PUB CRAWLING: NASHVILLE UNLIMITED
Not long ago, London was hosting Nashville players for the CMA C2C fest, and it was yet another example of the seemingly limitless possibilities of global partnership. While the Brexit vote doesn’t alter the sturdy U.S.-U.K. bond, it’s a sobering development on all kinds of fronts. We wish our friends in Blighty better days.
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As to Nashville, our new Nashville Spotlight issue (on your desk imminently) is a weighty testament to Music City’s growing influence and diversification. Country (whatever that means right now) is one of the most vibrant forms in the marketplace, and more than any other genre it sits squarely on a foundation of songwriting. We note one of our two cover models, Capitol Nashville superstar Keith Urban, is a UMPG writer; you’ll find convos with him and UMPG Nashville honcho Kent Earls in the issue (and online, sometime soon), as well as Warner/Chappell’s Ben Vaughn, Sony/ATV’s Troy Tomlinson and other Nashville pubco peeps, including folks from BMG, Big Deal and Pulse. Even in the sections not specifically devoted to publishing you’ll find the issue of songcraft looms large. By the by, our other cover model, Columbia Nashville breakout Maren Morris, a Big Yellow Dog tunesmith, also chatted with us.
As if to prove the point made above, Roc Nation has launched a Nashville office and entered into a pub partnership with Warner/Chappell and launched Rhythm House pubco with songwriter/producer/DJ/publisher and, for all we know, caterer/brain surgeon Jesse Frasure (pictured left). Frasure, who’s co-penned three straight Country #1s (for Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Rascal Flatts) but worked with big artists in all genres, is the hub of all this activity and emblematic of Nashville’s growing prominence as a place you go to make any kind of record. BJ Hill will split his time between W/C and Rhythm House in his new post as VP A&R. The phrase “Roc Nation Nashville,” meanwhile, is pretty much all you need to say about this aspect of the evolving biz. As Ben Vaughn says, “There’s nothing Nashville can’t do.”
W/C boss Jon Platt, meanwhile, is still buzzing from winning Publisher of the Year, not to mention 26 Most Performed Trophies, at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards. That said, the PROs giveth and taketh away, as evidenced by news that the Justice Department will not be altering the government Consent Decrees regarding ASCAP and BMI licensing and that fractional licensing is out. Could the latter incline writers to collaborate only with other tunesmiths in their PROs? More importantly, is an exodus from the big two PROs to decree-free orgs on the way?
“We are incredibly disappointed by the unjust way the Department has decided to interpret the consent decrees,” said Sony/ATV boss Marty Bandier. “Its decision is going to cause a tremendous amount of uncertainty and chaos in a market place that has worked well for years and will adversely impact everyone in the licensing process, including PROs, licensees, music publishers and most of all songwriters who can ill afford to hire lawyers to figure out their rights under this inexplicable ruling. The decision raises more questions than answers.”
Phantogram’s new single, “You don’t Get Me High Anymore” (Republic), is making inroads at Alt radio and elsewhere; SONGS’ Ron Perry has inked the band for publishing, though he is perpetually high. Ron has also A&R’d the new Flume track featuring Kai (Mom+Pop), which has already got Z100 on board. Rumors that he thinks A&R stands for “alcohol and retweeting” couldn’t be confirmed at presstime.
Atlas Music Publishing’s Jennifer Blakeman has announced the appointment of former Kobalt A&R Director Paige Parsons as VP of Creative Services, based in L.A. and reporting to Blakeman; she’ll manage and sniff out new talent. While at Kobalt she inked, among other distinguished writers, Nashville hitmaker David Hodges (Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Dan + Shay).
