CMT, Spotify Enter Partnership

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Spotify will be the preferred streaming music service across MTV/VH1/CMT websites and apps, due to a new partnership between the companies. The 60 million monthly unique visitors to these sites and apps will be able to instantly play tracks and playlists from the MTV/VH1/CMT experience.
spotifyAdditionally, MTV/VH1/CMT will program curated playlists and soundtracks into Spotify for some of its most popular series and franchises including MTV’s Teen Wolf, VH1’s Love and Hip Hop, CMT’s Party Down South, the MTV Video Music Awars, Unplugged, Palladia’s coverage of Hangout Music Festival and more from the MTV/VH1/CMT archives. Collectively, at least 150 playlists inspired by Viacom’s network of channels will run simultaneously at any given time.

Tourism Campaign Showcases Music 'Made In Tennessee'

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Songwriter Brett James in the new ad campaign.


Music and other Tennessee exports are the centerpiece of a new advertising campaign to boost the state’s growing amount of tourism. Songwriter Rivers Rutherford voices the television commercials (below) which are part of the Made In Tennessee campaign. The $8 million initiative, featured in the New York Times, showcases the state’s varied musical offerings, its rich history, natural beauty and fun for families.
Also featured is music from Tennessee bands including the Apache Relay and the Black Cadillacs.
Advertising agency VML has a five-year contract worth up to $60 million with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, reports the NYT.
The campaign sends potential visitors to tnvacation.com

In-App Purchasing Power Coming To Facebook, Twitter

Twitter and Facebook are making moves so that users can make purchases without leaving their respective sites or apps.
Twitter is acquiring CardSpring, a payments infrastructure company. Twitter already offers users the ability to claim deals, and add items to an online shopping cart directly from a Tweet.
Facebook is testing a new feature to help businesses drive sales through the News Feed and on Pages. With this feature, people on desktop or mobile can click the “Buy” call-to-action button on ads and Page posts to purchase a product directly from a business, without leaving Facebook.FB buy button

Weekly Register: 'Dirt' Debuts At No. 1

FGL performed "Dirt" on Live and showed hosts Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa "how to make love to the camera." Photo: Rob Tannenbaum/Disney-ABC Domestic TV

FGL performed “Dirt” on “Live” and showed hosts Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa “how to make love to the camera.” Photo: Rob Tannenbaum/Disney-ABC Domestic TV


The new track from Florida Georgia Line flew to the top of the Country download chart this week, debuting with sales of 182K. “Dirt,” the lead single from the duo’s upcoming sophomore album, landed at No. 2 on the overall chart.
The big news out of Nashville last week is the return of Garth Brooks. New music is coming from the legend before year’s end, and his back catalog is finally going digital, which is good news for Country sales.
With no major album debuts, Weekly Register decided to check in on this week’s top selling albums including Track Equivalent Album sales (see list below).
This week’s Top 5 Country tracks
FGL, “Dirt,” 182K TW, 182K RTD
Kenny Chesney, “American Kids,” 79K TW, 272K RTD
Dierks Bentley, “Drunk on A Plane” 66K TW, 555K RTD
Lady Antebellum, “Bartender,” 64K TW, 452K RTD
Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, “Somethin’ Bad,” 51K TW, 411K RTD
Top 5 Country albums
Miranda Lambert, Platinum, 20K TW, 351K RTD
Brantley Gilbert, Just As I Am, 17K TW, 450 RTD
Luke Bryan, Crash My Party, 12K TW, 2 mil RTD
FGL, Here’s To The Good Times, 11K TW, 1.945 RTD
Colt Ford, Thanks For Listening, 10K TW, 33K RTD
Top 5 Country albums including Track Equivalent Albums
(10 tracks equals 1 album)
Luke Bryan, Crash My Party, 789K
Eric Church, The Outsiders, 775K
FGL, Here’s To The Good Times, 750K
Brantley Gilbert, Just As I Am, 620K
Miranda Lambert, Platinum, 453K

Weekly Register: Independents Day

colt fordTwo indies scored this week’s top-selling new Country albums. Average Joes’ Colt Ford sold 23K copies of Thanks For Listening, according to Nielsen Soundscan, to land at No. 2 Country. ATO’s Old Crow Medicine Show flew in with sales of 17K, nesting at No. 4 Country.
On the tracks chart, the top Country debut is RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls” scoring 20K clicks and coming in at No. 22. “American Kids” by Kenny Chesney is the No. 1 Country track, selling 80K.
The 4th of July helped Lee Greenwood wave his flag to the tune of 24K downloads of “God Bless the USA,” which has sold 934K digital copies RTD.
Top 5 Country Albums this week
Miranda Lambert 25K
Colt Ford 23K
old crowBrantley Gilbert 21K
Old Crow Medicine Show 17K
Luke Bryan 13K
Top 5 Country Tracks this week
Kenny Chesney “American Girls” 80K
Dierks Bentley “Drunk on a Plane” 69K
Lady Antebellum “Bartender” 63K
Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood “Somethin’ Bad” 60K
Jake Owen “Beachin’” 55K
This week the indies weren’t competing with new releases by major stars, but August and September brings projects by Brad Paisley (Aug. 26), Lee Brice (Sept. 9), Tim McGraw (Sept. 16) and Kenny Chesney (Sept. 23).

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Nielsen Releases 2014 Mid-Year Sales Report

NielsenNielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS recently revealed the 2014 mid-year U.S. music sales airplay and streaming data for the six-month period of December 30, 2013 through June 29, 2014. Nielsen SoundScan measures U.S. point-of-sale of recorded music product, while Nielsen BDS tracks U.S. radio airplay and music streams.
For the first six months of 2014, album sales were down 14.9 percent (selling 120.9 million units), vs. the first six months of 2013, when 142 million units were sold. Meanwhile, vinyl album sales were up 40.4 percent and overall on-demand streaming services were up 42 percent, with on-demand audio up 50.1 percent and on-demand video up 35.2 percent.
Eric Church and Luke Bryan were among the top ten selling albums for 2014 year-to-date. Church lands at No. 3, with Outsiders selling 642,000 YTD. Bryan’s Crash My Party has sold 455,000 units YTD, both for the week ending June 29, 2014. The Frozen soundtrack topped the chart with 2,696,000 copies sold, followed by Beyonce‘s Beyonce at No. 2 with 702,000 units sold YTD.
When Track Equivalent Albums are also included in the YTD tally, Church’s Outsiders lands at No. 6 YTD, with 755,000 in sales, while Bryan’s Crash My Party lands at No. 7 with 746,000 units sold. Florida Georgia Line lands at No. 10 YTD with 712,000 in sales of Here’s To The Good Times. The Frozen soundtrack also tops this chart with a total of 3,379,000 in sales.
Nashville resident Jack White‘s Lazaretto takes the top spot in the 2014 YTD Top 10 Selling Vinyl albums. Lazaretto sold 491,000 units, followed by Arctic MonkeysAM at No. 2, with 251,000 units sold.
Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” is the year’s most played song. See the full report here Nielsen Music 2014 Mid-Year US Release.

Weekly Register: Mid-Year Check-Up

WeeklyRegJuly2This week wraps the end of the second quarter of 2014, so let’s check the barely-there sales pulse.
YEAR TO DATE
Albums:
Country album sales are down -18.4% YTD, having sold 15.302 million this year, compared to 18.763 million at the same time last year.
Country digital albums, which are included in the above total tallies, are 5.214 million YTD versus 5.808 million last year, a fall of -10.2%.
Country album sales including track equivalent albums (TEA) are down -19.2%.
The Country album market share is at 12.7%, fairly steady compared to last year.
Total album sales, encompassing all genres, fell -14.8%, selling 120.895 million YTD. This is a little less than Country’s -18.4% slide.
Tracks:
Country tracks are down -20.8% YTD, selling 73.307 million this year, versus 92.530 million last year.
Total tracks YTD fell -13%, 593.6 million this year compared to 682.2 million last year.
THIS WEEK
Circling back to this week, Tay-Tay’s pal Ed Sheeran debuted at the top of the charts with his latest, X, selling 209K.
Top 5 Country Albums 
Miranda Lambert 29K this week
Brantley Gilbert 21K
Luke Bryan 13K
Willie Nelson 11K
Now Country 7 10K
Top 5 Country Tracks
Kenny Chesney “American Kids” 74K this week
Dierks Bentley “Drunk On A Plane” 69K
Lady Antebellum “Bartender” 61K
Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood “Somethin’ Bad” 60K
Jake Owen “Beachin’” 54K
Hot Track: Luke Bryan’s “Roller Coaster” increased 207%, selling 17,540 TW and 73,501 RTD.
Next month starts a string of major label releases to boost YTD sales including Chase Rice (8/19), Brad Paisley (8/26), Lee Brice (9/9), Tim McGraw (9/16) and Kenny Chesney (9/23).
Sales tallies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

John Peets and Paul Roper Discuss Vinyl Revival

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Pictured (L-R): Dualtone’s Paul Roper and Q Prime’s John Peets


By: Laura Hostelley
In the digital age where streaming music services put entire musical libraries at your fingertips, it comes as a surprise that vinyl sales are on the rise across all genres. According to Nielsen Soundscan, vinyl sales jumped from 4.5 million in 2012 to 6 million in 2013, an increase of 32 percent.
“We’re in this wild, wild west period right now where digital and vinyl sales will change over the next few years,” said Paul Roper, Pres. of Dualtone Music Group, which is home to The Lumineers and Shovels and Rope. “It is still a small percentage of the population that even knows what Spotify is. Physical sales account for 30-35 percent of our business and vinyl is 10 percent of that, which is turning way up. Five years ago it was under three percent.”
Other Nashville artists such as The Black Keys and Jack White have supported this trend by releasing vinyl editions of their recent albums. In the debut week of White’s album Lazaretto, released June 10, nearly 30 percent of the 138,000 physical copies sold were vinyl. The Black Keys pressed 100,000 vinyl copies of their latest Turn Blue because about 10 percent of their past album sales have been vinyl.

“There’s a lot more subtexts to it than just the numbers,” said their manager John Peets at Q Prime South. “Even though the world doesn’t mainly consume music on vinyl records anymore, it’s still important in the creation process. These bodies of work are more than a set of singles, it’s a marker of where recording artists are in their career. They want their audience to not invest in only one album, but a series of albums.” He believes vinyl gives the artist the ability to distribute music as a whole project, whereas listening to only singles has the potential to diminish the impact of the body of work.
Untitled-2Though rock artists traditionally have higher vinyl sales than any other genre, Country artists are starting to embrace the trend as well. Kellie Pickler released The Woman I Am as a limited-edition vinyl and Kacey Musgraves has copies of her 2013 album Same Trailer Different Park available on vinyl. Dolly Parton released a blue, limited-edition of two tracks from her album Blue Smoke to celebrate Record Store Day (RSD) in April. Eric Church, also managed by Peets, put out a special edition of The Outsiders including two bonus tracks on vinyl in honor of RSD this year.
Peets reported that Church’s RSD release accounted for around one percent of sales of the project, which exceed 600,000 to date. Even though the vinyl sales are minuscule, Church and his team wanted to celebrate mom-and-pop record stores and offer the exclusive edition to their audiophile fans.
“[This release] is a statement to say independent record stores are important,” said Peets. “Not only valuing the culture of music but being engulfed in a store that does nothing but music is important. The people who work in these local economies are educated and can teach you what you didn’t know about music. That’s what it’s all about.”
RSD has traditionally appealed to millennials. The artists releasing their records on vinyl have strong fan bases from this demographic, perhaps because these modern-day vinyl connoisseurs weren’t even born in time for the first vinyl trend.
“With paid streaming growing, if fans want something tangible that’s already on your phone, there’s no reason to buy a compact disc,” said Roper. “So if you’re going to buy something physical you might as well buy the vinyl, that’s a bigger piece of art.”
Peets added: “By buying the physical album and displaying it, fans are making a higher investment in the artist, like a badge of honor. I think vinyl makes a real obvious outgoing statement about who you are and what you think is important.”
With the demand for vinyl increasing, record pressing plants are working to keep up. The volume is starting to overwhelm these plants, noted Peets. If artists want to release a vinyl, they have to plan well in advance. The demand is so high that Nashville’s own United Record Pressing, the largest pressing plant in the country, is planning to expand with a second location near Nolensville Pike in Nashville.
“Vinyls are being bought heavily on the road and on preorder,” said Roper. “Backup at record plants is about 12 weeks because of how in-demand they are.” Peets added that artwork for the album poses a time-crunch more than the actual pressing of the record.
So, even in a time where there is almost unlimited access to music, fans have shown they will still financially support their favorite artists.
“There is appeal to the physical piece and the artwork,” said Peets. “By owning vinyl, fans have something that very forwardly says music, and that artist in particular, is important to me.”

Weekly Register: Willie Nelson Rides In At No. 1

willie nelson 2014Willie Nelson’s album Band of Brothers debuted at the top of the Country chart, marching in with sales of 37K. His first album of mostly new material since 1996 scored his highest position on the Billboard 200 (No. 5) since Always On My Mind peaked at No. 2 in 1982. It is his first No. 1 Country album since The Promised Land hit the top spot in 1986.
The top 5 Country albums this week belong to: Nelson (37K), Miranda Lambert (34K), Brantley Gilbert (26K), Luke Byran (14K) and Florida Georgia Line (12K).
Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence, produced by Nashvillian Dan Auerbach, debuted at No. 1 overall, selling 182K. Sliding in to No. 2 is Sam Smith with 166K.
Tracking Tracks
Kenny Chesney’s cool comeback, “American Kids” spurred 39.5K downloads to debut at No. 7 Country. Sam Hunt enticed 22K clicks of his new single “Leave The Night On.” Kacey Musgraves sung her way to 10.5K downloads of “The Trailer Song.”
Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind of Night” crossed the 2 million threshold. Lee Brice’s “I Don’t Dance” boogied past the half-million mark, selling 44K this week.
Hangin’ in the Top 5 Country are: FGL “This is How We Roll” (62K), Dierks Bentley “Drunk on a Plane” (61K), Lady Antebellum “Bartender” (60K), Jake Owen “Beachin’” (60K) and Bryan “Play It Again” (56K).

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UK Singles Chart Adds Streaming Data

Official-Charts-CompanyThe UK’s Official Singles Chart will incorporate song streams into its rankings beginning with the July 6, 2014 edition. To date the Official Singles Chart was based purely on sales of singles, whether downloads, CD singles, cassette singles, 7 or 12″ vinyl.
As music streaming has grown in popularity, there has been a decline in single track sales. The chart’s new methodology reflects these changes.
100 streams will be equivalent to 1 single purchase (whether download, CD or vinyl). The streaming data represents on demand plays via services such as Spotify, Deezer, Napster, O2 Tracks (Musicqubed), rara, Sony’s Music Unlimited and Xbox Music, all members of the Entertainment Retailers Association, co-owner of the Official Charts Company.
ERA already supplies data from physical and digital stores to the Official Charts including specialist chains such as HMV, internet retailers like Amazon, the UK’s big four supermarkets and hundreds of independent retailers.
The Official Singles Chart is compiled from midnight on Sunday morning to midnight on Saturday evening every week. Streams will be counted for the first time in the chart measuring the period from Sunday, June 29, 2014 through Saturday, July 5 (week 27). Read more here.