When you hear “Homegrown,” what comes to mind? Do you think of something tended year after year with patience and love? Maybe a crop, an idea, or a way of life that, after years of cultivation, rewards dedication with something precious?
When they settled on the name “Homegrown Band” in the spring of 2011, members Craig Brannon, Kevin Brannon, Jason Cole, Megan Blair, and Nick Ivey hoped their fans would associate them and their music with that sentiment. “As we were writing and branding ourselves,” says Jason, “we found that the recurring theme was ‘home’–our home, the South–and its culture, value system, and way of life. We were invoking the place and the things that our parents, their parents, and, generations later, we believed to be important enough to build our lives around. While ideas like fidelity, the virtue in hard work, and the necessity of faith are quickly being written off as old-fashioned, they’ve been cultivated in us, and we think that they’re vital enough to write and sing about.”
The band’s down-home image and songs about life as they know it enjoyed success from the start. In early 2012, HB released their first album, a self-titled EP recorded at Skaggs Family Studios in Nashville, TN and produced by Homegrown Band and Jason Singleton of Red Hill Entertainment. The album’s first and only single, “This Ol’ Truck,” was featured on 94.9 The Bull’s Backyard Country for three weeks. Says Craig of the record’s success, “It was unprecedented. We were just starting up, had maybe a thousand fans on social media, and very little exposure. It was incredible to compete with more established artists like Colt Ford and Jake Owen and hang in there. We felt validated; we were relying completely on the strength of the song and holding our own.”
After touring for months in West and South Georgia, metro Atlanta, and East Alabama and opening for artists like Corey Smith and Ashton Shepherd in support of the EP, the band recorded, produced, and released its second single, “Enjoy The Ride,” in late 2013. Initially, the song was given away as a free download at the band’s shows. After a few months, the band noticed the song’s growing popularity among their fans and placed it in rotation on The Bull’s Backyard Country.
Homegrown Band is planning to release a second album tentatively titled ‘Summer Song’ in the summer of 2015. The record will feature new songs that the band has been writing and performing over the course of their 2014 tour schedule.

Nielsen’s 2014 SXSW presentation, “The Insights Evolution: Why Only Obsessing About Sales Is Holding You Back,” focused on the rewards of building artist awareness through web/social activity, heightening music discovery through radio and streaming, and maximizing sales through radio and television for new song releases.
“Digital consumption has reached the masses, with a majority of consumers in the U.S. streaming music last year,” says David Bakula, SVP Client Development & Industry Insights, Nielsen Entertainment.  “The change in consumption requires us to continually evolve how we measure and define success.”
The presentation included the following statistics regarding how consumers access content in various ways.
• In 2013, 68 percent of U.S. consumers streamed music (includes YouTube music videos)
• Consumers who streamed music via paid streaming services rose from 4.2 percent to 4.9 percent
• Consumers who streamed music via free streaming services rose from 26.8 percent to 38.6 percent
• 56 percent of respondents listened to music on the car radio in a typical week; 53 percent listened to music on their mobile devices during the same period
• 67 percent of respondents listened to music on the car radio within a 12-month period; 69 percent listened to music on mobile devices during the same period; 72 percent listened to music on their desktop or laptop computer during the same period
Nielsen looked at the life cycles of a sampling of 2013’s top songs in terms of sales, On-Demand streams and airplay. Nielsen analyzed trends in sales, radio audience, on-demand streams, and web/social activity for those artists, leading to the following conclusions:
• Radio can be a vital driver of On-Demand streaming and sales
• The first eight to 12 weeks of a new release can present the best opportunity for TV and other exposure
• Around week 12, consumption typically reaches its peak
• After 12 weeks, artists should look for crossover opportunities to engage new audiences as consumption starts to decline
• In the long term, streaming presents the opportunity to lengthen monetization opportunities

Columbia Nashville will release a Chris Janson EP, Take It To The Bank, to digital retailers on Feb. 25.
Janson, who was previously signed to the Sony imprint, worked with producer Phil O’Donnell on the project, with help from Justin Niebank on two tracks. Janson is featured as a writer on four of the five tracks.
“This is an eclectic group of tunes for the fans that have heard these songs in my show and have been asking for them,” said Janson in a release from Sony.
Take It To The Bank [EP] Track Listing
1. Take It to the Bank (Chris Janson/Cole Degges)
2. ‘Til a Woman Comes Along (Janson/Cole Degges/Phil O’Donnell)
3. Back to Me (Janson/Cole Degges)
4. Where My Girls At (Janson/Dallas Davidson)
5. I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This (Rodney Crowell)