Pictured (L-R): Chip Voorhis, Paul Worley, Liz Morin, Wally Wilson. Seated: Don Cook. Photo: Katie Voorhis
Don Cook, writer and producer of numerous hits by Brooks & Dunn, has signed with Skyline Music Publishing. Among his credits are the B&D songs “Only In America,” “It’s Getting Better All The Time,” “Brand New Man,” “My Next Broken Heart,” “That Ain’t No Way To Go,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” and “She Used To Be Mine.” Since 1991 he has co-produced thirteen No. 1 hits by Brooks & Dunn, and served as producer on successful albums for The Mavericks, Olivia Newton-John, Shenandoah, Lonestar, Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie, and more.
He also wrote “Even The Man In The Moon Is Crying” and “Born To Love You” by Mark Collie, “What I Meant To Say” and “On A Good Night” by Wade Hayes, “Now I Know” by Lari White and “Small Town Girl” by Steve Wariner. In addition, Cook has had cuts by Conway Twitty, George Strait, Keith Whitley, Vince Gill, Alabama, Waylon Jennings and a host of others.
In 1994, Cook was named Senior Vice President at Sony/ATV Tree, and four years later was upped to Chief Creative Officer. He retired from the business side of publishing in 2004 to focus on his family and songwriting.
Latocki Enters Web Solutions Partnership, Wins AIGA Awards
/by Sarah SkatesThe LTC Team
Latocki Team Creative (LTC) and Creative State, an award-winning provider of Web sites and custom Web applications, are partnering to provide custom Web solutions for Nashville corporations and the entertainment industry. “Creative State is a company we believe in,” says Luellyn Latocki, LTC owner and creative director. “We’re looking forward to working with them to provide our clients with cutting-edge Web sites and top-notch Web services that are imperative to the success of an artist’s career. It’s a perfect partnership between independent companies committed to finding and providing custom, branded, creative solutions for our clients.”
Also from Latocki Team Creative, the company won six awards at AIGA Nashville’s first Case Awards Show, held June 20 at the Cannery Ballroom.
The honors included:
Best of Products and Packaging for Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll 4-disc set (Sony Legacy)
Best of Media Packaging: Entertainment for Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll
Merit Awards: Sales Kits/Press Kits for Coondog Corporate Events, Print Self-Promotion for LTC’s mini-portfolio, Identity System/Stationery Package for LTC’s stationery, and Brand Identity Design for Sweet Talk Publicity.
Skyline Signs B&D Hitmaker Don Cook
/by Sarah SkatesPictured (L-R): Chip Voorhis, Paul Worley, Liz Morin, Wally Wilson. Seated: Don Cook. Photo: Katie Voorhis
Don Cook, writer and producer of numerous hits by Brooks & Dunn, has signed with Skyline Music Publishing. Among his credits are the B&D songs “Only In America,” “It’s Getting Better All The Time,” “Brand New Man,” “My Next Broken Heart,” “That Ain’t No Way To Go,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” and “She Used To Be Mine.” Since 1991 he has co-produced thirteen No. 1 hits by Brooks & Dunn, and served as producer on successful albums for The Mavericks, Olivia Newton-John, Shenandoah, Lonestar, Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie, and more.
He also wrote “Even The Man In The Moon Is Crying” and “Born To Love You” by Mark Collie, “What I Meant To Say” and “On A Good Night” by Wade Hayes, “Now I Know” by Lari White and “Small Town Girl” by Steve Wariner. In addition, Cook has had cuts by Conway Twitty, George Strait, Keith Whitley, Vince Gill, Alabama, Waylon Jennings and a host of others.
In 1994, Cook was named Senior Vice President at Sony/ATV Tree, and four years later was upped to Chief Creative Officer. He retired from the business side of publishing in 2004 to focus on his family and songwriting.
Twitter Users Purchase More
/by bossross“NPD’s latest music-acquisition study shows that there are segments of consumers who are more actively integrating Twitter as a key tool for communicating and networking,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. “Based on their music-purchasing history, active Twitter users are simply worth more to record labels and music retailers than those who are not using Twitter.”
Twitter awareness increased during the first quarter 2009 to 52% among U.S. Internet-users from 22% in fourth quarter 2008. NPD’s consumer tracking shows that 33% of Twitter users reported purchasing a CD in the prior three months and 34% purchased a digital download. Twitter users actually purchased 77% more digital downloads than those not using the 140 character per tweet social network. Twitter users were also twice as likely than average Web users to visit MySpace Music and Pandora.
“Twitter has the potential to help foster the discovery of new music, and improve targeted marketing of music to groups of highly-involved and technologically savvy consumers, but it has to be done right,” Crupnick said. “There must be a careful balance struck between entertainment and direct conversation on one hand, and marketing on the other. Used properly Twitter has the power to entertain—and to motivate music fans to purchase more new albums, downloads, merchandise, and concert tickets.”
http://www.npd.com
GAC Forms Partnership To Release New Music
/by Sarah SkatesTurner’s traditional heritage and blue-collar roots made him a fan favorite as runner-up on 2008’s The Next GAC Star. The storytelling and simplicity-of-life found in classic country songs always resonated with Lane, who counts Conway Twitty and Waylon Jennings as influences.
iTunes will distribute 50,000 free download cards featuring Turner’s lead single “Where’s a Sunset” at two country music festival events this summer. He will also be on the road, including a recent performance at CMA Music Fest, and a July 4th show at the Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, GA.
Nashville in Napa
/by Sarah SkatesTickets for the first fundraiser, Nashville in Napa, go on sale today. The event will take place Sat., Aug. 1 at the caves at the Baldacci Family Vineyards in the Stags Leap District of the Napa Valley. Only 200 tickets are available for the intimate evening which will feature songwriters and winemakers highlighting the similarities between their trades.
Several Music City songsmiths, including Jessi Alexander and Jon Randall will perform, and guests will enjoy food and wine by Napa chefs and winemakers who will discuss the process behind their creations.
Ticket prices and more information at www.NashvilleInNapa.com.
Administrators Mark 10 Years, Black River Hires, Miley Ticket Sales
/by Sarah SkatesHit songwriter and former NSAI President Bob Regan spoke at the 10 Year Anniversary Meeting of the Music Row Administrators Group on June 18. He is seated front and center, sharing a chair with the group’s co-founder Shirley Hutchins. The organization meets monthly and has a guest speaker to provide current information regarding music rights and copyright administration issues.
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Black River Music Group has added Dan Elliott to its staff as Digital Media Specialist. He joined the label as an intern when it first opened its doors. Since then, he went on to intern at CBS News Productions in New York. “Dan was a part of BRMG from the very beginning,” states Rick Baumgartner, BRMG VP/GM. “He was instrumental in the discovery and signing of Sarah Darling, so when it came time to continue building our team, hiring Dan was a no brainer. He will be a tremendous asset to our Digital Media Division.” Elliott will report directly to John Gusty and Shay Boone.
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Tickets to see Miley Cyrus aren’t moving as quickly as they did on her previous sold-out tour, reports CelebrityAccess. The once hard-to-come-by tickets are still available through Ticketmaster and other affiliated vendors for every stop on her upcoming run, though they just went on sale last week. When she toured as character Hannah Montana in 2007, tickets to virtually every show sold out almost instantly. However, they were snapped up by secondary vendors and resold to upset fans (mostly parents of teens) at very inflated prices.
While reportedly trying to combat this problem for the new tour which starts in September, Cyrus and her handlers may have hurt her ticket sales. They are using a paperless ticketing system which according to the article, “requires that ticket purchasers present the credit card used to purchase the tickets at the venue at the time of the show in order to gain admission, making it virtually impossible to give the tickets as a gift, or for a fan without a credit card to attend.”
CMT Awards Are Channel’s Most-Watched Show of Year
/by Sarah SkatesCapitol Nashville’s Emily West and American Idol judge Randy Jackson at the CMT Music Awards.
More than 9.6 million viewers cumulative* tuned in for the premiere and encore telecasts of the 2009 CMT Music Awards on Tuesday, June 16 on CMT. This makes it the network’s most-watched telecast of the year, and ranks it third in the history of the awards. Increased fan interaction online led CMT.com to a record 7.5 million votes for this year’s Awards, up 45% from last year’s 5 million. The entire show can be viewed at CMT.com.
Fans also flocked to CMT.com after the show, where the site hit an all-time high with over 1 million single-day streams on Wednesday, June 17. Taylor Swift and T-Pain’s “Thug Story” became the most-streamed video for the day and now holds the record for best video premiere ever on CMT.com. Sugarland’s “Love Shack” featuring the B-52s is the No. 2 streaming performance from the show, with Kellie Pickler’s “Best Days Of Your Life” ranking No. 3.
Immediately following the live awards show telecast, CMT’s new series The Singing Bee became the channel’s highest-rated series debut of all time. Also on CMT is the new season of Can You Duet, which premiered Sat., June 20 with judges Naomi Judd, Big Kenny, and Big Machine Records President and CEO Scott Borchetta.
*Nielsen Media Research (cume P 2+ / 1 minute qualifier); includes live 2009 CMT Music Awards telecast which aired at 8 p.m. ET, along with the retelecast at 11:30 p.m ET.
Bryan Adams will share the stage with country rocker, Jason Aldean, when the pair team up for CMT CROSSROADS. CMT CROSSROADS: BRYAN ADAMS AND JASON ALDEAN taped before an invitation only audience at the Factory (Frankin, Tenn.) in May and premieres Friday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT on CMT. Margaret Comeaux-Executive Producer, CMT; Brian Philips-President, CMT; Bryan Adams; Jason Aldean; John Hamlin-Senior VP, Production and Development, CMT; Bill Flanagan-EVP Editorial Director, MTVN; and Tom Forrest, Executive Producer, Taillight TV. Photo: John Russell
Sugarland Set For Network Primetime Special
/by Sarah SkatesProducer/director Shaun Silva taped the one-hour special at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky using 20 cameras. It features the reigning CMA Vocal Duo of the Year performing their biggest hits such as “Settlin,’” “Stay,” “All I Want To Do” and “Something More.”
Sugarland: Live on the Inside is executive-produced by band members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, with UMGN Sr. VP Jason Owen. The special is a Tacklebox Films production.
The Grammy winning duo exploded onto the music scene in 2004 and are nearing the 7 million albums sold mark. They are headlining a U.S. tour that runs through the fall.
“Television music specials and performances become iconic. Who hasn’t seen replays of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan or Elvis’s TV special wearing his jump suit and giving away his scarf?” says Nettles. “Even performances that I can remember as a child, like ‘Live Aid’ for example, really made such an impact. We are so excited to have our show on ABC and hope that it will be a moment that people will enjoy and remember.”
“We have overheard fans for years say, ‘I brought my friend to see the show, this is their first Sugarland experience’ with so much pride and excitement on their faces. It’s as if they can’t wait to share what they have discovered,” Bush adds. “This special is their new ticket that they can give to a friend. That is the most exciting part of this, imagining how far it will reach.”
Hoyt Hughes
/by ProgrammerPlaylist“Ain’t My Day To Save The World”
Whirlwind Records/Lofton Creek
Hughes was raised in a musical family with his dad being a singer and his older brother playing drums. “I can remember Dad gathering up the band and performing on the front porch. The whole neighborhood would end up in the yard before the night was over with.” With music abilities that continued to grow, Hoyt spent his childhood dreaming of a life in the country spotlight.
When Hughes met his wife, his passion for music accelerated. She pushed him to get on a stage one evening where his brother was playing. “I realized I had been bitten by the music bug and I haven’t looked away from the industry ever since.” He has taken the stage alongside artists including Charlie Daniels, Jett Williams and the Bellamy Brothers. Grammy winner and “Rose Garden” icon Lynn Anderson even personally invited him to sing at her birthday celebration.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” says Hughes. “To bring a smile to someone’s face or hear stories of how my music has changed a fan’s life is overwhelming. Sometimes, you can just see and feel the crowd and band connect at a live show. It makes me recognize that I am part of something that is much bigger than me and the band members. It’s those experiences that drive me to take the stage.”
http://www.hoythughes.com/
Pickler OK
/by bossross“Of course I would love to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry,” she says looking to the future. “It would be such a huge honor. Country music has embraced and nurtured me.” She also jokes about living in a trailer. “Funny. As a child I thought ‘I’m going to be a big country star and get out of this damn trailer.’ Then I go and get one. I mean, it’s a $1 million trailer but it’s still a trailer.”
Pickler has been on the Taylor Swift Fearless Tour, but is currently on a two-week hiatus to headline a shows in Harris, MI.and other midwest stops.
Shape magazine recently featured bikini-clad Julianne Hough, Martina McBride and LeAnn Rimes on its cover.