Hunter Hayes Offers Unique 3D Album Experience

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Hunter Hayes is the first country artist to give fans a 3D mobile experience and allow them to interact with his album cover art via their Android, iOS smartphone or tablet. To unlock the 3D experience, fans need to download a free blippar app and point their device at the cover art – whether they physically have the album in their hand or simply have a photo of it.

The blippar app gives fans a chance to access and interact with exclusive virtual content, including photos, videos, an album preview and more before they’ve even purchased it. Click here for a demonstration.

“Hunter is the perfect artist to launch this new and unique technology,” explains Jeremy Holley, Warner Music Nashville VP of Consumer & Interactive Marketing. “Both he and his fans are tech savvy and engaged in this space.”

Hayes’ self-titled debut album was released yesterday (10/11). He also performed the television debut of single “Storm Warning” last night on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman.

Leading up to the album release, Hayes held a 72-hour listening party on his website. The project’s twelve tracks include “Storm Warning,” “Wanted,” “Somebody’s Heartbreak” and “Love Makes Me,” which are currently streaming at www.hunterhayes.com.

McCreery Leads Sales Charge

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For the sales week ended 10-9-2011 Scotty McCreery once again proved the power of TV for exposing and marketing new artists. McCreery, the winner of season 10 of American Idol released his new album, Clear As Day last week (Oct. 4), while celebrating his 18th birthday.

McCreery’s album scanned about 197,000 units according to Nielsen SoundScan allowing it to ride atop the Country album chart and the Top 200 Albums all-genre list. Quite a feat for a newcomer without massive radio support.

Interestingly, McCreery did not show much heat on the digital download tracks chart, ranking No. 15 on the country tracks list and a tepid No. 78 on the all genre tracks chart. Walking in step with digital tracks, his album sales had a smaller-than-average digital percentage, too (18% in digital format). However, it is worth noting that the song, “I Love You This Big,” has already sold over 630,000 downloads giving it Gold status.

Rodney Atkins also drove out onto the sunny sales infield with his newest titled Take A Back Road which scanned almost 35k units (26% digital) earning a no. 3 position on the country albums chart this week.

Next week the American Idol shadow will again be cast over the sales charts as season 10 runner up, lovely Lauren Alaina steps up to launch her album effort.

Graphically speaking: A quick look at our newly updated graph shows that as a result of Scotty and Rodney, country sales bounced back up to a 9.6% YTD lead. However, with 29.63 million YTD units already sold and last year’s total of 43.72 million units it means that we have to scan an additional 14.09 million units in the 12 weeks remaining for 2011. Yes that’s about 1.174 million per week, a pretty tall order.

Hank did it this way?—Not documented on the SoundScan charts was this week’s Hank Williams Jr. free download, “Keep The Change.” The song, written in response to his recent dismissal from ESPN’s Monday Night Football over political comments he made has reportedly been downloaded over 150,000 times in about 24 hours. The song is available at www.hankjr.com and has received placement on other sites such as kidrock.com.

New Ryman Partner Makes The Wheels Turn

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Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium has announced a multi-year partnership with Nissan North America, making Nissan an Official Partner. The auto manufacturer will become part of the daytime tour experience and nightly concerts through branding and advertising opportunities, and aims to bring its ‘Innovation For All’ campaign to the storied music destination.

“We are thrilled to align the Ryman in this long-term partnership with Nissan,” said Sally Williams, Ryman Auditorium General Manager. “We look forward to putting ‘Innovation For All’ into action, enhancing our concert experiences for fans with cutting edge innovation and technology. We’re excited to have a locally based global company as our partner. Together, we’ll elevate our museum and concert offerings, not only for fans here in Nashville but for audiences around the world using a variety of media platforms.”

“We strive for ‘Innovation For All’ and that includes Nashville’s diverse music community. Where better to center that partnership but within the very epicenter of Music City, the Ryman Auditorium? Our partnership with the Ryman is an extension of our commitment to Nashville and its thriving entertainment offerings,” said Jon Brancheau, Vice President, Marketing, Nissan.

Technology will play an important role in the partnership, and consumers will soon be able to download the first official Ryman app for iPhone and Android smartphones. With the app users will be able to receive concerts announcements via text, purchase tickets directly, browse the Hatch Show Print Gallery, and share concerts through social media. Additionally, the partners are planning “Nissan Recording Sessions From The Ryman,” a national contest which will grant the finalists an opportunity to play and record on the Ryman stage.

Coming up at the Ryman are Goo Goo Dolls (10/17), Aretha Franklin (10/19), Peter Frampton (10/22), Indigo Girls & Brandi Carlile (11/17), Glen Campbell (11/30 & 12/5), Gillian Welch (12/1) and more. See full calendar here.

Photo Friday: WMBA, Paisley and Underwood, NMPA, Randy Travis

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Women’s Music Business Association (WMBA) celebrated its newly-established non-profit status October 4 with a wine and cheese reception hosted by the organization’s Board of Directors at the Country Music Assocation’s headquarters. Contributing sponsors for the event included CMA, Huskins-Harris, Fiddlecakes, and Music City Lifestyles.

(L-R) Back Row: Rachel Rodriguez, Alumni Co-Chair, Josee Deschenes, Social Co-Chair, Becky Harris, Chairman of the Board, Betsy Walker, Membership Chair, Cindy Heath, Director, Amanda Fletcher, Social Co-Chair, Kama Upton, Community Svc./Education Chair, Dottie Rager, Alumni-Co-Chair; (L-R) Front Row: Holly Ashby, Vice President, Brandi Simms, President, Hank Adam Locklin, Director, Amery Fridenstine, Treasurer, Trina Lloyd-Weidner, Secretary. Photo: Darcy Ferris Photography

Brad Paisley’s hit duet with Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me” has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales exceeding 1 million downloads. Written by Paisley with Chris DuBois and Kelley Lovelace, remind me stormed the country charts recently as the third single from Paisley’s This Is Country Music. Paisley and Underwood will re-team to host the 45th Annual CMA Awards at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 9.

(L-R): Caryl Healey (SMN VP Sales), Gary Overton (SMN Chairman & CEO), Paisley, Underwood, & Skip Bishop (SMN SVP Promotion).

National Music Publishers Association executives recently visited Nashville for the NMPA’s Annual Songwriter Showcase at the Bluebird Cafe. EMI songwriter Kelley Lovelace was awarded with two Gold Songwriting Notes for penning Brad Paisley’s “Water” and the Paisley/Underwood duet “Remind Me.”

NMPA President and CEO David Israelite (back left) and NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison (back right) with David Lee, Rachel Thibodeau, Jason Sever, and Kelley Lovelace.

Randy Travis celebrated his 25 years performing in country music with a special appearance on the Grand Ole Opry Tuesday night (10/4). Paying musical tribute to Travis were fellow artists who appear with him on his newest CD Anniversary Collection. Guests included John Anderson, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Connie Smith, Gene Watson and Joe Stampley. “It’s amazing to me to be celebrating my 25th anniversary in the music business on this stage because of the way I grew up and what I grew up listening to,” said Travis onstage. The “Opry Live” premiere of the show on GAC will air Saturday, Oct. 15

(L-R): Connie Smith, Joe Stampley, Travis, and Gene Watson. Photo: Joel Dennis

Jay Frank Announces New Venture

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Music industry veteran and author Jay Frank has announced the launch of Nashville-based DigSin, a digital music company where subscriber fans will get all releases for free. In a departure from the typical record label model, DigSin will focus on single song releases and maximizing listening audience.

“DigSin is the result of years of examining the new ways music fans find and listen to music,” says Frank, who will make the announcement at today’s Digital Music Forum West in Los Angeles, CA. “We are committing ourselves to expose new songs in a targeted, organic way that enables us to be a trusted filter to music fans.”

The name is a shortened version of Digital Single and aims to build a database of music fans who will receive every label release for free in their preferred genre and format. The label will focus on pop, rock and dance music.

“To succeed as a music company today, you must be open to multiple new revenue streams and new ways of thinking,” says Frank. “Through a combination of free music, social networking, analytics and traditional promotional outlets, we will be a new model for music companies for the future.”

Deals with DigSin purport to be flexible and artist-friendly, enabling the label to partner with advertisers and other outlets in numerous exposure opportunities. Frank founded the company on the principle that developing artists need smart marketing in the digital world, and hopes to provide a stepping stone to the next plateau.

Frank was most recently an executive with CMT and authored the 2009 book, Futurehit.DNA on what it takes to have a hit in the digital era. Prior to that, he was a digital music executive with Yahoo! Music.

For more info, visit http://www.digsin.com.

MusicRow WebLinks

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• Taylor Swift tied for fourth place on Forbes’ new list of Entertainment’s Highest Paid Women, grossing about $45 million during the measurement period.

• Former AirPlay Direct employees are suing the company for wages they say they are owed according to Nashville Business Journal. AirPlay Direct is run by CEO Robert Weingartz.

• The Tennessean reports the Curb/Tim McGraw lawsuit is set for an Nov. 29 court date.

• As part of an experiment, Universal Pictures will release new film Tower Heist to video-on-demand while it is still in theaters for $59.99. More from the LA Times.

The Hot Seat Launches

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Webster and Associates has added a new division called The Hot Seat, specializing in satellite media tours, and national radio promotions. Here’s the staffers:

Jason Turner, Vice President of Radio Services—Turner will oversee all national radio promotion efforts involving terrestrial and nationally syndicated programs. Turner spent 10 years in terrestrial radio with companies like Cumulus and Clear Channel. Before joining the company he served as General Manager of Impact Radio Networks in Nashville, where he oversaw the daily operations of syndicated radio programming. Jason@hotseatonline.com or (615) 690-7384

Brittni Talley, Vice President of Television Services—Talley will head up the television division, overseeing satellite media tour booking and coordination with regional, national, and syndicated outlets. Originally from Illinois, she has spent the past two years in Nashville coordinating regional and national publicity for numerous events and festivals. Brittni@hotseatonline.com or (615) 690-7386

Kelli Reiff, Sr. Director Television Booking—Reiff joins the team specializing in national television bookings, bringing experience from her previous positions with The Ellen DeGeneres Show as a member of the Human Interest Department, and E! Entertainment where she served as Talent Coordinator. Kelli@hotseatonline.com or (615) 690-7388

Garrett Mathison will work primarily within the radio division assisting promotion efforts. The Indiana native is a recent graduate from Millikin University. Garrett@hotseatonline.com or (615) 690-7385

Country Sales: 4th Quarter Futures

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Getting Graphic About Sales
The above graph is a week-by-week tally of how the YTD Country sales units compare with the previous year.

The blue bars show YTD % (year-to-date) change for 2010 compared with 2009; and the green bars show 2011 compared with 2010. Actual quarterly sales numbers (source: Nielsen SoundScan) are below the graph. For example at the end of Q1 2011 country was down about 13%. By Q2 2011 the deficit was only about 1%.

For the week ended 10-2-11 country album sales (physical and digital) are a healthy 9% ahead of last year. (All-genre sales are up 3.4%.) However, based upon the upcoming release schedules (compared with last year) our best guess is that we will start to see the green bar shrink in coming weeks. Will it fall into negative territory? Let’s hope not…

Looked at another way, we need to add about 15 million units over the next 13 weeks or about 1.54 million units every week. (Putting the 1.54 million in perspective, country album sales this past week totaled about 660,000.)

The Current Week’s Tally
The past week’s album sales were led by Lady Antebellum’s new release (No. 1; 75k) now in its third week. Jason Aldean continues to bust out of sales bins earning a No. 2 position after 48 weeks shifting almost 21k units for the week. Brantley Gilbert, who co-wrote Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” holds the No. 3 spot in his third week with sales of about 20k.

New on the chart this week is a debut from Curb’s LeAnn Rimes at No. 7 scanning about 12k units (45% were digital).

Last week’s article about TEA (track equivalent albums) flushed out some good responses. Most of which tried to point out that track sales are not as profitable as album sales. Perhaps that is true when viewed across the traditional record label budget and sales structure. But that structure is evolving rapidly. This year country fans have already purchased 111 million country tracks with a value of about $140 million dollars which is equivalent to about 14 million albums!!!! (Any label that doesn’t care about its tracks income, please send it to me, I’ll be happy to bank it in my account and even pay the proper royalties on the label’s behalf.)

On this week’s Digital Genre Country tracks list Blake Shelton rides the roost with “God Gave Me You” churning over 57k paid downloads. The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young” remains the second best selling track moving almost 43,000 units and Rodney Atkins “Take A Back Road,” also deserves mention holding the No. 3 position with over 39k downloads.

Karen Kane Joins Sony Music Nashville

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Karen Kane

Karen Kane has joined Sony Music Group as Director, Artist Development/Marketing, it was announced by Sony Music Nashville Sr. VP Marketing Paul Barnabee. Kane will report to Barnabee in this role, providing leadership in the development and execution of strategic marketing campaigns for her assigned artists.

“Spanning label, management, and third-party sponsorships, Karen has built a rich and diverse background in the music industry, and I’m excited to welcome her as an amazing new addition to our marketing team,” says Barnabee.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to work with Gary [Overton] and Paul and the team at Sony,” adds Kane. “It’s a wonderful opportunity when you get to work with smart and talented colleagues as well as an amazing roster of artists.”

Kane most recently served as Director of Music Business for Murray State University, where she managed the Music Business degree program and taught courses in Music Marketing, Artist Development, Live Performance, and Copyright. Prior to that she was president of Kane Entertainment, a management and marketing company.

She’s officially on the job now, and can be reached here.

Country’s Album TEA Party

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The largest and final sales quarter of 2011 is almost upon us and the list of planned album releases is mostly revealed (except for a few possible last minute surprises).

The above graph is intended to help readers quickly grasp how album sales are trending. Last week for example (week ended 9-18-11), country hit its highest YTD gain of the year showing an increase of 9.8%.

This week the YTD country number has ebbed slightly to 9.6%. (Last year for the week ended 9/19/2010 country was ahead 4.5%.) Unlike last year’s jam packed release schedule, the upcoming album calendar doesn’t seem to have as many blockbuster artists as last year. Lady Antebellum recently hit stores with first week numbers of 347k and LeAnn Rimes’ new set was released this week. Upcoming product is due over the next few months from Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina, Martina McBride, Toby Keith, Vince Gill and Miranda Lambert. Of special note will be the just announced Nov. 21 release of a special CD/DVD live set from Taylor Swift.

Turning Tracks Into TEA (track equivalent albums)
For 2011, digital country track downloads YTD total 109 million. (Unfortunately Nielsen Soundscan did not release this number for 2010.) Calculating TEA albums (10 tracks = 1 album) country track sales account for about 10.9 million more albums. YTD country album sales for 2011 total 28.1 million through the week ended 9/25/11; so if one adds the 10.9 million TEA sales it would equate to almost a 40% increase!

Why do we still measure country sales only in terms of digital and physical albums? What about tracks? Business is a lot better than the graph at the top of the page would have you believe, if you don’t ignore track sales…