Review: Billboard and CMA Country Music Summit

by Mike Carroll

 

Day 1, Monday, June 4th; Nashville, TN – While the official start to the 2012 CMA Music Fest wasn’t until Thursday, June 7th, events kicked off Monday, June 4th starting with the Billboard & CMA Country Music Summit.  This was a 2-day event held at The Cannery Ballroom in Nashville that featured several panels discussing various aspects of today’s country music industry.  After a Welcoming Address by Bill Werde, Editorial Director of Billboard; and a State of the Industry 2012 speech by Steve Moore, CEO of the CMA; the roundtable discussions kicked off with The Manager Roundtable.

The panel was introduced by Jonathan Leone, the Co-Founder of Thrillcall, a new mobile app that specializes in concert ticket sales.  He gave a quick presentation on how the company attacks the difficult business of selling concert tickets and how Thrillcall will help venues increase ticket sales.

The Manager Roundtable was moderated by Ken Tucker, Managing Editor of Country Weekly, and featured Nashville power players T.K. Kimbrell, Manager with TKO Artist Management; Clarence Spalding, President of Spalding Entertainment; Will Ward, Partner of ROAR Management; and Ken Levitan, President of Vector Management.  They discussed various aspects of managing today’s artists and how a manager’s role has evolved over the years as artists’ interests have expanded.  Zac Brown was used as an example with his endeavors into the restaurant business, record label business, and other businesses that he’s got in the works.  Another point made by the panel is that Country Radio needs to give new artists and new albums more of a chance.  It’s the perspective of one panelist that Radio isn’t even listening to the singles they’re being sent anymore, let alone the full albums.  “If radio doesn’t listen to these records…it becomes harder and harder to break an artist,” Clarence Spalding lamented.

The second panel was titled Touring Part I:  Buyers (And an Artist) Talk Business, and featured Ray Waddell, Executive Director of Content and Programming for Touring and Live Entertainment at Billboard as the moderator (far right in photo above), and a panel consisting of (from left to right) of artist Shooter Jennings; Tony Conway, CEO of Conway Entertainment Group; Ali Harnell, VP at TMG-AEG Live; Brock Jones, VP, Booking at Global Spectrum; Jason Kane, Managing Director of Entertainment for RodeoHouston; and Brian O’Connell, President of Live Nation Country Music.  The panel offered a wide variety of viewpoints, from Shooter Jennings discussing the difficulties of marketing himself out to try to fill a 600 capacity venue to Brian O’Connell putting together the major headlining tours around the country with capacities up to 20,000 while avoiding infringing on other major events.  An example was Houston, which hosts the RodeoHouston events each year, which keeps many major concerts away for most of the year.

I found it interesting that Brian O’Connell with Live Nation and Ali Harnell with AEG Live, two competitors in the concert touring business, admitted to working together at times to avoid over-saturating a market and working around each other’s schedules.  They pointed out that if they didn’t work together, they’d both end up shooting themselves in the foot.  If there’s one thing to be taken away from this panel, it’s that Country Music is hotter than ever.  Brian O’Connell said that this year, there are 11 acts on headlining tours.  “Next year, there will be 18 headliners capable of selling 10,000 seats,” he went on to forecast.

The last panel on Day 1 before we broke for lunch was titled Follow the Money:  Who is Investing in Country Music & Where.  This panel was moderated by Glenn Peoples, Senior Analyst of Billboard, and featured panelists Paul Brown, Legal Counsel/CFO for Broken Bow Records; Mike Farris, artist; Mark Montgomery, Founder of FLO; David Robkin, CEO of Bigger Picture Group; and Rick Stevens, CEO of Y Entertainment Group, LLC.  This panel discussed how hard it is for new artists to afford to get started and noticed.  One of the topics of discussion was kickstarter.com, which made headlines recently after a controversy involving Whitney Duncan and West Palm Beach’s radio station, WIRK.  While Whitney was looked down upon for her use of kickstarter.com to fund her new album, the panel agreed that avenues such as kickstarter.com are a big part of the future in the music business.  Already, SFCM Featured Artist Lauren Elise has successfully fulfilled her funding needs for her first album via kickstarter.com, and another SFCM Featured Artist, Emily Brooke, is in the middle of her campaign to fund her first album.

After walking down the block to where a bunch of lunch trucks had circled the wagons to feed those in attendance, we returned for the Artist Development Case Study with Luke Bryan.  Ray Waddell returned to the stage to moderate, and was joined by Luke Bryan; Kerri Edwards, Manager at Red Light Management; Dustin Eicthen, Director of Marketing at Capitol Records Nashville; and Jay Williams, Agent with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.  This panel discussed the path Luke Bryan has followed from playing local bars in college towns in the southeast to arguably being the hottest act in country music today as he’s reached headlining status with a string of #1 hits.  The number one thing that stood out to Kerri Edwards when she first saw Luke Bryan perform was his stage presence and the way he entertained the crowd.  She knew from day 1 that he would be a star.

They talked about the success of Luke’s Spring Break EP’s, which he puts out for various reasons…one being that it’s a way to get new music out when it takes up to 2 1/2 years to release a new full album, and another is that it gives him a chance to let loose and cuss a bit if he wants to.  An example he gave is his song, “Time to Take My Drunk Ass Home.”   He talked about how he wants to model his career after Kenny Chesney in the way that his music continues to be “young and fun.”

Another major topic of discussion was how he balances being a family guy while being the object of affection to all of his female fans.  When asked about if he has to appear single while performing, Luke said, “…got to be to a degree…my wife enjoys seeing everyone enjoy the show.  She has so much fun watchin’ all of my antics that I may or may not do, shaking my butt in front of you girls over here, and watching these women that look like school teachers having the time of their life.  That’s so enjoyable for all of us.”

They then talked about debating whether it was time for Luke to go headlining this year or not.  They determined that he was ready, but that there’s a lot of males out there headlining this year, and the opportunity to go on the road with a huge tour like Jason Aldean‘s could not be turned down.  Not only is it possibly the biggest tour of the year, but Jason is Luke’s best friend and he knew he’d be playing to sell out crowds every night.

Luke’s session closed out with a few questions from the crowd, which included an aspiring 16-year old artist.  The kid asked Luke, “I’m sixteen years old, and I do…fairs and festivals around the state of Ohio.  How do you break out of that and what’s the next step in trying to get there?”

Luke’s response was, “You’re sixteen years old, and you do fairs and festivals, and you’re just playing with a band and your guitar?  So you’re sixteen (laughter from crowd).  Well, quit worryin’ about it at sixteen.  I mean, when I meet a young kid…you keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy your life, and you, you just play music to enjoy it, and you know what, you will probably have to move to Nashville…but just focus on getting better, and focus on being good to people and doing what is the right thing to do…I think so many people want to move to Nashville, and not make mistakes…it is impossible to navigate this business without somebody getting a little more money out of you than you want to give ’em, there is no way…that if you’re great at just one thing, you’re gonna miss this other little side…it’s all gonna be in the learning process, as long as you’re out playing every day, workin’ on songs, looking real people in the eye, playing music, living a great high school life as a kid, enjoying that and doing that, that’s really all you can do.  A little bit of faith, love, working hard, being good to people, and making that big commitment…the second you move from your town to Nashville, you take your talent pool that you’re up against and it multiples by a million.  So you either have to be able to answer the call of being in Nashville and compete with all of that around you, or you don’t.  So I think, right now where you’re at, just enjoy it and be sixteen.”

Luke finished the panel by jumping off the stage for a minute to sign autographs and pose for pictures with a few of the fans that were in attendance.

The next panel was titled Touring Part II:  The Agents.  It was moderated by Sally Williams, GM of the Ryman Auditorium, and featured some of the top booking agents in the industry as panelists…Rob Beckham, Agent with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment; Marc Dennis, Agent with Creative Artists Agency; Paul Lohr, President of New Frontier Touring; Curt Motley, Agent with Paradigm Talent; Kevin Neal, President of Buddy Lee Attractions; and Lance Roberts, Agent with Bobby Roberts, Co.  This panel discussed the pivotal role that booking agents play in building an artist to headlining status and maximizing a touring strategy that ensures long term box office viability.

The final panel of the day was titled Country Music From an Aerial View:  A Conversation with Rob Light.  Rob Light discussed how country music is out-performing other genres of music right now, how things can be better, and the evolving role of his agency in all aspects of the music business.

Day 2, Tuesday, June 5th; Nashville, TN – The second day of the Billboard and CMA Country Music Summit kicked off with a fascinating panel titled Makin’ Tracks:  Journey of a Song.

The panel was moderated by Tom Roland, Editor of Billboard Country Update, and focused on the journey of Thompson Square‘s breakout hit, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not.”  The panelists for this discussion were Jim Collins, co-writer; Lynette Garbonola, New Media Specialist with Broken Bow; Tully Kennedy, NV; David Lee Murphy, co-writer; and Keifer and Shawna Thompson of Thompson Square.  First the writers of the song talked about how they came up with the song, then they talked about how Thompson Square discovered the song, making it one of just a couple of songs on their debut album that they didn’t have a hand in writing.  At one point, they played the rough draft of the song as performed by David Lee Murphy during the writing process, which was pretty neat to hear.  They then talked about how their first single, “Lets Fight” was pulled from radio airplay early on so they could instead release, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not,” after many industry insiders heard the track and told their team that it should be the first single, not “Let’s Fight.”

They then talked about how the song took awhile to get going up the charts, and how it saw a spike in sales the week after Christmas as consumers went out and bought music with gift cards they received during the holidays.

While this was an expected spike in sales, what wasn’t expected was that it never let up after that, as it launched its way up the charts faster than before and continued to have increased sales.  One detail I found interesting during this panel was that Lynette Garbonola said that the current Gloriana single, “(Kissed You) Good Night” is on a similar trajectory as “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” towards being a possible #1 song.

Unfortunately my schedule didn’t allow me to stay for the rest of the day, but here is a list of the other panels that were scheduled for the rest of Day 2 that surely were just as insightful as the others were:

• CMA Research Study Part I – A Force to be Reckoned With:  The Country Consumer
• The International Panel
• Artists and Social Networking:  How Effective is it Really?
• Guitars, Cadillacs, and Innovation:  A Conversation About the Future with Dwight Yoakam
• CMA Research Study Part II – A Force to be Reckoned With:  The Country Consumer
• One Hell of a Ride:  A Q&A with Willie Nelson
• Check the Research and Ask the Consultant:  The Method, The Madness, The Answers
• Keynote Q&A With John Hogan, Chairman/CEO of Clear Channel Media & Entertainment

The Billboard and CMA Country Music Summit was a rare look inside the music business that anyone in the business should think about attending in future years.  It brings together some of the most powerful people in the business discussing the key topics that everyone should be educated on.  I enjoyed my time there not only covering it as a journalist, but learning as well, and look forward to attending next year.  The folks that ran the event were very kind and helpful, and made things run very smoothly.

For more photos of Day 1, click here.

For more photos of Day 2, click here.