Digital Summit—High Tech Insights and Great Value

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Tickets are still available for Leadership Music’s annual Digital Summit, which will take over Belmont University’s Curb Event Center March 23-25. While it’s widely recognized as one of the most essential and informative events in the digital music arena, what may not be so widely known is that, for attendees, this summit is one heck of a deal. Admission prices — $39 for students, $49 for Leadership Music Alumni, $99 corporate rate (10 or more employees), $129 for members or subscribers to the summit’s affiliate organizations, and $179 regular/ walk-up — compare more than favorably to similar conferences/summits across the country. There is still time to register online (www.digitalsummit.org) and take advantage of the special rates listed above.

This year’s conference will bring together over 600 artists, ISPs, songwriters, venture capitalists, managers, content aggregators, labels, digital music services, publishers, service providers, mobile operators, consumer product developers, retailers, and various media. With keynote presentations from Rio Caraeff, Executive Vice President of eLabs for Universal Music Group, and Michael Masnick, Editor of Techdirt Blog and President/CEO of Floor 64, and a host of informational sessions covering the wide range of issues and challenges associated with the ongoing digital revolution, 2009’s Digital Summit is shaping up to be the best and best-attended ever. Incidentally, sponsorship opportunities — also a great value — are still available.

Robbins Nashville Drops In-House Promo Dept.; Moves To Outsource

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Robbins Nashville’s decision  to outsource its promotion department resulted in the departure today (3/11) of promo executives VP Tony Benken (tunegoon@comcast.net) and Dir. National Promotion Joe Redmond (joeredmond@juno.com).

Observers may interpret this move to mean that the label’s life line is shrinking, but Music Row has learned it is more likely an economic-driven leap toward a more cost effective business strategy. It remains unofficial, but Robbins is expected to announce shortly it has signed artist, Ward Davis and will release a single on the artist early next month. Also of interest is the fact that Robbins President Cory Robbins was in Nashville during CRS meeting with at least four promo companies that outsource services.

Sales Down, Hopes Up—3/11/09

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Sales for the week ended 3/8/2009 were only notable if your artist is called U2 who debuted at the top of the list with a remarkable (especially in this day and age) showing of 484,000 units. Equally impressive was the band’s higher-than-normal digital share which equaled 32%. Neko Case’s No. 3 Top 200 chart debut (44,300) lacked enough momentum to pass Taylor Swift who edged into the No. 2 spot with 52,285 units.

Once again the country sales story was a parable of lowered expectations evidenced by Top 75 Current Country total sales totaling a mere 302,853 units. Sales of the two Swift CDs (both Top 10) accounted for almost 22% of the total Top 75 list. Plant/Krauss (15,165), Darius Rucker (14,490), Zac Brown (14,092), Sugarland (10,899), Carrie Underwood (9,628), Dierks Bentley (9,087), Jamey Johnson (8,906) and Jake Owen (8,452) rounded out the Top 10. Overall 2009 YTD country album sales are off 15.3%, but country’s overall market share is holding steady at about 10% compared to 10.5% at this time last year.

Sales numbers do not always tell the entire story. One must also look behind the stats to see product releases both present, past and future. Therefore on a more upbeat note, CD hope is on the horizon. March 24 will bring upcoming discs from Martina McBride, John Rich and Eric Church. New Keith Urban and Rodney Atkins CDs drop March 31 and on April 7 fans will hopefully also lineup for new music from Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean and Emerson Drive.

More Stars, Local Access Come To CMA Fest

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Leaders of the Country Music Association, the Metro Government of Nashville, and the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau gathered at the Metro Courthouse today (3/11), to announce new plans for 2009 CMA Music Festival including the addition of a new stage on the Public Square in front of the Courthouse and free access for the first time to the concerts at Riverfront Park. Increased local attendance at the Festival has long been a goal of CMA, and the announcement of free daytime admission could be just the ticket for local residents.

“We have always enjoyed a great relationship with the City, but this takes our partnership to a whole new level,” said CMA CEO Tammy Genovese. “We are now able to offer the residents of Nashville and the surrounding communities even more opportunities to access free music, family-friendly activities, and more.”

In addition, CMA has announced that Trace Adkins, Julianne Hough, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, and Reba McEntire will join the long list of stars already announced for this year’s Festival.

The addition of a stage at the Public Square provides residents and visitors with a new venue to enjoy the diverse musical styles found in Music City. Dubbed the Music City Zone, and programmed by the NCVB, the area will be free and open to the public each day.

“Adding the Music City Zone gives us a chance to showcase even more local stars and gives us an opportunity to broaden the styles of music that are readily available any day in this city,” said NCVB President Butch Spyridon.

In another first, residents of Middle Tennessee can support music education beyond their Music Festival ticket purchase. The Nashville Alliance for Public Education will be collecting “gently used” band instruments during the Festival to be provided to students and music programs in need. The instruments can be dropped off daily during the Festival in the Dr Pepper®-McDonald’s® Family Zone in Hilton Park.

CMA Music Festival will be held Thursday through Sunday, June 11-14. Nashville’s signature music event features four days of music, with concerts, autograph signings, family activities, and more throughout Downtown. Each year, CMA donates half the net profits of CMA Music Festival for music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools, via the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, through the “Keep the Music Playing” program.

Pictured (l-r) President of the NCVB Butch Spyridon, CMA CEO Tammy Genovese, CMA President and Chairman of the Music Festival Steering Committee Steve Moore, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, President of The Mathews Company and Vice Chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Bert Matthews and CMA Chairman Randy Goodman.

Mark Chesnutt

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“She Never Got Me Over You”

Lofton Creek

Responding to demand from radio, Mark Chesnutt‘s new single “She Never Got Me Over You” is being rush-released. Several stations, including WFMS/Indianapolis and KFTX/Corpus Christi, have already added it. It garnered 21 adds on MusicRow‘s CountryBreakout™ chart in its first week of being reported.

Beaumont, Texas, native Mark Chesnutt left his stamp on the ‘90s, recording some of the decade’s most memorable hits—“Bubba Shot The Jukebox,” “Going Through The Big D,” and “It’s A Little Too Late” among many others.

Chesnutt’s current album Rollin’ With The Flow was released in 2008 and features the hit title track, plus “Things To Do In Wichita” and his new single “She Never Got Me Over You.” His fruitful career boasts 14 No. 1s, 23 top ten singles, four platinum albums and five gold records.

Known as one of the industry’s hardest-working concert performers, Chesnutt has been on the road since 1990, maintaining a hefty tour schedule and steady presence in front of his fans. “The clubs and honky tonks are home for me; it’s comfortable and I’m always with friends,” says the singer.

Chesnutt has a string of live dates in his future, including the October 23-25 Beaumont Boys Bash. Hosted with his fellow hometown singers Tracy Byrd and Zona Jones, the charity festival offers a weekend of music, food and fun unlike any other.

www.markchesnutt.com
www.myspace.com/officialmarkchesnutt

Are Ticketers Getting Greedy?

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Using Neil Diamond’s last summer New York Madison Square dates as an example, the Wall Street Journal recently pointed to the scalper-like practice known as ticket reselling. Under this scenario, done with the approval and full knowledge of the artist and manager involved, a limited number of the best seats are withheld from normal sale channels and immediately offered on sites such as www.ticketexchange.com, owned by Ticketmaster. The purpose of these premium ticket sites which represent the seats offered as being re-sales by fans, is to reap larger profits which are then often shared, according to the article, with artists and promoters. Sometimes the added revenues can top $2 million on a major tour.

A Britney Spears concert in Pittsburgh offered seats for $39.50 to $125 on Ticketmaster.com, but a link saying “Browse premium seats plus tickets posted by fans” was offering the same classes of seats for as high as $1,188.60 each. According to the article the Spears camp refused to comment when asked by WSJ for an explanation, but soon afterwards, the wording “tickets posted by fans” was removed from the TicketExchange Marketplace website and prices were reduced. Bruce Springsteen recently made headlines by criticizing Ticketmaster for a practice similar to this involving tickets to his shows that was done without his permission.

Underwood Croons Mötley Crüe for American Idol

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ACM Entertainer of the Year nominee Carrie Underwood has recorded a version of Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home” for the upcoming season of American Idol. Beginning with the March 11 episode, the song will air each week as the farewell theme for contestants leaving the show. “Home Sweet Home” will release as an exclusive iTunes digital single through March 16, and will subsequently be available at online music retailers everywhere. A portion of the sales proceeds from “Home Sweet Home” will benefit one of Underwood’s favorite charities, The Humane Society of the United States.

Social Nets Get Facelifts

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Twitter, home to about 6 million users, recently started to introduce design tweaks aimed at making the service more relevant and allowing users easier access to search across trends and more. The new features are spreading slowly, for example they still haven’t arrived on the Music Row Twitter page, but as they move throughout the network they should increase involvement with this mini-blogging, real time conversational experience. All sites will soon include lists of top trends, topics, featured users, queries and easy access search bars.

Facebook is also making vibrant changes which are heating up the debate over whether Twitter is the new Facebook or vice versa. Facebook will move brands away from specially designed pages to layouts that seem more similar to the individual user pages which will also allow more interaction with friends, updates and links. Secondly, the updated info flow will refresh at a faster pace, near real time vs. every 10 minutes, according to a recent Advertising Age article. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s blog states, “This creates a continuous stream of information that delivers a deeper understanding for everyone participating in it. As this happens, people will no longer come to Facebook to consume a particular piece or type of content, but to consume and participate in the stream itself.”

The streaming nature of the new info is what is casting the Twitter comparisons. Techcrunch’s Erick Schonfeld analyses, “Facebook doesn’t want Twitter to become the way large companies and public figures connect to fans.” As the sites compete the real winners are the fans who get improved tools and new functionalities as they continue on the quest to communicate across the data universe.

Preston to Be Honored, Womack to Perform at Martell Foundation Honors Gala

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Lee Ann Womack will join pop star Michael Bolton in performing at the inaugural Martell Foundation Honors Gala on March 25 to benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation. The black-tie event, which will take place at Nashville’s Loews Vanderbilt Plaza hotel, will honor four individuals for their humanitarian, philanthropic and career achievements, including former Vice President Al Gore, who will receive the Lifetime Philanthropic Award for his dedication to helping others in the Nashville community and beyond. Additional honorees include: Ingram Industries President/CEO Orrin Ingram, who will also receive the Lifetime Philanthropic Award; Former BMI President/CEO Frances Preston, who will receive the Lifetime Music Industry Award for her service to the music industry and songwriters; and Dr. Harold L. (Hal) Moses, director emeritus of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and director of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories, who will receive the Lifetime Medical Research Award. On hand to present the Lifetime Humanitarian Award to Gore will be his former Harvard roommate, Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones.

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to perform for this inaugural event and the individuals being recognized by an organization whose mission for innovative research is much needed,” said Womack.

Here Come Some New Flatts Tracks

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Rascal Flatts will make four new songs available from their upcoming CD, Unstoppable, in advance of the project’s April 7 release. Starting today (3/10), iTunes will feature  “Here Comes Goodbye,” the album’s debut single and music video. In addition, Rascal Flatts will pre-release three additional songs from the album via iTunes each consecutive Tuesday leading up to the CD’s April 7 release. The songs will be released as follows: “Forever” (3/17), “Love Who You Are” (3/24) and “Things That Matter” (3/31).