Music News (6/6/13)

Liz Rose

Warner/Chappell Music has signed a worldwide co-publishing agreement with songwriter Liz Rose and publishing company Liz Rose Music.

Rose was the recipient of the 2012 ACM Award for Song of the Year in honor of Eli Young Band’s “Crazy Girl,” and was a SESAC Nashville Songwriter of the Year. Additionally, Rose is a frequent collaborator of Taylor Swift’s, having co-penned 16 songs together, including the No. 1 crossover hits “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “You Belong With Me” (which won the 2010 BMI Award for Song of the Year), and “White Horse” (which won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Country Song).

“Liz Rose is a highly-sought after name in the global songwriting community, and rightly so,” said Ben Vaughn, Executive Vice President, Warner/Chappell Nashville. “Liz has been a part of so many hits. We are proud to partner with her, Scott Ponce, Natalie Harker and the songwriters that she has so smartly brought into her family. Liz Rose Music and Warner/Chappell complement each other well, and together we’ll continue to create impactful music and meaningful careers for our songwriters.”

Rose has also penned songs for many other artists including Tim McGraw, Alison Krauss, Hunter Hayes, Little Big Town, LeAnn Rimes, Jewel, and more. In 2010, Rose launched Liz Rose Music with her son Scott Ponce. The company’s roster includes songwriters Emily Shackelton, Jeff Middleton, Jesse Walker, Chuck Wicks and Stephony Smith.

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Alison Krauss

Alison Krauss is among the presenters and/or performers for the upcoming Songwriters Hall of Fame Annual Induction and Awards Gala to be held Thursday, June 13 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.

Krauss will join Peter Asher, Petula Clark, Shelea Frazier, Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, Billy Joel, Wiz Khalifa, Chad Kroeger, Smokey Robinson, Patty Smyth, Jordin Sparks, Rob Thomas, Sting, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Paul Williams and Motown: The Musical cast members.

The previously announced inductees for the 2013 Songwriters Hall of Fame include Tony Hatch, Mick Jones and Lou Gramm, Holly Knight, JD Souther, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.

The evening’s Pioneer Award will be presented to Berry Gordy and the Johnny Mercer Award will be presented to Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Benny Blanco will receive the Hal David Starlight Award, while Sam Cooke‘s “A Change Is Gonna Come” will be honored with the Towering Song award.

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Florida Georgia Line’s monster smash, “Cruise” retains its lock on the chart top by selling another 196k units. At this rate it will be 4X Platinum next week! Having two versions of the track has been a masterful and profitable idea for all connected to this project. (The remix featuring Nelly actually sold 126k of this week’s total 196k, for an RTD of over one million.)

But happening right underneath the glitz of FGL’s achievement there is another story playing out, based around a TV singing contest—The Voice. Blake Shelton’s huge personality and tall talent have really benefited from this massive media exposure platform. And the Okie has totally maxed the opportunity. Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here” track jumps 36% this week staying in the No. 2 spot with over 147k downloads. The song has charted for 10 weeks and next week will surely pass the one million mark. Shelton’s benefit concert this past week to support disaster victims in his home state likely helped swell his numbers, but he’s just so damn likable…

It’s no surprise that Danielle Bradbery was one of the final five saved by America on last night’s show. Bradbery currently has three songs on the top 100 country tracks list. “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Ole Days)” which she sang on last week’s show jumped to No. 7 with almost 52k downloads. The previous week her rendition of “Heads Carolina, Tails California” sold 48k (No. 8) and then added another 9k this week. Four weeks ago her song choice was “Maybe It Was Memphis” which debuted at No. 9 with sales of over 49k.

MusicRow.com subscribers can read David M. Ross’ full article here.

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Apple is working to complete licensing deals with record and publishing companies so it can launch a streaming radio service. According to numerous reports, including one in the New York Times, Apple would like to debut the offering at its annual developers conference which opens June 10 in San Francisco.

Unofficially nicknamed iRadio, the service is expected to offer free, ad supported streaming. It would be similar to Pandora, which allows users to tailor the song selection.

The Times reports that Universal has signed on for recorded music licensing, but not publishing, and that Warner Music is on board with both sets of rights.