Mickey Jack Cones
Just over a year ago, Mickey Jack Cones teamed with ONErpm founder/CEO Emmanuel Zunz to relaunch Zunz’s Verge Records, bringing a Nashville label presence to the multi-faceted production, distribution, publishing administration, and marketing company that represents more than 300,000 artists, labels and video creators, from the DIY level to those seeking more highly customized, hands-on solutions.
Cones, a longtime producer/engineer for Trace Adkins, signed the superstar singer to the label earlier this year. The multi-genre label also represents Nashville pop duo Kid Politics, as well as singer-songwriter Jay Allen and Scott Stevens. Cones says he was impressed with the company’s digital-first strategy and multi-genre approach.
“There’s so many artists that record such great music, and producers go in there and they bust their tails, but they get into the normal system and it takes them sometimes so long to be recognized and to have that success,” Cones says.
“With partnering with ONErpm and relaunching Verge, our mission was to give artists another opportunity, a forward-thinking opportunity, and another option to immediately get their music out and almost use the public as a focus group. You’re putting the music out to let them know what’s working and if it’s working, then you go to radio. And so it’s just kind of a 180-degree turn on the mindset of what I grew up with in town for 25 years, and the system that put me on the map as a producer and a manager and a publisher.”
For Cones, Zunz and the Verge Records and ONErpm team, the focus is broader than gaining radio traction for artists.
“It’s not just about trying to get a number one on the chart. It’s about growing their socials. It’s about growing their YouTube subscribers,” Cones says. “We’re truly trying to give an artist every option they could get at a major, but treat the rollout differently. We have radio metrics set up in our structure. When we release a song, if the song has a certain number of non-playlisted streams, playlisted streams, or YouTube views within a certain number of weeks, we will kick in radio.
“With Trace, we grew his YouTube subscriber base 33% within three months. And I’m not saying that’s all because of us, because it Is Trace Adkins, but it’s just a great combination and we’ve proven we’re a great fit together.”
Cones has produced, published, engineered and written for artists including Adkins, Dustin Lynch, Joe Nichols, Jason Aldean, George Strait, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs, and more. He has also gained experience as a manager and publisher through launching companies including COR Music Publishing, COR Artist Services, and COR Audio Productions.
Verge Records serves as the Nashville label outpost for ONErpm, which celebrates a decade in business this year. ONErpm has 22 offices around the globe, and boasts more than 1,000 artists per day signing up for distribution through the ONErpm platform, and label services such as Verge allow them to offer additional services with certain artists.
Originally founded in 2006, Verge began as a social enterprise that won a grant from New York University’s Stern School of Business ‘Maximum Exposure Business Plan Competition’ to sign artists from impoverished areas, and reinvest profits from those releases in the artists’ communities to fund music education programs. The newly re-emerged Verge Records also contributes a portion of its annual profits to charitable organizations.
Emmanuel Zunz
“The idea when I started Verge was to find artists within impoverished neighborhoods or marginalized neighborhoods and then use a portion of the profits to invest in music education programs in those same neighborhoods, to create this cycle of artist development,” says Zunz.
Zunz shifted his focus to ONErpm, but says he “always had the passion make Verge work. It was my first love.”
ONErpm also operates a multi-channel network on YouTube, with more than 5,000 YouTube channels, and distributes music to all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, Tidal, Pandora and more.
Cones met Zunz in 2015, while he was working with Jordan Walker and Johnny McGuire through his COR Entertainment company, and he was managing Donica Knight and American Idol’s Taylor Hicks.
Cones says, “I was releasing all this music and kind of acting as a label and ONErpm was our distribution company at the time. So when we started with Walker McGuire, we got them over 10 million streams in three months, between myself and Emmanuel, and that helped land them a label deal at Broken Bow. Of course, it was a great artist, a great song. A few years later, when he said he wanted to bring Verge Records back, I knew I wanted to partner with him. He’s got his way of thinking about the world, because he’s so global. And I’m in the Nashville scene, so I’ve got my mind wrapped around things here. So we kind of got to balance each other out in a great way and it made the most sense.”
Verge’s musically-diverse roster also takes advantage of Nashville’s strong pop and rock scene, with the signing of Kid Politics. Cones was introduced to the band’s music when he happened upon one of their shows at Nashville venue The Sutler.
“From the first note—and they played for like 45 minutes—I thought they were so impressive. My shoulder was so tired because I was videoing every song. I don’t ever do that. People were commenting after the show, ‘That’s the best music I’ve heard in Nashville in forever.’ They’ve got arena style pop hits that are just radio ear candy. They write and produce everything that they’re cutting.”
The group will release a single, “Cool With It,” later this month, along with a new video.
“Everybody is so visual and everyone has all this data and content at their fingertips. So we feel like that’s a strong branding core for all of our artists,” Cones says. “A lot of places will wait until a single gets to the Top 20 or so before they put a video out. But, we want to put the best foot forward and we’re releasing content more frequently. We’re trying to do official videos with every release, especially with these newer artists, because it gives fans a lot more insight to the artist, much more quickly, and gain traction much more quickly. That’s one of the reasons we set it up to be digital-first this way, because we want to make sure the artist is making money on their music. Traditionally, artists will tell you the last place they make money is on their music. It’s always touring or if they write the song.”
The company’s digital-first operations and steady stream of content has become essential as tours have been postponed or canceled for artists at every level due to COVID-19.
“With Kid Politics, [lead singer] Kelby and the rest of the group were self-producing, but they felt like it needed more polishing. I said, ‘Well, I’ll put you together with a producer and we’ll make this work.’ Of course that was all prior to COVID. But once that hit, they were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to just sit and not put music out.’ So they ended up sending me their files, and I ended up working on the projects with them just to get it out to the people. But also, when the studios were shut down, musicians couldn’t even get in the same room. You could maybe get somebody to mix a file and deliver it via Dropbox, but being able to camp out and close mixes together and do all that, people just weren’t doing it.
“Now that sessions are starting to open up a little bit, people are putting out more music. But that was a little obstacle because the same thing happened with Jay Allen. Luckily the Scott Stevens tracks were already finished prior to COVID, so we’ve had those in the cans. The whole creation and writing process, it’s slowed it down a little bit, so you just have to figure out how to bob and weave.”
Gone West Parts Ways
/by Sarah SkatesMembers of the band Gone West are going separate ways. Colbie Caillat and Justin Young are splitting from bandmates Jason Reeves and Nelly Joy. On Wednesday, Caillat posted the news on Instagram.
The country quartet was comprised of two couples. Reeves and Joy are married, while Caillat and Young called off their five-year engagement a few months ago.
In June, Gone West released its first-full length album, Canyons, via Triple Tigers. That followed the success of debut single “What Could’ve Been,” which had by then earned more than 40 million streams, and more than 10 million views of the music video.
Dave Cobb, Gena Johnson Detail John Prine’s Final Recording, “I Remember Everything”
/by Jessica NicholsonJohn Prine
On June 11, Nashville’s music community was still reeling from the death of one of its shining lights and musical poets, John Prine, who died in April at age 73 due to complications related to COVID-19. That evening, artists including Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Sturgill Simpson, Bonnie Raitt, Margo Price and Kacey Musgraves participated in a livestream concert, offering performances of their favorite Prine classics from their homes, as thousands across the country tuned in to pay tribute to the giver of classics such as “Angel From Montgomery” and “Sam Stone.”
As the evening drew to a close, the fitting coda was Prine’s own warm, intimate voice, as his final recorded song, “I Remember Everything,” was officially released.
The week of June 23, after decades of winning accolades including Grammys, American Music Awards, Americana honors, and an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Prine added one more bittersweet, posthumous accolade, as “I Remember Everything” became Prine’s first No. 1 song on a Billboard chart, debuting atop the Rock Digital Song Sales chart.
“He had played that for us around Thanksgiving last year,” recalls producer Dave Cobb, who captured Prine’s performance of the song alongside engineer Gena Johnson. “We were with John and his family and friends at his house and he pulled out his guitar. He was excited about the next album and that was just him playing a new song he wrote. It certainly wasn’t meant to be the last song he wrote. We had plans to go into the studio this summer, which is terribly sad. He was like a 15-year-old excited to play us his new song.”
Prine co-wrote the song alongside longtime collaborator Pat McLaughlin. Johnson and Cobb captured Prine’s recording of the song a few months later, in the same cozy home where Cobb first heard it, setting up a few simple microphones in Prine’s living room, with Prine accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. Cobb and Johnson stopped by Prine’s house around 10:30 in the evening, just after Cobb had finished a different session.
“I think he was on tour and had some health issues and had to come back home,” Cobb recalls. “His wife Fiona called and said they wanted to capture the song while it was fresh. It was very informal and it was really more documenting the song. They were going to make a documentary about him so we were literally just going by to capture the song. John is one of the few people with the ability to play a new song and it feels timeless, like you’ve always known it. It feels like it could have been on his first record in a way.”
The song reads as one taking stock of the moments, faces and spaces that have given purpose and meaning throughout their life.
I remember every town and every hotel room/every song I ever sang on a guitar out of tune. I remember everything/ things I can’t forget, Prine sings.
“I just thought it was one of the songs we were going to put on his next album—not his last album,” Cobb recalls. “He was cutting up and cracking jokes, just typical John Prine.”
“It was basically one take,” Johnson says of the recording session. “I got there early to set up and John did a couple of run-throughs just to warm up before we recorded. With John, it was like, every single thing he sang was cool.
“His love for Fiona was the biggest thing,” Johnson continues. “There’s the line, And I remember every night/ Your ocean eyes of blue. I remember when he sang that line, he just looked up at Fiona and smiled. That was really special,” Johnson recalls.
“I definitely had tears in my eyes,” she recalls learning of song’s chart-topping success. “I never thought I would be in his living room, recording the very last thing he recorded. I teared up when I was recording the song because you are in the presence of somebody that means so much to so many people, but there’s also the way he made you feel as an individual.
“It was heavy when he passed. I definitely took it hard and immediately thought of Fiona and the boys and how they have made me feel like family from day one, when I was working on [Prine’s 2018 Grammy-nominated album] The Tree of Forgiveness. Seeing that [chart success] happen was beautiful to watch.”
“He was full of life, and funny and happy to see people. I have no words for how much joy that guy had. He loved his family, his friends, his career—and the mustard he kept in his suitcase,” Cobb said.
Prine is posthumously nominated for Artist of the Year at the 2020 Americana Honors & Awards, set for Sept. 16 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Prine previously won the Artist of the Year honor in 2005, 2017 and 2018. During his career, he took home three additional Americana honors, including Album of the Year in 2019 for The Tree of Forgiveness, Song of the Year for “Summer’s End” (2019), and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting (2003).
Industry Ink: Charlie Worsham, Banner Believers, Evergreen Entertainment
/by Lorie HollabaughCharlie Worsham For Gilda’s Club
Charlie Worsham
Gilda’s Club Middle Tennessee will hold its 2020 Red Door Bash, on Thursday, Sept. 3 featuring special guest Charlie Worsham. The virtual event begins at 6:30 p.m. and supports the organization’s mission of offering free cancer support for people in Middle Tennessee. The event will be co-hosted by Gilda’s Club President and CEO Harriet Schiftan and award-winning news anchor, filmmaker, and writer Demetria Kalodimos. Honorees include Juli and Earl Fitz, Cathy and Clay Jackson, and Felice Apolinsky.
Click here for tickets and details.
Banner Believers Adds Justin Lee Partin
Pictured (L-R): Camilla Kleindienst, Banner Music; Justin Lee Partin; John Giovagnorio, Manager. Photo: Banner Music
Nashville-based publishing company Banner Music is adding rising country artist Justin Lee Partin to its Banner Believers roster. The program releases songs from artists who write with Banner Music’s staff songwriters.
Partin co-wrote his single, “Waiting On The Weekend,” with Banner Music writers Daniel Kleindienst and Alex Dooley. Country star Craig Campbell is featured on the track and brings his country charisma and spirit to the storyline. The single has an official release date of Aug. 21 and can be pre-saved here.
Partin hails from the small town of Branford, Florida.
Evergreen Entertainment Launches Indie Management Model
Evergreen Entertainment, a management group focusing on independent artists, has launched in Nashville. Co-founded by Maria Herrera, who has seven years of experience as a publicist and artist development consultant, and John LeDew, who was a music booking agent and event manager for five years, Evergreen evolved to boost the careers of independent artists. The company’s mission is to provide affordable, simple, transparent, and effective services for indie artists, offering both an “á la carte” menu as well as full-service management agreements.
Evergreen Entertainment also offers a fan-driven subscription service called The Collective that allows fans to become a part of Evergreen’s community and engage with the roster of artists on a personal level. Fans receive exclusive merch, VIP, discounted show tickets, letters from their favorite artists, and Collective-only opportunities to engage with the artists.
Evergreen Entertainment’s first artist is Mcclendon, a Nashville indie who recently branched away from his band Painted West to start a solo career. He is set to release an EP in September.
ACM Lifting Lives: ‘On The Road Again,’ Brothers Osborne, Autism Lab At Vanderbilt
/by Lorie HollabaughWillie And Friends Rework ‘On The Road Again’ To Aid ACM Lifting Lives
Brothers Osborne To Play Free Live Stream Show Benefiting Lifting Lives
Brothers Osborne
Brothers Osborne: Let’s Play Live, an exclusive free live stream concert, is set for August 21 at 7 p.m. CT. The duo will perform the free show live from outside of Tulsa, OK with no live audience, and during the virtual concert, fans will be encouraged to donate to ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund. The donated funds will go to help individuals in the country community who are currently in need of pandemic relief assistance.
ACM Endows New Lifting Lives Autism Lab At Vanderbilt
“Since 2012, ACM Lifting Lives has partnered with Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) on a week-long residential program for musically talented individuals with Williams Syndrome, which affects 1 in 10,000 people. This camp has held a dual purpose of studying Williams Syndrome and other developmental disabilities by providing music enrichment through both performance and education, and we are so thrilled to be able to partner with VKC on another scale,” said Lyndsay Cruz, ACM Lifting Lives Executive Director. “Given our commitment to people with developmental disabilities, Vanderbilt invited us to build on our partnership through support of a program to bring the healing power of music to a much larger population: children with autism spectrum disorder, who now represent 1 in every 59 children in the United States.”
Nashville’s Verge Records Celebrates One-Year Anniversary
/by Jessica NicholsonMickey Jack Cones
Just over a year ago, Mickey Jack Cones teamed with ONErpm founder/CEO Emmanuel Zunz to relaunch Zunz’s Verge Records, bringing a Nashville label presence to the multi-faceted production, distribution, publishing administration, and marketing company that represents more than 300,000 artists, labels and video creators, from the DIY level to those seeking more highly customized, hands-on solutions.
Cones, a longtime producer/engineer for Trace Adkins, signed the superstar singer to the label earlier this year. The multi-genre label also represents Nashville pop duo Kid Politics, as well as singer-songwriter Jay Allen and Scott Stevens. Cones says he was impressed with the company’s digital-first strategy and multi-genre approach.
“There’s so many artists that record such great music, and producers go in there and they bust their tails, but they get into the normal system and it takes them sometimes so long to be recognized and to have that success,” Cones says.
“With partnering with ONErpm and relaunching Verge, our mission was to give artists another opportunity, a forward-thinking opportunity, and another option to immediately get their music out and almost use the public as a focus group. You’re putting the music out to let them know what’s working and if it’s working, then you go to radio. And so it’s just kind of a 180-degree turn on the mindset of what I grew up with in town for 25 years, and the system that put me on the map as a producer and a manager and a publisher.”
For Cones, Zunz and the Verge Records and ONErpm team, the focus is broader than gaining radio traction for artists.
“It’s not just about trying to get a number one on the chart. It’s about growing their socials. It’s about growing their YouTube subscribers,” Cones says. “We’re truly trying to give an artist every option they could get at a major, but treat the rollout differently. We have radio metrics set up in our structure. When we release a song, if the song has a certain number of non-playlisted streams, playlisted streams, or YouTube views within a certain number of weeks, we will kick in radio.
“With Trace, we grew his YouTube subscriber base 33% within three months. And I’m not saying that’s all because of us, because it Is Trace Adkins, but it’s just a great combination and we’ve proven we’re a great fit together.”
Cones has produced, published, engineered and written for artists including Adkins, Dustin Lynch, Joe Nichols, Jason Aldean, George Strait, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs, and more. He has also gained experience as a manager and publisher through launching companies including COR Music Publishing, COR Artist Services, and COR Audio Productions.
Verge Records serves as the Nashville label outpost for ONErpm, which celebrates a decade in business this year. ONErpm has 22 offices around the globe, and boasts more than 1,000 artists per day signing up for distribution through the ONErpm platform, and label services such as Verge allow them to offer additional services with certain artists.
Originally founded in 2006, Verge began as a social enterprise that won a grant from New York University’s Stern School of Business ‘Maximum Exposure Business Plan Competition’ to sign artists from impoverished areas, and reinvest profits from those releases in the artists’ communities to fund music education programs. The newly re-emerged Verge Records also contributes a portion of its annual profits to charitable organizations.
Emmanuel Zunz
“The idea when I started Verge was to find artists within impoverished neighborhoods or marginalized neighborhoods and then use a portion of the profits to invest in music education programs in those same neighborhoods, to create this cycle of artist development,” says Zunz.
Zunz shifted his focus to ONErpm, but says he “always had the passion make Verge work. It was my first love.”
ONErpm also operates a multi-channel network on YouTube, with more than 5,000 YouTube channels, and distributes music to all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, Tidal, Pandora and more.
Cones met Zunz in 2015, while he was working with Jordan Walker and Johnny McGuire through his COR Entertainment company, and he was managing Donica Knight and American Idol’s Taylor Hicks.
Cones says, “I was releasing all this music and kind of acting as a label and ONErpm was our distribution company at the time. So when we started with Walker McGuire, we got them over 10 million streams in three months, between myself and Emmanuel, and that helped land them a label deal at Broken Bow. Of course, it was a great artist, a great song. A few years later, when he said he wanted to bring Verge Records back, I knew I wanted to partner with him. He’s got his way of thinking about the world, because he’s so global. And I’m in the Nashville scene, so I’ve got my mind wrapped around things here. So we kind of got to balance each other out in a great way and it made the most sense.”
Verge’s musically-diverse roster also takes advantage of Nashville’s strong pop and rock scene, with the signing of Kid Politics. Cones was introduced to the band’s music when he happened upon one of their shows at Nashville venue The Sutler.
“From the first note—and they played for like 45 minutes—I thought they were so impressive. My shoulder was so tired because I was videoing every song. I don’t ever do that. People were commenting after the show, ‘That’s the best music I’ve heard in Nashville in forever.’ They’ve got arena style pop hits that are just radio ear candy. They write and produce everything that they’re cutting.”
The group will release a single, “Cool With It,” later this month, along with a new video.
“Everybody is so visual and everyone has all this data and content at their fingertips. So we feel like that’s a strong branding core for all of our artists,” Cones says. “A lot of places will wait until a single gets to the Top 20 or so before they put a video out. But, we want to put the best foot forward and we’re releasing content more frequently. We’re trying to do official videos with every release, especially with these newer artists, because it gives fans a lot more insight to the artist, much more quickly, and gain traction much more quickly. That’s one of the reasons we set it up to be digital-first this way, because we want to make sure the artist is making money on their music. Traditionally, artists will tell you the last place they make money is on their music. It’s always touring or if they write the song.”
The company’s digital-first operations and steady stream of content has become essential as tours have been postponed or canceled for artists at every level due to COVID-19.
“With Kid Politics, [lead singer] Kelby and the rest of the group were self-producing, but they felt like it needed more polishing. I said, ‘Well, I’ll put you together with a producer and we’ll make this work.’ Of course that was all prior to COVID. But once that hit, they were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to just sit and not put music out.’ So they ended up sending me their files, and I ended up working on the projects with them just to get it out to the people. But also, when the studios were shut down, musicians couldn’t even get in the same room. You could maybe get somebody to mix a file and deliver it via Dropbox, but being able to camp out and close mixes together and do all that, people just weren’t doing it.
“Now that sessions are starting to open up a little bit, people are putting out more music. But that was a little obstacle because the same thing happened with Jay Allen. Luckily the Scott Stevens tracks were already finished prior to COVID, so we’ve had those in the cans. The whole creation and writing process, it’s slowed it down a little bit, so you just have to figure out how to bob and weave.”
RJ Stillwell And Partners To Bring New Life To Historic Building
/by Sherod Robertson421 Union St. building, Nashville, Tennessee.
RJ Stillwell, CEO and Founder of Sound Healthcare & Financial, along with his business partners under the name Historic Restorations, are bringing a historic building back to life in downtown Nashville. Historic Restorations, the development group, includes Stillwell along with former artist manager Patrick Pocklington, singer/songwriter Jason Mraz, and contractor Andrew Eshelman.
Stillwell tells MusicRow, “As a resident of downtown Nashville for over 16 years, I’ve always enjoyed urban living. Aside from music, serving our creative community and philanthropy, my additional passions include urban architecture and interior design. I’m especially excited about this new project with Patrick, Andrew and Jason because it provides us the opportunity to give new life to one of my favorite historic downtown structures, the 421 Union St. building.”
Located in Printer’s Alley Art District, the building was erected in 1901 and was first housed by Parrish Shoes. The space has a long history as a bank, Liberty Bank & Trust, before being purchased by Howell H. Campbell in 1940, the founder of the iconic local brand, Goo Goo Cluster.
The building is most recently home to Nashville’s first sushi restaurant, Koto Sushi Bar. The space features 20 foot ceilings that will be expanded and transformed into a modernist loft boutique hotel, focusing on design and technology.
Photo: Downtown Nashville, looking east down Union Street from 5th Avenue. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library & Archives.
Dan + Shay Announce Rescheduled (Arena) Tour Dates
/by Lorie HollabaughThe duo expressed their disappointment at having to make the necessary change, but let fans know it will be worth the wait in an Instagram post:
Dan + Shay The (Arena) Tour Dates 2021:
Sept. 10 — Charlottesville, Va. @ John Paul Jones Arena
Sept. 11 — Uncasville, Ct. @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Sept. 14 — Philadelphia, Pa. @ Wells Fargo Arena
Sept. 16 — New York, N.Y. @ Madison Square Garden
Sept. 17 — Pittsburgh, Pa. @ PPG Paints Arena
Sept. 18 — Greensboro, N.C. @ Greensboro Coliseum
Sept. 23 — Louisville, Ky. @ KFC Yum! Center
Sept. 24 — Milwaukee, Wisc. @ Fiserv Forum
Sept. 25 — Minneapolis, Minn. @ Target Center
Oct. 1 — Indianapolis, Ind. @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse
Oct. 2 — Chicago, Ill. @ United Center
Oct. 3 — Grand Rapids, Mich. @ Van Andel Arena
Oct. 17 — Glendale, Ariz. @ Gila River Arena
Oct. 20 — San Francisco, Calif. @ Chase Center
Oct. 21 — Sacramento, Calif. @ Golden 1 Center
Oct. 23 — Salt Lake City, Utah, Vivint Smart Home Arena
Oct. 24 — Denver, Colo. @ Pepsi Center
Oct. 28 — Portland, Ore. @ Moda Center
Oct. 29 — Tacoma, Wash. @ Tacoma Dome
Nov. 4 — Orlando, Fla. @ Amway Center
Nov. 5 — Atlanta, Ga. @ State Farm Arena
Nov. 12 — Omaha, Neb. @ Chi Health Center
Nov. 13 — Tulsa, Okla. @ BOK Center
Nov. 14 — Kansas City, Mo. @ T-Mobile Center
Nov. 20 — New Orleans, La. @ Smoothie King Center
Nov. 21 — Dallas, Texas @ American Airlines Center
Dec. 3 — Detroit, Mich. @ Little Caesars Arena
Dec. 4 — Hershey, Pa. @ Giant Center
Dec. 5 — Newark, N.J. @ Prudential Center
Dec. 7 — Boston, Mass. @ TD Garden
Facebook Plans $800 Million Facility Near Nashville
/by Sarah SkatesRendering of Facebook’s new complex in Gallatin. Source: Facebook.
Facebook will invest $800 million to build a new state-of-the-art data center in Gallatin, Tenn. Once operational, the project is estimated to support 100 jobs, including technical operations, electricians, logistics staff and security.
Construction has just begun on the 982,000-square-foot facility, which will be one of the most advanced, energy- and water- efficient data center facilities in the world. Plans call for it to be supported by 100 percent renewable energy, using 80 percent less water than the average, and to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified.
The announcement is the culmination of a three-year recruitment effort.
Rachel Peterson, Facebook’s VP of Data Center Strategy said, “We chose Gallatin because of its terrific infrastructure, talented workforce, and the spirit of partnership the community offered. This technology is actually what makes Facebook work, allowing people around the world to connect to each other. We are thrilled to be joining the Gallatin community.”
Facebook will join several other large brand names located in the Gallatin Industrial Park, including Beretta USA, Gap and SERVPRO.
Rendering of Facebook’s new complex in Gallatin. Source: Facebook.
MusicRow Awards: Winners To Be Revealed Online Aug. 18
/by LB CantrellMusicRow will reveal the winners of the 32nd annual MusicRow Awards on all MusicRow online platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, starting at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
MusicRow Awards Schedule of Announcements
9:00 a.m.: Top 10 Album All-Star Musicians Awards
9:30 a.m.: Producer of the Year
10:00 a.m.: Label of the Year
10:30 a.m.: Agency of the Year
11:00 a.m.: Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year
11:30 a.m.: Breakthrough Artist-Writer of the Year
12:00 p.m.: Male Songwriter of the Year
12:30 p.m.: Female Songwriter of the Year
1:00 p.m.: Song of the Year
1:30 p.m.: Robert K. Oermann Discovery Artist of the Year
2:00 p.m.: Breakthrough Artist of the Year
2:30 p.m.: Artist of the Year
Winners will be revealed for Producer of the Year, Song of the Year, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Breakthrough Songwriter, Breakthrough Artist-Writer, Label of the Year, Talent Agency of the Year, Robert K. Oermann Discovery Artist of the Year, Male and Female Songwriters of the Year, and Artist of the Year throughout the day.
Click here to read about the nominees up for each category.
The Top 10 Album All-Star Musicians Awards will also be announced on Aug. 18, recognizing the industry’s most in-demand studio players.
Presenting Sponsor of the 2020 MusicRow Awards is City National Bank.
Final nominees for the MusicRow Awards are determined by an internal MusicRow committee. For the Breakthrough Songwriter and Breakthrough Artist-Writer categories, music publishers are invited to submit qualifying candidates for consideration. Male and Female Songwriter nominees are based on data compiled from MusicRow’s Top Songwriter Chart. The eligibility period for the 2020 awards was April 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020
MusicRow‘s August/September print magazine, featuring all of the nominees, is available for purchase now at musicrow.com for $20, and are included with yearly MusicRow memberships.
Please note that issues of MusicRow Magazine’s MusicRow Awards issue can only be purchased online as the MusicRow building is currently closed to the public due to COVID-19.
BREAKING: Thomas Rhett Inks With Warner Chappell
/by Sarah SkatesThomas Rhett. Photo: John Shearer
Thomas Rhett has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music Nashville. The multi-Platinum singer-songwriter was most recently signed to Sony/ATV.
Thomas Rhett is the reigning ACM Awards Male Artist of The Year and current 5-time nominee. He has charted 15 No. 1 songs, while his most recent single “Beer Can’t Fix” marks his ninth consecutive No. 1, breaking the Billboard Country Airplay Chart record for most consecutive chart-toppers.
“It’s really cool to join Warner Chappell Music and be reunited with Ben Vaughn,” Rhett said. “Ben has been incredibly instrumental in my career from the very beginning, starting with signing me to my first publishing deal in college. I’ll never forget playing ‘Beer with Jesus’ for him right after I wrote it and him being the biggest supporter. He’s truly one of the most innovative and hardest working guys I’ve ever had the honor to work with, and I am looking forward to this new chapter together.”
“Thomas Rhett is an all-around force in music,” said Ben Vaughn, President & CEO, Warner Chappell Nashville. “He can put on one of the most unforgettable, energetic live shows you’ve ever seen, and then hop right off stage and write the next great song. Aside from being an extraordinary artist, he is a man of great integrity who I’m grateful to have called a friend for many years. Everyone in Nashville can attest to his character; Thomas has invested his time in our community and contributed to the success of dozens of other artists. I know I speak for myself, Spencer (Nohe) and the entire WCM team when I say we’re honored to be on this journey with him.”
Thomas Rhett has earned two CMA Triple Play awards for penning three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period and was the most played artist on country radio in 2018. Along with writing and co-producing much of his own material, Thomas Rhett has written songs recorded by Jason Aldean (“I Ain’t Ready to Quit” and “1994”), Florida Georgia Line (“Round Here”), and Old Dominion (“Some People Do”), among others.
Most recently, Thomas Rhett enlisted the help of friends Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin and Keith Urban for “Be A Light,” which is Top-5-and-climbing at country radio.
Thomas Rhett is managed by Virginia Bunetta of G Major Management, and was represented in the agreement by attorney Jess Rosen of Greenburg Trarig.