Bulletin YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE JULY 9, 2021 Page 1 of 18 INSIDE Executive of the Week: • Inside Track: How the Music Business Columbia Records Senior VP Is Preparing to Return to the Office Marketing Jay Schumer • Health Professionals on the Mental Toll of BY DAN RYS Returning to Shows Mid-Pandemic yler, The Creator’s sixth album, CALL ME extensively, and how marketing has changed over the • Shamrock Capital, IF YOU GET LOST, was a smash hit upon course of his career. “Fans have a lot of things they After Buying Taylor its release: 169,000 equivalent album units, could be doing at any given moment,” he says, “so you Swift’s Catalog, the single week highest of his career; a better be giving them a really good reason to give you Raises $200M to Tsecond straight No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and sixth their attention.” Loan to Creators straight top five; and a promotional campaign that in- Tyler, The Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET • For the First Time, cluded a performance at the BET Awards and several LOST debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this People of Color well-received music videos. week with 169,000 equivalent album units, the Dominate Recording It also was another release from the artist that came highest mark of his career. What key decisions did Academy Board of bundled with an innovative marketing plan, helped you make to help make that happen? Trustees: Exclusive by a rollout featuring a phone number that fans could The success of this album comes first and foremost • Taylor Swift, call to receive personalized messages from Tyler, from having an artist like Tyler who is one-of-a-kind Jack Antonoff & which followed the VOTE IGOR campaign that Tyler and has continued to grow with every release. It is a St. Vincent Get waged for his prior album, the Grammy Award-win- privilege for our team to get to collaborate with Tyler Co-Writer Credits on Olivia Rodrigo’s ning IGOR. Its success, following the similar chart- and his team to build out the worlds he imagines ‘Deja Vu’ topping success of Polo G and his first Billboard 200 around each album and bring them to life online and No. 1 Hall of Fame three weeks ago, earns Columbia offline. A lot of factors played a role, including how • Concord Taps Records senior vp marketing Jay Schumer the title of and when we started the campaign, how we engaged Justin Prakash as New CFO, Billboard’s Executive of the Week. fans, how we got partners involved and invested Music Publishing Here, Schumer talks about Tyler’s creativity as an early, how the content was timed, and of course, how & Theatricals artist and pitch man, the impact of physical releases incredibly great the album is. and box sets, which both Tyler and Polo G utilized (continued) TOTAL IMMERSION ESSENTIAL ANALYSIS of the latest business topics and trends formulated to give industry players the competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market. EXCLUSIVE QUARTERLY REPORTS that deliver in-depth, holistic reporting; case studies; and custom data designed to serve the industry. A DEEP DIVE LIBRARY stocked with intelligence on fan data, SUBSCRIBE TO BILLBOARD PRO FOR song catalog sales, TV synchs, Africa’s burgeoning music ACCESS TO NEW REPORTS business and the gaming industry’s embrace of artists. AND THE ARCHIVE Panos Panay Harvey Mason jr. Valeisha Butterfield Jones Co-President CEO Co-President A BOLD NEW ERA IS HERE The next generation of Recording Academy leadership. GRAMMY.COM Page 3 of 18 IN BRIEF What was the marketing plan for the Merch and other physical products are What are the key principles to a suc- release, and how did it differ from his undoubtedly important, because they’re cessful marketing plan at this point in the previous projects? tangible extensions of the campaign that music business? I don’t think the words “Tyler, The gives it more depth and are things that fans Get fans invested in the artist, release great Creator” and “marketing plan” belong in want and identify with. For someone like music and find every possible way to expose the same sentence. Tyler is on another Tyler, merch is also an important part of the it to new audiences. It applies to every artist. level and deserving of a team that does not visual world that surrounds the music. That Look at one of my favorite new artists of think traditionally. He not only creates all said, it should be pointed out that this was ours, Cochise. He’s singular and exceptional of the music, but all of the visual assets that by far Tyler’s highest streaming album, and and started with a relatively small but very ultimately define each album. For us, the he would have had the No. 1 album with or engaged base. We’ve worked together to fun part is thinking of all of the ways that without physical configurations — and vinyl super-serve the base, ensuring each release we can take the concepts and the creative was not available. has been bigger than the last, until one day and further build out the world. On IGOR, This week, Polo G’s album Hall of everything comes together, a great song ex- we took the VOTE IGOR concept and the Fame spent its third week in the top five plodes, and a new talent is recognized. aesthetic of the character and brought them on the chart, after becoming his first No. How has the marketing world evolved to life in multiple ways. 1 album three weeks ago. At a time when over the course of your career? It was no different with CALL ME IF so many releases make a big splash and Too much to possibly summarize, but YOU GET LOST where a phone number then fade, how have you kept the momen- fans have a lot of things they could be doing was tied to the campaign which fans could tum for that album so strong? at any given moment, so you better be giv- call and get constantly changing messages How you start is usually a good gauge as ing them a really good reason to give you that Tyler fully owned. As it went along, the to how things are going to hold up, so we their attention. messages helped tell the story of the album make sure all the pieces are in place for the that fans were about to hear — a classic rap biggest possible launch. Polo is an incredibly album that celebrates the experiences that gifted artist and storyteller, and the power Tyler has been able to have because of his of his words allows fans to connect with him success, and encourages fans to get lost and as an artist in a truly deep way. And while never stop exploring. he’s much bigger, and his creative has been The release included a limited num- elevated, he’s still Polo G and has not lost ber of cassettes and CDs with exclusive any of his relatability. Our team works very bonus cuts, as well as with box sets with closely with Polo and his team, and through other merch, all sold on his web store. a combination of content, press, features, How important is D2C and physical radio exposure and much more, he has packages like this in rolling out an album continued to be everywhere with another these days? album that fans keep coming back to. AUTHORITATIVE INTELLIGENCE. DELIVERED DIGITALLY. CLICK HERE FOR FREE DELIVERY DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS Congratulations, 2021 BILLBOARD COUNTRY POWER PLAYERS Including our very own Diane Pearson and Lori Badgett. Diane Pearson Lori Badgett SVP and Team Leader SVP and Team Leader Entertainment Division, Entertainment Division, Nashville Nashville Discover The way up® at cnb.com. City National Bank Member FDIC. City National Bank is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. ©2021 City National Bank. All Rights Reserved. 431479 BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE Page 4 5OF of 1918 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] IN BRIEF SamHunt’s Southside Rules Top Country Albums; Brett Youngmost are aiming‘Catc for a soft,h’-es limited-capacity Fifth missed Airplay the creativity that comes from a col- Inside Track: reopening after the July 4 holiday, with a laborative space.” Leader; Travis moreDenning complete return scheduledMakes for after History Here’s where several companies across How the Labor Day, which is Sept. 6. Many are also the biz stand so far in terms of their back-to- adopting some form of a hybrid work week office plans: SamMusic Hunt’s second Business studio full-length, and first in overin whichfive years, employees Southside will sales have (up the 21%) option in the to tracking week.Universal On Country Music Airplay, Group: it hops Last 18-15 week, (11.9 mil- (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), debutswork at No. from 1 on homeBillboard during’s lion part audience of the week. impressions, UMG’sup 16%). executive vp/chief people and inclu- Top Country Albums chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it “It’s not going to be like returning to 2019,” sion officer Eric Hutcherson sent an email earnedIs Preparing 46,000 equivalent album units, including 16,000 in album sales, ac- TRY TO ‘CATCH’ UP WITH YOUNG Brett Youngachieves his fifth consecutive cording to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. say BMG COO Ben Katovskyand total. “This Country is Airplay No.to 1staff as “Catch” indicating (Big Machine that the Label company, Group) ascendswhich toSouthside Return marks Hunt’s to second No.