Eric Church

Taylor Swift. Photo: Taylor Swift Facebook.

SiriusXM has announced its Best of 2015, and several artists with ties to Music City are among the highest rankings.

Eric Church and Taylor Swift were named among the SiriusXM Artists of the Year, alongside Adele, Calvin Harris, and The Weeknd.

SiriusXM Breakthrough Artists of the Year includes Old Dominion, as well as Elle King, Jidenna, Kygo, and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.

Garth Brooks ranks alongside Janet Jackson and Giorgio Moroder for SiriusXM “Welcome Back” Artists of the Year.

New Sony Nashville artist Maren Morris is named alongside Daya, Declan McKenna, Nothing But Thieves, and Tory Lanez as SiriusXM Artists To Watch in 2016.

These selections were determined by members of the SiriusXM music curation team and were driven by subscriber feedback.

“We are thrilled to recognize this group of extraordinary artists who have struck an emotional chord with our subscribers and helped expand the boundaries of music in 2015,” said Steve Blatter, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Music Programming, SiriusXM. “Our year end music lists are based on regular feedback from our community of more than 29 million subscribers across America and demonstrate our  commitment to music discovery.”

Old Dominion

Garth Brooks

Project Music has revealed a comprehensive list of sponsors and investors to support its 2016 Accelerator. The program will feature industry heavyweights joining the investor group to help provide mentorship in addition to $47,000 in funding for each startup chosen to participate.

Title sponsors the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (EC) and the Country Music Association.

Platinum sponsors include YouTube and LaunchTN. Silver Sponsors & Donors include Avenue Bank; BMI; DevDigital; Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy; Patterson Intellectual Property Law; and Rock Paper Scissors, Inc. Gold sponsors are Anderson Benson Insurance, Belmont University Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, Linda and Doug Howard, Music Business Association, and Beth Lee and Thom Oliphant.

Partners for 2016 are Flo Thinkery, Baker Donelson, Sherrard & Roe, LBMC and American Music Water.

Investors for the coming year are Broken Bow Label Group, RCA recording artist Chris Young, Galante Entertainment, Landscape Capital, Maverick, Red Light Management, Shopkeeper Management, Sony/ATV, Beth Lee and Thom Oliphant, Universal Music Group, Vector Management, and Warner Music Group.

“The Project Music Accelerator investors for year 2 represent virtually every aspect of the music industry,” notes Heather McBee, Program Director of Project Music. “The group includes artists, managers, labels, publishers and others, showing support for the goal of identifying opportunities to grow and advance the industry, not only in providing funding, but also illustrating support for the program and the startups that will emerge.”

Total applicants grew by nearly 55 percent over 2015, drawing from 19 states in addition to 25 percent of applications coming from outside the U.S., as Argentina, Australia and Azerbaijan.

“Year two of Project Music is leading the charge to define Nashville as THE city for music-minded entrepreneurs to start, launch and grow their businesses,” states Stuart McWhorter, Nashville Entrepreneur Center CEO & President. “The depth of the 2016 Investor and Sponsor groups, coupled with applicants’ diverse hometowns reflect the program’s growth as it becomes known as the premier global destination for music tech entrepreneurship.”

Project Music 2016 Accelerator starts Jan. 31, 2016 at the EC with participants revealed in mid-December.

The Americana Honors & Awards will be featured on Australia’s Country Music Channel (CMC), as a special broadcast highlighting performances from this year’s event. The program will debut on CMC at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25, with encore broadcasts airing each day until Nov. 30.

Stateside, ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival 2015 will air on PBS in the United States this week, in the Austin City Limits timeslot nationwide.

Recorded live at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium in September, The Americana Music Association’s 14th Annual Honors & Awards ceremony is a best-in-show of Americana music.

EPISODE SETLIST
Robert Randolph featuring The Fairfield Four and the McCrary Sisters “Rock My Soul”
Don Henley “Praying for Rain”
Rhiannon Giddens “Waterboy” featuring Hubby Jenkins
Jason Isbell “Something More Than Free”
Lee Ann Womack “Don’t Listen to the Wind”
Shakey Graves with Esmé Patterson “Dearly Departed”
John Hiatt “Long Time Comin’”
The Lone Bellow “Then Came the Morning”
Keb’ Mo’ “How Blue Can You Get”
Ry Cooder, Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White “Over in the Glory Land”
Buddy Miller with Marc Ribot “Cold, Cold Heart”
Los Lobos “Will the Wolf Survive”