Music Rising, the campaign launched in 2005 to aid the musicians of the Gulf Coast Region after the hurricane disasters of Katrina and Rita, has pledged support to the city of Nashville and its musicians affected by the recent floods. Co-founded by U2’s the Edge, legendary producer Bob Ezrin and Gibson Guitar CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz, Music Rising announced its partnership with MusiCares® in cooperation with the Gibson Foundation to administer the Music Rising Nashville Flood Relief efforts that will aid musicians with the repair and replacement of instruments damaged or destroyed in the recent Tennessee floods.
Effective immediately, Music Rising will donate $250,000 to MusiCares to be used specifically for Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief. These funds will be earmarked to help musicians in the Nashville area repair or replace instruments that fell victim to the flood waters. Hundreds of musicians who call Nashville home have lost instruments and equipment. In the aftermath of the floods, as the entire city is trying to grasp the enormity of the loss, the musicians are hoping they will have the instruments they need to perform. Anyone interested in donating to Music Rising’s Nashville Flood Relief effort and increasing the initial $250,000 donation can do so by going to www.gibsonfoundation.org and clicking on Flood Relief donations. Contributions should be noted by the donor with the request to go directly to Music Rising Nashville.
“When we created Music Rising in 2005, our mission was to help rebuild and preserve the musical culture of the Central Gulf Region,” says co-founder Ezrin. “We started by replacing musicians’ instruments that were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes, and we continue to expand our efforts to benefit the region’s musical heritage. Now, it’s our responsibility to help Nashville’s music community recover from these historic floods, and Music Rising will do just that.”
“As a co-founding partner, Gibson Guitar will continue to support Music Rising,” says Juszkiewicz. “As we have done in the Gulf Region, we plan on staying the course until the Nashville music community has recovered. It continues to be a great honor to work aside the Edge of U2 and producer Bob Ezrin in every effort of Music Rising. We will see Nashville rise again and it will be better than ever.”
“MusiCares is very proud to be partnering with the Gibson Foundation on another Music Rising program — this time to put instruments back into the hands of musicians in Nashville,” says Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy® and MusiCares. “It is especially poignant to be providing this assistance to music people in the home to Gibson’s headquarters, given its longtime philanthropic support of the global music community.”
“Nashville is a treasure chest of Southern heritage and American musical tradition and is indisputably the world’s Country Music capital,” says the Edge. “But it’s more than that. It is also home to one of the greatest concentrations of musical talent on earth. The news of the floods brought back terrible memories of Katrina and when Anderson Cooper of CNN titled his new coverage Nashville Rising it became obvious what we had to do.”
In order to be considered for assistance, musicians must complete the confidential application process. Each applicant must be able to demonstrate that they have a damaged or destroyed instrument. MusiCares will be handling the verification. Beginning Monday, May 17, the MusiCares (www.musicares.com), Music Rising (www.musicrising.org) and Gibson Foundation (www.gibsonfoundation.org) sites will have applications, contact numbers and information for musicians who would like to apply. Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief, is administered by MusiCares in partnership with Gibson Foundation.
Swift Wins BMI Song of the Year
/by contributor(L-R): Sony/ATV Music Publishing’s Troy Tomlinson, BMI Pop Song of the Year winner Taylor Swift, BMI Pop Award winners Liz Rose and Jon Mabe, and BMI’s Jody Williams. Photo: Mark Sullivan
Taylor Swift won top honors at last night’s BMI Pop Awards in Los Angeles, taking home the prestigious Song of the Year award for her multi-genre international No.1 smash “Love Story.”
20-year old Swift is the youngest songwriter in history to win this honor, and the first country winner in more than a decade. The most recent country songwriters honored with this award were Stephanie Bentley for “Breathe” in 2000, Shania Twain for “You’re Still The One” in 1998, and Dolly Parton in 1993 for “I Will Always Love You.”
“Love Story,” which Swift wrote by herself, was honored for receiving more radio airplay in the past year than any other pop song. “Love Story” earned BMI’s Country Song of the Year honors in 2009, and Swift also won BMI’s Country Song of the Year in 2008, for “Teardrops On My Guitar.” That year she became the youngest songwriter in any genre to win the honor, and Swift is the first female songwriter in history to win back-to-back BMI Song of the Year awards, in any genre.
“Love Story,” from Swift’s 6x-Platinum Fearless album, topped Billboard’s Country, Pop and A/C charts in the US, and became a global sensation, reaching No. 1 in countries including the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. “Love Story” is also the most downloaded country single in US history.
Also this week, Swift was in Chicago to accept the Artist of the Year award from the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). The award recognized Swift’s “extraordinary creative and commercial achievements” and her “brilliant and stellar contribution to the music industry in just a few years.”
Music Rising Offers Musicians Flood Relief
/by contributorEffective immediately, Music Rising will donate $250,000 to MusiCares to be used specifically for Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief. These funds will be earmarked to help musicians in the Nashville area repair or replace instruments that fell victim to the flood waters. Hundreds of musicians who call Nashville home have lost instruments and equipment. In the aftermath of the floods, as the entire city is trying to grasp the enormity of the loss, the musicians are hoping they will have the instruments they need to perform. Anyone interested in donating to Music Rising’s Nashville Flood Relief effort and increasing the initial $250,000 donation can do so by going to www.gibsonfoundation.org and clicking on Flood Relief donations. Contributions should be noted by the donor with the request to go directly to Music Rising Nashville.
“When we created Music Rising in 2005, our mission was to help rebuild and preserve the musical culture of the Central Gulf Region,” says co-founder Ezrin. “We started by replacing musicians’ instruments that were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes, and we continue to expand our efforts to benefit the region’s musical heritage. Now, it’s our responsibility to help Nashville’s music community recover from these historic floods, and Music Rising will do just that.”
“As a co-founding partner, Gibson Guitar will continue to support Music Rising,” says Juszkiewicz. “As we have done in the Gulf Region, we plan on staying the course until the Nashville music community has recovered. It continues to be a great honor to work aside the Edge of U2 and producer Bob Ezrin in every effort of Music Rising. We will see Nashville rise again and it will be better than ever.”
“MusiCares is very proud to be partnering with the Gibson Foundation on another Music Rising program — this time to put instruments back into the hands of musicians in Nashville,” says Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy® and MusiCares. “It is especially poignant to be providing this assistance to music people in the home to Gibson’s headquarters, given its longtime philanthropic support of the global music community.”
“Nashville is a treasure chest of Southern heritage and American musical tradition and is indisputably the world’s Country Music capital,” says the Edge. “But it’s more than that. It is also home to one of the greatest concentrations of musical talent on earth. The news of the floods brought back terrible memories of Katrina and when Anderson Cooper of CNN titled his new coverage Nashville Rising it became obvious what we had to do.”
In order to be considered for assistance, musicians must complete the confidential application process. Each applicant must be able to demonstrate that they have a damaged or destroyed instrument. MusiCares will be handling the verification. Beginning Monday, May 17, the MusiCares (www.musicares.com), Music Rising (www.musicrising.org) and Gibson Foundation (www.gibsonfoundation.org) sites will have applications, contact numbers and information for musicians who would like to apply. Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief, is administered by MusiCares in partnership with Gibson Foundation.
CMT Awards Adds Performers, Offers Flood Relief
/by Sarah SkatesIn addition to honoring winners’ charities, CMT One Country is partnering with show sponsor Rhapsody® to make donations on behalf of all nominees. Through Wednesday, June 16, proceeds from the purchase of any 2010 CMT Music Awards nominated song from Rhapsody.com will go to CMT One Country to support Tennessee flood relief.
Chesney Movie Out Via Kmart
/by Sarah SkatesIn more Chesney news, he opened a two weekend stand at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel & Casino club The Joint on Friday night (5/14). His freewheeling shows were streamed live on his No Shoes Radio, and—true to his Keg in the Closet style—showcased hits, gems and cover songs.
Chesney spent more than four hours on stage Saturday night. “We knew we were gonna be putting it up for another month, so we figured we’d go as long as they stayed… and we hit everything!” he says. “I did ‘Hungry Heart’ acoustic… We played ‘I’m Alive’ for the first time, and ‘You Saved Me,” half the Be As You Are record… a buncha covers form the Violent Femmes to Steve Miller… and we went and we went and they stayed and they stayed, and then we played some more.” Chesney returns to the Joint on July 2-3.
Randy Houser Sets Sophomore Release Date
/by Sarah SkatesFor the album produced by Cliff Audretch and Mark Wright, Houser culled songs from hitmakers such as Mark D. Sanders and Brice Long (“Anything Goes”), and backing vocals from Lee Ann Womack.
They Call Me Cadillac will be the follow-up to his 2008 debut Anything Goes, which produced hit singles including the title track and “Boots On.”
Houser will make a series of appearances in support of the new album before joining Gary Allan on the “Get Off on the Pain” Tour commencing later this fall with good friend Jerrod Niemann.
They Call Me Cadillac Track List:
1 “Lowdown and Lonesome”
2 “They Call Me Cadillac”
3 “Addicted”
4 “Man Like Me”
5 “Will I Always Be This Way”
6 “Out Here In The Country”
7 “I’m All About It”
8 “Here With Me”
9 “Whistlin’ Dixie”
10 “Somewhere South Of Memphis”
11 “If I Could Buy Me Some Time”
12 “Lead Me Home”
Artist Photo Spread
/by Sarah SkatesWade Bowen’s charity event…Fast Ryde visits CMA…Gloriana on “Good Day New York”….Chuck Wicks stops by “CMT Top 20 Countdown.”
Texas charttopper Wade Bowen raised over $106,000 for Postpartum Support International at his 12th annual “Wade Bowen Classic” celebrity concert and golf tournament, held recently in Waco, TX. Bowen recruited friends Cody Canada, Randy Rogers, Stoney LaRue, Brandon Rhyder, Kyle Park, Josh Abbott, Kristen Kelly, Gordon Collier and surprise guest Lee Ann Womack to play for the crowd of over 2100 people. Pictured Wade Bowen and Cody Canada. Photo by Todd Purifoy.
Republic Nashville's Fast Ryde stopped by the CMA offices recently to perform songs for the staff including their single "Top Down." (l-r) One Music Group's Shannon Myers and Jeff Stevens, One Music Group and CMA Board member Steve Bogard, Fast Ryde's James Harrison and Jody Stevens, Fast Ryde publicist Judy McDonough of JEMMedia, CMA Vice President of Corporate Communications Wendy Pearl, and CMA Senior Coordinator of Membership & Industry Relations Betsy Walker.
Gloriana appeared on Good Day New York recently, pictured here with anchors Roasanna Scotto and Greg Kelly. L-R Cheyenne Kimball, Rachel Reinert, Rosanna Scotto, Greg Kelly, Tom Gossin, Mike Gossin
Last week Chuck Wicks stopped by CMT Top 20 Countdown for the world premiere of his new video, "Hold That Thought." (l-r): Top 20 host Evan Farmer, and Chuck Wicks
Unbundling’s Curse On Profitability
/by adminAccording to reports from NARM 2010, held this year in Chicago May 15-17, there were a number of outspoken comments and speakers. NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) is a non-profit trade association that attracts music distributors, retailers, record labels, tech companies and more. One of those opinionated speakers was Big Champagne’s Joe Fleischer.
HitsDailyDouble.com reports that Fleischer convincingly argued that unbundling the single from the full-length album has caused more harm to the record industry than piracy and in his opinion has made the current kinds of label deals unprofitable. “The LP isn’t dead; it’s just optional,” Fleischer was quoted saying. “Producing albums, but marketing singles makes for an enormous business challenge.”
Fleischer’s idea was also echoed last November in a thoughtful interview published on the Harvard Business school’s faculty research website, Working Knowledge. HBS Associate Marketing Professor Anita Elberse summed, “Record labels have depended on album sales to boost profits. But in the digital music era, consumers prefer single songs over music ‘bundles.’ The result? It is time for the industry to rethink its products and prices.”
Anita Elberse
Elberse, using data from Nielsen SoundScan analyzed a sample of over 200 artists from Jan. 2005 to April 2007. “I analyzed the data using an econometric model that related the growth in online music buying to the revenues per bundle,” she explains.
“My research shows that when consumers start buying music online, they switch from buying full albums to cherry-picking their favorite songs on those albums. On average, each album no longer bought is ‘traded in’ for one, perhaps two, individual songs. And because song prices are relatively low—labels typically have to sell 8 to 10 digital songs to generate the same kind of revenues as they do with one digital album—this causes a sharp reduction in revenues over time.”
The Q&A article discusses a variety of factors including the effect that iTunes has had on the record industry, piracy, and the impact of strategic pricing. Find the interview HERE.
Benefit For Josh Ragsdale
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A May 24 Songwriter’s Night at The Listening Room in Cummins Station will benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Set to perform are Wil Nance, Bill Whyte, Watson-Nash, Steve Dean, Tony Stampley, Lisa Shaffer, The Broussards, and more. The event starts at 4:30 PM and costs $10 at the door. Blake Gray of Blue Guitar Music Publishing is planning the show to benefit Lissa Maxwell’s LLS Woman of the Year campaign.
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Tube Time: Dolly Parton, Luke Bryan, More
/by Sarah SkatesLuke Bryan and Jay Leno
Luke Bryan made his debut appearance on The Tonight Show last Tuesday, May 11, where he performed his new single, “Rain Is A Good Thing.”
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Dolly Parton rounded up her friends and fellow celebrities for a Hallmark Channel original special marking the 25th anniversary of her Dollywood theme park. Dolly Celebrates 25 Years of Dollywood will air Friday, July 3 (7 p.m. CT) and includes a musical tribute taped at the park in Pigeon Forge, TN featuring Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Kenny Rogers. The special also includes toasts from Faith Hill, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, and others.
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Joe Nichols will perform his three-week No. 1 hit “Gimmie That Girl” tonight (5/18) on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Next week (5/25), he will join the ladies of The View for a chat and performance.
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Chely Wright has scored one of the most coveted spots on television, a sit-down with Oprah, where she will discuss coming out. She will appear on tomorrow’s (5/19) episode along with rocker Bret Michaels who will talk about his near-fatal brain hemorrhage.
BamaJam Draws Big Sponsors
/by Sarah SkatesAs part of their sponsorships, Dodge will showcase its Ram Trucks at the festival, and Kraft will host tents with artist meet-and-greets and macaroni and cheese.
Among the other national companies offering sponsorship support are Anheuser – Busch, Chrysler, Coldwell Banker, Hardees, Jim Beam, Little Caesars, Playstation, Verizon Wireless and Wrangler Jeans.