Thomas Rhett has added a second Nashville show to his “Home Team Tour 23” this fall after selling out the first Bridgestone Arena date.

Rhett’s second Nashville show will take place Sept. 30, with special guests Cole Swindell and Nate Smith. First tickets are available to Home Team Members beginning tomorrow, April 25, ahead of the general sales this Friday, April 28 at 10 a.m. local time. For more information, click here.

“It’s always a dream come true to play your hometown,” the artist explains. “But getting to play the arena two nights in a row is going to be one of those things I tell my grandkids about one day.”

Rhett will kick off the “Home Team Tour 23” in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday, May 4, visiting 40 cities in 27 states. The trek follows his string of sold-out international shows, which included performances in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. He also recently achieved a major career milestone, earning 20 No. 1 singles on the country charts in just ten years.

The Academy of Country Music has announced its take over of The Star in Frisco, Texas, with three days of live music, country events and celebrations beginning May 9 leading up to the 58th ACM Awards.

The events of ACM Awards Week include the ACM Country Kickoff at The Star, a two-day music and entertainment festival which is open to the public, free to all fans and does not require tickets. The festival will allow fans to get up close and personal with some of country music’s biggest stars and celebrate the ACM Awards’ return to north Texas. A beer garden presented by Coors Light will be on hand, in addition to a VIP space presented by Lucas Oil with a prime view of the stage.

The ACM Country Kickoff will also feature food trucks, photo opps, ACM Awards show merchandise and activations by a host of partners, including ACM Lifting Lives, Amazon Music, Ashley HomeStore, Kendra Scott, Lucchese, North Texas Ford and Visit Frisco. The ACM Kickoff at The Star will be held from 3:00 – 10:00 p.m. CT on both May 9 and 10. A detailed performance schedule for the performance stage, as well as a map of the full festival footprint, will be released in the coming weeks.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with the Dallas Cowboys and the Jones family to bring the Academy of Country Music Awards back to Texas at their world headquarters,” says Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside. “This world-class venue, shopping and dining district, and luxury area hotels and resorts made the perfect canvas to build our ACM Awards week bigger and better than ever, on behalf of our artists and industry. Texas has some of the most passionate country music fans in the world, and we can’t wait to bring the party to Frisco!”

“Ford Center at The Star in Frisco is not only the perfect location to house the Academy of Country Music Awards, but our entire campus and The Star Entertainment District will be turned into the ultimate country music celebration that week, and we can’t wait to host all of the wonderful and exciting events that come with it,” says Dallas Cowboys Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones.

Since beginning payment distribution in April of 2021, The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has crossed the $1 billion threshold in royalties paid to music rights-holders, with a current match rate of over 89% for streaming data to a musical work in the MLC database for 2022.

“We are incredibly proud to have reached this milestone in less than two years. It shows that the technology and processes we have built and launched are working effectively,” shares CEO of The MLC, Kris Ahrend. “That said, we know there’s still more work to do, and we are excited to continue our work to ensure we are serving our members well.”

The MLC is a nonprofit organization established under the Music Modernization Act of 2018. It began paying out unmatched historical royalties last June, and to date, has paid out more than 20% of the oldest unmatched royalties for uses that took place between 2007 and 2017. The organization is focused on illuminating the “black box,” or the pool of revenue at a collection society where the songwriter and/or publisher of songs that have generated revenue cannot be located or traced.

During the first two years of operation, The MLC was able to complete every single distribution either on time or early to its 25,000 members. Ahrend and his team look forward to continuing this trend into year three.

“Membership growth remains at the forefront of our priorities,” he says. “As more rights-holders become members, and those members register their songs, the number of songs in our database increases, allowing us to match and pay out even more royalties. We are also actively working on enhancing the tools for members that we have created, to give them visibility into their data and help them manage their data more effectively.

“With the start of the Phono 4 rate period in January, as well as the continued growth in the US streaming market, we expect monthly royalty payments to continue to grow over the next twelve months,” Ahrend says. “We are hopeful that the Copyright Royalty Board will finalize the rates for the Phono 3 rate period, paving the way for us to be able to begin distributing matched historical royalties from 2018, 2019, and 2020 early next year.”

The MLC has made almost all of the remaining unmatched data available to be searched by Members in the MLC Portal. Members can check for any unmatched royalties here.

Big Loud Proudly Celebrates A Big Week

Big Loud’s top officers are celebrating the last week of ACM voting with t-shirts in proud support of their artists Mackenzie Porter, Morgan Wallen, Hailey Whitters, Hardy and Ernest.

Austen Adams (COO, Big Loud) wears his shirt in support of Porter, who is up in the Music Event of the Year for “Thinking ‘Bout You” with Dustin Lynch. SVP of Radio Promotion Stacy Blythe (SVP of Radio Promotion, Big Loud Records) proudly rocks a Wallen t-shirt for this year’s Entertainer of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Artist-Songwriter of the Year nominee.  Seth England (CEO / Partner, Big Loud) dresses in support of Whitters, one of this year’s New Female Artist of the Year nominees.

Candice Watkins (SVP of Marketing, Big Loud Records) sports a shirt celebrating Hardy, who has received multiple nominations for “Wait In The Truck” with Lainey Wilson including Song of the Year, Visual Media of the Year, and Music Event of the Year, and a nomination for Artist-Songwriter of the Year. Patch Culbertson (GM/SV, Big Loud Records) wears his t-shirt to support Ernest, who is nominated in the New Male Artist of the Year and the Artist-Songwriter of the Year categories.

Voting for this year’s awards concludes on Monday, April 24. The 58th ACM Awards will be May 11, hosted by Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks.

 

CMHOF Showcases Sustainability In Earth Day Video

The creative team at Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum released a video in honor of Earth Day tomorrow to highlight the museum’s sustainability practices over the past year. The museum boasts robust composting and recycling efforts for visitors and staff. Nearly 187,000 pounds of glass and other materials have been recycled and composted.

Almost all of the disposable items from their restaurant, catering, and break room areas are compostable, resulting in 208,052 pounds of waste diverted from landfills. In addition, the museum has totaled 34,668 meals provided for Middle Tennessee through donation of 18,246 pounds of food.

The CMHOF’s Green Team continues to spearhead environmentally focused initiatives through a variety of efforts.

 

ASCAP Showcases MTSU Students At The Bluebird Cafe

ASCAP hosted a songwriters round in partnership with Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) on Wednesday, April 19. The show featured MTSU commercial songwriting program students Sofia Lynch, Emily O’Neal, Harmony Redford and Jaelee Roberts at famed Nashville venue, The Bluebird Cafe.

 

SESAC Hosts April Round At The Bluebird Cafe

SESAC’s monthly round at The Bluebird Cafe took place on Tuesday, April 18. The night’s talents featured Aaron Gillespie of the rock band Underoath, songwriter-producer Seth Mosley and singer-songwriter Jake Rose, as well as Jason Null and Jared Weeks, founding members of the rock band Saving Abel.

 

Wasserman Music Execs Speak At Relix Conference In Nashville

Wasserman Music’s Chappel McCollister, Jonathan Levine, Lee Anderson and Molly Bailin spoke at the recent Relix Music Conference in Nashville. The executives discussed the emergence and success of the company in a conversation moderated by Project Admission’s Josh Baron.

As part of a case study at this year’s Relix Music Conference, the group discussed strategically making decisions about opportunities for clients, Wasserman’s focus on artist and genre representation, the intersection of music with sports and branding, and more.

T.J. Martell Foundation, StarVista Live Continue Partnership

StarVista LIVE, the company producing music-themed cruises, partnered with the T.J. Martell Foundation is continuing its partnership to help raise funds and awareness for the organization. Since starting the partnership in 2018, over $425,000 has been raised for the music industry foundation that funds innovative medical research.

Generous patrons on this year’s Country Music Cruise and 70s Rock & Romance Cruise contributed $175,000 via live auctions of guitars autographed by cruise artists.

“I had the honor of knowing Tony Martell, who created this incredible legacy in memory of his son T.J., and we are fortunate to be a small part in delivering on Tony’s promise blending this important work with great music and fun events,” says StarVista LIVE Senior VP Mike Jason. “Post-pandemic, the fans are back enthusiastically embracing great music, luxury travel and community. Our guests are also incredibly generous in supporting life-saving cancer research.”

Plans are in the works for additional engagements to raise much needed funds for cancer research.