(L-R): Michael McCall, Scott Borchetta. Photo: Donn Jones
Scott Borchetta visited with Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum writer and editor Michael McCall this past weekend (Sat., Jan. 21) in a public series at the Museum’s Ford Theater to discuss his career growth and success in the music industry.
MusicRow was in attendance for the event along with many industry players, college students, and a number of Borchetta employees who he referred to as ‘machinists’ including his wife Sandi Spika, John Zarling, Allison Jones, Andrew Kautz, Kelly Rich, Matthew Hargis, Nikki Burns, Erik Powell and Jake Basden.
Borchetta is perhaps best known for breaking Taylor Swift and The Band Perry, and his contributions to the careers of superstars Toby Keith, George Strait, Rascal Flatts, Garth Brooks, Martina McBride and Reba. For these reasons, Borchetta has been included among 92 new entries in the second edition printing of The Hall’s Encyclopedia of Country Music, available on Feb. 1.
A majority of the session was spent discussing his resume, and sharing opinions and predictions for the industry. Notably, Borchetta quipped when asked where the music is headed: “it’s going straight to your heart.” A theme that seemed to thread throughout the afternoon was to stay true to yourself; follow your gut.
“We love what we do,” said Borchetta. “I don’t feel like I’ve ever given up anything in my life to do this. This is my life, and we love doing it. If you don’t love doing it, somebody will beat you because they love it more. Love what you do, and outwork everyone.”
When Scott moved to Nashville to join his father Mike, he jumped into a country band on a dare. Music City exposed the Southern California boy to a new music scene—one to which he was unaccustomed. “I wised up very quickly to the amazing level of talent in Nashville. It was the first time I saw what I thought were truly gifted musicians. There’s a difference when you’re a practicing musician and you’re in the presence of a gifted musician. A bell goes off. But one thing that happened, I became able to explain the business to musicians.”
Borchetta grew that business ability and gained a reputation around 1989-90 for promoting edgier country, working with Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, and Kelly Willis, which earned him an invitation to work at MCA. “When I came, MCA had great executives but needed a culture of winning. The program needed a spark, and I think I brought that.”
It wasn’t just his drive that pushed the label forward, however. MCA gained the ability to be trusted by radio. “At the end of the day records and radio want the same thing: answers. Is this going to work? The momentum from George and Reba gave MCA more opportunity to be trusted by the gatekeepers at radio to really start forest fires with the listeners and fans for newer acts.”
When Borchetta’s time at MCA ended, he aligned with James Stroud, who was starting DreamWorks Nashville for David Geffen and Mo Ostin. Borchetta had a vision of creating another imprint for DreamWorks, which would allow the label to compete with RCA and MCA, and he began building a business model. That plan was shelved when DreamWorks in LA decided to sell out to Universal Music Group, home to MCA Nashville. Borchetta found himself SVP of Promotions and Artist Development at the label he had been working at a few years prior. Nonetheless, he pocketed a few lessons from his work with the DreamWorks roster.
Borchetta notes, DreamWorks hadn’t fully understood Toby Keith’s commercial appeal, but when they did, he exploded. “He was like a new Hank Jr., a country rock star. Toby eventually got so big that DreamWorks was unable to keep a balance and it hurt the label dramatically. When Taylor got so big, we knew we needed to keep a balance.”
“The things we learned with Jessica Andrews [at DreamWorks] had a lot to do with how we broke Taylor. For one, we found she had a teenage audience very excited about country music.” Jimmy Harnen, then in promotions at DreamWorks, suggested engaging this audience with shows at high schools. “Nothing too extraordinary, it just came out of paying attention. And we saw it just light up. A lot of the things we learned, we put into play with Taylor from day one. Jessica wavered between wanting to be a pop artist and a country artist. A lot of artists that young don’t have the focus, that’s whats so extraordinary about Taylor. She had that drive.
“Mergers are tough,” Borchetta said about the shift back to MCA after DreamWorks sold. “I don’t think bigger is better. Fewer isn’t better for the creative community. I’ve never thought fewer radio stations or record labels were better. Greatness is about identifying great talent, but what I think is great, other label heads Mike Dungan, Luke Lewis, or Gary Overton might hate. People just need more opportunities.”
In 2004, Borchetta met Taylor, and she waited for him to start Big Machine after he exited Universal. “We had a real vision and a direct goal for what we wanted to do. It just started happening, I put up my own money in the beginning, Toby put money in, and we were able to get Big Machine launched. There were a lot of disbelievers.
Mike McCall with Scott Borchetta discussing the impact the late race car driver Dan Wheldon made on his life
“If you haven’t done this, I encourage everyone to do it at least once, put everything on the line and see how good you are. You will reach down and find things in yourself that you didn’t know you had. I found people that were willing to put it on the line with me. We put blinders on and didn’t look back, we looked straight ahead. Talk about feeling alive and living like you were dying.”
Borchetta explained the success of his label is the diversified talent and the agility to move quickly where larger labels are unable. “We made sure our label wasn’t just about Taylor, we found balance with Garth and shortly after, Trisha, and Reba. We broke The Band Perry and we’re able to treat every artist individually.”
Breaking acts while continuing to promote established superstars seems to be at the crux of his business model. “Don’t ever take these amazing artists for granted. You know their names because they’re extraordinary. They didn’t one day stop being extraordinary. Something stopped happening and someone stopped caring. Maybe that artist or maybe the people around them, but you have to cut through and stay relevant and understand and accept that things change.
“The industry is going to change. We’ve got to do a better job at harnessing our whole digital platform. It’s out of control, but people haven’t fallen out of love with music, they’ve just fallen in love with new ways to use it. There’s no value in us fighting that, we have to accept it and figure out what other services to provide an artist. I love Spotify as a consumer, but as a businessman I hate it. It’s literally fractions of pennies and its really hard for a new artist to survive. We’ve got to make a lot of noise by figuring out how to get the attention if you’re playing video games or on Facebook all day. But when we get it, the artist better be ready.”
And as swiftly as he addressed his intentions to sell his empire a few months ago in an appearance on CNBC, Borchetta eloquently stated, “Predominantly, I’m un-hirable. I have a house. I have a car. I don’t know that you could throw a bunch of money and we’d give up what we’ve got. Right now, I’ve not seen anything that excites me more than what we do. We are always looking at opportunities, but it would have to be pretty extraordinary for us to change our mind.
“And for the Taylor fans, we’ll have a new record out in October.”
Ty Stone Releases Video, Joins Spring Tour
/by Eric T. ParkerTy Stone
Southern rock newcomer Ty Stone has released the single “Anywhere’s Better” off his forthcoming debut album American Style (Atlantic/Top Dog Records). To promote the release, Stone will set out on a 26-date tour with Uncle Kracker.
The video for “Anywhere’s Better,” directed by Potsy Ponciroli, debuted recently and reached the No. 1 most viewed position on the CMT homepage. The clip features CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama star Ashley Ann Vickers, Uncle Kracker and the executive producer for the album, Kid Rock.
Originally from Lincoln Park, MI, Stone was discovered by Kid Rock, with whom he recently wrapped up a charity club tour.
Video and Tour Dates below.
2012 Tour Dates
MARCH
1 – Macomb, IL – Forum Live
2 – Minneapolis, MN – Toby Keith’s
3 – Lincoln, NE – Uncle Ron’s
8 – Columbus, OH – Bluestone
9 – Indianapolis, IN – 8 Seconds
10 – Rootstown, OH – Dusty Armadillo
14 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
15 – Foxboro, MA – Toby Keith’s
16 – Niagara Falls, NY – Rapids Theatre
17 – Mt. Laurel, NJ – Prospectors
22 – Flint, MI – Machine Shop
23 – Grand Rapids, MI – Intersection
24 – Chicago, IL – Joe’s
25 – Kansas City, MO – Beaumont Club
29 – San Miguel, CA – The Ranch
30 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
APRIL
4 – Davis, CA – The Davis Graduate
5 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
6 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theatre
7 – Seattle, WA – Showbox at the Market
12 – Salt Lake City, UT – Westerner
13 – Cheyenne, WY – Outlook Saloon
14 – Denver, CO – Toby Keith’s
17 – Flagstaff, AZ – Museum Club
19 – Mesa, AZ – Toby Keith’s
20 – Bakersfield, CA – Crystal Palace
Labels Earned $5.2 Billion in Global Digital Revenue Last Year
/by Sarah SkatesDigital Revenue Rising
Digital channels account for about 32 percent of record company revenues globally, up from 29 percent in 2010. Some markets now see more than half of their revenues derive from digital channels, including the US (52%), South Korea (53%) and China (71%).
Global digital revenues to record companies grew by an estimated 8 percent to $5.2 billion in 2011. This compares to growth of 5 percent in 2010 and represents the first time the year-on-year growth rate has increased since IFPI started measuring digital revenues in 2004.
Access and Ownership Models
Ten years after the first online stores emerged in the US and Europe, digital music is now broadly segmented into two main consumption models: “ownership” and “access.” Ownership usually refers to download services such as iTunes and Google Music. The access model is typically a subscription service such as Spotify.
According to the report, both models have enormous growth potential. At the start of 2011, the largest international digital music services were present in 23 countries. One year later they are present in 58 countries. Rob Wells, president, global digital business, Universal Music Group, explains, “The fact that these two models of consumption can co-exist speaks volumes about the future. In fact, we have really only scratched the surface of digital music in the last decade—now we are starting the real mining, and on a global scale.”
Spurring digital music growth is the rising prevelance of smartphones, tablets and broadband. “The technology infrastructure is being put in place in a way that we have never seen before and that is one major reason why we feel positive about digital music going into 2012,” adds Edgar Berger, President and CEO, International, Sony Music Entertainment.
Another bright spot is the growing popularity of online radio and music videos. The most watched artist on YouTube is Justin Bieber, whose videos have been viewed more than two billion times.
Sources: PWC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook and IFPI. Notes: games includes players’ purchases of accessories and additional game content as well as subscriptions. Music share is based on trade revenues. Newspapers include digital advertising and subscriptions. Books excludes audio books. Film excludes online sales and rentals of physical discs.
Download Services
IFPI estimates that 3.6 billion downloads were purchased globally in 2011, an increase of 17 percent (combining singles and album downloads). Single track downloads are up 11 percent by volume, and digital albums are up 24 percent by volume.
Download stores account for a large proportion of digital revenues and account for most of the 500 legitimate services worldwide, offering libraries of up to 20 million tracks. The most popular download store, iTunes, continued growing in 2011. iTunes opened for business in 28 additional markets, reaching more than 50 countries. Download service 7digital is now available in 37 countries.
Though singles are growing in popularity, up 10 percent in the US (Nielsen SoundScan), the album isn’t dead. Digital album volume sales have grown steadily in recent years, with US digital album sales in 2011 up 19 percent (Soundscan). In the US digital albums already account for 31 percent of all album sales by volume. Driving demand for digital albums are strong marketing campaigns, premium offerings that provide additional content, consumer habits and growing computer storage space.
The top selling single of 2011 was Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are,” which sold more than 12.5 million copies.
Subscription Services
The number of consumers subscribing to music services globally is estimated to have increased by nearly 65 percent in 2011, reaching more than 13 million, compared to an estimated 8.2 million the previous year. This supplements the tens of millions of consumers who already use download services.
Subscription services Spotify, WiMP and Deezer are expanding fast across national borders. Spotify launched in the US and four European markets and now reaches 12 countries. The US also saw the launch of Muve Music in 2011.
Piracy Remains
It’s no secret digital piracy remains a critical barrier to growth and investment by record companies. Twenty-eight percent of internet users globally access unauthorized services on a monthly basis, according to IFPI/Nielsen.
There has been positive momentum in the fight against piracy in 2011. In the US, an ISP cooperation deal was signed in 2011 and a graduated response program will be implemented in 2012, with most major ISPs signing up to a “copyright alert system.” The move follows the closure of the illegal service LimeWire in 2010, which has helped cause a dramatic drop in levels of P2P piracy in the US market.
A similar law in France, the Hadopi graduated response law, has seen peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy levels decline by 26 percent since warning notices were first sent out in October 2010, according to IFPI/Nielsen. A newly-published academic study finds that single track sales were 23 percent higher than they would have been in the absence of Hadopi.
Mark Piibe, executive vice president, global business development, EMI Music, sums, “We know that some people will migrate from piracy and that others will not, but we want alternatives to be there.”
Lionel Richie Unveils “Tuskegee” Details
/by Caitlin RantalaIn addition, the Academy of Country Music and Dick Clark productions will tape a concert special, Lionel Richie and Friends “In concert” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Apr. 2. The show will air at a later date on CBS. Some of his greatest hits will be performed by Aldean, The Band Perry, Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Rogers and more.
“Doing this album was coming back to the beginning, back to basics, back to home,” Richie says. “The part of it I love the most is that the journey has been one of discovering myself. By the time I got back to Nashville, I clearly knew that the roots of my songwriting, my storytelling, were from the South.”
Tuskegee Track-Listing:
1. “You Are” with Blake Shelton
2. “Say You, Say Me” with Jason Aldean
3. “Stuck On You” with Darius Rucker
4. “Deep River Woman” with Little Big Town
5. “My Love” with Kenny Chesney
6. “Dancing On The Ceiling” with Rascal Flatts
7. “Hello” with Jennifer Nettles
8. “Sail On” with Tim McGraw
9. “Endless Love” with Shania Twain
10. “Just For You” with Billy Currington
11. “Lady” with Kenny Rogers
12. “Easy” with Willie Nelson
13. “All Night Long” with Jimmy Buffett
Nelson, Hiatt and Lovett Schedule Symphony Center Dates
/by FreemanFirst on the calendar is a double-your-fun evening with singer/songwriters Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt on Tuesday, March 13 at 7 PM. The artists won’t perform with symphonic accompaniment on this date, but the intimate acoustic evening will feature them trading songs and stories from their years in music.
Further down the road is Willie Nelson, with accompaniment by the Nashville Symphony. That takes place Tuesday, June 5 at 7 PM. The country icon will perform selections from the many periods of his career, including his recent release American Classic.
Borchetta: “Love what you do, and outwork everyone”
/by Eric T. Parker(L-R): Michael McCall, Scott Borchetta. Photo: Donn Jones
Scott Borchetta visited with Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum writer and editor Michael McCall this past weekend (Sat., Jan. 21) in a public series at the Museum’s Ford Theater to discuss his career growth and success in the music industry.
MusicRow was in attendance for the event along with many industry players, college students, and a number of Borchetta employees who he referred to as ‘machinists’ including his wife Sandi Spika, John Zarling, Allison Jones, Andrew Kautz, Kelly Rich, Matthew Hargis, Nikki Burns, Erik Powell and Jake Basden.
Borchetta is perhaps best known for breaking Taylor Swift and The Band Perry, and his contributions to the careers of superstars Toby Keith, George Strait, Rascal Flatts, Garth Brooks, Martina McBride and Reba. For these reasons, Borchetta has been included among 92 new entries in the second edition printing of The Hall’s Encyclopedia of Country Music, available on Feb. 1.
A majority of the session was spent discussing his resume, and sharing opinions and predictions for the industry. Notably, Borchetta quipped when asked where the music is headed: “it’s going straight to your heart.” A theme that seemed to thread throughout the afternoon was to stay true to yourself; follow your gut.
“We love what we do,” said Borchetta. “I don’t feel like I’ve ever given up anything in my life to do this. This is my life, and we love doing it. If you don’t love doing it, somebody will beat you because they love it more. Love what you do, and outwork everyone.”
When Scott moved to Nashville to join his father Mike, he jumped into a country band on a dare. Music City exposed the Southern California boy to a new music scene—one to which he was unaccustomed. “I wised up very quickly to the amazing level of talent in Nashville. It was the first time I saw what I thought were truly gifted musicians. There’s a difference when you’re a practicing musician and you’re in the presence of a gifted musician. A bell goes off. But one thing that happened, I became able to explain the business to musicians.”
Borchetta grew that business ability and gained a reputation around 1989-90 for promoting edgier country, working with Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, and Kelly Willis, which earned him an invitation to work at MCA. “When I came, MCA had great executives but needed a culture of winning. The program needed a spark, and I think I brought that.”
It wasn’t just his drive that pushed the label forward, however. MCA gained the ability to be trusted by radio. “At the end of the day records and radio want the same thing: answers. Is this going to work? The momentum from George and Reba gave MCA more opportunity to be trusted by the gatekeepers at radio to really start forest fires with the listeners and fans for newer acts.”
When Borchetta’s time at MCA ended, he aligned with James Stroud, who was starting DreamWorks Nashville for David Geffen and Mo Ostin. Borchetta had a vision of creating another imprint for DreamWorks, which would allow the label to compete with RCA and MCA, and he began building a business model. That plan was shelved when DreamWorks in LA decided to sell out to Universal Music Group, home to MCA Nashville. Borchetta found himself SVP of Promotions and Artist Development at the label he had been working at a few years prior. Nonetheless, he pocketed a few lessons from his work with the DreamWorks roster.
Borchetta notes, DreamWorks hadn’t fully understood Toby Keith’s commercial appeal, but when they did, he exploded. “He was like a new Hank Jr., a country rock star. Toby eventually got so big that DreamWorks was unable to keep a balance and it hurt the label dramatically. When Taylor got so big, we knew we needed to keep a balance.”
“The things we learned with Jessica Andrews [at DreamWorks] had a lot to do with how we broke Taylor. For one, we found she had a teenage audience very excited about country music.” Jimmy Harnen, then in promotions at DreamWorks, suggested engaging this audience with shows at high schools. “Nothing too extraordinary, it just came out of paying attention. And we saw it just light up. A lot of the things we learned, we put into play with Taylor from day one. Jessica wavered between wanting to be a pop artist and a country artist. A lot of artists that young don’t have the focus, that’s whats so extraordinary about Taylor. She had that drive.
“Mergers are tough,” Borchetta said about the shift back to MCA after DreamWorks sold. “I don’t think bigger is better. Fewer isn’t better for the creative community. I’ve never thought fewer radio stations or record labels were better. Greatness is about identifying great talent, but what I think is great, other label heads Mike Dungan, Luke Lewis, or Gary Overton might hate. People just need more opportunities.”
In 2004, Borchetta met Taylor, and she waited for him to start Big Machine after he exited Universal. “We had a real vision and a direct goal for what we wanted to do. It just started happening, I put up my own money in the beginning, Toby put money in, and we were able to get Big Machine launched. There were a lot of disbelievers.
Mike McCall with Scott Borchetta discussing the impact the late race car driver Dan Wheldon made on his life
“If you haven’t done this, I encourage everyone to do it at least once, put everything on the line and see how good you are. You will reach down and find things in yourself that you didn’t know you had. I found people that were willing to put it on the line with me. We put blinders on and didn’t look back, we looked straight ahead. Talk about feeling alive and living like you were dying.”
Borchetta explained the success of his label is the diversified talent and the agility to move quickly where larger labels are unable. “We made sure our label wasn’t just about Taylor, we found balance with Garth and shortly after, Trisha, and Reba. We broke The Band Perry and we’re able to treat every artist individually.”
Breaking acts while continuing to promote established superstars seems to be at the crux of his business model. “Don’t ever take these amazing artists for granted. You know their names because they’re extraordinary. They didn’t one day stop being extraordinary. Something stopped happening and someone stopped caring. Maybe that artist or maybe the people around them, but you have to cut through and stay relevant and understand and accept that things change.
“The industry is going to change. We’ve got to do a better job at harnessing our whole digital platform. It’s out of control, but people haven’t fallen out of love with music, they’ve just fallen in love with new ways to use it. There’s no value in us fighting that, we have to accept it and figure out what other services to provide an artist. I love Spotify as a consumer, but as a businessman I hate it. It’s literally fractions of pennies and its really hard for a new artist to survive. We’ve got to make a lot of noise by figuring out how to get the attention if you’re playing video games or on Facebook all day. But when we get it, the artist better be ready.”
And as swiftly as he addressed his intentions to sell his empire a few months ago in an appearance on CNBC, Borchetta eloquently stated, “Predominantly, I’m un-hirable. I have a house. I have a car. I don’t know that you could throw a bunch of money and we’d give up what we’ve got. Right now, I’ve not seen anything that excites me more than what we do. We are always looking at opportunities, but it would have to be pretty extraordinary for us to change our mind.
“And for the Taylor fans, we’ll have a new record out in October.”
Flynn Promoted at Combustion Music
/by FreemanIn this role, Flynn will work closely with Combustion President Chris Farren and VP Chris Van Belkom in catalog exploitation as well as managing a writer roster that includes Ashley Gorley, Brett James, Matthew West and Blair Daly.
“Kenley has become an extremely valuable member of the Combustion team and a rising force on Music Row in a very short time. I look forward to many years of prospering together,” says Farren.
Congratulate him here.
SOPA and PIPA Succumb To Internet Activists
/by bossrossContent owners and technology companies seemed to agree on the destination, but as usual, when it comes to government regulation, the devil is in the details. In the case of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) the details created adversaries. On Jan. 18, major websites censored their own data with black bars. Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, Craigslist, Wired, TechCrunch were some of the many participating.
Nashville Songwriters Association International, Bart Herbison who had been active in trying to get SOPA passed released a terse message in the aftermath of the bill’s withdrawal.
Garth Brooks and Premiere Launch Las Vegas Sweepstakes
/by Eric T. ParkerListeners of Premiere’s country programs such as After MidNite with Blair Garner, The Big D & Bubba Show and The Crook & Chase Countdown can enter the Sweepstakes at any of their respective websites. Contestants will vie for a chance to win a grand-prize round-trip airfare for two to Las Vegas, two-night stay at the Wynn, dinner for two, a private lunch with Brooks and two VIP tickets to see his intimate concert at the Encore Theater.
Garth announced his Wynn residency in Las Vegas in 2009 and continues to perform weekends at the casino.
Coy Taylor Signs Management Agreement
/by Caitlin Rantala“Coy has everything I look for in a new artist,” said Harmon. “He is a tireless self promoter, he takes advantage of every professional opportunity afforded to him, he is great songwriter and a talented singer. Realizing that the music industry is all about working hard to help yourself, Coy Taylor and Average Joe’s Entertainment are going to have a bright future together.”
Over the last year Taylor has crossed the country visiting radio and opening shows for Mark Chestnut, Joe Diffie, Colt Ford and more. In the studio, he’s been working with Brady Seals (Little Texas) and recorded with Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens on a remake of “Out Behind the Barn.”
To celebrate his signing with Average Joe’s, Taylor will perform a free showcase today (Jan. 24) at 6 p.m. at 12th & Porter (114 12th Ave. North).
CRS 2012 Update: Hall of Fame After Party, New Panelists
/by Freeman(L-R): Jerrod Niemann, Brent Anderson, and Wade Bowen
On Feb. 21, prior to the official kickoff of Country Radio Seminar 2012, Sony Music Nashville and Sea Gayle Records will stage the Official Country Radio Hall of Fame After Party with Brent Anderson, Wade Bowen and Jerrod Niemann. The full-band show will be held at 8:30 PM in the Renaisannce Hotel’s Music City Ballroom immediately following the Country Radio Hall of Fame dinner and induction.
“This is the first time that Sea Gayle Records and Sony Music Nashville have had the opportunity to collaborate on a special event,” says Sony Music Nashville Chairman and CEO Gary Overton. “We are proud and excited to be able to bring the music of Brent, Wade and Jerrod to all CRS attendees. It is such an honor for us to celebrate this year’s Country Radio Hall of Fame inductees.”
The following day Feb. 22 begins the educational portion of Country Radio Seminar, which will feature some of the music industry’s big thinkers in a series of informative panels. Included on the docket are John Dimick of Lincoln Financial Media, Todd Cassetty of Hi Fi Fusion, Thompson Square, Owen Grover of iHeartRadio and many others. They join previously announced speakers including Clear Channel’s Bob Pittman, CMT’s Stephen Linn, David Houle, and Twitter For Dummies co-author Laura Fitton.
CRS 2012 regular registration rate of $499 ends on Friday, Jan. 27. Starting Jan. 28, the price increases to $599. Register here.