"Cowgirl" Rides Away: Stoney Creek's Parmalee celebrate their sixth No. 1, "Cowgirl" at BMI/Nashville. Pictured (back, l-r) are Sony Music Publishing’s Rusty Gaston, VaughnCo Entertainment’s Vaughn Rowsell, songwriter/producer David Fanning, BMI’s Shannon Sanders, songwriter Peter Daniel Newman, Reservoir’s John Ozier, songwriter Robbie Jay, Studio Bank’s Kari Barnhart, the label's Stan Marczewski, Cooking Vinyl’s Ryan Farley and the label's Adrian Michaels; (front, l-r) the group's Josh McSwain, Matt Thomas, Barry Knox and Scott Thomas.
Play It Crowd: Singer/songwriter Chris Cagle is presented a Pandora Billionaire plaque during a SiriusXM event celebrating the 25th anniversary of his debut album, Play It Loud. Pictured (l-r) are WME’s Brian Jones, manager Cole Johnstone, SXM's "Trapper" John Morris, Cagle, SXM's Ashley Till and WME’s Lance Alleman.
Jackpot: Big Machine's The Jack Wharff Band make their Grand Ole Opry debut. Pictured (l-r) are the label's LJ Stoll, the group's Ryan Atchison and Evan Novoa, the label's Scott Borchetta, the group's Garrett Howell and Jack Wharff and the label's Allison Jones and Kris Lamb.
Back-To-Plaque: Nashville Harbor's Riley Green (in hat) celebrates back-to-back solo-written No. 1s “Worst Way” and “Don’t Mind If I Do" with the label's Ryan Dokke, Scott Borchetta and Jimmy Harnen (l-r) at BMI/Nashville.
Keeps Me Maine: Santa Anna/Akando's Tyler Nance (c) with WTHT/Portland, ME’s Jadd Naamani, Michelle Taylor and Amy Ryan and the label's JC Coffey (l-r) at the station's Nashville Newcomers.
Da Bomb: Sony Music Nashville's Zach John King (c) with KSCS' Al Farb (l) and KPLX/KSCS' Mike Preston at The Bomb Factory in Dallas.
Big Dawg: The Townsquare/Lafayette, LA cluster, which includes KMDL, raises more than $227,000 during its St. Jude radiothon (2/12-13).
Man In Plaque: Warner Records Nashville's Redferrin is surprised by the label's Cris Lacy with a platinum plaque for "Just Like Johnny" at the release party for "If I Was California."
Bolo Ty: Col. NY/Records Nashville's Ty Myers in Houston. Pictured (l-r) are Records' Josh Easler and David "Bubba" Berry, KKBQ's Lauren "Lo" Sessions-Barker, Myers, KILT's Nick Russo and Chris Huff, Cherolyn Chiang and Pandora/SXM's Johnny Chiang.
Downstream changes from BMLG Chair/CEO Scott Borchetta's departure from the HYBE America-owned label (Breaking News 2/12) include EVP/Creative Sandi Spika Borchetta leaving to join her husband's new venture. That company will comprise the reconstituted Big Machine Records as well as the staff and roster of Nashville Harbor Records & Entertainment. Both imprints will continue to be distributed through HYBE America.
Beyond the entire Nashville Harbor staff including Pres./CEO Jimmy Harnen and SVPP Ryan Dokke, among the roughly 15 employees joining from BMLG are: National Dir./Promotion & Marketing Brooke Diaz, Dir./Promotion & Marketing/Midwest Jane Staszak, Dir./Streaming Andi Brooks, SVP/A&R Julian Raymond, VP/Design & Branding Justin Ford, and Scott's assistant Madison Larson. The company's email convention is firstname.lastname@bigmachinemail.com.
The new Big Machine artist roster includes Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Lady A, Aaron Lewis, Mackenzie Carpenter, Jack Wharff Band and Cole Goodwin. The Nashville Harbor roster includes Riley Green, The Band Perry, Caroline Jones, Greylan James and Shaylen. Those imprints, under the auspices of its soon-to-be-named parent company, will be worked by one "super-sized" promotion team, according to Borchetta.
"I'm blown away at how great HYBE has been to work with through all of this," he says. "How many founding CEOs last their entire agreement with the new company? They've really been extraordinary."
Meanwhile at HYBE/BMLG, The Valory Music Company, launched in 2007 as a companion imprint to Big Machine, is being folded.
Departures across BMLG include:
- Big Machine VP/Promotion & Marketing Erik Powell, who was named to the position in 2021 after joining in 2007 and rising through the ranks (Breaking News 11/8/2021). Reach Powell here.
- Valory VP/Promotion & Marketing Chris Palmer, who joined the company in 2018 after seven years at Warner Music Nashville (Breaking News 12/6/2017). Reach him here.
- Big Machine Sr. Dir./West Coast Promotion & National Strategy Bill Lubitz, who rose to the position two years ago (Breaking News 1/31/2024) after joining Big Machine in 2014. Reach Lubitz here.
Details on the leadership structure of the HYBE America company are expected next week.
