Radio Edit | 8.7.23

Senior Creative Director Jeremy Groves sits down to talk SMACKsongs and deliver a state of the union on country music as the genre’s popularity continues to skyrocket.

RE: SMACKsongs seems to do a little bit of everything, from management to publishing to artist development. As a Senior Creative Director, what falls into the general purview of your role there and what does your involvement look like in each of these areas?

JG: I’m involved in both publishing and artist development. The long and short of it is that I am here to serve all of our writers & artists by getting them in the right rooms and aggressively pitching their songs. Setting up co-writes looks different for each writer depending on skillset, but we’re always bringing great opportunities and relationships to our writers, and ultimately just trying get the combos that get the best songs.

Nashville is, and always has been, a songwriter's town. How important is it for the company to have someone like Shane [McAnally] involved as you sign, develop, and market your roster?

Nashville, and the music industry in general, has such a deep reverence for Shane. His involvement has a profound impact on everything we do, which brings a credibility that simply can’t be created without him.

I think when a lot of people think country music, they think Nashville. Are there any other cities or regions that you have your eye on as kind of hotbeds for the genre?

If you want to be successful in country music, you need to be in Nashville. This might sound cliché, but at the core of country music is the quality of song, and the best songwriters are here in Nashville.

And looking forward, do you see country music growing more globally or does it feel like the genre will always revolve around Nashville?

The genre will always have a few artist outliers that can be global crossover artists, but as a whole, I think country will always have it’s hub out of Nashville. Country music is based so much on the culture of country that it’s hard to manufacture it unless you are authentically country.

Country music consumption is up over 20% year-over-year. Do you see this increased interest resulting from a new 'sound' in country music or are more people just coming around on the genre?

I think the growth in consumption has a lot to do with 1) artists who are progressive and blend sounds, and 2) the country music demographic who are slower to adopt to streaming are finally coming around to consuming music via DSPs.

Even a decade+ into the streaming era, it seems like radio is still massively influential in country music, especially relative to many other genres. Why do you think that influence has remained and do you foresee that changing any time soon as generational audiences evolve?

I think this also has to do with the slow adoption to streaming, but also how much the lifestyle and culture of country music correlates with consumption. That being said, it’s interesting to see how radio isn’t really breaking artists anymore, they are playlisting songs that are working at dsps first.

What does SMACKsongs have in the pipeline?

We’re proud to have 12 writers that either have a song currently on the chart or are about to have a song on the chart. Walker Hayes recently released two singles “Stetson” and “Show Me The Country”, Kylie Morgan released “A Few Hearts Ago” & Jenna Davis has a single, “DiCaprio”, dropping August 11. GO STREAM THEM ALL!

Social-fueled streaming

As TikTok Music expands into more markets, many are wondering if its eventual introduction to the US market will usher in a new era of music streaming- one that is primarily fueled by social media. Teased as a “social music streaming” service, it seems TikTok is intent on exploiting one of their competitive advantages- effectively funneling fans from the social app onto its streaming platform.

If this venture into streaming proves successful, TikTok will gain the ability to not only control the marketing and promotion of music, but influence its consumption as well. Along with its music distributor and artist services company, SoundOn, TikTok could position itself as the most dominant force in the industry moving forward. By seamlessly integrating distribution, promotion, marketing, and consumption, ByteDance is quickly becoming a comprehensive one-stop shop for music.

Honda x 88rising

Ahead of this past weekend’s Head In The Clouds festival in Pasadena, event host 88rising announced a partnership with Honda Music on a special edition apparel collaboration. Dubbed “88 Type R” - the limited edition capsule inspired by the late 90’s/early 2000s Asian car culture scene was made available both onsite at the festival and online.

In conjunction with the clothing collection, the shop will also feature a 2000 Civic Si project car and a 2023 Honda Civic Type R- “the most powerful Honda production vehicle ever sold in the U.S.”

At the festival, The Honda Double Happiness Stage featured a lineup of artists including Stephanie Poetri, Spence Lee, Lyn Lapid, Phum Viphurit, Eyedress, Grentperez, and Akini Jing.

Try ROSTR Pro for 14 days for free

ROSTR Pro gives you unlimited access to contact details, signings, advanced search, tour & festival directories + more

Performances by

Lexi Stellwood (DJ set)

Vineland | Eddie And The Getaway

SIGNINGS

Warner Chappell has signed both Maria Becerra and Laufey to pub deals

STREAMING | RADIO

Internet radio rate increase upheld by copyright board

LIVE | TOURING

Amazon Music has partnered with Bandsintown for merch integration

LABEL

Jonny Shipes sells Cinematic Music Group’s catalog to Interscope; launches full-service entertainment company GoodTalk

TECH

New tool from Meta generates songs from text prompts

Triller has settled their licensing fee dispute with Sony Music

Entertainment partnerships team affected by recent round of Discord layoffs

ELSEWHERE

Indie music advocacy group A2IM has expanded their health insurance plans to individual members

APPOINTMENTS

Aimie Vaughan-Früehe has been promoted to executive vp/head of promotion and streaming at 300 Elektra

Epic Records has tapped Kacie Anderson as their new senior director of brand partnerships

Big Loud Records has further built out their executive team with new hires Serena Lloyd (vp of human resources), Stefanie Carter (vp of finance), Lucy Bartozzi (vp of marketing) and promotions for Jeff Tanner (svp of business affairs), Paul Logan (sync & brand partnerships), Brianne Deslippe (svp of global marketing & strategy), H. Read Davis (vp of digital), and Tori Johnson (vp of creative)

Sony Music U.S. Latin has upped Rafael “Rafa” Madroñal to vp of business development

Recent promotions at Interscope Geffen include: Ramon Alvarez-Smikle (executive vice president/head digital marketing), Laura Carter (executive vice president/head of urban marketing), Chris Mortimer (executive vice president/head of digital marketing), and Daniel Sena (executive vice president/head of strategic marketing)

INFAMOUS PR has upped Maxfield Frieser to COO and Megan Dembkowski to vice president of artists

Lots of promotions at Matador Records: Alex League-Davies, Emma Buchanan, Jan Whitener, Malcolm Dolandson, Josh Turner, Rachel Mercer, Paulina Praphanchith, Emily Zaremba

SB Projects
Director, Brands & Ventures
Atlanta
Apply Here

Contact | Subscribe