Roots Music Report

  This year's Canadian Folk Music Awards are being held in Edmonton, and with the event coming up in November, the nominees for 2015 have just been announced. Leading the pack with four nominations are rural British Columbia folk duo Pharis and Jason Romero. Close behind, with three nods apiece, are Whitehorse, Jenn Grant, Amelia Curran, Fortune Ones and Catherine MacLellan. The awards gala is being held at the Citadel Theatre on November 8. The ceremony will be hosted by Connie Kaldor and Benoit Bourque. There... Read More

  SIGNATURE SOUNDS 20TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT AT RHYTHM & ROOTS SEPT. 4 We are thrilled that Rhythm & Roots in Charlestown, R.I. will host a Signature Sounds 20th Anniversary celebration this Friday, Sept. 4th. It's going to be a great party with Lake Street Dive, Eilen Jewell, The Dustbowl Revival, Parsonsfield, and Miss Tess & The... Read More

Share this:    LARUE FOLLOWS UP HIS MUCH LAUDED eOne DEBUT WITH A NEW RECORDING OF FAN FAVORITES CONSISTING OF LARUE ORIGINALS AND CLASSIC COVER INTERPRETATIONS NASHVILLE, Tenn. (September 2, 2015) – Stoney... Read More

» Aristo's Jeff Walker Passes: Aristo Media President/CEO Jeff Walker passed away suddenly late yesterday (8/24). Walker was a long time CMA and CRS board member and led AristoMedia for more than 35 years. Walker is survived by father Bill and stepmother Jeanine, wife Terri, son Jonathan, daughter Christy Walker-Watkins and and grand-daughters Elle and Lucy. Arrangements are pending. More later in Country Aircheck... Read More

Nashville and Atlanta-Based The Art of the Game, Inc. Celebrates 15th Anniversary with Star-Studded Productions in 2015 Nashville and Atlanta-Based Event Marketing and Brand Development Company Celebrates Milestone Year with Bookings for Super Bowl XLIX and MLB Opening Night on ESPN   (Nashville, Tenn. – Aug. 24, 2015) - Nashville and Atlanta-based event marketing and brand... Read More

Monikers assigned to the newcomers in the pop, rock, and hip-hop/R&B genres are anything but run-of-the-mill labels - "Velvet," "Fly," "Turbo," and "Poptropolis." SiriusXM senior vice president and general manager of music programming Steve Blatter comments, "Our lineup of commercial-free music channels continues to evolve to meet the changing tastes of our growing subscriber base and to satisfy the next generation of core subscribers. Several of the new channels feature music and artists from a... Read More

County Court Tightens Up Mass Gatherings Stricter regulations hit Travis County’s outdoor music events The County Commissioners Court voted in support of new statutes to the Mass Gathering Act on Tuesday afternoon. In effect, the changes simplify the permitting process, while imposing stiffer regulations on volume and hours of amplified sound for outdoor music events taking place in greater Travis County.   Carson Creek Ranch permit expert Scott Davidson, veteran promoter Tim O'Connor, unknown, Euphoria Fest... Read More

Happy 65th Rodney... Read More

Radio in the second quarter solidified its status as the nation's top national platform, Nielsen is reporting. Radio set a record for its national audience in a given week, with some 245 million listeners age 12 or older tuning in. Radio also set highs for its reach among African-Americans and Hispanic Americans. "As we are faced with an ever-expanding list of media options, radio maintains its place as a significant part of the listening experience," Nielsen writes. Inside Radio (subscription... Read More

Music artists have reached "a turning point" in wanting a full accounting of the digital music industry, says former Talking Heads member David Byrne. Jay-Z now owns artist-friendly service Tidal, while high-profile artists such as Taylor Swift, Neil Young and Prince have pulled their catalogs from some streaming services and used social media to call out labels. "The black box of hidden transactions in the music business, while maybe not illegal, is a recipe for chicanery," Byrne said. The New York Times (free-article... Read More

Country Radio Broadcasters Announce New Board and Officer Members for 2015-2016     (Nashville, Tenn. – July 14, 2015) - The Country Radio Broadcasters recently completed their elections for the 2015-2016 Board of Directors. Charlie Morgan, Sr. VP and Market Manager for Emmis Communications/Indianapolis, has been re-elected as President of the Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.... Read More

Roots Music Report celebrates 18 years to-date since conception in Nashville. Publishing radio airplay charts and CD reviews.. Wishing all a wonderful 4th of July.... Read More

Robert Gallagher to step down as Entertainment Director  [Fort Worth, TX- Monday, June 15, 2015] Billy Bob’s Texas announced today that Robert Gallagher, the 27+ year employee of the World’s Largest Honky-Tonk, is stepping down as Entertainment Director to spend more time with his family and various independent projects. Robert will transition out of his regular responsibilities at Billy Bob’s over the next month but will be involved going forward on a consultative and project basis.  Robert’s... Read More

While Apple was preparing a splashy introduction for a new service that would stream music over the Internet for a fee, the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut were quietly investigating the Silicon Valley giant’s negotiations with music companies in search of potential antitrust violations. The attorneys general wanted to know whether Apple pressured the music labels — or whether the labels conspired with Apple and one another — to withdraw support for popular “freemium” services offered by... Read More

New Apple Streaming Service Launches Today The crowded field of streaming services will see another entry today. And, this one carries a very hefty bank account with the promise of a huge marketing campaign. Sony Music CEO Doug Morris confirmed the Apple launch during an interview at a music industry conference in France last week. According to Re/Code the service will focus on paid subscriptions and include free sampling. The new service will include a feature a feature that will let music owners upload a sampling of songs that users... Read More

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) elevates Michael Martin to head its Nashville Membership office in the role of Vice President, reporting directly to EVP of Membership John Titta.  Martin has been with ASCAP for more than five years and previously jointly led the Creative staff alongside LeAnn Phelan, who exited in April to help launch Sea Gayle Management. Martin joined ASCAP from Extreme Writers Group (EWG), which he co-founded in 2000 with Jason Houser, and where he... Read More

83% of Country Radio listeners are in small-med markets under 300,000. 91% of the small-med market listeners are in markets of under 50,000. 17% of Country Radio listeners are in cities and large markets over 300,000. COUNTRY RADIO FACTS approx 69,700,000 weekly listeners in all markets in the U.S.(12+)  APPROX 2200 COUNTRY RADIO STATIONS  125 MAJOR/LARGE MARKET RADIO STATIONS (Using the latest Nielson numbers of 69,700,000 weekly listeners, and top 143 Nielson markets by population of 182,000,000 @ 12+ =... Read More

Blues legend B.B. King has died in Las Vegas at age 89, his lawyer says. Attorney Brent Bryson tells The Associated Press that King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT Thursday at his home in Las Vegas. The one-time farmhand brought new fans to the blues and influenced a generation of musicians with his heartfelt vocals and soaring guitar on songs such as “The Thrill Is Gone.” King sold millions of records worldwide and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of... Read More

Rounder Records Founders Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin To Receive the Kari Estrin Founding President’s Award at the 8th Annual Southeast Regional Folks Alliance Conference SERFA is a four-day conference that gives artists, venues, and music professionals a chance to network and share their talents. Attendees hail from not only all around the Southeastern states, but from throughout the US and Canada. This year, the conference will be held from May 13 – 17 in Black Mountain, NC. Last year saw the institution... Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 29, 2015) – Country legend HANK WILLIAMS, JR. has officially signed to NASH ICON RECORDS, a joint venture label between the Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) and Cumulus. The raucous Superstar joins the distinct voices of Reba, Martina McBride and Ronnie Dunn on the label, which launched in 2014. These four artists combined have sold over 186 million albums worldwide.   "Country music singers have always been a real close family and today the Nash Icon family has added me as a new... Read More

A BIG THANKS to the WAMC network of radio stations in New York. Now reporting their airplay spins to the Roots Music Report Charts each week. THANKS FOR SPINNING THE ARTISTS GUYS. Call sign Frequency City of license  WAMC 1400 AM Albany, NY  WAMC-FM 90.3 FM (HD) Albany, NY WAMK 90.9 FM Kingston, NY WAMQ 105.1 FM Great Barrington, MA  WANC 103.9 FM Ticonderoga, NY  WANR 88.5 FM Brewster, NY  WANZ 90.1 FM Stamford, NY WCAN 93.3 FM Canajoharie, NY  WCEL 91.9 FM Plattsburgh, NY  WOSR 91.7 FM... Read More

Modern rock continues to enjoy steady ratings growth, thanks to a deepening well of young, melodic bands and investments made by broadcasters to strengthen their brands. The format’s ratings share of men 18-49 grew 12% during the past three years while men 25-54 increased by double that amount, Nielsen data shows. Modern rock added an outlet in Phoenix last year and moved back to a full signal in Chicago, while HD Radio-fed translator stations sprouted up from Tampa to Raleigh to Minneapolis. “What we’re seeing is the... Read More

2 more overseas radio stations began reporting to the Roots Music Report Charts this week. Thank you RADIO.... 105.9 Bishop FM Bishop, Auckland  RTV IJsselmond FM Terrestrial Station in Kampen, Overijssel,... Read More

Universal Music Group spent $12 million to win a “Pyrrhic victory” against bankrupt digital music service MP3tunes and its founder Michael Robertson (pictured). According to Hypebot, recent court papers show representatives for UMG are seeking an additional $7,195,000 in legal fees in the case, having previously been awarded $5m by the courts. If granted, UMG’s legal team will have received more than $12m to win $12,241,000 against Robertson and $11m against his bankrupt firm. Robertson had been found... Read More

The "Hag" turns 78 years young... Read More

9 more radio stations sign up this week to report airplay to the Roots Music Report charts. Thanks for playing the music radio. Blackeyed N Blues Show Internet Station in Avon, Connecticut, United States Blues is the Truth Internet Station in LONDON, London, United Kingdom BluesRoad Internet Station in Mendig, Rheinladn-Pfalz, Germany Dublin City FM Terrestrial Station in Dublin, Leinster, Ireland Hawaii Public Radio Terrestrial Station in honolulu, Hawaii, United States Radio A1A Internet Station in Islamorada,... Read More

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In an era when broadcasters, webcasters and record companies are often publicly tearing into one another about issues such as royalties and rivalries, there were some noteworthy Kumbaya moments at this year’s South by Southwest music conference. Executives from all three industries said, at the core, their fates remain closely tied together. “We cannot break artists without radio,” Glassnote Records CEO Daniel Glass said, telling the conference crowd that the label has informed all its artists they need to find ways to... Read More

That's according to a report by Amy Yong of Macquarie Capital who says terrestrial radio's dominance of in-car listening will drop from its 80 percent share today to 60 percent in three years. Yong says inroads to automobile listening are being made by companies like SiriusXM and Pandora because cars, with 4G wireless broadband technology, are expected to account for 39 percent of US vehicles shipped this fall. Yong says radio will be appeal to increasingly smaller markets and more players like Apple's Carplay and Android Auto will... Read More

Well the saga of Sony Nashville CEO Gary Overton’s comments to The Tennessean of “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist” uttered in late February just took another interesting turn. Gary Overton is out at one of Music Row’s very top executive spots. Announced Tuesday morning (3-17), Gary Overton is stepping down from his position as Sony Nashville’s top executive at the end of March. It is the result of a “mutual agreement” between Overton and parent... Read More