Zach Bryan
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene soars to No. 1 on multiple Billboard charts dated July 20 following the set’s first full tracking week, including the nearly nine-month-old Top Streaming Albums tally, where it vaults to the top spot from No. 18. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
In September, the singer-songwriter Zach Bryan scored his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. He chose not to put out any singles to hype up Zach Bryan in the weeks leading up to its release. “We decided we weren’t dropping any singles for this album because it’s a cohesive project, and that’s the way it needs to be viewed,” says Stefan Max, Bryan’s co-manager and a former major-label A&R executive.
Bryan scored a Billboard Hot 100 hit anyway — “I Remember Everything,” his collaboration with Kacey Musgraves, debuted at No. 1 — but that was just the cherry on top of a winning rollout. “I don’t know how many albums I’ve made at major labels over the last 15 years that have gone on to be incredible, but the label would delay its release because they’re like, ‘We need a big single,’ ” Max explains. “Everything was so singles-driven. Now we’re like, ‘Do we have a good album?’ Then we can build our campaign around that.”
For much of the 21st century, the music industry narrative has been that the album is dying. First came the MP3, which allowed fans to cherry-pick their favorite songs to download. Then came the rise of streaming services, which meant that fans didn’t even have to download music to assemble their personal playlists. They were followed by TikTok, which can transform scraps of songs into hits before they are even finished — rendering a whole three-minute track superfluous and making an album feel like an unnecessary extravagance.
Looking around the pop music landscape today, though, it’s hard to find an artist who is having sustained impact solely on the strength of hit singles. Bryan, Rod Wave, Taylor Swift and Peso Pluma have all commanded attention and chart achievements by releasing albums that listeners engage with from start to finish and return to week after week.
“Albums feel really significant right now,” one senior label executive says. “It’s what a lot of people talk about. It’s what is really driving a lot of discovery.”
In truth, the demise-of-albums lament was probably exaggerated in the first place. That conversation “was always overdone,” says Jeff Vaughn, founder and CEO of Signal Records. “The album represents a definitive artistic statement, and I think fans crave it.”
“We are in an era where individual pieces of music get exposed more readily and more easily than an entire body of work, which speaks to why people think of this as a singles era,” adds Jonathan Tanners, who manages production duo Take a Daytrip and rapper TOBi, among others. Despite that perception, Tanners continues, “We, as an audience, still have a deep reverence for boldness of vision. If you are reaching the [Mount] Rushmore of artistic and commercial heights, you’re making great albums.”
Still, few would deny that the industry was extraordinarily singles-minded in the early years of TikTok, which really took hold in 2019 and 2020. Executives now speak about that era as if emerging from a long hangover. “The period we just went through created a bit of an emptiness that allowed fewer true artists to be seen because labels were following the viral hits,” says Scott Cutler, a songwriter and CEO of Pulse Music Group, which operates a publishing company as well as a recently launched label operation. “Kids burn through those viral songs really fast.”
Signing the artists behind a lot of those viral tracks was not a successful long-term business proposition for many labels. “If somebody’s playing basketball and they make an incredible half-court shot, an NBA scout’s not like, ‘You’re the next LeBron James!’ ” says Jeremy Maciak, a manager and former major-label A&R executive. “That’s what was happening.” Few of the artists who got deals from viral singles were able to repeat the feat.
Backlash to viral-single fever isn’t the only factor boosting the album’s status. The return of the vinyl LP as a commercial tool is also helping. Vinyl sales have grown steadily for 17 years, but jumped by a stunning 46% in 2020 and 51% in 2021, according to Luminate. The increased prevalence of vinyl records can’t help but reinforce the idea that an entire collection of songs represents something significant and worth shelling out $20 to $30.
Luminate determined that 50% of LP buyers don’t have a turntable, which underlines this point even further. They see value in owning an album they can’t even play. Travis Scott’s Utopia is one of the year’s top sellers, boosted by more than 340,000 album sales, without an enduring hit single. Lana Del Rey hasn’t had a top 40 hit as an unaccompanied solo artist in nearly a decade, but she has sold over 500,000 vinyl LPs and more than 145,000 CDs this year.
Vinyl releases aren’t necessary to build an audience devoted to albums, though. Rising rapper Yeat has amassed more than 1.8 billion streams this year, according to Luminate; he doesn’t have a single top 40 hit as a soloist, yet his fans press play on his releases and just keep listening.
Another artist with an impressively dedicated following among music streamers is the rapper Rod Wave, who recently eked out a narrow victory over Doja Cat to spend a second week atop the Billboard 200 with Nostalgia — his third straight No. 1 album. That week, Rod Wave’s biggest single was at No. 33 on the Hot 100, while Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” was No. 1, demonstrating that a big hit may not be enough to send an album to the top.
In this environment, a new term is becoming more and more popular: “world-building,” industry jargon meaning that, for an artist to be successful, listeners need to care about something beyond a 15-second snippet of music on social media. “I don’t think the difference is between people who make albums and people who make singles,” Tanners says. “The difference is between people who have the vision to create unified worlds and people who are either not interested in that or not capable of that.”
“People want to invest in artists who are building their own worlds,” says Ashley Calhoun, president of Pulse Music Group. “There is a real appetite for that coming back around.”
And albums are more conducive to that world-building process, Vaughn notes. “It’s very difficult to do that just around a single,” he says. “Around a more complete artistic statement, all of a sudden the cover art is special, there are experiential events you can do, there are partnerships with brands. You can actually telegraph: ‘This is coming, here’s why it’s important,’ and that’s how you take the next step.”
It’s not lost on music executives how old-fashioned this sounds. Much of the industry bent itself out of shape trying to get singles to pop on TikTok because it seemed like a cheat code — overnight virality as a substitute for the yearslong, painstaking work of building a fan base. But after all those contortions, many of the same old principles still apply.
“Great artists always move albums and move tickets,” Vaughn says. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Country music is having a major mainstream moment.
Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” spent 16 nonconsecutive weeks from March to August at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, claiming the undisputed song of the summer crown — and is one of four country songs to top both the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts in 2023, the most in a year since 1975.
And Wallen’s success story is far from the genre’s only recent standout. Thanks to artists like Luke Combs, whose cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” spent eight weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100, and Zach Bryan, whose breakthrough single, “Something in the Orange,” reached the top 10 of the Hot 100 while his album American Heartbreak reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200, country music consumption surged in the United States for the first half of 2023. According to Luminate, it was up 20.3% compared with 2.5% growth during the same period in 2022 — and that was before Jason Aldean’s polarizing track, “Try That in a Small Town,” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100; before Appalachian breakout Oliver Anthony Music dominated headlines with his viral populist anthem, “Rich Men North of Richmond”; and before Bryan topped both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200.
Whether that commercial surge will translate to Grammy nominations on Nov. 10 — and in particular to a long overdue showing for country artists in the general-field categories — could prove one of the more compelling narratives this awards season, particularly with country outliers Anthony and Bryan potentially leading the way.
“Country music [is at] peak awareness right now, and the industry people that vote have an opportunity to recognize that or not,” says Joey Moi, Big Loud partner/president of A&R, as well as Wallen’s producer. “You’re looking at two or three artists [from the country format] that are hanging up there with the big kids.”
Country has often been neglected when it comes to Grammy nominations in the general-field categories — album, record and song of the year and best new artist, for which all 13,000 Recording Academy members can vote. (Starting with the 2024 Grammys, the so-called Big Four becomes the Big Six, with the addition of songwriter of the year, non-classical and producer of the year, non-classical moving into the general field.)
Five Grammy Award cycles have occurred since nominations in the Big Four categories were increased from five to eight and then to 10 contenders, and there have been 196 total Big Four nominations in that time — yet only six have gone to mainstream country artists or projects, with just one victory: Kacey Musgraves’ album of the year trophy for Golden Hour in 2019. (The nominees will revert to eight per category for the 2024 awards.)
But recognition of many of these songs beyond only country audiences could shift the dynamic this year. Anthony went from obscurity to instant household name with “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in August. “Rich Men” was submitted for record and song of the year, though not in any country categories, nor was Anthony entered into consideration for best new artist. (His manager did not respond to a request for comment on the submissions.)
Should “Rich Men” receive a song or record of the year nod — or even a win — it would not be the first time voters have marked their ballots for a song with a message. At the 2019 ceremony, Childish Gambino’s commentary on institutional racism, “This Is America,” won song and record of the year. Two years later, “I Can’t Breathe,” H.E.R.’s poignant take on George Floyd’s murder, won song of the year.
But though “Rich Men” has enjoyed a kind of flashpoint notoriety — the song was even referenced at the Republican presidential debate in August — that may not translate to Grammy votes.
“Artists who have huge moments still have to consider who’s voting,” one Grammy consultant says, noting that voters aren’t the fans who propelled “Rich Men” to No. 1 but creatives who make music. And while the timing of Anthony’s breakthrough means he is fresh in voters’ minds as they mark their ballots, that could also work against him. “I don’t know if the industry is going to wait and hold off to see if [he] has legs or it’s a flash in the pan,” one Grammy voter says. “If this happened in March or April and maintained through the year, we’d have a much clearer story. [He’s] kind of starting the race about five minutes later than everybody else.”
Bryan — who, unlike Anthony, is entered in several country categories as well as album, song and record of the year — may have a different experience. Unlike the self-released Anthony, he is signed to Warner Records, which has the infrastructure to run a campaign for him. His success has built steadily over the past 18 months and extends beyond one song and one format, or as the Grammy voter puts it: “He has had a career that has grown and gathered some roots.” Bryan and past Grammy favorite Musgraves debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with their duet, “I Remember Everything,” from his self-titled album that entered the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums at No. 1. And when it comes to the general-field categories, he could draw from a particularly broad base of voters: His self-titled set, which arrived Aug. 25, also launched atop the Top Rock Albums, Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts.
By creating their own nontraditional paths, Anthony and Bryan could, ironically, achieve recognition that some of country’s most respected artists have not: None of Miranda Lambert’s 27 career Grammy nods have been in the general-field categories, while only one of Chris Stapleton’s 17 nominations has been. Whether they also end up distracting from the work of their more conventional country peers in the general categories remains to be seen. Adds the Grammy voter: “I don’t know if people are aware of a lot of the other great country records that may have been out there over the year — they’ve taken up so much air in the room.”
Additional reporting by Jessica Nicholson.
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
In 2015, before Luke Combs had broken through, his manager, Chris Kappy, gave fans a merchandise discount at concerts for showing they paid to subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music. “I was trying to push people into the digital age as quickly as I could,” he says. “And the fastest way I knew I could do it was giving them $1 off a T-shirt.”
Combs was one of the first country superstars who built his career digital-first. Though most of the recorded-music industry has been streaming-focused for over a decade, until recently country music — and its fans — have remained driven by radio play and album sales. Thanks to artists like Combs, Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and others, from 2019 to 2022, country audio streaming jumped 58%, according to Luminate, outpacing the industry’s 48.5% growth and increasing faster than every other genre besides Latin music. In early March, Wallen’s No. 1 album One Thing at a Time racked up 483 million audio streams in its debut week, according to Luminate — the fifth-largest streaming week ever, after albums by Drake, Taylor Swift and 21 Savage. Later that month, Combs’ Gettin’ Old hit 83.5 million streams.
“Finally! Thank God,” says Tim Foisset, senior vp of commercial partnerships for Warner Music Nashville, which represents Bryan. “The A&R’s really good right now, and it appears to be really sticky with a younger audience.”
New stars who are digital natives — and have careers rooted in the digital world — are one key reason for country’s streaming boom. Combs started out on Vine, and Kappy boosted his profile through a Facebook fan group; one of Wallen’s breakthroughs was 2020’s “Heartless,” with EDM star and social media wizard Diplo; Bryan recorded songs on his iPhone and posted them to YouTube. Whereas pop, dance and hip-hop tracks took off at streaming as early as 2011, the country tipping point from physical to digital didn’t start until roughly 2017, shortly before Wallen released his debut, If I Know Me.
“It was the perfect storm of incredible music, the younger demographic that was already gravitating to Morgan at that time and the audience shifting mediums,” says Patch Culbertson, GM and senior vp of Big Loud Records, Wallen’s label. “That rocket exploded, and he carried that audience with him. We’ve seen a massive move onto streaming.”
Another reason for the growth of country streaming is the COVID-19 pandemic, which pulled older fans and digital holdouts away from terrestrial radio and CDs. “Some of the more mature demographics of country weren’t in their cars, they weren’t going to the office, and they used that time to say, ‘OK, I’m going to figure out what streaming is all about,’” says Randy Goodman, CEO of Sony Music Nashville, which represents Combs. “And there are no more boundaries, genrewise. Kids are listening to Kendrick Lamar and to Morgan. It’s a younger demographic we’re appealing to.”
Both Sony’s Goodman and Warner’s Foisset say radio remains “incredibly important,” but add that country hits now often start on streaming, then take off at radio instead of vice versa. In 2019, Goodman explains, “the world began to change,” and country stars followed their pop, hip-hop and EDM counterparts into YouTube, TikTok and Spotify virality long before radio took notice. “From a record-company perspective, we realized we had to make these shifts,” he says.
Wallen has led this transformation: Dangerous: The Double Album racked up 3.6 billion audio streams in 2021, hitting No. 1 in overall consumption that year, outpacing Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and Adele. Last September, tracks by Wallen, Bryan and Combs hit the top 10 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart, the first time at least three non-holiday country songs reached the milestone. That week, 13 of the chart’s 50 songs were country; on the chart dated April 15, Wallen has three tracks, and Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” is No. 14. And there’s more to come: Foisset notes that some of country’s biggest young stars, including Cole Swindell, Bailey Zimmerman and Jelly Roll, are scheduled to release albums in 2023.
Country streaming-music fans are unusually dedicated. According to a new Digital Media Association survey, they spent about 1,270 hours per year listening to music annually, about 1.6 times more than country music fans who do not stream. Which is not surprising to Emily Cohen Belote, principal music curator for Amazon Music. The service has emphasized country for years through Country Heat, including a playlist and an online radio station and hit 13 billion streams in 2021. “We’ve been doing this for a while, and it’s not just a flash in the pan,” she says. “Country music is happening in streaming in a really big way.”
Country stars Zach Bryan and Travis Tritt had a public Twitter spat last week over Bud Light teaming with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney for its latest campaign, and now the duo seem to be on good terms.
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It all started when the “Something in Orange” singer tweeted on April 8, “I mean no disrespect towards anyone specifically, I don’t even mind @travistritt. I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be It’s a great day to be alive I thought.”
The thoughts were seemingly in response to Tritt announcing he would no longer be working with Anheuser-Busch and removing all of the company’s products from his tour hospitality rider. “I know many other artists who are doing the same,” the singer claimed.
While Tritt didn’t respond publicly to Bryan’s thoughts, he took to Twitter to try to get the young country star to meet with him in person. “Zach, Been trying to reach out to you through your manager,” he wrote on April 13. “Since we are both playing the Two Step Inn Festival in Georgetown, TX this Saturday, I was hoping we could chat in person. I will be there all day on Saturday. Please let me know if we can chat. Thanks.”
a.@zachlanebryan Zach, Been trying to reach out to you through your manager. Since we are both playing the Two Step Inn Festival in Georgetown, TX this Saturday, I was hoping we could chat in person. I will be there all day on Saturday. Please let me know if we can chat. Thanks.— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 14, 2023
It appears that the duo did in fact meet in person at the festival, as Bryan revealed to fans that they talked “eye to eye” for “an hour and a half,” and noted while they do disagree on certain things, “the world did not end.”
Tritt then replied to Bryan’s tweet in support, writing, “So glad we had a chance to chat, Zach. Even better to discover that we have so much common ground. All the best to you on your first European tour!”
So glad we had a chance to chat, Zach. Even better to discover that we have so much common ground. All the best to you on your first European tour!— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 16, 2023
Zach Bryan, fresh off a collaboration with Maggie Rogers and a nomination for best country solo performance at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, seemingly deactivated his Twitter account on Tuesday (Feb. 7).
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When fans attempt to visit his @zachlanebryan Twitter handle, a message pops up, saying, “This account doesn’t exist,” though his Instagram account is still active.
A rep for Bryan declined to comment on Bryan’s now nonexistent Twitter handle. The deleted Twitter page is interesting, as Bryan is known for having a constant, direct connection with his fans, primarily via social media platforms.
The release of “Dawns,” featuring Rogers, was a promise fulfilled to Bryan’s fans, after he had previously vowed to release the track if the Philadelphia Eagles won against the New York Giants; on Jan. 21, the Eagles triumphed over the Giants, 38-7, writing their ticket to Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Currently, Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” sits atop Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart for a sixth week, while his American Heartbreak album ranks at No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart, just behind Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album.
He followed American Heartbreak with the EP Summertime Blues and the live album All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live From Red Rocks). True to his album title, Bryan’s upcoming Burn, Burn, Burn Tour will be handled primarily via AXS. The tour launches May 10 at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va., and concludes at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Aug. 30 and includes stops in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and more.
In 1989, country radio — and the genre in general — experienced a seismic shift when Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt and Clint Black all released their debut albums in the same year.
Referred to collectively and reverentially as “The Class of ’89,” the movement brought a sea change to country music, ushering in an era of unprecedented growth and popularity.
Now a new crop of male artists is taking the charts by storm, leading industry executives to believe another watershed moment could be happening at country.
In a rare move, six artists all have their first singles sent to country radio in the top 35 of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Dec. 3: Jackson Dean, “Don’t Come Lookin’” (No. 3), Bailey Zimmerman, “Fall in Love” (5), Jelly Roll, “Son of a Sinner” (8), Nate Smith, “Whiskey on You” (12), Corey Kent, “Wild as Her” (26) and Zach Bryan, “Something in the Orange” (33).
“It’s a paradigm shift we see in the format every now and then when there’s a crop of new artists that come in, push their way onto the chart and you can’t ignore it anymore,” says Tim Roberts, country format vp/brand manager for the Audacy radio chain.
“It feels unprecedented,” says Sony Music Nashville chairman/CEO Randy Goodman, whose roster includes Smith and Kent.
Preceded by acts like HARDY, who straddles country and rock, these artists are not only storming the airwaves, they’re setting records. Two years ago Zimmerman was building gas pipelines and posting original songs to social media. Shortly thereafter, Elektra’s senior vp of A&R/head of research and analytics Jacob Fain noticed “a quick moment” was happening on TikTok and helped sign him. In September, the 22-year old made history on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart when he became the first act to place three career-opening entries in the tally’s top 10 simultaneously since October 1958, when it became an all-encompassing genre ranking. (The chart now measures streaming, airplay and sales.)
A decade after bro-country hit radio airwaves, the new era of ronky tonk feels more like woe-country — that feel-good sound’s antithesis. Instead of uptempo beats and lyrics about a care-free lifestyle filled with girls, trucks and beer, these songs often display a rawer rock production with a brooding vocal delivery. Alcohol is used to drown one’s sorrows rather than for celebration. Troubles, they’ve got them — often with a side of heartache and a past they can’t escape.
“Nate’s very open with his lyrics about heartbreak and Bailey’s just 22, but he’s got his heart broken many times and both guys and girls are really connecting to the lyrics and music,” says Simon Tikhman, CEO and co-founder at Core Entertainment, who co-manages Smith with Kevin “Chief” Zaruk. The pair also co-manage Zimmerman with 10th Street Entertainment’s Chris Nilsson and Scott Frazier.
Warner Music Nashville co-president Cris Lacy, who works with Zimmerman (in partnership with Elektra) and Bryan (who’s signed to Warner Records with assistance from WMN) credits the acts’ authenticity for their success. “A lot of artists that come to town work into a system full of brilliant songwriters, musicians and artists, and it’s intimidating. Sometimes you shrink before you expand,” she says. “They came to town with the stories that built them – Zach with his military career and Bailey working on pipelines – and put the music out. It really wasn’t subject to any scrutiny or any rewriting or any trying to make it fit in a box.”
They also bring with them an edge that provides a counterpoint to the pop-leaning sound that has filled country radio recently. “It’s not that people don’t like pop country,” Roberts says, “but the format always needs balance. I think it’s a correction that we’re seeing and the audience is eating it up.”
“Country had started to feel very safe, not dangerous,” says Zaruk. “Now you’re seeing [rock] influences come in that you normally wouldn’t see. It’s not the typical dirt roads and tailgates.”
Some of the acts are experiencing crossover success on the rock charts as well. Jelly Roll’s “Son of a Sinner” peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart, while his “Dead Man Walking” reached No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay. Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” climbed to No. 2 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. (HARDY’s “Sold Out” topped Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart in March, the same week “Beers On Me, his team-up with Dierks Bentley and Breland, was No. 4 on Country Airplay before ascending to the top spot).
Industry executives cite other reasons for the flurry of activity, including audiences opening their ears to new sounds following the pandemic. “Every research piece I saw during the pandemic said people don’t want to hear new music right now. They had other crap to worry about, like getting groceries and finding toilet paper,” Roberts says. “We’re in an era that’s post-pandemic, and people are feeling better from an emotional and mental standpoint and now do have an appetite for new music. And I think radio is smart enough to see it.”
Country radio, which tends to move conservatively, is also smart enough to see that some of these acts are earning massive streaming numbers and stations risk hesitating at their own peril. The country genre has been slower than pop and hip hop to adapt to streaming, but the numbers are steadily increasing. In his short career, Bryan has already earned 2.45 billion on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, compared to 13.4 billion career streams for Luke Combs.
“Where I was really seeing it was on the country on-demand streaming chart,” Goodman says. “Just looking at the number of new entries there has been quite astonishing.”
RADIO PICKING UP THE PACE
Terrestrial radio, once the entry point for listeners to hear new music, now often follows streaming when it comes to musical discovery — building off momentum established first on Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok and other platforms. But Big Machine Label Group bucked current practice and went straight to radio with Dean’s “Don’t Come Lookin’” instead of waiting for other indicators to show the song was growing.
“When I hear that radio is a great finisher, there is a small part of me that gets offended, because it historically has been such a massive medium of exposure,” says Kris Lamb, Big Machine’s senior vp of promotion and digital. “Jackson crushes it live with acoustic shows. We could very economically take him to every tastemaker that would open their doors, so we thought, ‘Let’s let radio lead on this,’ and we started our radio tour at the beginning of the year.”
The results are a hit at radio concurrent with building streaming success. “Ever since the record has been inside the top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, it’s taken on a new life of its own when it comes to on-demand streams, sales and consumption. I really do think it’s an incredible case study of how radio can lead the charge and break an artist,” Lamb says.
“Country radio is stepping out [and] taking risks on these artists,” Lacy says. “It used to be radio would ask us when we wanted to release [a song]. Now, they’re picking up the song and playing it, whether we are planning on releasing it or not. In Zach’s case we weren’t working [“Something in the Orange”] at all.”
Similarly, Zimmerman went to country radio very early after being signed. “It was a risk, but we felt that this record was strong enough and the story was building so quickly, that we wanted to get the shot,” Fain says. “Bailey and some of the country records are moving so quickly almost like what you would expect out of a coastal signing. The genre is changing and evolving.”
Country radio is the last format where labels build new artists by sending them on expensive radio tours around the country to introduce them in person at various stations. (This step is considered so crucial that during the pandemic, BMG funded a high-tech studio that enabled new artist Elvie Shane to perform virtually for more than 120 individual stations in order to facilitate the one-on-one interaction with studio personnel).
Not everyone’s taking the radio tour route though, and some of these acts — including Zimmerman and Smith — are letting metrics trump tradition because fans are reacting so strongly. “For the longest time, it was like, ‘You’ve got to go do the 20-week country radio tour [and] play for the programmers to build relationships,’” says Zaruk. “With analytics, it’s no longer, ‘Can you give us two spins at midnight?’ That’s old school. Now you go, ‘Hey, this song is streaming 5 million streams a week. Here’s 14 markets on DSPs where there’s 15,000 people a day listening to the song.’ You fire that info to radio and they’re like, ‘We have to play this song.’”
With Smith, Sony Nashville built a story by sending two other tracks to digital service providers (DSPs) before taking “Whiskey on You” to radio. “We said, ‘Look, this thing is exploding,’” Goodman says. “‘Put it in day parts and give it a shot and if it doesn’t work, we’ll move on because we’re seeing the consumption blow up and we’re making money.’”
Similarly with Sony’s Kent, radio stations moved quickly after they saw action on DSPs and SiriusXM’s The Highway with terrestrial stations in major markets like Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas leading the way. “Those are three of the five biggest stations. [They] typically aren’t going to jump on anything, until there’s a fully-orchestrated radio promotion campaign from a major label,” says Kent’s manager, Triple 8 Management founder George Couri. But bolstered by the fan response, the stations didn’t wait.
“When the music is this good and your audience wants it, you have to react to it,” Roberts says.
It is early days and way too soon to tell which, if any, of today’s breakthrough artists become tomorrow’s superstars. “Staying power is always the test of time,” Roberts says, “but these people all seem very talented and capable of producing a lot more music.”
In the meantime, Cumulus Media vp of country Charlie Cook says this bumper crop of newcomers are taking advantage of the opportunities and resources that the class of 1989 lacked.
“They have an additional avenue that the class of ’89 didn’t have, and that’s going directly to the consumer. The people in ’89 had to go through radio,” he says. “We get accused of being gatekeepers sometimes. I think in this case, the gatekeepers have said, ‘Come on in, let me open this gate wider for you, and make sure that we give you space to grow the brand that you’ve already developed.’”
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