Weekly Register: The Crystal Ball Didn’t See That One!

The country music pulse is beating rapidly this week.

CMA’s MusicFest, the CMT Awards and a city swarming with press and visitors from all over the world have turned up the heat…and the fun!

Closer to the sales beat, Sony announced it has re-signed superstar Kenny Chesney and will move him to his own imprint, Blue Chair Records, just in time for his June 19 new album release, Welcome To The Fishbowl. In the process BNA Records, Chesney’s longtime home was retired with all staff and artists moved to Sony’s Columbia Nashville imprint.

Also noteworthy this week was the groundbreaking arrangement between Big Machine and Clear Channel which effectively creates a new artist/label revenue stream generated from terrestrial radio airplay. At the same time it reshuffles the royalty deck with respect to digital radio, redefining the tariff into a form that allows the digital radio industry to grow, profit and ultimately contribute even more money into the music royalty pot. Will this eventually lead to the American rights groups being able to collect reciprocal sound performance royalties from their terrestrial overseas collection counterparts? Hopefully. This agreement represents a major forward move on the path to creating a healthy future for the music industry and radio. Congrats to both parties. Perhaps one day we’ll be measuring monthly digital royalty payments in the same way we look at Nielsen SoundScan-generated sales numbers today. Wow! Didn’t see that one coming in my crystal ball, did you?

Albums
Our sales report this week pales in comparison to all the happenings listed above, but hopefully some of those events will also spur additional scans in the weeks to follow. Album sales suffered slightly for both all-genre and country compared with last week. Most other key indicators in our weekly table remained stable. The Current Country Top 75 again failed to break the 300k mark for a second consecutive week. Debuts included Opus Collection from Johnny Cash (No. 6; 11k) and Given from Texan Wade Bowen on BNA, (No. 9; 9k). Bowen album purchases were 77% in digital format.

Carrie Underwood maintained her top spot, in her fifth week, easing back to a weekly total of almost 32k and a RTD (release-to-date) of 517k. Luke Bryan, whose career is as hot as his smile, enjoys the No. 2 spot in this, his 42nd week. Luke’s Tailgates and Tanlines scanned over 24k this week for a RTD of 1.124 million. Filling out the Top Ten Current Country Albums for this week ended 6-3-12 are Lionel Richie, Eric Church, Jason Aldean, Johnny Cash, Kip Moore, Lee Brice, Wade Bowen and Lady Antebellum.

Tracks
Luke, Eric, Kip, Carrie and Hunter Hayes own the first five spots on the country tracks chart this week. Luke’s “Drunk On You” sold over 101k downloads. Church, in the No. 2 position with “Springsteen” downloaded almost 79k. Country tracks are up 17% YTD over last year and when coupled with album sales (up 6% YTD) the numbers show some real strength for country artists at the cash register. It also shows that country consumers, in increasing numbers, are using the mouse to click their way to new music. This evolution has likely been sped up by the difficulty of finding physical albums in the marketplace. Have you walked into a Target or Walmart lately? Looked for your favorite album? Then you know what I mean. The music racks are probably further in the back than you remember and a whole lot smaller.

Coming up next week we’ll see some new entries from Alan Jackson, Colt Ford and Jana Kramer. We should also feel some lift from the CMT Awards and the MusicFest crowd…

As usual, post your Weekly Register comments below, tweet ‘em out or send me a note, and thanks for reading…

X5 Music Group Unearths Plantation Records Rarities

Digital label X5 Music Group has released Plantation Records: The Singles Set series, featuring six albums of remastered material from the classic country label.

Founded by Shelby Singleton (later owner of Sun Records), Plantation Records is known for the Jeannie C. Riley smash “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” a No. 1 in 1968. Plantation also released recordings by Hank Locklin, Jimmie Davis, and Carol Channing among others.

The Singles Set collection, available on iTunes and Amazon, also includes over 30 singles that have never been released digitally. Included among those are Webb Pierce’s “Good Lord Giveth and Uncle Sam Taketh Away” from 1975, and Linda Martell’s “Color Him Father” from 1969.

“In creating custom digital products from the catalog licensed from Sun Entertainment, we were pleasantly surprised to find some great tracks from the Plantation Records catalog that have never been released digitally,” says Scott Ambrose Reilly, North American C.E.O of X5 Music Group. “There are so many gems in the Sun Entertainment catalog, many of which have only been heard on vinyl or collector’s box sets. X5’s model is all about helping people discover music they will enjoy, and we know people would appreciate these singles if properly presented to them.”

X5 initially debuted as a leader in classical music, but has since signed licensing deals with Cooking Vinyl, Welk Music Group, and OneRPM.

Weekly Register: Sales Departments Are A Worrisome Lot

This week’s chart data sums the first five months of 2012, a significant time span. And, as our grid chart shows, country album sales (+6.5%) are outperforming the overall industry (-2.6%). That’s welcome news, but sales departments are a worrisome lot, always measuring what lies around the corner and how it might compare with the previous year’s offerings.

Last year during June and July 2011 we had a busy release schedule. June featured releases from Randy Travis (19k), Ronnie Dunn (45k) and Justin Moore (65k). In July 2011 we saw offerings from Lauren Alaina (20k), Scotty McCreery (40k), Chris Young (73k), Blake Shelton (116k) and Eric Church (145k). All added together that accounts for about 525,000 debut week units. Add in a few of the unmentioned lower scoring debuts and we can round up safely to 550k. Will we find half a million plus debut week units on deck for 2012 during the same time period?

Our 2012 calendar shows June/July headliner releases scheduled from Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson and Zac Brown Band. Considering that only a few weeks ago Carrie Underwood blew onto the charts with a 267k debut week, it appears that the three upcoming projects could average about 166k each and contribute enough to keep debut sales mostly constant with last year. Still, when you look at this week’s Country Current Top 75 chart (down 2% compared with last week), and see positions 28-75 are all under 2,000 units, for the second consecutive week, it is worrisome.

Another factor is that we had eight major June/July debuts last year vs. the three now on our radar for 2012. Debut week totals are a nice SoundScan shorthand for estimating, but don’t forget week two sales also swell totals and cash coffers. So this writer would opine that unless we see a few more last minute offerings appear on the 2012 schedule, we should expect country’s 6.5% sales lead to shrink and move closer to the overall industry number by around the end of July.

But take heart, January through August sales are really only like foreplay. The real sales lovemaking begins during the last four months of the year when labels line up to take advantage of holiday fever.

Albums
Debuts this week from Ronnie Dunn (No. 14; 6k) and the venerable Oak Ridge Boys (No. 29; 1.9k) couldn’t keep the Top 75 total from slipping under 300k. (Actually, Mr. Dunn’s debut was more of a re-release through Cracker Barrel with two new tracks.) Study the two grids and you will note a gradual erosion of gains mostly across the board for Country and All-Genre, but no strong swings. As we often repeat in this column, release schedules are the single largest factor in the sales game but seldom match up exactly from year to year.

Glancing at the Top 200 Albums chart, John Mayer caps the list with a debut of almost 220k units, 67% of which was in digital format.

Tracks
Yes, albums bring in the biggest revenues, but tracks are often the first place to study consumer trends with respect to new songs. Did you notice that country consumers have boosted track sales up 18% this year? (Can we all raise our hands and say Apple, Android, Smartphone…)

For example, platinum and almost platinum songs from Luke Bryan and Eric Church have been landing near the top of the list for weeks. So should we be surprised to see their albums also Top 5? (Of course not.) But you can also get out ahead of the album sales curve by studying the tracks chart. Gloriana has a new song, “Good Night,” that jumped from No. 14 to No. 3 climbing 162% in unit sales in one week. (They performed it on the Bachelorette.) Something happening there for sure. And Little Big Town’s latest “Pontoon” debuts at No. 11 with 32k units. Let’s see how that does next week.

As usual, post your Weekly Register comments below, tweet ’em out or send me a note, and thanks for reading…

Johnny Rose Joins Concrete/TEC Direct Media

Media and marketing firm Concrete/TEC Direct Media has named Entertainment industry veteran Johnny Rose as Director of Business Development.

In his new role, Rose will manage the development of key accounts and operate as a local Nashville presence that represents the company. Rose previously spent nearly two decades as VP/Sales and Marketing at various Nashville record labels during his 30 year career, including positions with Capitol Records Nashville, DreamWorks and Show Dog Nashville. Rose’s background also includes retail and merchandising experience, having spent 14 years with Western Merchandisers and Hastings.

As a partnership between marketing firm Concrete and media management company TEC, Concrete/TEC Direct has strengthened its position as a leader in marketing and media services in the music and entertainment industries. The company works with major and independent record labels, management companies, tours and film studios.

“Bringing someone of Johnny’s caliber into our fold further demonstrates our deep commitment to the Nashville entertainment community,” says Concrete Marketing founder and CEO Bob Chiappardi.

For more information, visit www.TEC-Direct.com

Industry Ink Thursday (5/24)

Entrepreneur Christina Rahm Cook and Dan Hodges Music, LLC have entered into a joint publishing agreement and signed songwriter Chad Raymon. Hodges says, “I’ve worked with Chad for some time and Christina has followed his career closely. We are both thrilled with the opportunity to work with him long term.” DHM Administration, a division of Dan Hodges Music, LLC has been assigned worldwide administration rights for the venture. Pictured (L-R): Brittany Spyksma, Christina Cook, Chad Raymon, Dan Hodges, Susan Hodges. Photo: Robbie Quinn

Jake Dungan

[Updated] Congrats to Jane and Mike Dungan on yesterday’s (5/23) birth of their first grandchild. Jacob “Jake” Graham Dungan was born at 2:17 p.m. to Jennifer and Chris Dungan. He weighed 8 lbs., 12 oz. and is 21 inches long.

Joe Nichols and Show Dog-Universal have parted ways.

Warner Music Nashville’s Pickin’ On The Patio returns for the summer tonight (5/24) with a performance by Charlie Worsham. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. and show starts at 5:30 p.m. The series will be held the fourth Thursday of every month, from May to October, on the WMN Patio.

Aderra Media Works, which makes collectible flash drives with exclusive pre-loaded content, is expanding into the country market with a Nashville office. Drives can come with concert footage and recordings, behind-the-scenes video, unreleased tracks, or an entire catalog of albums. They can also be used for regular USB storage, and feature technology that allows for future materials to be updated onto the device. www.AderraMediaWorks.com

Black River Entertainment’s Dawn Delvo is working to be the first woman in Nashville to raise $100,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through her Woman Of The Year campaign. She recently hosted a successful All Access For LLS Celebrity eBay Auction and is collecting donations through June 7 at www.allaccessforlls.com. Email her at dawn@blackriverent.com or find her on Facebook.

Dwight Yoakam will give the Superstar Keynote Q&A at the 3rd Annual Billboard Country Music Summit, set for June 4-5 at the Cannery Ballroom in Nashville. He joins a growing slate of speakers and panelists, including Luke Bryan and Willie Nelson.

• A new restaurant is coming to midtown/Music Row. Bishops Hot Chix will be at 112 19th Ave. S., according to the Nashville Post.

The May installment of ASCAP's popular monthly showcase series at The Bluebird Cafe featured Young Guns Publishing songwriters Cyndi Thomson, Gimm+Icky, Ben Reno, Cassidy Ford, Kimberly Paige and Phoebe Sharp. Young Guns Publishing, a division of Ramblin' Music, was founded in May 2011. Pictured (L-R): ASCAP's Mike Sistad, Jeff Garrison of Gimm+Icky, Ben Reno, Kimberly Paige, Pheobe Sharp, Tripp Weir of Gimm+Icky, Cyndi Thomson, Cassidy Ford and Ramblin' Music President Cliff Downs

Weekly Register: Country TEA Continues Downward Trend

The 2011 TEA Index was 25% country and 27.7% all-genre.

MusicRow’s country TEA index continues to slide, moving from last month’s 30.46% to 29.77% while the all-genre bars remain firm and even slightly up from 31.65 to 31.71%. The TEA Index sums physical, digital and TEA albums (track equivalent albums; 10 tracks=1 album) then calculates the percentage of total album sales that come from TEA. The index measures the TEA effect against total album sales. (Our numbers are gathered by industry sources from Nielsen SoundScan.)

Why is country’s TEA index shrinking while the format’s album and track sales both show YTD gains? And is that a bad omen?

This is the first year we are tracking this new index, so it may be premature to make sweeping generalizations. However, there are a few things we can analyze. When album sales are up strongly, as they are at present, this tends to weight the result in favor of albums, therefore causing the index to fall. Why? Country album sales (10-track packages) are up 8.3%. Tracks are also up, but since it takes 10 tracks to form one album, that percentage is not an apples-to-apples indicator with album sales. Reading the tea leaves, the index shows that country fans still favor album packages (physical and digital) over track downloads, when compared with the behavior of all genre purchasers.

Index And Access
An issue that is harder to explain is how the new “access” models might affect the TEA index and sales. Spotify, Pandora and others offer on demand music. Eventually fans will realize they can pretty much hear what they want, when they want, wherever they want. Will they be less inclined to purchase physical discs and/or files as a result? We don’t know exactly, but album sales have already been hit pretty hard over the past decade.

In stark contrast to the dwindling recorded music business is the touring industry. Certainly the ticket biz has its share of risk, but it has avoided the sharp declines that its label brothers have endured. Is that because the live experience resonates strongly with fans? Has that industry done a better job adapting to the digital world? Lots of questions as we go forward.

Quick Glance
Country’s grid numbers eased back slightly this week. As someone who has been following these weekly chart reports for some time it is troubling to see this week’s Current Country 75 and note that chart positions 28-75 are all showing less than 2,000 units for the week. Plus total chart sales are a meager 318k units! In 2009 for example, the same week Top 75 total was 464k and in 2007 it was 581k.

Carrie remains in the top chart spot for a third consecutive week dropping 55% to about 54k units. Willie Nelson debuts at No. 4 with sales of 17k units.

Eric Church’s “Springsteen” remains the No. 1 track on the Country 100 tracks, followed closely by Luke Bryan and “Drunk On You.” Kenny Chesney sweeps into the No. 3 spot with his debut “Come Over” downloading almost 60k units.

Until next week….

Hunter Hayes Becomes Martin Guitar Brand Ambassador

C.F. Martin & Co. has announced that singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Hunter Hayes has signed on as the guitar manufacturer’s newest brand ambassador.

Hayes is slated to join Carrie Underwood’s 2012 Blown Away tour this summer, and he will bring his new Martin Parlor 42-style instrument with him on the road. Hayes had the unique opportunity to collaborate with Martin’s custom shop to create the instrument.

“It is an absolute honor to be named an official Martin Ambassador and to be recognized by the Martin family. To me, the Martin brand is a name I can trust,” said Hayes. “They make timeless guitars and prove themselves time and again with their elegant tone and sound. The craftsmanship that goes into every piece is one that has shaped some of my favorite music, and is certainly at the forefront of my own sound. I can’t wait to show off my new Parlor 42-style model on the road!”

“We are excited to add Hunter Hayes to our ever-growing list of new brand ambassadors,” said Amani Duncan, vice president of brand marketing, C.F. Martin & Co. “Hunter is a naturally-gifted performer whose songwriting and dynamic live performances have made him one of the brightest new stars to emerge from Nashville. Hunter is a perfect addition to our rich roster of Martin players and we are excited to have him as a member of the Martin Guitar family.”

Get Hunter Hayes tour info here.

Dolly Parton Cracker Barrel Collection Goes Gold

The first-ever Cracker Barrel Old Country Store two-disc set, An Evening With…Dolly, has been certified Gold by the RIAA. The DVD/CD reached Gold status four weeks after its April 2 release date and its debut at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top DVD Music Videos Chart.

The RIAA Gold honor marks a first for Cracker Barrel and the first for Dolly Records in the U.S., with previous Gold certifications in Australia and the United Kingdom.

“I’m thrilled that so many fans are listening to my songs and taking a look behind-the-scenes of my European tour,” said Dolly. “I had a wonderful time performing in London and I think the audience did too. It’s exciting to be able to share my experiences with Cracker Barrel fans. And I have to tell you, I’m even more excited that An Evening With…Dolly earned the first Gold in the Cracker Barrel exclusive music program. That’s just icing on the cake.”

The first-ever Cracker Barrel two-disc set was the second project with Dolly Parton and is available for $11.99 exclusively at all Cracker Barrel locations and online at crackerbarrel.com.

 

Weekly Register: A Softer Rate of Descent

Last year, and for the past few years, country albums were very likely to drop from 60-65% in the second week of release. This year’s recent chart behavior shows that a new trend might be developing, lowering that second week drop to somewhere in the range of 50-55%. For example, Carrie Underwood’s week two Blown Away sales dropped 55% this week; Lionel Richie fell 52% in week two, Rascal Flatts fell the furthest dropping 68%, but Lee Brice and Kip Moore slid only 48% and 45% respectively in their second weeks.

In some of the above cases however, the week two numbers were buffered by using some good ole marketing tricks. For example, Carrie Underwood benefited from Mothers Day in week two. Lionel Richie took advantage of Easter and the ACM Awards to prop up week two sales. But Lee and Kip did it the hard way, just leveraging their growing fan bases with a hit track, and no doubt some aggressive pricing.

A few data points doesn’t secure a bona fide trend, but we’ll watch these movements and keep you informed.

this week: 5-13-12

Albums
As our quick-check grid shows, country album sales continue to stay ahead of last year, showing a healthy 8.4% YTD advance. The future shows a plucky release schedule taking shape through early summer. (Click here to see it all.) Projects from artists such as Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner and Zac Brown Band, plus many others should help to maintain the season’s early jump over 2011. However, looking back at 2011, May-July saw good performing releases from Eric Church, Blake Shelton, Chris Young, Scotty McCreery, Justin Moore and Brad Paisley. So the competition to stay ahead in 2012 will be heated.

New this week are Top 20 country debuts from Pat Green (No. 16; 6.5k) and Turnpike Troubadours (No. 14; 8k). However, Carrie Underwood (No. 1; 120k), Lionel Richie (No. 2; 71k) and Luke Bryan (No. 3; 26k) do the heavy lifting on this week’s chart.

Last week's numbers: 5-6-12

Tracks
Country tracks are catching on with fans, up 20% for 2012. This new sales opportunity is especially nice if one of your artists has a hit track and a younger, mouse-moving fanbase. Just ask this week’s top 10 wranglers Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood (2), Kip Moore, Jason Aldean, Hunter Hayes, Miranda Lambert and Lee Brice how they feel about the extra clicks. The top five tracks this week each added more than 45k downloads this week and all seem destined to pass into Platinum territory. Take a look: “Springsteen” (816k), “Drunk On You” (858k), “Eyes Open” (779k), “Good Girl” (825k), and “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck” (719k).

With country track sales increasing dramatically, it begs the question: will downloads change the way consumers discover new music? For example, I was a 13-hour road hog yesterday and discovered a new entry in the “Shake it Girl” lyric sweepstakes. Luke Bryan’s anthem “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” still retains the title in this award category, but a challenger can be found on the new Lacs album, “Shake It” featuring Big and Rich. This honking, pedal to the metal sonata is the wake up call every trucker needs about halfway through a long haul (actually I was driving a sedan). Is it a big ole country radio summer smash? If friends start posting about it and others start listening on subscription services, like Spotify, could it begin to translate into downloads or impulse buys? Something to watch for…

TV Shows Singing A Country Tune

Blake Shelton’s coaching gig on The Voice gave his career a boost and, in turn, his wisecracks from the big red chair helped the show rack up ratings. The singing competition, which wrapped its second season on May 8 with a win by Jermaine Paul from team Blake, is so popular that NBC is bringing it back this fall for two nights per week. Ratings for the season finale were up 16 percent over last year, averaging about 11.6 million viewers.

NBC believes so strongly in its hit series that this fall the network will use the singing competition as a lead-in for three new shows. The Monday night installment of The Voice will precede The Revolution, a sci-fi series from Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams, and the Tuesday night episode will lead to new comedies Go On, starring Matthew Perry, and The New Normal.

“We believe in [The Voice],” NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt told Ad Age, dismissing the notion that there are too many singing/entertainment competition shows on television. “There is a lot of room for all of us to succeed. People were saying, ‘Oh, American Idol is over this year.’ It’s certainly not over. There is a big appetite for all of these shows.”

If that’s the case, viewers will likely eat up ABC’s new offering Duets, featuring Sugarland star Jennifer Nettles and set for a two-hour series premiere Thurs., May 24. Nettles joins fellow stars Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Robin Thicke who individually scoured the country for duet partners. The stars and their protégés will take the stage together each week in front of a live studio audience. Quddus, best known from his days on MTV’s Total Request Live, will host. The winner will receive a contract with Hollywood Records.

With prior appearances on NBC’s Nashville Star, CMT’s Gone Country and a win on NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice, John Rich will return to television this summer on The CW Network. He will join Gloria Estefan and other yet-to-be named mentors on The Star Next Door, a nationwide music competition series from Queen Latifah. The mentors will travel to the hometowns of new talent to prepare them for the chance to represent their home cities live onstage. No premiere date has been set.

Adding to the country music mix on TV, yesterday MusicRow reported that ABC has picked up the new series Nashville and Malibu Country, starring Reba.

In related news, Britney Spears and teen star Demi Lovato will join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on Fox’s The X Factor this fall.