The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) will launch its first Member Awards on March 25, 2020, during Tin Pan South Week. The first-year honors will include both awards voted on by NSAI’s membership, and some selected by NSAI’s staff. The awards show will be held at the Analog at Hutton Hotel in Nashville.

“We have thousands of songwriter members who may not describe themselves as professional songwriters, but write amazing songs, are outstanding performers and deserve recognition for their work,” said NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison. “We will present awards in a number of categories on Wednesday, March 25^th during Tin Pan South week 2020 and Tin Pan title sponsor Regions Bank will present the awards.”

“This is one of the most exciting additions to NSAI’s programming in years,” Herbison added. “We applaud Regions Bank for underwriting this event. Nothing could be more in line with the part of our mission statement that says: to educate, elevate and celebrate the songwriter.”

Honors given out on March 25 will include:

Online Pitch Award—Members vote on songs previously taken by Music Row publishers during NSAI’s 24 annual “Online Pitch” sessions. 12 Finalists in this category are determined by NSAI Member Representatives before members vote to determine the winner.

Song Evaluation Award – These selections begin with songs chosen by more than 14 professional songwriters who serve as NSAI Song Evaluators. These selections are narrowed by NSAI Member Representatives prior to final voting by NSAI Members. This is a very prestigious award considering the evaluators review more than eight thousand member songs each year.

NSAI Mentor Awards—Members vote on songs chosen by NSAI Mentors, a group of professional songwriters including R.C. Bannon, Mason Douglas, Jamie Floyd, Lacy Green and Benita Hill.

NSAI One to Watch Award—Determined by the member with the highest number of “Ones to Watch” designations from NSAI Song Evaluators.

NSAI New Member of The Year—Chosen by the NSAI Member Representatives based on the person who has taken the most advantage of their first year of membership to grow as a songwriter.

Volunteer of The Year –Chosen by NSAI staff.

Friends of NSAI – Chosen by NSAI from partner individuals or organizations who assist NSAI and its members to fulfill our mission to serve songwriters.

Graduate Award – Presented to NSAI members who have signed publishing deals and moved into the professional songwriter category.

Chapter of The Year – Given to the outstanding NSAI Chapter from among the 100 across the world as determined by NSAI staff.

Chapter Coordinator of The Year – Given to the outstanding NSAI Chapter Coordinator as determined by NSAI staff.

Other Recognitions will include the Todd Givens Scholarship Winner, NSAI Song Contest Winners, as well as the Anthem Chapter Challenge Winners. Each of NSAI’s 100 chapters choose a “best song” during the month of April. NSAI and Anthem Music Publishing narrow the field down to a select few who are offered single-song contracts with Anthem, or other opportunities.  Five songwriters will be recognized in this category.

In 2021 the NSAI Member Awards presented by Regions Bank will add the prestigious member-voted awards of Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.

The Billboard 200 album chart will soon be including a streaming component compiled from video and audio data from YouTube. The chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on traditional album sales, track sales equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums, and officially licensed video content will now be factored into the chart alongside audio streams. The video addition will also impact Billboard’s genre album charts for Country, R&B/Hip-Hop, Latin, and others, and the change will take effect with the Jan. 18 charts, which reflects sales and streams from January 3-9, 2020.

YouTube streams have been a component of the Billboard Hot 100 and other song charts since February 2013, but this is the first time they will factor into the album charts. Unlike the song charts, however, only official licensed video content uploaded by or on behalf of a rights holder will be counted. User-generated videos will not be included in the album calculations.

“As the steward of the definitive charts that uphold the industry’s measurement of music consumption, our goal is to continually respond and accurately reflect the changing landscape of the music,” said Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group President Deanna Brown. “Our decision to add YouTube and other video streaming data to our album charts reflects the continuing evolution of the music consumption market and the ways in which consumers connect to album-related content.”

“YouTube’s inclusion in the Billboard 200 is a very important moment in making the chart a more accurate representation of what people are listening to,” said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube. “Genres like Latin, hip hop and electronic, which consistently dominate the YouTube charts, will now be properly recognized for their popularity. This is another great step in bringing YouTube and the industry together and we’re so grateful to Billboard and the music business at large for making this addition.”

“With video representing an increasingly large proportion of music consumption on some of the world’s largest platforms, the inclusion of YouTube and video overall to the Billboard 200 as well as other genre rankings is the next natural advancement for our album charts,” said Silvio Pietroluongo, SVP of charts and data development at Billboard.