Music News (9/28/22)

Jody Williams Songs Adds Two To Publishing Roster, One To Writer Management

Pictured (L-R): Andy Austin, Harper O’Neill, and Trent Dabbs

Jody Williams Songs (JWS) has signed three new creators to its growing roster. Andy Austin and Harper O’Neill have inked publishing deals with JWS and Warner Chappell, while Trent Dabbs joins JWS as a writer management client.

A Kannapolis, North Carolina native, Austin has been writing and performing in Nashville since 2018. His music embodies neotraditional sensibilities reminiscent of 80’s and 90’s country music. Austin is also a member of a trio with Dan Alley and Sam Banks, and their performances at The Scoreboard Bar & Grill have become a must-see weekly event.

O’Neill is a writer-artist from Richardson, Texas who has been pursuing a career in Nashville for the past four years. As a writer, she collaborates with a tribe of like-minded writer-artists, such as Meg McCree, Ben Chapman, Collin Nash, and Aaron Raitiere. The first single from her debut EP, produced by Jake Gear, will be released this fall.

Dabbs is a writer, producer and artist. He’s has cuts on Kacey Musgraves’ Grammy award-winning album, Golden Hour (“High Horse”), as well as in hundreds of films and TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy, Love is Blind, Vampire Diaries, Nashville and more. Coin, Anderson East, Caylee Hammack, Natalie Hemby, Lady A, Little Big Town, Ingrid Michaelson, and Needtobreathe are among the artists who have co-penned and recorded Dabbs’ songs.

These three join a roster of artists, writers and producers represented by JWS, including Greg Bates, Nathan Chapman, Vince Gill, Natalie Hemby, Peytan Porter, Jason Nix, Jeremy Spillman, Driver Williams and Ashley McBryde.
 

The MLC Unveils New Portal For Independent Music Distributors

The MLC has created a new portal for distributors called the Distributor Unmatched Recordings Portal (DURP).

DURP will allow users to see the publicly available data for the unmatched recordings they’ve released, allowing them to work with customers to register their songs with The MLC and claim unmatched royalties. This new feature joins the growing suite of tools that leverage The MLC’s publicly available data to improve data quality and pay rights-holders their mechanical royalties accurately and on time. The MLC hopes that, by using this feature, more distributors will share this information with their customers and encourage those customers to make sure their works are properly registered with The MLC.

Once a distributor sets up a DURP account, they will get access to a custom dashboard that shows them the publicly available data for sound recordings they have distributed that The MLC has accrued unmatched mechanical royalties for. The information about these recordings is derived from usage reports from DSPs, which generally include the name of the sound recording distributor along with the other metadata.

The MLC will be offering an informational webinar for distributors led by Bogan on Oct. 14 to give prospective users an inside look into how they can use DURP to better serve the creators who use their distribution services. Distributors can sign up for this free webinar here.

For more information about DURP and to request access, click here.
 

Jamie Davis Inks With Sony Music Publishing Nashville

Pictured (L-R, back row): Kenley Flynn, Dale Bobo, Anna Weisband, Dan Isbell, Aubrey Rupe, Synnovea Halsel; (L-R, front row): Tom Luteran, Jamie Davis, Rusty Gaston

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Jamie Davis has signed with Sony Music Publishing Nashville.

Davis achieved success as a co-writer on Luke Combs’ No. 1 single, “The Kind Of Love We Make.” The song has spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 to date, peaking at No. 13, while also garnering over 125 million on-demand streams.

He got his start in the industry with his band Jamie Davis & Soul Gravy alongside former band members Dan Isbell and Dustin Nunley, who is currently a member of Luke Combs’ touring band. In 2017, Davis joined Combs’ team as a guitar tech and has continued to write songs and travel on the road with them.

“The Kind of Love We Make” is Davis’ third cut with Luke Combs, and he’s also had cuts with Lily Rose, Jenna Paulette, Leith Loftin and others.
 

Clint Daniels Renews Deal With Porchlight Music Publishing

Pictured (L-R): Porchlight Music’s Tim Medlin, Freeman Wizer, Anthony Smith, and Clint Daniels. Photo: Grayson Green

Clint Daniels has re-signed with Porchlight Music Publishing. Daniels first signed a co-venture publishing deal with BMG and Porchlight Music in 2019.

The Panama City, Florida native was signed to Arista Nashville as a solo artist in 1998. In 2003, he signed with Epic Records. However, after already co-writing his first No. 1 single for Joe Nichols (“Brokenheartsville”), Daniels decided to focus on songwriting instead.

In 2020, Daniels was nominated for both a Grammy Award (Best Country Song) and an ACM Award (Song of the Year) for Eric Church‘s “Some Of It.”

Daniels has co-written No. 1 singles for Nichols, Montgomery Gentry (“Roll With Me”), and Church. He’s also had cuts by numerous artists, including George Strait, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Clay Walker, Easton Corbin, Jon Pardi, and Brandy Clark.