STATE OF THE STATE: SONY MUSIC NASHVILLE
Boss Randy Goodman, COO Ken Robold and company celebrated an Entertainer of the Year award for the second straight year in 2022, as Miranda Lambert collected the ACM honor, following labelmate Luke Combs’ 2021 CMA win. Old Dominion, meanwhile, took their fifth ACM trophy and fourth CMA for Group of the Year.
Lambert’s historic win was just part of a sensational year for the gifted singer/songwriter, who was hailed—along with fellow SMN star Kane Brown—among Time’s Most Influential People in the World. Add to this a blinding array of certifications—4x platinum for “The House That Built Me,” triple for “Gun Powder & Lead,” double for “Bluebird,” “Vice” and “White Liar,” platinum for “Heart Like Mine,” “Only Prettier” and “Settling Down” and gold for “I Was a Cowboy.”
Brown scored two 7x platinum certifications, for “Heaven” and “What Ifs” (f/Lauren Alaina), among the many RIAA plaques he and his labelmates enjoyed—including 4x for Maren Morris’ “The Bones,” 3x for Chris Young’s “I’m Comin’ Over” and double-platinum awards for Ryan Hurd’s “Chasing After You” f/Morris (the #11 country song in YTD streams) and Niko Moon’s “GOOD TIME.”
Morris’ “Circles Around This Town,” the lead single from her hotly anticipated Humble Quest, smashed the record for streams for a country song debut by a female artist.
The stratospherically successful Combs has three of the Top 15 country streaming songs YTD with “Doin’ This,” “Beautiful Crazy” and “Forever After All.” “Doin’ This” also gave him his 13th consecutive #1 hit at Country radio, though it could also be considered his 14th, given that his duet with Jameson Rodgers, “Cold Beer Calling My Name,” was also #1 within the last year. Chris Young, the most nominated artist of the ’22 ACMs, enjoyed a smash with “Famous Friends,” his duet with Brown, while follow-up “At the End of the Bar” f/Mitchell Tenpenny is Top 15 and climbing.
SMN’s newest inking, Nate Smith, racked up 7.5m global streams when “Whiskey on You” arrived, raising anticipation for the Arista Nashville newcomer’s impact date at radio. Fellow recent signings Moon, Hurd, Rodgers and Morgan Wade, meanwhile, won major acclaim; Rolling Stone Country dubbed Wade’s Reckless the #1 album of 2021.
Meanwhile, the company has newly energized the promotion departments of SMN’s imprints with expanded duties that emphasize artist development. EVP Promo & Artist Development Steve Hodges made the announcement, and the implementation of the plan is still in progress. At each label, a Sr. Dir. of Promo/Artist Development was empowered to support imprint heads on pertinent initiatives, reporting to the VP; Lyndsay Church (Arista Nashville, reporting to Chris Schuler), Lauren Longbine (Columbia Nashville, reporting to Lauren Thomas) and Mallory Michaels (RCA Nashville, reporting to Dennis Reese) took on these duties, while Bo Martinovich and crew provide National Support, reporting to Hodges. SMN SVP of Marketing Jennifer Way and her team are now working with departments across the label group.
