Awards Shows Focus on Fans
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page 1 Wednesday,Wednesday, MarchMarch 10,10, 20102010 Table of Contents Awards Shows Focus On Fans 1 Awards Shows Focus On Fans by Sarah Skates 3 Country Debuts Light Up Connecting with fans has always been an an update after its 2009 television ratings Charts 3 EMI Music CEO Abruptly important part of the music business, because were the lowest in history. The purpose of Exits the fans—and ultimately their pocketbooks adding more nominees for Best Picture was 3 CMA Hires Search Firm —are what make or break a career. The rise to make room for the box office blockbusters For Exec. Dir. of digital technology and social media has that are often snubbed by voters, and 4 Star-studded Martell Gala brought about changes in the ways artists hopefully draw a larger audience, including 4 Underwood’s Play On Tour reach out to fans, and affected the industry younger viewers, which are preferred by Gets Underway in a multitude of ways. The latest effect: shifts marketers. 4 Paisley Tour Wraps in awards shows. The Academy of 5 Robertson Taylor Int’l Taking home a trophy from one of these Country Music has taken Names Reba Adams VP glittering gloryfests is becoming less important a similar approach to draw 5 Ted Wagner Offers Entertainment Services and getting face time with fans—or a coveted interest in its top prize, 5 Republic Nashville Hires performance slot—is the real objective. On Entertainer of the Year, Whalen the day after an awards show, industry insiders for the April 18 ACM 5 DISClaimer are more concerned with television ratings Awards. There will be than who won the night’s top honor. The eight nominees, up from Respect Intellectual Property: following week, sales execs sit on pins and five the year before. ACM Executive Director MusicRow transmissions in email and file form plus online passwords, are needles waiting for SoundScan to show a Bob Romeo explains, “By allowing three intended for the sole use of active subscribers only and protected under post-awards bump. To keep up, awards show more people to run it’s more inclusive for the the copyright laws of the United States. organizers are working harder than ever to format, and it gives us Resending or sharing of such intellectual property to unauthorized individuals engage fans, which in turn drives viewers three more people to help and/or groups is expressly forbidden. and sales. promote the viewing of MusicRow Publications, Inc. reserves the right to cancel, without refund, the the show. I think if you account of any subscriber found to be want to remain viable in violation of this policy. Adding Nominees...Changing Voting Methods today, you have to be Music Row Communications, LLC engaging the fans and 1231 17th Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212 Sunday night’s (3/7) Academy 615-321-3617 Awards offered 10 nominees, doubling give them some buy-in www.musicrow.com the number from last year, for the to what you are doing.” [email protected] show’s Best Picture category. The This will be the third [email protected] Bob Romeo Academy knew the show needed year that Entertainer ©2010, MusicRow Communications, LLC—ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [email protected] page 2 Wednesday, March 10, 2010 will be selected by fans, another way the Academy is driving initiatives like this: “One, to drive live tune-in; two, to engagement. ACM professional members narrow down the enhance the experience; and three, continue the conversation Entertainer nominees to the final eight and fans vote for the afterward.” Oscars organizers took the hint from Jaffe and overall winner. fans around the world, and streamed its nominations live “The first year we opened voting for Entertainer we were online for the first time at Oscars.org and on Facebook, averaging 200 votes per minute. When you see these numbers, scoring more than 170,000 unique viewers. The Academy I don’t know how anybody can say that engaging the consumer also debuted an Oscars iPhone app, and increased online is not what we have to do.” offerings such as video, exclusive content from nominees, In fact, the ACM also solicits fan votes for its three New widgets and predictions. Artist categories: Top New Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Duo Grammy Award organizers wanted fans to have a hand and Top New Vocal Group. These winners go on to compete in its Jan. 31 show. According to Evan Greene, Chief Marketing for the overall Top New Artist award, also fan-voted. Officer of The Recording Academy, "With the natural evolution The race for the New Artist categories compels artists to of social media, fans have become a cultural force driving the hit the online campaign trail. Nominees Luke Bryan and Joey power of music.” Consumers decided which Bon Jovi hit the + Rory made videos and placed them on YouTube and other band would perform on the show. The "We're All Fans" ad sites encouraging fans to vote for them for ACM Top New Solo campaign celebrated the connection between fans and artists, Vocalist and Top New Duo, respectively, at www.VoteACM.com. offering a first-of-its-kind interactive experience where portraits Romeo says, “In two days of voting for the New Artists of Grammy-nominated artists were composed entirely from this year, we have already outpaced the total votes we had real-time, fan-generated YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook for New Artist last year.” postings. The CMA Awards gave a significant boost to its social Social networking networking offerings for the show in November 2009. There Music historian Robert K. Oermann has seen awards was a Twitter Viewing Party, with celeb and VIP tweets, as shows grow and change. He says the rise of social networking well as a “My Picks” widget that let fans share their choices has prompted organizers to offer fans an “active rather than for the top winners. ABC.com, the web site of the network passive experience.” which airs the CMAs, had daily behind the scenes Webisodes The ACM wants its show to be anything but passive; the leading up to the show. organization has several consumer initiatives that haven’t been officially announced. Fans will take part in selecting the song Ratings Brooks & Dunn perform on the show, a new set design will All the effort paid off. The CMA Awards and Oscars both allow fans onstage, there will be a live pre-show online, and saw their highest ratings since 2005, and the Grammys had a text voting component is in the works. Romeo says the ACM the biggest numbers since 2004. In the two years since the has been building its web presence for years. “On our web ACM started fan voting, its viewership for the awards show site four years ago, we had 10,000 people that we were has almost doubled. engaging, we call them our ‘A-listers.’ Now we are up to “Every day those fans vote. They vote when they buy a 200,000. And last year when our web site went down during concert ticket, they vote when they tune in to watch a country the awards show, the estimation was that we had over 1.6 music awards show, they vote when they buy a CD or a million hits.” download,” says Romeo. “They are voting with their hard- In an AdAge article about the Oscars, social media earned money. I don’t know why that should be any different blogger Joseph Jaffe simplified the goals of awards media than sharing a vote in our process.” ©2010, MusicRow Communications, LLC—ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [email protected] page 3 Wednesday, March 10, 2010 Country Debuts Light Up Charts Country music artists have a hold on four of the top 10 slots on the Billboard Top 200 chart this week. Grammy winners Lady Antebellum are back at the No. 1 spot with increased sales totaling 126K, while Blake Shelton moves 79K to debut at No. 3. American Idol alum Danny Gokey debuts at No. 4 with 65K, and Mercury artist Easton Corbin’s self-titled debut bows at No. 10 with sales approaching 43K. With the exception of Gokey, the debuts this week are all driven by top 10 hit singles and videos. With his debut single, “My Best Days Are Ahead of Me,” still climbing the The CMA is holding its quarterly Board meeting in Washington DC, this charts, Gokey is enjoying the significant momentum provided week. Included in the agenda was a tour of the Library of Congress, by his highly-rated return to Idol last week. meetings with some of the LOC collection staff and a cocktail party With an attractive price point ranging from $4.98-6.99 attended by numerous Washington dignitaries. After the party the guests were treated to a guitar pull featuring Bob DiPiero, Kix Brooks, at various retailers, Shelton's 6-track “Six Pak” release has Lorrie Morgan, John Rich, Randy Scruggs and Victoria Shaw in the obviously struck a positive chord with cash-strapped consumers. Coolidge Auditorium. (L-R):Congressman Dennis Moore, his wife His last album, Startin' Fires debuted with 26K at No. 7 Stephanie; MusicRow Publisher and CMA Board member David M. Country and No. 34 Top 200. Ross; and Lorrie Morgan. Photo: Mitchell Layton EMI Music CEO Abruptly Exits In yet another company shakeup, Elio Leoni-Sceti, the In its statement, EMI said Leoni-Sceti had "successfully EMI Music CEO charged with the task of finding a new strategy led EMI Music through the first phase of its operational for its private equity owner, Terra Firma to present to investors, turnaround." will leave the company on March 31 after serving in the "Over the past two and a half years [since Terra Firma's position for only 18 months.