-724-1818 or visit http://www.conwayent.com.
• • •
Greg Barnhill has inked a worldwide publishing deal with SB21 Music Publishing. Barnhill joins Steve Pasch, Kris Bergsnes, Brian White, Phil Roselle, Jayce Hein, Mike Sprinkle, and artist -writers Thomas Tillman and Jacob Martin on the SB21 roster.
Songs penned by Barnhill include “Walkaway Joe” (Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley), “House of Love” (Amy Grant and Vince Gill), “It Ain’t The Whiskey” (Gary Allan), and numerous others. He penned “It’s A New Day” for The Today Show, “A Lot Happens Early” for CBS’ The Early Morning Show, “Be There,” the theme for NASCAR, the Today Show theme “Your Day Is Today,” and other works for Tennessee Titans, Nashville Predators, Atlanta Braves, The View, Growing Pains, Baywatch, Crown Royal, among others.
Pictured (L-R): Todd Pachey, Greg Barnhill and Steve Pasch.

Pictured (L-R): Todd Pachey, Greg Barnhill and Steve Pasch.

 

 
 

Weekly Register: Captain, New Releases Ahead!

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yellowmoonAs I peer through my journalistic telescope like a scraggly third mate lashed to the crow’s nest atop a windblown vessel, I’ve finally spied good news!
“New releases ahead Captain, new releases ahead…”
Yes, regular Weekly Register readers have heard me complain about the dearth of new product since the start of the year, but now the pendulum is about to swing the other way. In fact, even the Washington Post is writing about new Nashville music this week—and it’s about time because country YTD album sales are down almost 5%.
WP’s Chris Richards writes, “Time to scrub that ‘I like all kinds of music, except country’ line off your OkCupid profile.” Thank you Chris. The article lauds this week’s new release from Ashley Monroe, (Pistol Annies member) but also mentions a bevy of new females soon to offer up some tasty musical wares. Richards mentions Kacey Musgraves, Kelleigh Bannen, Gretchen Wilson and Natalie Maines (yes the same) as having upcoming product. Richards left out the sizzling Maggie Rose who is also destined to light up playlists and sales charts this spring. Richards notes, “a cascade of discs from female country singers plotting to dominate annual best-of lists eight months down the road.”
weeklygrid3-3-13But it’s not just the ladies that are coming to this dance. The gents will also be on the sales floor in full force. During the next month or so we’ll see new music from Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and Eric Church. Now that’s a musical buffet I look forward to stuffin’ into my headphones. Groups like The Band Perry and Thompson Square are also on the list.
So now that you’ve heard the good news about the future, let’s move to the present…
Doin’ Some Album Math
The Mavericks, returning from an extended absence, have released In Time which landed at No. 8 this week on the Current Country Top 75 (14k units). And the legendary Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell teamed for Old Yellow Moon at No. 4 with almost 16k debut units.
weeklygrid2-24-13Taylor Swift, whose quotable Vanity Fair interview is apparently packed with comments about her expanding love life and a pointed diss at Golden Globe hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, again tops the country chart with about 24k units. Swift, now more comfortable than ever in the media spotlight, remains country’s most bankable brand. Red is the highest ranking Nashville music on the YTD Albums w/TEA list.
vanityFlorida Georgia Line (No. 2; 22k), Tim McGraw (No. 3; 19k), Little Big Town (No. 5; 16k), Jason Aldean (No. 6; 15k), Hunter Hayes (No. 7; 14k), Gary Allan (No. 9; 13k) and Carrie Underwood (No. 10; 13k) round out the Top 10.
Tracks Back Jack
Love is in bloom as we near the spring and nowhere is it more evident than on our Digital Genre Country chart where lovebirds Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert occupy the top two spots. Mr. Shelton leads with about 74k units and Miranda trails with almost 49k.
Also in the tracks derby it’s nice to see Lady A’s No. 4 “Downtown” gaining momentum and moving up 5% over last week to about 48k units.
Well now that I’ve reported the new releases are on the way, I can finally climb down from this damn crow’s nest and get me some strong grog…. stay tuned…

Weekly Register: Please Release Me…

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The first quarter sales theme remains the same this week. Actually, spell it weak, because that best describes country’s timid YTD release schedule.
A glance at the Country Current Top 75 shows there are only three 2013 releases even in the Top 20!: Tim McGraw (No. 2; 178k RTD), Gary Allan (No. 6; 206k RTD) and Randy Houser (No. 13; 55k RTD). In fact, YTD country album sales are now down a disturbing -5% compared with the same period last year. (All-genre album sales are during even worse, down -7.2%)
weeklygrid2-24-13So while a big chunk of the inaction at weekly registers (according to Nielsen SoundScan) is most certainly due to a lack of binbuster albums, it is also surely the result of shrinking shelf space, and growing scarcity of physical product in the stores. Digital download album sales are growing both as absolute numbers and as a percentage of total album sales, but is that enough to compensate stakeholders for the physical losses? (As the Weekly Grid shows, country digital album sales are ahead almost 30%.)
weeklygrid2-17-13Figuring The Math
So how does the math work? Last year after 8 weeks, country had sold 5.739 million albums compared with 5.451 million this year. That is a drop of .288 million or about a $2.88 million dollar shortfall using a retail average of $10.
Tracks are up however. 2013 country track sales increased to 27.4 million vs. 25.7 million in 2012 or a difference of 1.7 million tracks at $1.29 which equals $2.2 million. Cutting the loss in album revenue by the gain in track revenue leaves us with an estimated combined album and track revenue shortfall of about $700k YTD. Of course not all tracks are sold for $1.29 and not all albums sell at $10 anymore. (Current album releases will usually sell for more than catalog which can exacerbate the revenue problems from a slow release schedule.)
Returning to our example however, since about 12% of the year’s total country album sales are realized within the $700k loss, when expanded to represent a full year the shortfall could actually end up being about 8 times larger or around $5.6 million.
This is a good reason to start priming the release pump. (See the upcoming release schedule and how it heats up at the end of March, here.)
Or as they used to say in record label executive class 101, you have to put out records if you are going to make money.
Tracking
Country tracks hold few major surprises this week in the upper reaches. Labelmates Blake Shelton and Hunter Hayes switched places in the top two spots with Mr. Shelton on top this week. Lady Antebellum’s “Downtown” is zig zagging through chart positions but has surprisingly lost downloads since it debuted in the No. 2 position with about 72k downloads three weeks ago. (Last week it moved to No. 7 with 47k and this week it is at No. 4 with 46k.)
The late Mindy McCready surfaced on the country tracks list with “Ten Thousand Angels” (No. 31; 12k) and “Guys Do It All The Time” (No. 39; 10k). Also noteworthy is Florida Georgia Line holding the No. 8 and No. 9 positions for “Cruise” (41k) and “Get Your Shine On” (40k), respectively.
Play The Video
So let’s end this week’s column with the legendary Engelbert Humperdinck singing his immortal favorite… “Please Release Me…” and hope it puts label marketing departments in the mood…

YouTube video

Slight Revenue Increase For Int'l Recording Industry

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ifpicover

Click to see the full report.


The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) released its annual Digital Music Report.
Report highlights:

  • Global recorded music industry revenues increased by an estimated 0.3 percent in 2012, the first year of industry growth since 1999, to US $16.5 billion.
  • Digital revenues increased by an estimated 9 percent to US $5.6 billion in 2012, now accounting for around 34 percent of global industry revenues.
  • Download sales increased in volume by 12 percent globally in 2012 and represent around 70 percent of overall digital music revenues.
  • The number of people paying to use subscription services leapt 44 percent in 2012 to 20 million.  Subscription revenues are expected to account for more than 10 percent of digital revenues for the first time in 2012.
  • Digital channels account for the majority of record companies’ income in an increasing number of markets including India, Norway, Sweden and the US.
  • Digital retailers’ rapid global expansion is opening up the potential for markets such as Brazil and India, to become major sources of future industry growth. At the start of 2011, the major international services were present in 23 countries. Two years later, they are in more than 100 countries.
  • Digital music consumption has become mainstream, as shown by consumer research by Ipsos MediaCT across nine markets in four continents. Two-thirds of internet users (62%) have used a licensed digital music service in the past six months. Among younger consumers (aged 16-24) this figure jumps to 81 percent.
  • Consumer satisfaction with licensed music services is high. 77 percent of users of licensed services rate them as excellent, very good or fairly good. 57 percent of those who use unlicensed services believe “there are good services available for legally accessing digital music.”
  • Many non-digital revenue channels are also increasing. Performance rights income increased in value by an estimated 9.2 percent in 2012 and now accounts for around 6 percent of overall industry revenues, up from 3 percent in 2007.
  • The recording industry annually invests 26 percent of its trade revenues (U S$4.5 billion) in developing and marketing talent.
  • IFPI estimates, based on data from Nielsen and ComScore, that as many as a third of all internet users (32%) still regularly access unlicensed sites.
  • Advertising is a major source of funding for unlicensed music services worldwide. Major brands should no longer consider it acceptable to help fund illegal music sites.
  • The music industry wants search engines to prioritize search results relating to licensed services. However, searches for the names of popular artists followed by the term “mp3” still return a large number of results for illegal sources on the first page.
  • Internet service providers (ISPs) have had a demonstrable effect on levels of copyright infringement on the internet when required to act. For example, in five European countries where ISPs were required by courts to block access to The Pirate Bay (Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Italy and UK), usage levels fell 69 percent during 2012 (ComScore/Nielsen). By contrast, in countries without the block, traffic rose by 45 per cent over the same period.

chart

Kobalt Beefs Up Label Services Division

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Karen Lieberman

Karen Lieberman


Kobalt Label Services continues to expand operations with the addition of Shari Segalini and Karen Lieberman, who also works with Kobalt Music Group. They are the latest executives to join the company which has added more than 50 employees globally in less than two years.
KLS, the division of Kobalt which offers recorded music marketing and distribution services, recently announced the opening of its New York City office.
Lieberman has been appointed VP Digital Strategy and Marketing. Based in New York, she will report to Richard Sanders, President of Kobalt Music Group, and Paul Hitchman, Managing Director of Kobalt Label Services.
In addition to directing and implementing marketing campaigns for Kobalt Label Services, Lieberman will support new initiatives that promote and expand revenue opportunities for Kobalt Music Publishing clients.
Shari Segalini

Shari Segalini


Lieberman comes to Kobalt from Sony Music Global Marketing where she was VP of Global Marketing.
Segalini has been hired as SVP of Sales, North America, overseeing sales campaigns. She reports to Hitchman.
Segalini was previously VP of Field Sales at RED Distribution. Prior to RED Distribution she was a longtime VP of Sales at RCA Records.
One of KLS’s first major releases was Push the Sky Away by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, which came out earlier this month. Releases from the company’s Nashville office could follow.

Digital Weblinks: Apple and Google Eye Streaming Services

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google• • • According to the LA Times and Financial Times, Google is in talks with the majors to launch a streaming music service similar to Spotify. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has its own streaming service in the works.
apple
• • • Songwriters are getting more love from iTunes. The latest iTunes update, version 11.0.2, includes a new Composers view. After installing the update, the view doesn’t display automatically, users have to select the option under the Preferences menu. The update also includes a redesigned Store, a new MiniPlayer and more.
• • • The New York Times offers an interesting look at revenue paid by streaming services.
• • • Spotify will soon be available via an app in Ford cars, according to the New York Times.
• • • Sprint will unlock the radio chip in its phones which will allow the hardware to pick up terrestrial signals. Charlie Cook has the story on MusicRow.com.
• • • A new RIAA report states Google has failed to follow through with its plan to lower the search ranking of sites that are known copyright infringers.
• • • The implementation phase of the Copyright Alert System (CAS) began this week. ISPs will receive notices of alleged P2P copyright infringement and forward those notices, or Copyright Alerts, to consumers. Alerts are meant to educate rather than punish, and direct consumers to legal alternatives.

Strickland Named Exec. VP and GM, Warner Music Nashville

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Peter Strickland

Peter Strickland


Warner Music Nashville’s Peter Strickland has been promoted to Executive Vice President and General Manager, WMN. In his new role, Strickland will help oversee day-to-day operations of WMN’s country division. He previously served as Sr. VP, Brand Management & Sales and will continue to report to John Esposito, President and CEO, WMN.
“Throughout two decades of loyal and outstanding service to Warner Music’s country division, Peter has demonstrated his amazing skills at creative marketing and sales. He also has shown the ever so important ability to have outstanding and trusting relationships with our artists,” said Esposito. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him as a partner in helping to take WMN to the next level.”
“When I started with Warner Music Group nearly 25 years ago, I could have never imagined it would lead me to this exciting path,” said Strickland. “I am truly honored to have my contributions recognized by my Nashville family, and cannot wait to help lead my label cohorts into WMN’s next era of success and innovation.”
Strickland first joined Warner Music Group as a Field Representative for Warner/Elektra/Atlantic (WEA) Distribution based in Boston, Mass. He moved to Nashville in 1995, with his wife, Linda and children, to accept a position as Regional Sales Manager for Warner Bros. Records, and went on to serve as both National Sales Director and Vice President of Sales/Marketing for Warner/Reprise Nashville, prior to being named Sr. VP, Brand Management & Sales. Strickland also serves as the de facto general manager of comedy imprint LoudMouth Entertainment, and executive produced Jimmy Fallon’s 2013 GRAMMY Award-winning Comedy Album of the Year, Blow Your Pants Off.

Weekly Register: Growth Needs New Releases

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hunterThis week’s sales were buoyed by the Grammy Awards and Valentines Day. But after inspecting the weekly register receipts you realize how hard it is to sustain growth without new mainstream releases, and new mainstream country releases have been in short supply YTD.
Tim McGraw’s week two of his newest disc was helped by the Grammy Awards and therefore only dropped 56 percent, less than the 62 percent or so that might normally be expected. Taylor’s Red benefited with a 106 percent jump which moved it to No. 1 with almost 72k units. But even with the holiday and the Awards (which featured lots of country talents), the Top Country Current chart failed to pass the 500k total mark. However, it did edge up from last week’s 394k to 457k this week.
The Weekly Grid tells the sad tale in brief fashion. Country albums are down almost 5 percent and all genre album sales are off YTD 6.2 percent. Just like the cold winter weather we have been suffering, it will likely be late March before the charts begin to thaw in a big way.
weeklygrid2-17-13In the meantime, YTD country downloads (+7.1 percent) continue to be a bright spot. Buying a single song often happens quickly, on impulse, which may explain why tracks this week were even with last week. A large share of the Grammy purchases happened during and immediately after last week’s Sunday evening show and therefore showed up on last week’s numbers which did spike 18 percent. So staying even W/W (in this case) is actually quite good.
If you haven’t already noticed, Hunter Hayes is becoming the new artist to watch. His song “Wanted” moved to the top of the Digital Genre Country tracks list with over 84k downloads and a jump of 31 percent. Labelmate Blake Shelton was close behind the young prodigy with 74k.
Filling out the Top 10 country tracks were:
Carrie Underwood/Two Black Cadillacs/60k (2.64 million)
The Band Perry/Better Dig Two/57k (1 million)
Carrie Underwood/Blown Away/55k (1.9 million)
Tim McGraw/One Of Those Nights/52k
Lady Antebellum/Downtown/47k
FGL/Cruise/44k (2x platinum)
Gary Allan/Every Storm/42k
Taylor Swift/We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together/3.38 million
Next week (Feb. 26), albums will hit the stores from newcomer Jaida Dreyer, The Mavericks and Curb’s Plumb.
Stay tuned…

iTunes Song Sales Pass 25 Billion

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itunesThe 25 billionth song was purchased from the iTunes Store recently. As the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store, iTunes averages over 15,000 song downloads per minute.
The iTunes Store has a catalog of over 26 million tracks and is available in 119 countries.
Who is the lucky music fan that purchased the 25 billionth song? Phillip Lüpke from Germany, who will receive a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card as a prize. His purchase was the track “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch.