STATE OF THE STATE: SONY MUSIC NASHVILLE

After wrapping up 2019 with 75% of the #1 albums in country consumption, the House of Goodman is enjoying big streaming and radio action by Luke Combs, Kane Brown and Maren Morris, among others, as its young artists in particular show remarkable chart longevity.

Combs has become only the second artist in history to spend 20+ weeks at #1 on the Top Country Albums chart (Taylor Swift was the first). Brown and Morris crossed over to pop audiences in 2019, as the former’s Marshmello collab “One Thing Right” rose into the Top 15 at Top 40 radio and the latter’s “The Bones” ascended into the Hot AC Top 10. This year saw “The Bones” hit #1 at AC and fly at Pop. “The Bones” is also one of the few country tracks to make our midyear chart of the Top 50 song streams YTD in all genres, with nearly 190m streams.

SMN artists’ trophy shelves are still groaning after a huge haul in 2019. The CMAs brought Song of the Year wins for Combs, an Album of the Year victory for Morris and her triumphant GIRL (she was the show’s most-nominated artist) and a second consecutive Vocal Group statuette for Old Dominion. Brown snagged his second straight Favorite Male—Country win at the AMAs, while he and Combs shared Artist of the Year honors at the CMT Awards. September’s ACMs will find SMN acts contending in multiple categories, with Old Dominion leading.

Sony’s roster veterans also saw big career benchmarks. The ever-evolving Miranda Lambert tied Carrie Underwood for the most #1 country album debuts (seven) with 2019’s Wildcard. Multitasking marvel Brad Paisley, meanwhile—in conjunction with SMN and Sony Pictures Television—hosted his first TV special, Brad Paisley Thinks He’s Special, for ABC.