Charlie Daniels Releases Christmas Album

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Buffets, Inc. and Country icon Charlie Daniels have partnered to launch a new Christmas album called Hallelujah It’s Christmas Time Again, which is already in stores.

Available exclusively in Buffets, Inc. restaurants (Ryan’s, Old Country Buffet, HomeTown, and more) for $8.99, Hallelujah… includes a mix of holiday classics and originals including “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Hallelujah,” and more. Profits from the sale of the album will be donated to the Armed Services YMCA for Operation Outdoors, a camp program for the children of military personnel.

“The Buffets, Inc. brands are providing a way to celebrate Christmas through music and help the children of our military at the same time,” says Daniels. “It’s important to remember the reason for this season.”

Find restaurants here.

Weekly Register: Awards Bump Becomes A Minor Convexity

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As the dust settles on the post CMA Awards SoundScan numbers and one of the most contested Presidential elections in history, it’s hard to assign perspective. Fortunately, in this space we only have to deal with the former event and can leave the latter to pundits better suited to that pursuit.

The 46th CMA Awards reaped its lowest ever ratings last week due to events such as the power blackout in New York and New Jersey, the program’s move to Thursday night and perhaps somewhat due to the overall erosion of network TV audiences. Regardless, it still won the evening for ABC and creatively was extremely successful. But how did it reflect at the cash register?

The Awards were a major force in the week’s sales, but one also has to allow for the fact that Taylor Swift’s 1.2 million unit album launch happened the week before the show, (and luckily pre-hurricane Sandy). Swift’s 72% post-launch drop this week clouds our numbers giving the post-awards country album sales a highly unusual week over week drop of 40%. However, if we compare this post-awards week (1.165 million country albums) with two weeks ago (1.054 million) then country sales are up about 10.5%. Still tepid, especially when you consider Swift’s week two sales of 344k are in the post show numbers.

Happily the Awards show did propel some artists to phat week/week percentage gains. But those numbers can also be misleading. For example, Eric Church jumped 121%, but actually gained only 12,371 units. Blake Shelton’s Red River Blue spiked 179% which equates to 5,389 additional sales units; Luke Bryan saw an 87% uptick on 11,233 additional sales. Considering the costs involved in putting an artist and band on the show, these increases are less joyous than the percentages would indicate. The Top 5 album gainers by percentage (all Awards performers) were Miranda Lambert +194%, Thompson Square +184%, Blake Shelton 179%, Brad Paisley +153% and Eric Church +121%.

Also noteworthy in the album department was a debut from Toby Keith (he did not appear on the Awards show) at No. 3 with over 48k units. (Keith’s last debut was around 69k.) And what’s that holiday “bundle” at No. 20 with almost 5k units? It’s a QVC two-album package from Scotty McCreery.

Keeping Track
Country tracks had some nice gains to report with a 25% overall week over week jump. Miranda Lambert/Blake Shelton Song of the Year winner “Over You” was downloaded over 38k times, racking up an impressive 974% gain. The Band Perry performed “Better Dig Two” causing it to debut on the country tracks at No. 2 with over 82k downloads. Swift led the country tracks with “We Are Never…” scanning over 87k units. Her performance of “Begin Again” placed that track at No. 11 with almost 40k units.

The Kelly Clarkson/Vince Gill duet, “Don’t Rush” performed on TV debuted at No. 10 with over 41k units and CMA Award winner Thompson Square’s “If I Didn’t Have You” debuted at No. 12 with almost 39k units.

There are now four Taylor Swift tracks charting on the Billboard/SoundScan all genre list that are purposely being withheld from the country tracks chart. Those four songs currently account for total sales of about 935k units that are not being credited in country coffers. Still no explanation from either Billboard or SoundScan. Perhaps it’s time for the CMA, country music’s trade organization to step in and request clarification.

Turning The Telescope
Eight weeks remain in the 2012 sales calendar. Country sales are currently ahead 2.3%. To end the year flat, we will need to average 1.17 million country album units each week. This week ended 11/4/12 we shifted 1.16 million units. Stay tuned…

Industry Ink Wednesday (11/7/12)

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Warner Music Nashville hosted a cocktail party prior to the BMI Country Music Awards on Oct. 30. Pictured (L-R): Frankie Ballard, Krista Maria, Damien Horne, Nick Hoffman (The Farm), Charlie Worsham, John Esposito (President, Warner Music Nashville), Jana Kramer, Scott Hendricks (SVP of A&R, Warner Music Nashville), Hunter Hayes, Chris Stacey (SVP, Promotion, Warner Music Nashville), Rachel Reinert and Tom Gossin (Gloriana)

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Luellyn Latocki Hensley is moving her award-winning firm, Latocki Team Creative, to her home at the beginning of 2013. With a decade of experience, she specializes in art direction, graphic design, image alignment and brand management. She can continue to be reached at 615-298-3533 or [email protected].

Maggie Berry, Senior Graphic Designer with Latocki Team Creative, will continue to work with Latocki Hensley on a contract basis and will be accepting additional freelance opportunities. Her diverse design background in digital and print media spans 13 years. She can be reached at [email protected].

In related news, Luellyn and James Hensley welcomed son, Niles “Rocket” Hensley on July 30, 2012, weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces and 21.5 inches long. Little Rocket and his family are doing great.

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Save the date: The 21st Annual Tin Pan South will be held April 1-6, 2013.

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Following Sony/ATV’s acquisition of EMI, here are a few updated email addresses:
Tom Luteran – [email protected]
Josh Van Valkenburg – [email protected]
Hannah Post – [email protected]
Mike Scheidman (admin) – [email protected]
Seth Johnson (catalog) – [email protected]

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Joe Kustelski has been named CEO of Etix. He is co-founder and head of product and technology at Rockhouse Partners, a digitally focused entertainment agency based in Nashville, which was acquired by Etix in January 2011. Kustelski’s Rockhouse co-founder, Tawn Albright, will become Executive Vice President for Etix in addition to continuing to manage and grow Rockhouse’s operations.

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The second annual Touring Career Workshop at Soundcheck Nashville (Annex) will be held Mon., Nov. 19 from 6-10 p.m. Admission is free. The event was founded by Chris Lisle (Chris Lisle Lighting Design) and Erik Parker (Lighting Director for Billy Currington). There will be a keynote session from Ed Wannebo (Production Manager for Kenny Chesney) and featured panelists include: Troy Von Haefen (Financial Planning), Joy Black (Tax Planning and Accounting), Shane Hamill, Sara Hamill, Patti Lisle (Navigating Relationships on the Road), Eric Elwell (Your Career is a Business), Debbie Carroll and Stephen Navyac (MusiCares® and Stress of the Road), Chris Lisle (Getting Into Touring), and RJ Stillwell (Health Insurance). The event will be followed by a Networking Afterparty at 3Crow Bar. www.touringcareerworkshop.com.

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Sarah Zimermann and Justin Davis of Striking Matches were invited to become honorary “Friends and Family” members of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum. Striking Matches recently released a self-titled debut EP, recorded with Grammy winning producer Luke Wooten. The duo will have a song featured on the ABC series "Nashville" in coming weeks. Pictured back row (L-R): Pamela Johnson (Vice President, Development), Mike Sistad (ASCAP), Kyle Young (Museum Director), John Grady (Crush Management and CMHoF Board Member), Cyndi Forman (Universal Music Publishing Group), Andrew Cohen (Crush Management), Marc Rucker (Crush Management), Jay Orr (Vice President, Museum Programs). Seated: Sarah Zimermann and Justin Davis

 

Miranda Lambert Joins “got milk” Campaign

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Miranda Lambert is the latest celebrity to join the popular National Milk Mustache “got milk?” Campaign. The ad campaign was unveiled yesterday (10/31) at a press conference at the Country Music Association.

Lambert makes a point to eat breakfast every day, either at home or on her tour bus and sets the table with milk. The ad copy reads “Fine tune your morning. got milk? Nourish every day.”

Visit thebreakfastproject.com or www.facebook.com/milkmustache for more information.

(L-R): Melissa Malcolm, Field Marketing Manager, MilkPEP; Katie DeGenova, Marketing Manager, MilkPEP; Miranda Lambert; and CMA Chief Executive Officer Steve Moore. Photo: Christian Bottorff

BMLG Promotes Kelly Rich

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Kelly Rich

The Big Machine Label Group announced the promotion of Kelly Rich to Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Interactive. Previously VP of the department, Rich will further lead sales and marketing efforts for the label’s roster which includes Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Reba, The Band Perry and many more.

Since Rich joined the label in 2006, BMLG has achieved over 27 million album sales. Her most recent accomplishments include Swift’s new album, RED, and work with key physical and online retailers to achieve major marketing presence across multiple media platforms. Additionally, Rich has been named a Billboard Women In Music honoree twice.

“Kelly arrived right around the release of Taylor’s first album – right when the company was taking flight,” said Scott Borchetta, President and CEO of BMLG. “She has been instrumental in making sure we didn’t miss any opportunities in the retail space from day one and helped establish us as real and respected players in an extremely competitive environment.”

Rich is an industry veteran with over 22 years of experience in marketing and sales. Previously, she was the Vice President of Sales for Universal Music Group Nashville and was a part of the Dreamworks and BMG/Arista sales team.

Weekly Register: Swift’s “Red” Becomes State-Of-The-Art Marketing Textbook

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It’s not easy to grab top headlines during a week loaded with Awards, label restructuring and a massive hurricane, but Taylor Swift is used to making the difficult look easy. This week the Big Machine international superstar became the first female artist of the SoundScan era to have two million-selling album weeks. Red scanned 1.208 million units this week. About 38% of that total was in digital format. (Swift’s Speak Now logged 1.047 million 10/31/10).

The blockbuster marketing ballet which helped accomplish this exceptional feat will no doubt be discussed and dissected in label boardrooms across the country in the coming weeks. It included high-profile partnerships with Walgreens and Papa John’s Pizza plus dozens of other brands and a Nashville radio remote. Swift worked the tube tirelessly—Letterman, Good Morning America, The View, Ellen DeGeneres, Katie Couric and there were layers of social and traditional media. Dropping the album on Monday allowed an extra sales day.

Orchestrated like a major movie release, the impressive Red marketing campaign has written itself into the music industry record books as a state-of-the-art album sales textbook.

Swift also dominated across other charts. In the tracks department she scored 13 entries on Nielsen SoundScan’s Top 200 Digital Tracks chart and was all over the Digital Genre Country tracks chart (the country chart only lists some of her tracks due to Billboard’s recent decision to dictate what is and isn’t country music). The singer/songwriter also owned the Top 3 positions on the Top Catalog Country Albums chart.

In the end, Swift’s dramatic showing plus week two for Jason Aldean (Country No. 2; 116k) and a holiday debut from Lady Antebellum (No 3; 25k) upped YTD country sales from last week’s -2.4% tally to a +1.4% adding a welcome dose of good news to an already event-filled week.

Swift Super-Serves Radio and the Fans

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This week at MusicRow The Taylor Tribune, we have the understanding that Big Machine Label Group doesn’t do anything halfway. Case in point: no-stone-unturned, full-throttle launch of Taylor Swift’s fourth album Red, which hit stores Oct. 22 and will undoubtedly shift a mind-boggling number of units in the process.

To aid Red’s launch on the radio side, Big Machine hosted a unique remote broadcast event on Friday (10/26) that was designed to super-serve Swift-friendly markets with a whole batch of exclusive content and prize giveaways (guitars, food, etc). Surrounded by a gorgeous panorama of downtown Nashville on the 21st floor of the Pinnacle Building, a total of 72 radio outlets were selected for the broadcast. Many of the usual suspects were present, including Mike Hammond from Knoxville and Captain Jack from Las Vegas, but there were also stations present from such far flung locales as South Africa, India, New Zealand, and Germany.

During the afternoon session (half the stations did their remote broadcasts in the morning), 36 stations operated out of makeshift cubicle studios appointed with red accent lighting. The lounge furniture was also red, as were the floral decorations in the catering area. Brand partner Papa John’s had its wares out on the tables, and company founder John H. Schnatter was milling around. Moving from station to station to give five minute interviews were Swift, Borchetta, Papa, and Swift band member Grant Mickelson.

At every turn there was a video screen or plaque celebrating Taylor’s many successes, and in the corners of the Pinnacle building were some of the elaborate costumes from her stage show. Visiting stations had access to a row of net-ready computers for show prep. Nearby, BMLG staffers were uploading the recordings of every station’s interviews so they could be used immediately. It was a whole turnkey experience for those stations lucky enough to participate.

Whether or not Red will be Swift’s second consecutive first week million-seller will bear out soon enough (all signs point to yes, and then some), but the masterfully executed marketing campaign is worthy of mention. Look at the timing: one week prior to the CMA Awards (where she is nominated for Entertainer of the Year), primed for holiday shopping season, and almost six years to the day since her 5x-Platinum self-titled debut album was released. These things don’t happen by accident.

One interesting facet of this gigantic rollout and promotion is that the first news of Red’s release happened on August 13, followed by single debut of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” That’s a very short time ago, and yet there was virtually no chatter leading up to the announcement. According to Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta, Swift had been working on the music for several months and felt it was important she make the announcement herself.

“We try to stay quiet between records as much as we can,” says Borchetta. “With someone who’s so dynamic it’s really hard, but it’s a lot more fun for all of us [having] the moment where she announces when the record is coming. That way she’s talking directly, with all due respect, to who’s most important: the fans.”

On the retail side, Swift and team carefully assembled brand partnerships that fit her personality and image. Cover Girl, Target, Keds, Papa John’s, and an innovative “store within a store” concept for Walgreens are all key components of the campaign, and representative of the Taylor brand. “You won’t see her name and likeness on hundreds of items,” notes Borchetta. “She only puts her mark on things she really believes in and likes.”

Borchetta feels confident that Red’s first week sales will eclipse those of Speak Now, which set the bar with a lofty 1.047 million debut week units in 2010. That didn’t deter the Big Machine team in the slightest, if anything it probably encouraged them, and the release has been delivered with gusto. Swift will also embark on a huge tour to support it, and co-host the Grammy Nominations Concert in Nashville.

“You have to understand what the market is, what it will bear, and where is she right now. Last time around with Speak Now, to some extent, it was like, ‘Oh you guys again,’ and it’s like, ‘Yeah, us again.’ This time it’s like, ‘Let’s get out of the way and let Taylor have her moment.’ The fact that everybody understands the magnitude of her and the brilliant record she’s made to back it up, we almost have an open lane right now.”

Toby Keith Previews “Hope On the Rocks” For Fans

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Toby Keith‘s new album Hope on the Rocks hits stores next Tuesday, Oct. 30, and he’s giving fans the chance to hear the entire album right now as well as win some exciting prizes.

Fans can visit www.tobykeith.com/hopeontherockssweeps/ and sign up to hear the entire deluxe version of the album and enter the sweepstakes through Friday, Oct. 26. Weekly prizes have been awarded throughout the month, including custom corn hole game boards, branded guitars, red Solo cup plaque, and tour tickets, all of which are leading up to the Grand Prize Mexican vacation to Cabo San Lucas.

Pre-order Hope on the Rocks here.

Weekly Register: Aldean Roars; Style Police—Go Home

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Most of you will insist Christmas arrives later in Dec., but for me, Santa’s sleigh and his lovable reindeer came bounding in this week with huge gifts from Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift. The importance of these two launches has been elevated to a force of nature like the summer solstice or a sighting of Haley’s Comet because they are the most significant country releases of the holiday season.

Aldean, after a standard length sales week, stormed cash registers with 409,303 units, (49% digital) and earned No. 1 positions on both country and all genre album charts this week. Night Train is the highest debut in country since 2010, the second highest for all genres this year and more than doubled first week sales of Aldean’s previous album My Kinda Party.

Full numbers for Swift’s Red won’t tally until next week’s Nielsen SoundScan report, but her product went on sale Mon. (10/22), a day earlier than is traditional. Reports have come in that she sold over 500k units in the first day and week-long expectations are above the million mark. Sadly, Swift’s release will shorten Aldean’s No. 1 time to a mere week. (For details on some of the Swift team marketing exploits click here.)

There were also notable debuts this week from Christmas With Scotty McCreery (No. 2; 41k; 8.5% digital) and Jamey Johnson’s Living For A Song (No. 3; 32k; 44% digital).

Style Police—Go Home 
On a less festive note I’m troubled by Billboard’s recent chart arrogance and lack of explanation or response. Let me explain. Last week we noted Taylor Swift’s single “I Knew You Were Trouble” was kept off the Digital Genre Country tracks chart. This week it has happened with a second Swift track, “State Of Grace.” In two weeks that amounts to nearly 800k units that will not be credited country. As the holiday season progresses it could well be millions of units. Which artist will be next? This arbitrary format classification by song is old-style thinking. Further, it’s important to our industry because Billboard controls the workings of the Nielsen SoundScan system which tabulates the official sales of record for our industry.

We all understand that today’s artists and songs are filling a growing stylistic space, but sales charts should not be tied to radio airplay. Swift has always been a country artist, her albums appear on the country album chart. This week she has three tracks in the country tracks Top 10. The Billboard chart elders might read the excellent article by Tom Roland in the Oct. 22 Billboard Country Update where he writes,

“But the passage of time often puts the music in a different context. Buck Owens was once taken to task for rocking too much. Waylon Jennings’ outlaw sound was considered daring and progressive. Ronnie Milsap’s music was sometimes branded as outside of the box. All of those artists are generally regarded as traditional acts in 2012. So it’s a sure bet that some of the music that’s currently testing country’s boundaries will one day be considered old school, and safely traditional.”

The Scans End Game
Ten more sales weeks remain in 2012. YTD 2011 country album sales totaled 42.923 million units, down 1.8% from 2010’s 43.718 million total. Country albums currently have scanned 30.442 million units. To equal 2011 we have to average 1.248 million units for each of the next ten weeks. (Week ended 10-21-12 totaled 1.054 country album scans.) If we’d like to return to the higher 2010 benchmark, we need to average 1.328 million units each week.

Swift’s larger than normal numbers entering the chart next week will lower those weekly averages for the last nine weeks… stay tuned… Looks like a pretty safe bet at this point to say 2012 will be an up year!

The Swift Way to One Million

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Taylor Swift’s Red, which hit stores Monday (Oct. 22), is headed for a very big first week sales debut in excess of one million units. In doing so, Swift will become the first female in the SoundScan era to have two albums sell in excess of one million units in a week.

According to Billboard, the Big Machine star’s fourth studio album surpassed sales of 500,000 in its first day. That total includes a 160,000 unit boost from Target, which got exclusive dibs on the album’s deluxe version and set a store record in the process.

Sales for Red have been pumped up through a variety of innovative brand partnerships, including Papa John’s and Walgreens, both of whom are offering the album for sale. The iTunes store got the first week exclusive digital sales of Red, which has not yet been released to Amazon MP3 or Google Play. In contrast to Mumford & Sons’ Babel, which recently broke a one week streaming record on Spotify while selling 600k first week units, Red is not currently available on any streaming services.

Swift’s third album Speak Now debuted in Nov. 2010 with first week sales of 1.047 million. Since then, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is the only album to hit the first week million sales mark (with 1.108 million units sold), thanks in part to a 99 cent Amazon mp3 promotion. Swift will join the Backstreet Boys, ‘NSync, and Eminem as the only artists to have had two albums eclipse one million sold in a week.