Author Archive: David M Ross
David M. Ross has been covering Nashville's music industry for over 25 years. dross@musicrow.com
Question: To Pre-Release Or Not
Rascal Flatts and Lyric Street are celebrating the record-breaking success of the pre-release single “Here Comes Goodbye” at iTunes. According to Nielsen Soundscan, the track sold 125,884 downloads, delivering the highest first-week paid sales ever by a country artist for a debut single and the song is one of four tracks to be made available […]
Flatts Set Country Digital Single Sales Tally
Sales for the week ended 3/15/09 remained tepid as Taylor Swift continued to account for almost 23% of the entire Current Country list. Kelly Clarkson’s CD scored Top 200 No. 1 success with a solid debut totaling 254,671 units. Unfortunately, the Idol alum, now managed by Nashville-based Starstruck Management, was unable to match last week’s […]
Category: Artist, Featured, Label, Sales/Marketing
Idol Goes Opry and Survives (almost)
Grand Ole Opry week, night one, took American Idol by storm as the eleven contestants performed songs made famous by Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Johnny Cash, Dolly, Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline. “The odds were 100,000 to one at the beginning of this contest,” said host Ryan Seacrest at the top of the […]
NYT Taking Chances Article Profiles Borchetta
The New York Times Sunday Business section (3/14) prominently features a story titled, The Secrets of the Talent Scouts which attempts to get inside the heads of executives competing to find the next big thing in various fields including entertainment, technology and medical research. Executives profiled seem to agree that taking chances on passionate people […]
Karmazin Blames Doom & Gloom
Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius XM Satellite Radio blames a “doom and gloom” fourth quarter for the company’s lackluster results. Satcaster investors were saddled with analyst reports, during the quarter, that it might be unable to meet its debt obligations. Finally, Liberty Media Corp. lent Sirius XM over $500 million while taking a 40% stake […]
Idol Audience Presents Marketing Bonanza
American Idol will feature the Grand Ole Opry on March 17/18 and showcase Opry members Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley plus Randy Travis who is also serving as the show’s musical mentor. Sony and Warner Bros. are leveraging the show’s 24+ million audience in some interesting and unconventional ways. Underwood’s recording of Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet […]
Category: Featured
Robbins Nashville Drops In-House Promo Dept.; Moves To Outsource
Robbins Nashville’s decision to outsource its promotion department resulted in the departure today (3/11) of promo executives VP Tony Benken (tunegoon@comcast.net) and Dir. National Promotion Joe Redmond (joeredmond@juno.com). Observers may interpret this move to mean that the label’s life line is shrinking, but Music Row has learned it is more likely an economic-driven leap toward […]
Sales Down, Hopes Up—3/11/09
Sales for the week ended 3/8/2009 were only notable if your artist is called U2 who debuted at the top of the list with a remarkable (especially in this day and age) showing of 484,000 units. Equally impressive was the band’s higher-than-normal digital share which equaled 32%. Neko Case’s No. 3 Top 200 chart debut […]
Category: Featured, Label, Sales/Marketing
Are Ticketers Getting Greedy?
Using Neil Diamond’s last summer New York Madison Square dates as an example, the Wall Street Journal recently pointed to the scalper-like practice known as ticket reselling. Under this scenario, done with the approval and full knowledge of the artist and manager involved, a limited number of the best seats are withheld from normal sale […]
Social Nets Get Facelifts
Twitter, home to about 6 million users, recently started to introduce design tweaks aimed at making the service more relevant and allowing users easier access to search across trends and more. The new features are spreading slowly, for example they still haven’t arrived on the Music Row Twitter page, but as they move throughout the […]
Category: Featured, Sales/Marketing
Godin Warns Radio At CRS
Seth Godin describes himself as “bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.” (sethgodin.typepad.com) Judging by the intensity and depth of his CRS Keynote address (3/4) his quote seems accurate. Godin has written ten bestselling books including Tribes, Purple Cow and Meatball Sundae plus holds an MBA from Stanford University. The speaker began by suggesting that […]
Category: Featured, Radio, Sales/Marketing
