Executive of the Week
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There is consistency in an ever-changing industry — and there is what Rod Wave has been doing over the past three years. This week, his latest album, Nostalgia, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making the Florida-based rapper and singer just the second artist to land three new albums at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the past three years, joining Taylor Swift. And it wasn’t a near thing — Nostalgia’s debut was Wave’s biggest first week of his career, with 137,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate.
Being in the company of Swift is an achievement for anyone. But Rod Wave has always done things his way, with minimal press and minimal features on each release and, while he placed all 18 songs off Nostalgia on the Hot 100 this week, he’s had success largely with his complete bodies of work, as none of his Hot 100 chart entries have cracked the top 10 of the chart. It’s a relatively unconventional way to navigate today’s increasingly singles-driven music industry — and it helps earn his manager, co-head of Hit House Entertainment Dereck Lane, the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Lane talks about the consistency of execution that has helped get them to this point. “Yes, Nostalgia is our standout album,” he says, “But we didn’t change the approach that we take when it comes to the music.”
This week, Rod Wave’s Nostalgia debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
The key to Rod’s success is his team. We’re grass rooted. Yes, Nostalgia is our standout album, but we didn’t change the approach that we take when it comes to the music.
This album also came in with his biggest week yet. How did you approach the rollout of this differently than other projects?
You’re in the industry so I’m sure you know that Rod doesn’t do a lot of album promo. The whole team felt that this album was definitely a special one. With that being said, I pushed him to do as much promo as possible to make sure we got the word out while also continuing to maintain and stay true to himself.
This is his third No. 1 album in the last three years, making him one of just two artists to have a new No. 1 album in each of the past three years, alongside Taylor Swift. How have you worked to build his career over that period to achieve something like that?
I’ve always told Rod from the beginning to maintain his integrity as an artist. As long as you stay true to yourself you’ll build genuine, long-lasting core fans. I feel when artists try to go with the new wave or fad they lose who they really are and, in return, lose fans. This business is all about the fans.
In a music business that’s often very singles-driven, Rod Wave has succeeded most through his albums, which is increasingly rare these days. Why do his albums work so well, and how do you make sure that you maximize their impact?
The key word is substance. Rod writes about life experiences. The good, the bad and the ugly. We aim to make real, timeless music that everyone can resonate with.
How has the music industry changed over the course of your time in the business?
I could take up the next couple hours answering this question. But let me say this: I have people in high places in the industry calling asking me for favors. But like Rod said on “Long Journey”: “Dear God, I thank you for everything you gave to us.”
Last Week’s Top Executive: Sandbox Entertainment’s Leslie Cohea
With her latest string of albums, including her intensely vulnerable and current CMA album of the year-nominated Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP, singer-songwriter and five-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper Kelsea Ballerini has steadily been leveling up, both creatively and professionally.
This week, Ballerini not only made her debut performance on the VMAs, but also appeared on the cover of TIME, and stepped up in the touring space, selling out her very first headlining arena show, set for Nov. 2 in her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. at the Thompson-Boling Arena. The show will crown a year that has seen Ballerini headline a slate of theaters on her HEARTFIRST Tour, perform songs from Rolling Up the Welcome Mat on Saturday Night Live, offer a powerful, statement-making performance on the CMT Music Awards, release a short film around her EP, and play the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, which she is set to perform later this month.
And Ballerini’s latest standout touring moment earns Sandbox Entertainment Group’s head of global touring Leslie Cohea the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
Here, Cohea discusses Ballerini’s upcoming hometown arena show, how touring has shifted since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and country music’s ascendance in international touring.
This week, Kelsea Ballerini sold out the first headlining arena tour date of her career in Knoxville. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
Last year, I put a plan together for Kelsea’s then-upcoming 2023 headlining tour. She had not done a headline tour since before the pandemic and I knew that it had to be thoughtful and impactful for her fans. We decided to play all the right rooms, not skipping any steps, only announcing around 15 shows for the HEARTFIRST tour. Once those sold out, she announced the next 15 shows. With her EP coming out and having the huge success it did, the next shows sold out immediately. Her momentum kept building and building and any show we put on sale sold out. That’s when Kelsea and I talked about having one last massive play to cap off such a successful year. She is absolutely going to play arenas in the future, but I wanted to have one big moment to really show the growth of Kelsea as a touring artist.
The obvious choice was Knoxville since it is her hometown, and she has always wanted to play Thompson-Boling Arena. I had the idea for the show to be over the University of Tennessee homecoming weekend and call it Kelsea’s “homecoming” as well. It’s only right that her first sellout show is in Knoxville. When we announced the show last week, I knew we had a short window to sell tickets being that the show is on Nov. 2. I really wanted this show to stand out as a special event and get people excited. I think everything we did to market the announce really helped drive that. AEG are incredible partners to us, and they helped us build this Knoxville campaign from scratch and continue to bring opportunities that are going to make this show massive for Kelsea and her fans. Amy Buck is a brilliant marketer. It was really special to see it sell out minutes after going on sale. This is by far Kelsea’s biggest show to date, doubling — almost tripling — the capacities she has played this year.
How will this show be different in terms of production, lighting, etc., since this will be scaling up in venue size?
Kelsea has empowered her entire team to up the ante on production for this show. We had a great HEARTFIRST tour production, but it was simply not scaled for arenas. Building out the production for this Homecoming show is where Kelsea, her touring team and I get to have a little fun. We are adding more lights, sound and video while creating a few special surprises along the way. Every fan will leave this show fully understanding why Kelsea Ballerini is a superstar.
Looking ahead to 2024, how do you foresee her touring growing and evolving?
Kelsea continues to grow and evolve in all areas, including writing, recording and touring. The connection she has built with her fans is truly mesmerizing and it’s something that has become so powerful at her live shows. They feel connected to her more than they ever have, especially after the release of Rolling Up The Welcome Mat. And based on what we just witnessed with the sell out at Thompson-Boling Arena, there is absolutely an arena tour in Kelsea’s future.
Daniel Prakopcyk*
Earlier this year, Kelsea also made headlines after she was hit by a bracelet while on stage, part of a strange trend of fans throwing things at artists on stage. Is there anything that the team has changed to help keep things safe on tour?
Every artist and their team want to create the safest environment possible. Since the bracelet incident, tour security works directly with the venue to make sure we have all eyes watching the people closest to the stage. I also think the fans attending are holding other fans accountable. An artist is vulnerable enough on stage, disrupting a show by launching something at the artist ruins the moment for every person on, in front of, and behind the stage.
How has touring changed overall since the pandemic?
The thing I have noticed lately is the volume of shows in every size room in every market. Right now, there are so many tours going back out and making up for the lost time and revenue. This is how we at Sandbox really came up with the “less is more” idea to only announce 15 shows for Kelsea. We want fans to feel the urgency to buy the tickets as soon as they go on sale. We are seeing people waiting to buy closer to the show. They don’t want to make the commitment too soon.
Kelsea just made her debut VMAs performance and was on the cover of TIME. How has the Sandbox team overall worked toward her increased recognition in the mainstream, while still staying very connected within the country music genre?
Two words: Jason Owen. Jason is our fearless leader at Sandbox, but he empowers all of us to lead, to innovate and to push boundaries. Our digital team at Sandbox always has their fingers on the pulse of what’s connecting in the marketplace. Their knowledge and insight into how we communicate with fans is unmatched. And CAA has played a very integral role in helping us elevate Kelsea’s stature across touring and film and television. Rick Roskin and his team are incredibly powerful partners.
Country music is having a moment not only in terms of success on the all-genre Hot 100 chart, but in terms of international touring. To what factors do you attribute this moment?
There are a lot of factors that contribute to this, from streaming to labels pushing more for international exposure and touring becoming a more common experience for country artists all over Europe and the U.K. It was hard to convince an arena-level artist years ago to go play clubs across the U.K. in order to help grow their international fan base. It had to feel like going backwards almost. In the last 10 years, the next generation of country artists really started investing in growing their touring careers abroad. They could do it alongside their touring career in the states as well. C2C and other newer country festivals have also really helped shine a light on country music and have allowed the ability to get exposure in places like London and Dublin.
Last Week’s Top Executive: Sony Latin Iberia COO María Fernández
As the COO/executive vp of Sony Latin Iberia, María Fernández is one of the most powerful people in Latin music. She not only runs the operational and financial aspects of the largest Latin music company but is also an artist and management-forward executive who oversees her multiple divisions with a famously empathetic style.
This week, Fernández’s work is at the forefront, as the RIAA Honors, which is celebrating Latin music this year, announced it was recognizing her as industry executive of the year for 2023. Fernandez will be feted during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (Sept. 19) alongside Gloria Estefan (Icon), Emilio Estefan (industry trailblazer), Sebastian Yatra (artist of the year) and representatives Veronica Escobar and María Elvira Salazar (policymakers of the year).
A native of Venezuela who started her career in media, Fernández is a finance whiz who joined Sony as CFO and rose to the rank of COO five years ago. Her role expanded during the pandemic when she made mentoring and training young executives a central part of her job and a personal mission. She now oversees the strategic approach of the company and all of its different operations, including finance, people experience, technology and acquisitions, and is regularly involved in big artist deals. And ahead of the RIAA Honors, Fernández is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Fernández discusses her finance background, her role as a mentor within her community and the state of Latin music around the globe. “It’s a moment in history when you can show that Latin music is not only one genre, and the fact that we have amazing artists representing each one of those genres and seeing that on global charts is extremely fulfilling.”
You have a background in finance. How do you apply that to your job at a music company?
I think I bring to the more strategic, financial and operational areas the understanding of artists’ needs and therefore how we can organize ourselves to incorporate those needs in everything that we do. For instance, an artist will want to do a more expensive video because they have a creative vision. From a purely financial standpoint, you won’t see a return from that investment because the streaming of the video won’t compensate for the level of investment. But when you understand why that is important for the artist and how it fits into the whole strategy, not only do you understand the logic of what you want to do, but you can sell it.
That’s interesting because “Let me talk to finance” is among the more dreaded words one can hear.
Historically, the financial group is the team that says no to everything. And there’s a struggle between the creative and financial groups. One thing we’re trying to do more and more is make sure both sides understand each other’s needs. By the way, you can say exactly the same thing when we’re talking about employees because the base of the values in our region is that we have two rosters: artists and employees, and we need to take care of both of them. You need superstar employees and executives to manage superstar artists.
I think you’re unusual in that you work often and directly with managers. I cannot tell you how many times a manager has told me, “I’m meeting with Maria Fernández today.” What happens when your mutual needs don’t align?
I work with a lot of managers and maybe there’s a logic as to why a manager needs something for their artist, but that need doesn’t necessarily align with our needs in that moment. But it’s always [about] how to make sure we understand each other even if we’re not always going to be on the same page. To me, it’s the messaging. The way I see it, we are here to serve. We’re here to make things easier, [even] with all the limitations we have in a corporation and making sure we follow procedure.
What are you proud of in the last year?
The presence of our artists on the charts and the variety of genres on the charts. Right now, you have urban songs, but you have Shakira on the top of the charts with a song like “Acróstico.” Then you have regional Mexican artists like Fuerza Regida and an artist like Luísa Sonza from Brazil at the top of Spotify Brazil with a bossa nova song called “Chico.” It’s a moment in history when you can show that Latin music is not only one genre, and the fact that we have amazing artists representing each one of those genres and seeing that on global charts is extremely fulfilling. And to be honest, what I’m doing in terms of helping the next generation of executives, especially women, to make sure they’re prepared continues to be the highlight of my career at this point. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to that and I feel very proud of the accomplishments in terms of getting them ready to be promoted, changing jobs, doing new things in the organization.
What did you specifically do in terms of your mentorship work?
What I’m doing personally is I am dedicating a significant amount of time to take care of the career development of employees in the U.S. and also in the region, in order to allow them to take over executive leadership positions in the future. We do mentoring, talk to them, we develop career plans, if they have an issue we discuss the issues, if they need training in a particular area, through conversations we figure out what they’re missing to get to the next level. We follow up on plans to make sure they have everything they need.
That sounds very time-consuming for a busy executive. How do you manage?
You’d be surprised. Sometimes you don’t need to do too much. Sometimes someone simply has a blind spot and the second you tell them about it, they can go in and fix it. We’re always busy. And we’re not always taking the time to analyze where you’re at, what do you like, what makes you happy. My policy is very simple. Anyone who wants to talk to me can get on my agenda. If they need to talk to me every week, I’ll be there every week.
Is this mandatory?
No. But anyone that asks me to mentor them, I do. At this point, it’s 80% women and 20% men. And the fact that I can do it, shows that others can do it too. If we can have that ripple effect that we can make a little bit of time in our very busy schedules to help someone else when they need it, I think by default this will make us a better company. Formally I started during the pandemic, around 2020. And I’m proud to say that some of the people I started mentoring at that time are now in senior positions in the organization.
I still see very few women in really senior leadership positions in our industry. How can this change?
I am very happy to report that I’m seeing it happening. I personally don’t like the idea of a woman getting the position because she’s a woman, but because she’s the best candidate. And what I’m proud of is, we’ve been able to have many more women in senior positions applying and making sure they’re the best of the best. In Sony Music, we have such talented women in the structure that I don’t think it’s going to be challenging to find very compelling female candidates when you’re trying to fill a position.
What do you see happening with Latin music now?
A big difference is people [who are not Latin] are used to equating “Latin music is urban music,” and that’s not the case. Latin music is very rich, it has a lot of genres, it has a lot of history. “Latino” is not reggaetón. Latino is 100 genres per country. And that to me means more and more artists are open to collaborating with artists from different places. Camilo collaborated with an artist from India; Luísa Sonza is on a song that features Demi Lovato, singing in Portuguese. Soon we will see what will happen with Korean music being more present in the U.S. I think it’s a new era in terms of music.
What is your biggest challenge?
The challenge for a region like ours is, how do we make sure we collaborate with everything that is happening and make sure people understand the music, the artist and what they want to accomplish? How do you create global artists when their presence in some charts is limited? For example, in Brazil, over 90% of the chart is local music, and in general, most of the countries are going back to local music. So, as a global company, how do you balance those things? The importance of the local artist, [and then] the local artist wants to be global. How do we fulfill those dreams?
This week, it’s almost more difficult to find a music chart that doesn’t lead with Zach Bryan. The Oklahoma native’s new self-titled album exploded out of the gate, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 200,000 equivalent album units, while its focus single, “I Remember Everything” featuring Kacey Musgraves, simultaneously debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, his first No. 1 on each chart.
But that’s just scratching the surface. The album — which qualifies for both the country charts and the rock charts — is the first rock album to hit No. 1 in over a year; had the biggest week for a rock album in four years; and accumulated the biggest streaming week for a rock album in history. Meanwhile, “I Remember Everything” becomes the first song in history to hit No. 1 on all of the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, while all 16 of the album’s tracks are in the top 50 of the Hot 100, resulting in 20 of the top 40 songs on the chart being country songs for the first time… ever. If that’s not enough, “I Remember Everything” is the fourth straight country song to reach the top of the chart (following Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” Jason Aldean’s “Try That In a Small Town” and Oliver Anthony Music’s “Rich Men North of Richmond”) — also for the first time in history.
Any of which would be notable achievements on their own. But to set each mark all at once is, frankly, a little overwhelming. It’s been a long time coming for Bryan, whose last album, his major-label debut American Heartbreak, hasn’t fallen out of the top 40 on the Billboard 200 in the 67 weeks since it first debuted in the top 10 in June 2022. And the success of the project helps earn Warner Records vp of A&R Miles Gersh the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Gersh helps to break down the success of the album and its big single, the recent run of success for country songs and where the label can help take the project from here. “I think the surge is really due to the quality of the songwriting attracting fans that want something that they feel they can relate to.”
This week, Zach Bryan’s self-titled album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 200,000 equivalent album units, his first to top the chart. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
This album was all about Zach. Coming off the great success of American Heartbreak and his sold-out tour, I think naturally the label wanted to pull out all of the stops to make this the biggest album possible. But the best decision that we — alongside [Warner Records co-chairman/CEO] Aaron Bay-Schuck — made was to give Zach the artistic freedom to create the album he wanted. We went against some industry norms with no advance singles or videos, but it turned out to be the exact right way to roll it all out.
At the same time, Zach and Kacey Musgraves’ duet “I Remember Everything” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, the first chart-topper for each artist and Warner’s first Hot 100 No. 1 in a decade. How did the track come together and what was behind its big debut?
This was actually the last song on the album to come together about a week before release. Zach always wanted this song to be a duet with a female vocalist and there was some back and forth about who made the most sense. For a moment it looked like it could just be Zach on the song, but when Zach’s manager Stefan Max played me Kacey’s verse, it was a no-brainer. We knew it was the moment the album was missing, and I’m glad it’s resonated with fans. I’m honored to be a part of not only a No. 1 song for Zach but a big hit for Warner as well.
The album is the latest in a line of projects that qualify for both the country and rock charts — and “I Remember Everything” is the first song in history to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts. What do you think is behind this surge in these types of projects, and how does Zach’s album fit into that?
Zach’s music has always been genre-less in my mind. I understand where both the country and rock designations come from, but he’s always just seemed like a singer/songwriter. By producing and writing 100% of this album he was able to experiment with the sounds that inspire him. I think the surge is really due to the quality of the songwriting attracting fans that want something that they feel they can relate to.
The album also now has the biggest streaming week for a rock album in history and becomes the first rock album in over a year to top the Billboard 200. For a genre that doesn’t often over-index in streaming, how did this album break through?
Although you hear some rock production on this album, I wouldn’t say it caters to the traditional rock fan. This album was able to break through because of the authenticity and relatability of Zach’s music, and really just him as a person.
“I Remember Everything” also marks the fourth straight country song at No. 1 on the Hot 100, something that has never happened before in the entire history of the chart. Why do you think country music is resonating in the U.S. right now?
I think there’s a couple reasons for this. First, growing up in L.A. in the ’90s and 2000s there was a stigma around country music that it just wasn’t cool. That’s completely disappeared with artists like Zach, Tyler Childers and others. Second, as streaming has grown throughout the country, places where people typically listened to the radio and bought songs on iTunes have transitioned into streaming, and they’re streaming a lot. So while I think there are a ton of new country music fans, it’s also the way that they’re consuming music that has changed.
After such a scorching-hot debut, how do you continue to boost this album and its singles moving forward?
While we’re all so excited about the success of this album out of the gate, I think it will continue to grow on people as they decipher and discover the meanings of each song. Zach’s team — Danny Kang and Stefan Max — is fantastic and with them we will find tasteful and authentic ways to expose the music to more people. That may be through music videos that Zach also writes himself, through moments like the Grammys and great work on the digital side.
There is perhaps no hotter Latin music tour going on in the U.S. right now than RBD’s Soy Rebelde tour, which will ultimately have the Mexican pop group play 54 arena and stadium dates across the United States, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico by the end of the year.
The highly-anticipated reunion tour — RBD disbanded in 2008 and have not played together since — is the brainchild of Guillermo Rosas, the Mexican-born manager and promoter who produced RBD’s international tours nearly two decades ago. Rosas — who also manages Chiquis Rivera, Estemán and Edith Márquez, among others — has been doggedly working for nearly a decade to reunite the group made up of Anahí Puente, Dulce Maria Espinoza, Christian Chavez, Maite Perroni and Christopher von Uckermann (the sixth member, Alfonso Herrera, didn’t join the reunion tour). The task was titanic, not only because RBD’s celebrity members all have careers and families of their own, but also because the rights to the RBD name were so entangled that the group’s music wasn’t even available on streaming platforms until 2020.
It was Rosas who insisted on clearing those rights and now has signed an equal partnership with the group. At the heart of his persistence is RBD’s previous success: between Dec. 2, 2005 and Dec. 21, 2008, RBD sold 1.5 million tickets across the 150 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore. The group also landed three albums at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, and a No. 15 on the Billboard 200. Of its 10 entries on Hot Latin Songs, five were top 10s, and “Ser o Parecer” topped the chart.
Still, the reunion has exceeded expectations. “We weren’t really counting on selling out so fast,” admits Rosas, who initially had routed 28 dates, which mushroomed minutes after tickets went on sale, with 1.5 tickets sold in the first 24 hours, according to Live Nation.
It doesn’t stop there. RBD is also releasing new music — a first track, “Cerquita de ti,” came out in August — and more dates are being planned for 2024. In between RBD’s two sold-out Madison Square Garden dates (August 31 and September 1), Rosas earns the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week — and explains how it all went down.
I know you’ve been actively working to reunite these very different, and very busy, people for nearly a decade now. Once you finally got everyone in agreement about wanting to tour together, how did you finally lock it in?
We had been talking for at least six months about all the different situations, possibilities, conditions and circumstances that we needed to deal with. Obviously, there were a lot of family logistics because of kids and their schools. It was a lot of leg work to put together the ideal master plan that worked for everyone. Once that was done, and we had the schedule with holds, we had a dinner at Anahi’s home in Mexico City and we had the contracts in hand and ready in case everybody felt like signing right there. It’s a partnership, and no one makes more than anybody else, so it was the ideal situation. We talked about it for the last time over dinner, everyone was making their final statements. And then I said, “Well, everybody seems to be on board, let’s sign right now.” They said, “Oh my God, for real?” And I said, “Yes, let’s make it happen.” And we took the contracts out and signed. We filmed everything with our cellphones, and that’s how we announced the tour. We posted that clip on social media. It was very exciting.
On a personal level, what was going through your head after so many years of working on this?
I was in disbelief. I had in my hands the tour of the dreams of so many people. The first person I called was my husband. The second person that I called was Hans [Schafer, senior vp global touring for Live Nation]. And the third person I called was Jesus Lopez [the chairman/CEO of Universal Latin/Iberian Peninsula, with whom Rosas has a joint venture]. He had been so supportive with me over the years.
I understand the initial dates sold out in hours. Were you prepared to scale?
We had a routing ready but that routing was 28 shows, and now we’re doing 54. We weren’t planning for that. I had a few second holds, just in case, in places where the venues were smaller. But we weren’t really counting on selling out so fast and doing so many nights in one city. But when we went on sale, I had never experienced that in my life. First, because I had never been during an actual on-sale inside the Live Nation building, with 30 people connected from different places, including Ticketmaster and CAA. It’s a huge conference room with big screens and you can see everything as it happens, and how they release the on-sales in each location according to time zones. For example, we started with Madison Square Garden in New York, where I’m sitting right now. We had 12,000 tickets available and there were like 80,000 people connected online to buy, and you can see the average transaction. And every transaction had an average of four tickets. We called Madison Square Garden right away and booked the second night. Those nights went in like 40 minutes and there were so many people left out.
Why didn’t you do Yankee Stadium in New York, for example?
Because the very first time we came in 2016, Mexican pop wasn’t as big, so we decided on MSG. And sales started to go like that everywhere. In Los Angeles, for example, the BMO was gone in 15 minutes. So we added another date, and that was also gone. Within two hours, four shows were completely gone. We could have kept on adding shows but obviously the band couldn’t do more than four shows per week. That was our limit.
Where were you creatively when you went on sale?
I had a set list proposed and we also had a pre-design that doesn’t look like anything it does today. It was great and it was big, but not as big as it is now. The production grew probably three to four times.
Obviously, this will be big business. But personally, how important is it for you to have put this together?
This was not about money for anyone. Obviously, we like the business and the business needed to make sense. But that has never been strong enough to make this happen. Throughout the years, we’ve gotten multi-million dollar offers to do all kinds of things with RBD. And it just had never been considered. None of them collectively ever considered anything. For us, it’s a dream come true. We are all very spiritual and very energy-oriented souls, and we just knew we needed to gift this to the fans and to themselves. Because I think all five of them see it as a gift to their hearts. The universe giving them the possibility to do this twice.
Why did you decide to go with Live Nation versus another promoter?
Among all the different promoters across that world that I’ve worked with, I really liked their transparency, and obviously Hans has the vision for this group that he’s shared with me for years. So in that sense, working with someone like Hans who understands where we want to take this and really believed in it was important. For example, independent promoters would tell me, “Oh, let’s not risk a stadium. Alfonso isn’t in the group, let’s do another venue.” But Hans never doubted it, so I felt very comfortable.
Are you announcing new dates for 2024?
We’re hoping to. We said we’d let the tour run for a couple of weeks, and we have a potential plan for 2024, and then we’ll be discussing it in the next couple of weeks. We don’t have a solid plan, but that’s how RBD is. It’s always a surprise. But I hope we do. Especially because there are so many fans in places like Spain, Eastern Europe, Chile and Argentina. We’re only visiting four countries out of 19 we did back then, so there is a lot to cover to make the world happy.
Although all the group members are stars in their own right, none of them have really been on stage in 15 years. Were you worried?
It’s something they have in their DNA. It’s amazing. They get on a stage and they turn it on so easily. They’re natural stars and they’ve been around cameras so long that it’s so natural to them. Also, there is something about them that clicks when they’re together. They all have the magic on their own, but when they’re all on stage it’s an explosion. And people love it.
Few things have captured the cultural zeitgeist in 2023 more than Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s film based on the classic Mattel toy that has become a $1 billion-movie since its release in July. But anyone who has seen the movie can attest that it’s more than just a comedic sendup or a feminist film lacing into cultural stereotypes of the past half-century — it’s also a deeply musical film, with songs by Lizzo, Matchbox 20 and others playing central roles in how the story plays out.
So it naturally follows that the soundtrack, with original songs by Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj, and more, would make waves as well — though perhaps few people predicted it would do this well. Three weeks after the soundtrack’s release, the album remains at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, while three of its singles — Dua’s “Dance The Night,” Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” and Ice Spice and Nicki’s “Barbie World” — are in the top 15 of the Hot 100, and the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200. And that sustained success helps earn Atlantic Records West Coast president and Barbie soundtrack album co-producer Kevin Weaver the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
The Barbie soundtrack isn’t Weaver’s first film success — he’s also been heavily involved in the soundtracks for The Greatest Showman, Suicide Squad, Daisy Jones & The Six, Birds Of Prey, Furious 7, The Fault in Our Stars and The Fate of the Furious, among others. But the Barbie film and soundtrack has captured the world’s collective attention in ways that none of those others truly have.
Here, Weaver discusses the impact of the film and its music, how Warner Music Group leveraged an all-hands-on-deck strategy to market it around the world and how the music played such a central role in the film itself. “The fact that Greta saw this film almost as a musical, and was so involved with the soundtrack, was an absolutely critical factor in how and why the music worked so well,” he says.
This week, the Barbie soundtrack spends its third week in the top five of the Billboard 200, with three of its songs in the top 15 of the Hot 100. How did this project come together, and what were the particular difficulties in pulling it off?
We had been tracking the development of the film for a few years and had frequent conversations with Warner Bros. and Mattel about partnering on the soundtrack. Once Greta and Noah [Baumbach] became attached to the project and Margot [Robbie] and Ryan [Gosling] were cast as Barbie and Ken, we aggressively started to put the pieces together. We try to start early on these types of projects, so we can actively contribute to how music shapes the project and vice versa. This was similar to when we worked on The Greatest Showman where we had a deal in place before the film was even officially greenlit by the studio.
The Barbie movie has become a cultural phenomenon. What have you guys done to market the soundtrack alongside that?
The music and our singles really helped fuel the cultural phenomenon months before the film had even opened. We were out with our singles, videos, social content, partnerships and strategy starting in late May. It felt critical to us that the soundtrack was an integral part of the overall campaign’s DNA. Our partners at Warner Bros. and Mattel really leaned into the music by incorporating it into every aspect of Barbie media and marketing in a truly unprecedented manner. The level of collaboration on this project and working with such smash records was the initial driving force behind this success.
The album didn’t just resonate in the U.S. — three of its songs are in the top 10 of the Global 200 chart, including two (Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” and Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night”) in the top three. What did you do to help market this release beyond the U.S.?
We enlisted our entire global marketing machine at WMG in a way that I have never experienced before. Very early on, Max [Lousada] and Julie [Greenwald] deemed the album a “Superstar Level Release” where each single got our most coveted “track of the week” priority assignment. This means that every track had every possible lever pulled behind it, in every territory throughout the globe. We also had every marketing team throughout the world working hand in hand with their local counterparts at Warner Bros. and Mattel. By doing this, we unlocked every co-op marketing opportunity across all three companies, including digital partnerships, media, physical retail, in-theater and anything else you could imagine.
How have you guys been able to tap into the craze around the various merchandising tie-ins with the movie?
We have some co-op products with Mattel, plus more in the works for later this year. Mattel helped us tremendously with our vinyl and CDs at all major retailers around the world. We were also able to work together on all of their key Barbie promotions, which gave the soundtrack massive additional visibility in the marketplace.
Given how music plays such a central role in the film, how closely did you work with the film team and the movie studio on the soundtrack?
We worked in lockstep with the filmmakers, Mark Ronson, and the music supervisor, George Drakoulias. We were given the opportunity to see scenes from the film very early on while Greta was still in the beginning stages of assembling the director’s cut. This enabled us to come up with creative ideas and strategize with Greta as she was making the film. From that point on, we would all speak and text daily with bi-weekly creative calls. We constantly passed ideas back and forth, showed artists and writers scenes from the film and shared music for review as soon as a new demo or mix came in. Everyone provided feedback in real time. The fact that Greta saw this film almost as a musical, and was so involved with the soundtrack, was an absolutely critical factor in how and why the music worked so well.
You’ve worked on several huge soundtracks in the past several years, including The Greatest Showman and several Fast & Furious films. What did you learn from those that you applied to this, and how was this one different?
First and foremost, I always do what is best for the movie. You have to let the music become a character in the film with its own voice. If you super-serve the creative needs of the movie as the basis for everything, then the songs become a true extension of the film as opposed to an afterthought. With this clear directive, we work with artists who align with the overall aesthetic tone of the movie, and then hone in on hit records.
How have you been able to keep the momentum on this release going?
It’s the gift that keeps on giving. We worked intentionally early on to create our own brand with this music and have continued to market it past the film’s release just like we would with any other superstar artist. Greta made a masterpiece and now we get to continue to grow this music outside of the four walls of the film, which helps both the film and our music brand continue to flourish. We get to come up with new creative ideas every day while having fun building upon what we’ve already been able to accomplish.
Every aspect of this project has been a dream and I couldn’t be more grateful to the entire team at Atlantic, the global teams at WMG, our creative partners, Greta, Mark, George and the filmmakers, as well as our partners at Mattel and Warner Bros. Every single thing we have done here has gone against the grain and we are thankful to have had enormous support in an unprecedented capacity by all involved.
Last Week’s Top Executive: Cactus Jack GM David Stromberg
When Travis Scott decides to do something, he usually goes big.
And with his latest album, he decided to go colossal, with a 60,000-person concert unveiling his latest release, Utopia, at Rome’s iconic Circus Maximus, the ancient stadium that used to serve as a chariot racing venue during the Roman Empire. The event came together in less than a week and served as a capstone to the rollout for what became the biggest debut week for a hip-hop album this year, and the third-biggest week of any album at all in 2023, moving 496,000 equivalent album units.
Even more remarkable for an album in a genre that heavily over-indexes in streaming, half of the units moved for Utopia came from sales, as Scott continues to be one of the most innovative artists in music with his sales strategies. Helping him pull all this off has been his manager, Cactus Jack GM David Stromberg, who earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Stromberg talks about the huge first week for Utopia, the challenges in pulling off that show at the Circus Maximus and why artists should be celebrated for their approach to merchandising and sales. “A24 releases merch for their big movies, Disney and Marvel create massive product lines around their blockbusters, fans line up for jerseys and official merch at every sporting event,” he says. “But strangely in music, it’s now considered a negative towards overall consumption and metrics behind a project. I feel record-breaking artists who are able to move merchandise at an elite level should be celebrated at a time when branding, creativity and marketing [are] generally nonexistent in the music industry.”
This week, Travis Scott’s Utopia debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 496,000 units, the third-biggest debut week of any album this year and by far the biggest for any hip-hop album. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
Our small core team has been together since the start of Travis’ career. Cactus Jack is essentially an independent label and polymath-driven creative agency — we oversee everything from marketing strategy to design and execution. I also handle everything on the business end. For this project, Travis really wanted to lean into building a strong visual language. Producing his film CIRCUS MAXIMUS on an insanely tight timeline, shooting in exotic locations around the world and premiering the album within a film in theaters nationwide was a massive undertaking but definitely set up the project in a unique way. We are all super proud of the final product and it was amazing to see the world’s reaction.
This is his first album since 2018’s Astroworld, which also posted around 500,000 units in its first week. After five years, how did you work to set up this release to the point that it nearly equaled his last?
While the numbers are powerful and have important historical context, our focus is always primarily on the music and world-building. ASTROWORLD was such a seminal moment in culture, we wanted to level up that energy and recapture the feeling of event albums, which are clearly lacking in music lately. UTOPIA‘s first-week global streaming numbers actually almost doubled ASTROWORLD, Billboard just quantifies merch bundles differently now than in 2018 [in terms of sales]. On a global consumption level, it’s safe to say it actually far surpassed ASTROWORLD.
Of those units, about half came from streaming and half came from sales. What was the strategy around each side of that, particularly the sales side?
One thing that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough when judging music consumption data is the inherent disadvantages hip-hop faces in manufacturing physical music product. Due to the fluid nature of rap collaboration, leak culture and last-minute changes, vinyl lead time always far exceeds album delivery dates for rap. Pop artists are usually able to turn in their albums five to six months early and manufacture a significant amount of vinyl with a robust retail plan in place. Vinyl often ends up accounting for well over 50% of these pop artists’ first-week totals, whereas hip-hop is judged entirely on streaming. In an even playing field, rap stars are going to far out-stream even the biggest names in pop music, but for whatever reason they aren’t graded on the same sales curve. Going into this rollout we wanted to crack the code — we successfully manufactured our own vinyl and CDs in record time and built an e-com plan to leverage day-and-date physical music for the first time in modern mainstream rap. It was a really ambitious plan but thankfully everything came together smoothly. Huge thank you to recent Billboard cover hero Larry Jackson for his invaluable guidance and strategy throughout this whole process.
How important are direct-to-consumer sales and merch to an artist like Travis?
Man… I’d love to eventually have a deeper conversation around this topic at large. For some reason, direct-to-consumer and merch is used as a negative connotation against artists like Travis, oftentimes by artists or labels doing the exact same thing in their online stores to diminishing returns. Why stigmatize artists with extremely active fan bases who want to engage and support the album, even at a much higher price point than just a la carte music? Since the inception of rock and roll, merch has always been an important part of supporting your favorite artists. A24 releases merch for their big movies, Disney and Marvel create massive product lines around their blockbusters, fans line up for jerseys and official merch at every sporting event. But strangely in music, it’s now considered a negative towards overall consumption and metrics behind a project. I feel record-breaking artists who are able to move merchandise at an elite level should be celebrated at a time when branding, creativity and marketing [are] generally nonexistent in the music industry.
How did you choose the Circus Maximus for that performance, and what were the challenges in pulling it off?
Ancient worldwide settings were an early reference point for this album. Travis was particularly interested in civilizations that transcended technological and cultural limitations to reach new heights. Part of the film is essentially a live performance from the ancient Pompeii amphitheater ruins. We have a couple other Wonders of the World locations held for possible performances, currently studying timing and logistics. With the Circus Maximus show we basically put it on sale, designed the stage, produced the livestream ourselves and sold 60,000 tickets in less than a week. It was a crazy challenge but one of the most rewarding and epic shows of his live career. The energy and hearing the album live for the first time in that setting was an unforgettable experience and iconic way to conclude the first week of UTOPIA rollout.
How are you working to keep the momentum for this release going in the weeks and months to come?
I don’t want to say too much, but there is a lot in the works. Definitely continuing to build the UTOPIA world in unexpected ways. We just released the CIRCUS MAXIMUS film on Apple Music after a week of exclusivity in theaters. We’ve been thinking a lot about touring in different, innovative ways and utilizing new technologies in live performance. And Travis is always working on new music.
In April, Myke Towers landed his third top 10 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart with his fourth studio album, La Vida Es Una, which debuted at No. 9 on the tally. It was Towers’ third straight top 10, an impressive showing despite the fact that it landed below his previous album, 2021’s Lyke Myke, which had debuted at No. 3. The 23-track set also boasted a lighter, more island sound, a departure for the Puerto Rican reggaetón star — a versatile artist who can definitely sing, but who is best known for party reggaetón tracks and hard-hitting lyrics on his trap fare.
La Vida Es Una included collaborations with reggaetón giants like Ozuna, J Balvin and Daddy Yankee, who is featured on the first focus track, “Ulala,” which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart. But the set’s biggest success has come not via a collaboration, but with a solo track — “Lala,” a lilting, romantic reggaetón whose chorus plays over a vocal loop of “Lala, lala, lala,” turning it into an irresistible invitation to dance.
So irresistible, in fact, that this week, a full four months after the album’s release, “Lala” surged from No. 13 to crown Billboard’s Global Excl. U.S. chart (dated July 22), becoming Towers’ first leader on the list.
The song’s rise has been remarkable in its swiftness. “Lala” entered the charts for the first time when it debuted at No. 25 on Latin Rhythm Airplay less than two weeks ago. Last week, it debuted at No. 50 on Hot Latin Songs, at No. 26 on the Billboard Global 200 and at No. 13 on the Billboard Global Ex-U.S. chart. Then, in a single week, it shot to No. 1 on the latter.
How did this happen? “Music discovery has no time frame, and once a track gets into the online conversation it’s our job to jump in and maximize that buzz to turn it into a hit,” says Alejandro Duque, president of Warner Music Latin America, who has oversight of the label’s U.S. Latin and Latin American operations. Duque, who took over the job two years ago after 19 years with Universal, is, at 40, the youngest head of a Latin multinational music company. He’s also been firmly embedded in the digital landscape, an area he’s worked in since the early 2000s when Latin music began its digital transition. That intimate knowledge has allowed him to deeply mine data to bolster hits.
“Everyone has the same data,” he told Billboard last year. “You have to know how to interpret it. Having experience in data tendencies and how consumers behave lets you apply that to marketing and release strategies.”
Duque’s successes interpreting data include Anitta’s “Envolver” and, most recently, Yng Lvcas’ “La Bebe Remix” featuring Peso Pluma, which topped the Latin and Latin Rhythm Airplay charts and has spent 20 weeks on the Global 200 chart, peaking at No. 2. In Towers’ case, the success is particularly sweet because the artist had three previous top 10s on the Global Ex-U.S. chart, all collaborations. To get to the No. 1 spot solo is a feather on Duque’s cap, in tandem with Towers’ joint management team, with Orlando Cepeda and Brandon Silverstein sharing duties through their separate offices. And it earns Duque the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Duque spoke to Billboard about how this “Lala” of a love song became a global success in a single week.
La Vida es Una came out in March. Why is “Lala” rising to the top four months later?
In mid-June, a micro-influencer posted a CapCut filter with “Lala’s” audio, which kicked things off. That post was organically picked up by a couple of major influencers, which led to even more users making their own creations with it — right now, we’re seeing thousands of creations daily. This was an enormous music discovery opportunity. People weren’t just listening to the snippet on social media, they started searching for the track on streaming platforms and fully engaging with it.
When did you realize “Lala” was a hit in the making?
We see tracks going viral on social media on almost a daily basis, but not all of them lead to an effect on streaming. The way we see it is that TikTok and other social media platforms help generate awareness and buzz around the songs — and it’s all about creating the curiosity that will get people wanting to explore more and listen to the music or watch the music video. Once people are exposed to the song, it becomes about whether they will like it, share it and keep engaging with it. Once we saw “Lala” started translating very quickly from TikTok creations to YouTube views and audio streaming, we knew people were connecting to the song itself and not just the trend.
Are there any specific countries that led the charge?
The micro-influencer that helped kick off the CapCut trend is from Chile, which was one of the key countries that led the initial growth. Spain has been a key country for the song since its release, and it was also one of the first countries to see the growth alongside the trend. After that, we started seeing numbers come up in Colombia, Peru, Mexico and then the U.S. We’re now seeing the track expand to other parts of Europe and gaining new chart positions in countries like Italy and Switzerland. We strategically use data to understand the growth trajectory and which countries we should impact next, as each song has its own trajectory and requires a customized strategy.
What exactly do you do?
Music discovery has no time frame, and once a track gets into the online conversation it’s our job to jump in and maximize that buzz to turn it into a hit. It’s a very similar strategy we used with Yng Lvcas and Peso Pluma’s “La Bebe Remix,” where we identified which countries were connecting with the song first — through consumption data, but also social listening and engagement — and kept expanding our targets until the track hit No. 2 globally.
Did you have a global strategy with the song?
Yes. We always approach key releases with a regional and global strategy, and we rely on data to adjust as we go. Our strategy here started before La Vida Es Una’s release, with teaser and album launch campaigns across countries where Myke has a strong audience, especially the U.S., Latin America and Spain. After release day, we’re constantly monitoring how fans are engaging with the music on different platforms. That’s why we were able to identify what started out as a small trend so quickly and were able to jump into action and maximize the growth as much as possible.
“Lala” is not simply reggaeton; it has a swaying island vibe, too. What does this signal in the evolution of urban Latin music?
For a while, reggaeton was the Latin genre dominating the global charts. This year, we’re seeing different types of Latin songs connecting with a global audience — from songs like “Lala,” which has a more island sound, to “La Bebe Remix,” which is a Mexican reggaeton track reaching No. 2 on Spotify’s Global Chart and the Billboard Global 200. The Argentinian urban movement is also making an impact. We have a massive record with “Los Del Espacio,” a song from Lit Killah with seven other key Argentine artists including Maria Becerra and Tiago PZK. The track reached No. 17 on the Billboard Global 200. People have talked about the explosion in Latin music for years, and rightfully so, but today we are really seeing an unprecedented diversity in the hits coming from across the region.
What comes next for Myke Towers?
We’re very excited, there’s a lot of surprises coming up. From big general market collaborations to a few Latin ones, we continue to focus on building his reach and audience and growing his fan base every day.
This week’s Billboard 200 is led by a paid of familiar faces in Morgan Wallen and former One Direction member Niall Horan. But coming in at No. 3 behind those two is a complete newcomer to the top echelon of the chart, with an album that’s more than eight months old: Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (Mercury/Republic), which saw its deluxe version come out and send the album soaring from No. 100 to No. 3 on the chart with 71,000 units, far and away the best mark of Kahan’s career.
It’s a big moment for Kahan, who also achieves a slew of additional firsts in his career: his first entry on the Hot 100, with the No. 43 debut of “Dial Drunk,” which also reached No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs; and No. 1 album markers on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Americana/Folk Albums for Stick Season, which saw a vinyl release of the original version the same day that the deluxe, with seven additional tracks, was released. And the rejuvenation of the album, and Kahan’s career-best marks, earns Mercury Records general manager Ben Adelson the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Adelson talks about the strategy for boosting Kahan’s album — his third for Republic (the label relaunched Mercury Records in April 2022 with executive vps of A&R Adelson and Tyler Arnold at the helm, at which point Kahan moved to Mercury) — to career highs, and how the label developed the singer and songwriter over the years to get to this point.
“The landscape of the business is always changing but the one thing that remains constant is true artistry,” Adelson says. “Our belief in Noah from the beginning has always been in him as a songwriter and artist.”
This week, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season jumped from No. 100 on the Billboard 200 to No. 3, becoming the highest-charting album of his career and his first-ever top 10. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
It was truly a team effort, from making the incredible records with Gabe Simon, Konrad Snyder, Carrie Karpinen and Ryan Hewitt to the amazing teams at Mercury Records, Republic Records and Noah’s management at Foundations Music. There was such a cohesive partnership between the songs, creative and rollout that the buildup to its release felt more about an artist than a singular song or moment.
Noah Kahan
Josh Goleman
This week’s deluxe reissue coincided with the first time the original was available on vinyl. What was your sales strategy with this release?
Alex Coslov, our head of marketing at Mercury, and Kevin Lipson, head of commerce for Republic, identified the fan demand for vinyl as we were releasing the original album. We started on production early and they saw the opportunity to deliver the vinyl on the same date as the new album. It was a key part of this week’s number, showing the true passion of Noah’s fans.
Last week, the album earned 11,000 equivalent album units; this week, that ballooned 574% to 71,000 units, with 48,000 of that unit count coming from streaming. What changed between the album’s initial release and this deluxe reissue that helped streams explode that much that quickly?
Sometimes, it’s just letting the music shine. Noah made a fantastic album featuring some of the best songs I’ve ever been a part of. With seven new tracks on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever), we put a marketing strategy together of sharing the new music as early as possible with his core fan base. Alex Coslov and the team treated the rollout as a new album, not a reissue, and with engagement high throughout the past year that momentum brought in all the fans.
Latest single “Dial Drunk” is Kahan’s first No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs and his first-ever song to hit the Hot 100, coming in at No. 43 this week. How have you built that song, and his profile at radio, to reach new heights in his career?
Noah Kahan and Noah Levine, who plays guitar in his band, wrote the song together and we knew it was special from the first time we heard it. Amanda Dobbins, Drew Hauser, Gary Spangler and the entire Republic radio team immediately started getting plans together, and with the amazing job they’d already done over the years at Triple A and Alternative, we were set up perfectly for this moment.
This is Kahan’s third album for Republic, and the first to reach this level of success. How did you bring him along steadily in an era of the music business when so much happens so fast?
The landscape of the business is always changing but the one thing that remains constant is true artistry. Our belief in Noah from the beginning has always been in him as a songwriter and artist. We’ve always wanted to support him however we could, and we followed his vision and passion for this album. At Mercury, giving artists the time to develop and find their path is what matters most to us.
What have you learned from watching his career grow? And what are the plans to continue growing from here?
We have learned at Mercury that supporting our artists’ creative visions and instincts is the best way to achieve true success. For Noah, that meant going back to his roots of growing up in Vermont and New England and using that to guide the album, art, marketing and creative. Noah’s accomplishments have reinforced our belief that taking the time with genuine artists and never cutting corners, even with the current challenge of breaking acts, truly works. We know things will only continue to grow for Noah and it is our responsibility to make sure that each step of the way feels authentic to him and his fans.
Previous Executive of the Week: Jon Loba of BMG Nashville
As Jelly Roll himself told it in his recent Billboard cover story, it was attending church with his daughter that inspired the raw, career-defining record Whitsitt Chapel. The rising Tennessee artist has become a sensation over the past two years building up to this release, with a number of accolades that have burgeoned his career and his story.
But this record was that final piece of the puzzle, and its artistic merits were matched by its commercial performance: The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums and, with 90,000 equivalent album units, became the largest week for an initial entry on Top Country Albums since the chart transitioned to a consumption-based methodology in February 2017.
As BMG Nashville president Jon Loba puts it, that’s down to Jelly Roll and the work he put into the music. But the success nonetheless earns Loba the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Loba talks about the build-up to the album, the strategies the label used to maximize its impact and where they can go from here in building Jelly Roll’s career. “Going forward we will continue giving Jelly his creative and artistic freedom, while we continue to work on building the connection to new audiences and nurture the connection with his existing audience,” Loba says. “It’s really that simple. When you have your first experience or interaction with Jelly, you have a strong desire to go deeper — and tell others about him.”
This week, Jelly Roll’s Whitsitt Chapel debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and topped both the Rock & Alternative and Country Albums charts. What key decision did you make to help make this happen?
It of course all starts with the music. Jelly turned in an absolutely epic record that we have no doubt will stand the test of time. I think we will look back two decades from now and see this as the album that fully revealed the depth, texture, intellect and heart of Jelly Roll. The biggest decision I made was getting out of Jelly’s way and trusting him to turn in such a masterpiece. Initially, we had a collection of absolute slam dunk, commercial country hits Jelly wrote and was ready to record. After he attended his daughter’s church one Sunday, however, he called me up to say he felt the deep need to scrap all those songs and go on a musical and spiritual journey with his next record. We knew we had hit singles lined up, but I heard the conviction in his heart about this alternate path. His manager John Meneilly and I always say, “When in doubt, trust Jelly,” and that’s what we did. We didn’t know what this album would be, but we wanted to support him and his creativity. It turned out to be not only the right thing artistically but the right thing commercially.
The album had the biggest opening week for a first entry on the Top Country Albums chart since it went to a consumption-based methodology in 2017, almost tripling the previous record. How did you build the momentum leading up to this release?
Once you meet him, you are a fan for life. The buzz on Jelly started with “Save Me” and grew with “Dead Man Walking” and “Son of a Sinner,” so the commercial credibility was there to begin with. Our partners were really interested in his music and curious about him as we communicated how special he was. Once they met him one on one, it was a game changer. When you spend time with Jelly, you immediately root for him and want to create opportunities, which they did. Importantly, when they created those opportunities, Jelly always delivered for them and, in turn, [they] wanted to create more. Ultimately, the opportunities for his singles grew organically into opportunities for his album release.
What was your sales approach for this record?
First and foremost, making sure our partners heard the entire project well in advance. We knew the music would speak for itself and afterward our partners immediately came back to us with new creative opportunities for exposure. Wherever possible, we wanted Jelly to present it first-hand, to talk about his motivation and journey in creating Whitsitt Chapel. We also know Jelly has a passionate and committed fan base, so we wanted to be sure we had a strong focus on physical, as they are collectors… more so than most country consumers.
Jelly Roll’s music crosses several different genres, and Whitsitt Chapel is the latest in a line of albums that have reached the top echelon of both the Country radio charts and the Rock & Alternative radio charts. How do you work the same songs differently at different formats?
We don’t work them much differently. When Jelly and I first met, he had many questions about where his music would fit. He had a strong desire to have his music heard and accepted in the country genre, but he also wondered if some of it could work in rock and top 40. I was really firm in telling him not to worry about genres. All he needed to do was keep making music that connected with hearts and minds — music that saves and changes lives. You see examples of that at every Jelly show as you talk to his fans. He has this ability to connect with a wide variety of audiences because of his truth and willingness to be extremely open and share it. I said it in that first meeting, and I feel it even more strongly now: Jelly transcends genres. He is on the path to becoming a cultural icon.
Jelly Roll’s success has been considered one of the best examples of artist development in recent years. How do you continue to build on that in his career going forward?
We would love to take credit for Jelly’s artist development, but that wouldn’t be honest — Jelly is responsible for his artist development over the years of making music, touring and speaking his truth. We were fortunate that before us, there had not been a full team out there strategically telling his story, introducing him to partners and passionately laying down in the road for him as we asked for exposure opportunities. Going forward we will continue giving Jelly his creative and artistic freedom, while we continue to work on building the connection to new audiences and nurture the connection with his existing audience. It’s really that simple. When you have your first experience or interaction with Jelly, you have a strong desire to go deeper — and tell others about him.