Country Airplay Leader; Dan + Shay’S ‘Tequila’ Tops Hot Country Songs
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Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS JANUARY 28, 2019 | PAGE 1 OF 20 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Cody Johnson, Jason Aldean Radio Disney Country Embraces Crown Charts >page 4 Women Ignored On Terrestrial Airwaves Country Women When the 50th annual Country Radio Seminar convenes grew out of Disney’s radio properties — is making huge leaps ‘Rockin’ ’ The in Nashville Feb. 13-15, terrestrial programmers will likely in audience by flouting that viewpoint. Grammy Hall be talking mightily about a subject that’s not officially on Since its launch on Nov. 4, 2015, RDC has made women the >page 10 the agenda. focus of its programming. In fact, the top 12 tracks on its Jan. 14 The conference is packed with panels on time management, playlist all have a prominent female voice: Eight were recorded improving technical by female acts; the skills and increasing GUERINI other four are male Tim McGraw Is revenue. But in acts with women Super Bowl-Bound the hallways, it’s as a featured >page 11 guaranteed that many guest. Disney’s attendees will address latest internal the story that plagues research claims Country Cares For country radio most in RDC piles up 12 Two Owens: the current news cycle: million-15 million Randy & Jake its general dismissal of listeners per >page 11 female artists. month, and the The genre’s reticence artists certainly to play women hit a know it makes a record-setting level difference. Tenille POPE SHORR Makin’ Tracks: in December 2018: Arts, for example, Chris Young’s Billboard’s Countr y saw YouTube plays ‘Raised On Country’ Airplay chart, based on audience impressions from spins of her current single, “I Hate This,” jump from about 35,000 to >page 15 granted by radio gatekeepers, featured zero women in the top 200,000 in the two weeks after its No. 1 peak on the RDC playlist. 20 on the lists dated Dec. 8 and Dec. 15. Nearly two months RDC’s success ought to provide some consternation for later, Carrie Underwood’s “Love Wins” (No. 15) remains the traditional country broadcasters. only female single to crack the top 20 during the span. “It’s hogwash that women don’t want to hear women Country Coda: When Programmers have defended themselves by suggesting and women don’t support women,” says Disney Channels Pam Tillis Reigned female fans don’t want to hear female artists and that women are Worldwide vp music strategy Phil Guerini. He points in >page 20 simply not making commercially viable music at the moment. particular to the RDC-sponsored stages at CMA Music Festival, Countering that notion, Radio Disney Country — a service that which have become some of the best-attended presentations BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 28, 2019 | PAGE 2 OF 20 in the festival’s Fan Fair X exhibit hall at the Music City Center and provide face-to-face experience with ardent country fans. “I’ve not actually met any of the women that say that they don’t like or won’t support women artists,” says Guerini. RDC has certainly supported them. Guerini jumped early on female singles that sounded like hits — including Arts’ “I Hate This,” Carly Pearce’s “Closer to You” and RaeLynn’s “Tailgate,” which are all top 10 on the current list — preferring to set the agenda for his company rather than to play it safe. RDC was an early supporter of Kelsea Ballerini, played singles by Cassadee Pope and Maddie & Tae when terrestrial radio dragged its feet and established a new short-form on-air series, Let the Girls Play, hosted by Kalie Shorr and Savannah Keyes, two new acts it has helped expose. “It would certainly be short-sighted to not recognize how much young female SESAC and BMI hosted a No. 1 party for Jimmie Allen’s “Best Shot” music is being produced, and it’s really great in many cases,” says Guerini. “It on Jan. 22 at The Local, the renamed Nashville club where Allen can be very competitive if given an opportunity.” showcased for Broken Brow. From left: SESAC vp of creative services The RDC channel has a terrestrial component — it’s heard on KRDC Los Shannan Hatch, Allen and songwriter Josh London. Angeles — but it’s primarily a streamed product, reflecting the company’s approach to music platforms. Radio Disney aired at one point on roughly 40 FM and AM signals, but they generated mixed financial results with little room for improvement, and Disney divested itself of most of them. Guerini, who began his career in radio, believes RDC is establishing itself in the country space the same way that Radio Disney set a tone in pop. Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez all received early boosts from Radio Disney before they reached the wider terrestrial audience. They grew as artists at the same time the company’s audience was maturing into adults. The RDC target is slightly older — the core listener is aged 17-24 years — but that’s also an age at which music makes a huge impression. Underscoring that fact, Shorr has encountered fans who have tattooed “Fight Like a Girl,” her signature song, onto their bodies. Those fans mostly encountered Shorr Walker Hayes joined five other artists for a WSOC Charlotte, N.C., on RDC and SiriusXM, and that’s one reason that Nashville managers and guitar pull on Jan. 22 at Coyote Joe’s. From left: WSOC PD Jack Daniel; labels are offering exclusives and premieres to both of those outlets before Hayes; Arista Nashville regional promotion manager, Southeast Ali they even bother going to radio. O’Connell; and Beasley/Charlotte operations manager John Reynolds. “We focus our energy on where we feel like it’s winning and where it’s reacting,” says Fusion Music/Red Light manager Daniel Miller, who represents Pope. RDC will devote some of its energy during the Country Radio Seminar to a public-facing event within walking distance from the convention’s base at the Omni Nashville Hotel. The showcase is intended to demonstrate to Nashville’s music community that RDC is paying attention to the up-and-coming creative class, but Guerini is confident that radio programmers who venture to the event will witness a response from an audience they have misjudged. “Hopefully,” he says, “they will see firsthand females enjoying females perform.” That’s an important aspect of the current controversies surrounding country radio’s disrespect of female artists. Shania Twain, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Taylor Swift have inspired countless women through the years, delivering a vital message to their fans that women have value. “As someone who was raised on country music and heard a lot of female LOCASH performed a concert on Jan. 18 presented by WIL St. Louis voices historically, I want my daughters to have that same kind of experience at Ballpark Village. From left: duo member Chris Lucas, WIL music and hear music that reflects their lives and their points of view,” says Shorr’s director Danny Montana and duo member Preston Brust. manager, Cassetty Entertainment president Todd Cassetty. While females have faced hardships in the past in country, the issue was not nearly as bleak just 10 years ago as it is today. The bro-country movement may have contributed to it. The themes of the songs from that period — heavy drinking, quick and easy sex — are acceptable for males in the culture but widely frowned upon for women. Thus, female voices were squeezed out at that time. The sound and themes of country have widened now that that phase has passed, even if women’s place in the mix has not. The RDC audience ballooned by 798 percent in its second year, notes Guerini, and some of that expansion is likely due to young listeners discovering music they can’t find elsewhere. He’s convinced that women will rise again in the genre, similar to the ascent they are experiencing in other areas of culture, particularly politics. Thus, terrestrial radio faces a dilemma: represent female artists better in the mix or allow the audience to slip away to other platforms Aaron Watson visited with country execs backstage when he as fans find a wider sonic variety through other sources. presented a Night of Texas songwriter event Jan. 24 at Nashville’s “I think the best days are still ahead for female artists — for artists in general Ryman Auditorium. From left: Spotify Nashville head of artist & label — to right some of these things, because those decisions are no longer going marketing Brittany Schaffer, Watson, Alternative Distribution Alliance to be left to programmers,” says Guerini. “Those decisions are going to be label management and sales director Robert Turner Sr. and BIG Label left to the audience.” vp sales & marketing Dan Anderson. BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 28, 2019 | PAGE 4 OF 20 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Johnson’s Ain’t Debuts At No. 1 On Country Albums; Aldean Scores 20th Country Airplay Leader; Dan + Shay’s ‘Tequila’ Tops Hot Country Songs Cody Johnson’s major-label debut album, Ain’t Nothin’ to It (Cojo/Warner WORTHY OF A TOAST After a record 19-week wait at No. 2, Dan + Shay bank Music Nashville), roars in atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart (dated their second Hot Country Songs No. 1 as “Tequila” (Warner Bros./WAR) Feb. 2). It earns 35,000 equivalent album units (23,000 in traditional album shoots 2-1, completing a record 54-week trip to the top. sales) in its first week (ending Jan. 24), according to Nielsen Music.