Ricky Skaggs. Photo: Courtesy of Skaggs Family Records

Ricky Skaggs is celebrating the season with his new 2023 holiday tour, “Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Christmas with Special Guests.”

Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder will hit the road this month with nine shows Dec. 7-17, marking his first Christmas tour in seven years. The tour will visit Cincinnati, Charleston, Atlanta, Birmingham, Augusta and more, with a show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Dec. 10.

Fans will hear beloved holiday classics “Silent Night,” “Deck The Halls” and “Let It Snow” during the shows, along with other special Christmas melodies like the bluegrass tune “Christmas Time’s A Comin'” and a rendition of “New Star Shining.”

“Everybody loves Christmas,” notes Skaggs. “It’s the time of year when we think about others and not ourselves. We love singing songs about the greatest birth in history, Jesus Christ. We will be performing some of the old standards we’ve all grown up with, but we will also have some instrumentals and songs that you might not be familiar with. All in all, it will be a great show for the whole family. Get your tickets now and bring someone with you that might not be able to afford a ticket this time of year. You’ll feel great and they will have a fun time too.”

For more information, click here.

Niko Moon

Niko Moon has announced that he is leaving RCA Nashville/Sony Music Nashville after four years to focus on recording as an independent artist. He has also shared that his new album, Better Days, is set for release on Jan. 19, with track “Falling For You” out today (Dec. 1) . Additionally, the singer-songwriter will kick off “The Better Days Tour” on Feb. 1.

Moon broke out as a solo act in 2019, after several years as a member of Sir Rosevelt alongside fellow artists Zac Brown and Ben Simonetti. As a songwriter, Moon has had eight No. 1s and over 40 major label cuts for artists such as Morgan Wallen, Avicii,Dierks Bentley, Pitbull, Zac Brown Band, Rascal Flatts and more. During his time at Sony Music Nashville, he achieved his first No. 1 and RIAA triple-Platinum certification for his single, “Good Time,” and was crowned a SESAC Country Songwriter of the Year. He also co-produced the Zac Brown Band albums, Jekyll+Hyde and Welcome Home. 

“Sony is and will always be the team that helped launch this career and journey I am on, and I am thankful for that. Randy [Goodman] and team have been nothing but supportive of me and my sound, but with the very changing scope of music today, I want the undeniable ability to take my music in any direction possible and deliver it to my fans at a pace that suits me more as a touring artist.”

“Niko has such a great grasp of who he is as an artist and performer,” says Chris Kappy, Chief Navigation Officer, Make Wake Artists. “Niko’s fans are consuming music like crazy and want more and we feel the ability and flexibility to release music that might be outside the genre, would be easier to do as an independent artist. Sony is family and always will be, and we are very pleased that this was done as friends. We all look forward to what the fans will get moving forward!”

Clint Black Donates Proceeds From Bluebird Cafe Performance To NSAI

Clint Black & Erika Wollam Nichols

Earlier this month, The Bluebird Cafe held “An Evening With Clint Black” welcoming the legendary artist for an intimate evening of song. The event sold-out within one minute.

Black chose to honor another cornerstone in the songwriting community, the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), generously donating all proceeds from the night to NSAI to support their continued work for songwriters.

Moe Bandy Honored At 2023 Texas Country Music Awards

Moe Bandy

Moe Bandy was presented with the first-ever Moe Bandy Icon Award at the 2023 Texas Country Music Awards (TCMAs) on Nov. 12 at Billy Bob’s Texas.

Cody Canada & The Departed, Coffey Anderson, Chad Cooke Band, Monty Dawson, Brandon Rhyder, Case Hardin, Payton Howie, Ryder Grimes, Jaret Ray Reddick and Jacob Stelly performed throughout the awards ceremony, which was hosted once again by TCMA Spokesperson Rhyder along with his co-host Malone Ranger, on-air personality with 95.9 KFWR The Ranch.

“The evening was a dream come true in every way,” shares Bandy. “I have had a wonderful career in country music. To have an award created that will continue to be given out year after year is very humbling. I am thankful to the good Lord above, my family and all of my fans. I am a blessed man.”

Cassadee Pope, SOLID, IEBA Unite For Student Scholarship Competition

The participating students, volunteers and judges stand with Cassadee Pope. Photo: Courtesy of SOLID

Society of Leaders in Development (SOLID) recently concluded its second-annual Scholarship Marketing Competition for music business students. Sponsored by the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA), the competition’s top prize was awarded to the group that received the highest score on their marketing campaign presentation aligned with Cassadee Pope‘s upcoming album and brand transition.

As an added value to the students, each team not only left with prize money based on their team placement, but also received an industry resource guide curated by SOLID’s Ambassadorship committee, offering a comprehensive toolkit for career advancement including job-hunting strategies, resume building and cover letter-writing tips, recommended industry newsletters and more.

IEBA’s Executive Director Pam Matthews and Director of Operations Jason Conner provided insight on the presentations. Judges included Rio Van Risseghem (The Orchard), Amanda Quinton (Quinton Digital), Grace Hawkins (Quinton Digital), Lyndsey McFarlane (Quinton Digital) and Pope herself.

“I was incredibly impressed with the students’ presentations and truly believe they all will find meaningful positions within the music industry,” says Pope. “Nobody has their ear to the ground like these students, and that was made very clear by their innovative ideas and attention to detail. I will absolutely be using some of what they pitched during my album promo!”

Music label and distribution company ONErpm has launched two new entities, ONErpm Enterprise Solutions and OFFstep.com, bringing the total number of entities under the company’s umbrella to five with ONErpm’s publishing division and creative arm ONErpm Studios.

ONErpm Enterprise Solutions is a Software as a Service (SAAS) platform that adapts ONErpm’s proprietary Content Management System (CMS) to cater to the specific needs of record labels and content owners seeking to grow more efficiently. This comprehensive administrative system streamlines digital distribution of music, videos and other essential day-to-day operations, such as managing artist marketing campaigns, assigning work tasks to departmental employees, setting up payments and more. The platform empowers companies to efficiently scale operations with transparency. Since the inception of ONErpm’s CMS in 2019, the company has experienced a more than fourfold increase in revenues and staff, largely due to economies of scale achieved.

Enterprise Solutions will also serve as a vehicle for strategic joint ventures with promising entities, as the technology can be combined with financial investments and marketing services.

“We want to partner with like-minded companies who need the technology and tools we have developed and fine-tuned over the years to take their business to the next level,” says ONErpm CEO Emmanuel Zunz. “We see a need for this service as there are many interesting labels that might struggle to grow in an increasingly competitive environment where having robust tech will give them the competitive edge to succeed.”

OFFstep.com is Enterprise Solutions first project and the group’s new DIY offering, where independent artists can upload and distribute unlimited releases for as low as $12 per year while retaining 100 percent of their royalties. As a result, ONErpm will only partner with artists and labels with whom it has forged relationships, and DIY clients will be directed to OFFstep moving forward.

With this entity, the company seeks to better cater to the needs of DIY customers in a way they have become accustomed to, at the most competitive price point. Upgrades to intermediate and advanced plans that unlock additional features and permissions are also available.

“Migrating ONErpm’s basic distribution service to OFFstep has been a long time coming,” states Zunz. “For years we have invested in marketing personnel and built a global marketing infrastructure that can render services at scale while tackling the challenges of a constantly evolving digital market.”