Music News (9/7/16)

Nashville Film Festival Announces Inaugural Song Competition

The Nashville Film Festival has revealed its first Song Competition, a search for songs ready to be synced in film and television.

Music producer Timbaland, Worldwide Executive and President of Music for Electronic Arts Steve Schnur, and ABC Studios’ Sr. VP, TV Music Dawn Solér have all signed on as competition jurors.

Three winners will receive consulting from the 2017 NashFilm music supervisors. Additionally, NashFilm will pitch the winning entries to label and publishing representatives in Nashville and other music industry hubs. Additional prizes include a consultation with 1Band1Brand, full access to the Nashville Film Festival, a Gibson guitar and more prizes to be announced soon.

The first place winner will receive one roundtrip flight to Nashville and a two-night complimentary hotel stay. Submit your song before the deadline, January 6.

NSAI, CMT Announce 17th Annual NSAI Song Contest

Charles Kelley/”Leaving Nashville” lyrics

The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and CMT have announced the 17th Annual NSAI Song Contest Presented by CMT. The contest is open to all genres and submissions will be accepted until Oct. 31.

Prizes will be awarded to one Grand Prize CMT Listeners’ Choice Award Winner, one Lyric-Only winner, 10 Runners-Up, and 10 Honorable Mentions. The top 10 songs will be voted on by the fans in February and the song with the most fan votes will be the Grand Prize CMT Listeners’ Choice Award Winner.

The Grand Prize Winner will win $5,000 cash, a mentoring session with Capitol Records artist Charles Kelley, as well as additional prizes, including: a one-year single song contract with Round Hill Music, live performances at the 2017 Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival and The Bluebird Cafe, a three-day trip to Nashville, handwritten lyrics to “Leaving Nashville” and more.

The Lyric-Only winner will win a mentoring session with Big Loud Shirt writer Rodney Clawson along with additional prizes. All entrants will receive a personalized scoring sheet.

Entries can be submitted online at nsai.cmt.com or via mail. Entry fees are $35 per song for current NSAI members and $45 per song for non-NSAI members. There is no limit to the number of songs that songwriters can submit.

BMI Signs Songwriter Ben Haggard

Pictured: Newly signed BMI songwriter Ben Haggard and BMI’s Jody Williams pose for a photo in Williams’ office.

BMI continues the songwriting legacy of country music’s Haggard family with the signing of songwriter Ben Haggard.

Ben Haggard, the 23-year-old son of legendary country singer-songwriter and BMI Icon recipient Merle Haggard, stopped by the BMI Nashville office on Wednesday (Aug. 31) to officially sign as a BMI writer.

Ben has been on the road with his brother Noel, finishing out a slate of concerts Merle had been scheduled for before his death on April 7. Ben and Noel have opened for Willie Nelson, Jamey Johnson and the Oak Ridge Boys.

SMACKSongs Adds Lee Krabel as Senior Creative Director

Pictured (L-R): Lee Krabel, SMACKSongs Sr VP/Creative Robin Palmer, SMACKSongs owner/partners Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne. Photo: Elle Hussey

SMACKSongs has hired Lee Krabel as Senior Creative Director. The Belmont University graduate joins SMACKSongs after previous stops at Sea Gayle Music as well as HoriPro Entertainment, where he served as Creative Director from 2011 to 2016.

SMACKSongs, named No. 7 Hot Country Music Publisher by Billboard Magazine and 2015 Publisher of the Year by the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), represents SMACK partners/hit songwriters Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, Green River Ordinance’s Josh Jenkins, Matthew McGinn, Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey and Trevor Rosen and the new music of singer/songwriters JoSMITH and Walker Hayes.