Warner Music Group and Shazam have developed an innovative strategic alliance that will discover new acts and sign them to a Shazam-branded label under WMG, and that will collaborate in enhanced marketing across WMG’s roster of artists.
The global partnership will create a connection between music fans, emerging artists, and WMG’s A&R teams. The Shazam label imprint will identify unsigned artists for support and development by combining WMG’s global A&R expertise with Shazam’s proprietary fan activity data. At the same time, the app’s unique promotional channels will empower artists to directly engage with fans who Shazamed them, enabling fans to continue to champion the artist they helped discover.
“By partnering with Shazam, a brand which is synonymous with music discovery for fans all around the world, we have forged a potent proposition: the first crowd-sourced, big data record label,” said Rob Wiesenthal, COO/Corporate, Warner Music Group. “While data and crowd sourced analyses will never be a substitute for the expertise and instincts of our A&R professionals, we do believe the information we obtain for this new label will provide very useful signals that will bolster our ability to find the stars of tomorrow.”
In addition, WMG’s family of labels will offer new ways for their rosters of established and up-and-coming acts to connect with Shazam’s enormous community of 420 million users in 200 countries. WMG labels will receive enhanced deep data on fan behavior for WMG acts and be able to launch specially tailored promotional campaigns. In turn, WMG will provide Shazam with exclusive content and other benefits to augment the user experience, providing even more reasons for fans to make the app their destination for news about their favorite acts.
Initial projects activated under the alliance have already included Shazam’s first video premiere with Chromeo’s ‘Come Alive’ and Shazam’s first single premiere via its News Feed with Wiz Khalifa’s ‘We Dem Boyz’.
“We are excited to enter into a next-generation partnership with Warner Music Group. Every minute of the day, people around the world Shazam over 10,000 songs, giving us incredible insight into what songs are trending and allowing us to discover future hits. Combining Shazam’s proprietary data with WMG’s A&R expertise will yield fantastic results,” said Rich Riley, CEO, Shazam. “We are also eager to use our deep data and advanced promotional solutions combined with exclusive content from WMG to help artists engage with their fans and sell more music.”

Mountain Dew has partnered with Dierks Bentley as a sponsor on the singer’s upcoming Riser Tour. Bentley’s tour will launch on May 9 in Charlotte, N.C. and feature special guests Chris Young, Chase Rice and Jon Pardi.
“Fans know that they are getting something real when they listen to Dierks Bentley – he expresses who he is through his music and that’s a trait that vibes really well with the Mountain Dew brand,” said Mountain Dew’s VP, Marketing Greg Lyons. “We’re so excited to welcome him into the Dew family, and know that Dew Nation will be a big supporter of his.”
“I’m fired up about the tour this summer and happy to have Mountain Dew and the DEW Nation joining us out on the road,” said Bentley. “Dew is a brand that encourages individuality and doing things your own way, and that’s something I can definitely identify with and get behind.”
Bentley’s latest album Riser will hit stores on Feb. 25, 2014. For more information, visit dierks.com.

Multi-Platinum selling Country singer and songwriter Sara Evans has been called “one of the most compelling vocalists of her generation.” Evans will release her highly anticipated seventh studio album Slow Me Down on March 11, 2014. The album comes more than two years after the release of Stronger, her second project to top the Billboard Country Album Chart. Despite five No. 1 hits, her new single “Slow Me Down” scored the most first-week adds of her career and was named one of Billboard’s “10 Best Country Singles of 2013.” The song has been steadily climbing the charts with the companion video featuring NASCAR great Carl Edwards in heavy rotation on CMT and GAC.
Slow Me Down is co-produced by Evans and Mark Bright (Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood), who Evans last worked with on her Platinum selling album Real Fine Place (2005). Slow Me Down sees Evans collaborating on three tracks: “Better Off” with Country legend Vince Gill; “Can’t Stop Loving You,” a duet with Isaac Slade of The Fray; and a cover of Gavin DeGraw’s “Not Over You” which features the pop/rock star singing harmonies. This album is what fans have waited for and newcomers are bound to fall in love with.
Slow Me Down is Evans at her finest, with her signature powerful vocals that will serve as a reminder of why she has had a level of success reserved for few. Evans co-wrote three of the album’s 11 tracks and some of Nashville’s finest songwriters are represented on Slow Me Down. A who’s who of songwriters on the project include Dave Berg (Keith Urban, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton), Shane McAnally (Florida Georgia Line, Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson), Karyn Rochelle (Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, Ronnie Milsap), Sarah Buxton (Keith Urban, The Band Perry, Gary Allan), and Shane Stevens (Lady Antebellum, Kellie Pickler, Montgomery Gentry).
Since emerging in the late 1990s, Evans has had a prolific recording career resulting in the sale of more than six million albums. She’s had five No. 1 songs, four others appearing in the Top 10, two No. 1 Billboard Country Albums, five appearing on Billboard’s Top 200 all-genre chart, and four consecutive RIAA certified Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum albums. She’s received awards from the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, a Billboard Music Award and garnered nominations for Grammy Awards, American Country Awards and CMT Music Awards.
Evans won the hearts of America as the first Country artist to compete on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. She was also chosen as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People.”
Always interested in and involved with charitable efforts, Evans has been an active member of the American Red Cross’ National Celebrity Cabinet since 2005 and was presented with the national Crystal Cross for her work with the organization.