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10+ Questions with ... Stacy Blythe
October 5, 2020
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Stacy Blythe joined Big Loud Records as Director of National Promotion shortly following its launch in 2015, and was promoted to the newly created role of VP/Promotion in 2018. Prior to joining the label, she was Director of Southeast Promotion for Republic Nashville, with prior career stops at Stoney Creek Records, 1720 Entertainment and Category 5 Records. With Blythe helming the promotion department, Bid Loud has enjoyed seven U.S. airplay hits in its five-year history, as well as multiple Gold and Platinum certifications and more than five million global streams to date.
Editor’s note: Given the wide-ranging nature of this conversation with Blythe, we’ve relinquished the normal 10 Questions format this week in favor of a longer interview.
Let’s start with the label’s recent five-year anniversary. Obviously you’ve had quite a lot of successes in that time, including seven #1 hits, but what were some of the proudest accomplishments for you? Maybe some of the hits that were the most hard fought?
First of all, our very first #1 hit was Chris Lane. We started a label with a very different sounding record for the Country format, and we were met with open arms. Your first #1 is always such a special one, but for it to be a debut artist, debut single and on a new label was pretty special. A lot of people thought, and still think to this day, that Chris was an “On the Verge” artist for iHeart or some other airplay program. He wasn’t. We had no special programming. It was just an organic, hard-fought #1, so that definitely is my first proudest moment.
And then following that would be our “Up Down” #1 with Morgan Wallen. It came down to the wire. I’ve never worked a closer #1. We got it in Mediabase by 72 points. I’m never, ever going to forget it. It was such a bonding moment for the team, but I feel that it was also a pivotal moment for Big Loud, where we were up against a major, we came out on top, and I think radio started to really say, “Okay,” and everybody else in Nashville started to kind of take notice when that victory happened.
When you say you were welcomed with open arms right from the launch, that’s certainly not true of most startups, or most indie labels in general. What do you attribute that to? Is it the Craig Wiseman connection? Was it the team you had? Was it all of the above?
I think there were many things. It was a combination of [then label President] Clay Hunnicutt having a lot of friends at radio. I brought in a lot of relationships. But on top of that, people knew of Big Loud [publishing] with the songwriting success of Craig, Rodney [Clawson], and then that Florida Georgia Line success, of course. But I don’t want to say that it was a hundred percent just past relationships. We really worked hard on how we wanted to be presented. And there was a lot of well thought out planning. I think that radio appreciated that as well. We had a clear laid plan and goal before we hit the road.
It seems like your roster is a little quirky, or a little bit more left to center than the average label. Is that by design where you’re not necessarily looking to chase the artists that are in a bidding war with every other label in town, and you just kind of want to go find your own stars?
Yeah, the quirky description is funny because I don’t think this is just the artists. I think Big Loud is really a band of misfits. This is not the direction you were going with this question, but I’m just going to go there and then circle back on the artists. Our culture at Big Loud is something that I am so proud of. We are all so, so different, and everyone brings something different to the table creatively. But I have never worked in a place where everybody gets along so seamlessly as Big Loud, and that includes our artists.
That is not just the group that works at the label or the management company or the publishing company, or in the studio. The artists are just as much family to each other and to us as the employees of the label. And as far as the artists that we’re signing, we’re always looking for different. We have an incredible A&R department, and they just have a really great ear for up-and-coming [talent] that’s different. So I have to give all of the credit to [VP of A&R] Patch [Culbertson] and the A&R team, because they’re true geniuses.
From a promotion standpoint though, is it an advantage or a disadvantage (or both) to have to, with every record, go to radio and say, “Let me explain to you who Ernest is and why you should care.” Or is it more like radio, at this point, expects something fresh, different and unique from Big Loud?
I always want to be able to take an artist to radio that sounds like nobody else that’s already on the radio. I would take that over run of the mill insert artist “A” [name] any day. But again, our A&R department does a lot of studying before we even go to radio. So while I love celebrating the successes of the promotion team, we’re just the messengers for these hits and the A&R team is doing such a great job of making sure that they are giving us hits to deliver to radio. It’s a process that we’ve been constantly working to improve since the beginning of Big Loud.
In what other ways would you say that you guys are unique compared to what some of the other labels do?
We are definitely growing, but for so long, we have operated [with] a skeleton group. I would say some of the under-celebrated stars in our company are our digital department. I think that we have one of the best digital departments in Nashville when we’re talking all of the visuals coming out of our building.
We’ve grown our A&R department as the years have gone on, but we started [the whole label] with a staff of about the size that just our promo department is now. And as far as other labels in town, we’re just trying to stay competitive, so we’re always trying to figure out how we do things a little bit differently and how we keep up with what the fans are doing, with what Country listeners are doing. It’s been five years, but we’ve had to be ever evolving in that regard.
What is the current strategy with Morgan Wallen, because it’s so unusual to see two active singles from the same artist being worked to radio at the same time with “More Than My Hometown” and ‘7 Summers.”
That is what we’re rolling with. Yes, we are working two singles from one artist, and I’ve heard it described a lot of different ways, [including] “bold” and “aggressive.” I think we had no other choice. “7 Summers” was purely a fan reaction [record]. What we saw on release date, it was something that Morgan played the demo of on his socials and the fans took it and it blew up on TikTok, and Morgan decided he wanted to put it out. The fans were demanding it. We had no idea that it was going to be what it was, and we all had to sit down and say, “You know, we can’t ignore this moment.” I guess if we’re going to try to do it, Morgan is the artist [to do it with]. What’s better than one Morgan Wallen hit record on the radio? Two!
We definitely have something special in Morgan. “Chasing You” was a #1 most recently, and it [stayed] in power rotation at a lot of stations. So we’re just really blessed to that the fans are embracing Morgan the way that they have.
Tell us about the addition of former Entercom WUSN (US99)/Chicago and KMNB (102.9 The Wolf)/Minneapolis PD Kenny Jay to your team in July in the newly created role of National Dir. of Radio Marketing.
One thing that our Managing Partner/CEO Seth England and a lot of us execs talk about is collecting young talent, finding those people who are forward thinking. And quite frankly, if there’s people that we are fans of the way that they work and they become available, it’s worth it for us to find a spot for them in our company.
Kenny Jay fills a hole in the radio marketing space. He’s an expert in that field, and myself and [Director of National Promotion] Ali Matkosky do not have a radio background. We’ve always been in promotion. So to add an executive to the promo team that has had so much success in radio just seemed like the obvious decision for us to better our radio promotion efforts.
He’s fitting right in, and I think his mind is blown a little bit. He would not mind me saying that. I’ve heard him say it. We hustle over here, and he came in and he was like, “Wow, okay. Right to work! Got it.” He is right in lockstep with us, so it’s been a great addition.
Explain a little bit about how the label, and the publishing arm and the management arm at Big Loud all kind of integrate together.
Well, first of all, we’re all in the same building, which is different than anyone else in town. But it just makes us maybe a little bit more nimble in our process that we have hit songs being written on the third floor, we’re hearing them down on the second floor where the label is, and then we have a studio on the first floor. So we’re really just a one-stop shop to crank out this music when, in other scenarios, there’s a lot of other companies involved.
Now, that’s not to say our artists are only cutting Big Loud-written records. That’s not the truth, but we do have that at our disposal right upstairs. And with writers like Craig and Rodney and Matt Dragstrem, I mean, they’re just killing it. So we’re just, as a label, fortunate to have them so close to us.
Our artists have had cuts on other artists that aren’t in our building. So it’s just a lot of fun to get to kind of peek behind the curtain of publishing, which, being in radio promotion, I’ve never gotten to do before coming to Big Loud. And songwriters are just genius. I mean, they’re like wizards. I will hear things come from upstairs and just be mind blown.
With so many of your artists also writers on other people’s records, is your team sort of like another voice for promotion for those records too, or do you at least have to be careful not to do any negative promotion on those cuts?
That’s one thing that I’m really proud of. Everybody that works at Big Loud, we’re just fans of music. We really do love seeing everybody win. That sounds so cheesy, but it’s true. So it just makes it a little bit more fun when it involves someone in our building. “Chasing You” was the first #1 that we’ve had that’s been completely [contained] in our building. That was a really cool moment for us as a company. Everybody in our building is there because they love music, and we all have so many different backgrounds. But if we’re not cheering each other on, then I wouldn’t want to be in this because I’m a fan of what so many other people in Nashville are doing.
A year ago Big Loud launched female-driven sister label Songs & Daughters. Is the plan always going to be that your team will work their records, and will all of their records go to radio, or just select ones?
As far as Songs & Daughters go, it’s the same selection process for radio singles as anything else in the Big Loud umbrella. When we see that all of the signs that we look for in the data on the back end point to radio, then we will push go. But for the time being, yes, the Big Loud team will be the radio promotion team for Songs & Daughters. That could change in the future, but for now that’s what it is.
Why did you guys start doing your Monday “Reality Report?” You seem to share it so freely when it contains information that could benefit other labels as well sometimes.
That was the brainchild of Ali Matkosky. I am so fortunate to have run into Ali’s husband in our parking lot when we were looking for a national [in 2018], because she has been a huge asset to not only this promo team, but also this company.
We were trying to sell the early success of Chris Lane on the consumption side, in comparison with some other things on the chart. You know, Chris
Lane records are consistently a little bit slower to move up the chart. We were trying to prove a point, and Ali created the Reality Report, but it’s still funny we share it because it’s information that everybody has access to. Everyone can pull it. It’s just the way that it’s organized [that is different]. It’s an all-encompassing report that does not leave anything out or put anything in that is not on the chart. And listen, if something’s ahead of our records on the Reality Report, that’s reality … It is a true measure of consumption and what the fans are running to.
It’s also a weekly reminder of what a data-driven world we live in. There’s just so many ways to slice and dice it, and so many different places to find information.
It is. And it’s also not an end all be all. It’s not like we’re saying, “This is #1 on the Reality Report, it should be your most played record.” There are so many other factors, obviously, [like] research. There’s been multiple #1s in our format that have been huge researching records that never broke the top 20 on the Reality Report. We just were in a place where there was so much data being shared and it was very inconsistent. And we kept hearing from stations, “I’m getting this report from this label and this report from that label, and everything I get, of course, has had that company’s records near the top.” So we just wanted to put together a real picture of what was really going on.
Let’s talk about COVID and how that’s kind of rocked your world. With no tours, no radio tours, no travel, how are you coping?
Man, that’s a loaded question at this point. I think the obvious difference for us is everybody’s at home. So, no traveling. A big part of our business of promotion is getting face to face with our radio friends and getting business done, and you aren’t able to do that. Everybody is living in a new routine. So I’m trying to get people on the phone and on Zoom. And for myself, working with a three-year-old at home and trying to be on the phone all day is difficult.
It’s very difficult to introduce a new artist to radio without being able to be face to face. I think all of us on the label side have been trying to reinvent the radio tour virtually since March. We’re going into our second new artist launch since COVID started. MacKenzie Porter had just started a radio tour when we shut down, and now we are [doing] a radio tour virtually with Larry Fleet.
I think we all love the in person interaction. I really miss seeing people and seeing live music. And the big challenge right now is figuring out communication. But we also have five regionals, and only two of them work out of the Nashville office. So other than travel, for the other three of them, not much has changed. I would say that we have gotten closer as a team. We’ve had some virtual happy hours, and game nights and things that we weren’t doing because someone was always on the road. So our communication has definitely improved amongst the group … Thank goodness for Zoom.
What is it like working with your husband, [Big Loud Director of Southeast Promotion Tyler Waugh] especially now that you’re both working at home with a three-year-old?
I have had so much respect for how Tyler works as a regional. He fights for his stations. He really cares about his radio partners.
We’re in the Nashville office together in non-COVID times, and I don’t really see him all that much during the day when we’re in the office. It really just is a schedule, juggling things. I will say with us being at the same company, where that presents some issues is just us having to be at the same event or on the same meetings.
Being at home, there has been zero time apart [but] we really work so well together. During the day just seems like our work time, and then we shut it down at night and we have family time. It really is just like working with your best friend. It sounds sappy and dumb, but he’s been so great. Also, he is such a great dad. [Daughter] Frankie is three and she always needs something, but … I don’t complain about any of it because this [quarantine] is weird and hard for everyone. We’re all figuring it out.
Talk about the next six to nine months, what upcoming acts you have and who’s next on the docket to break?
We have so many exciting things happening. Larry Fleet should be the only thing going to radio in the next couple of months, and Larry has been definitely waiting his turn for that song [“Where I Find God”] to pop. It’s already the #1 testing record at WXBQ [Tri-Cities]. So we’re stoked about that … Larry is so special. I’m so excited about him as an artist and as a human. He’s just a good ol’ working man, and I just can’t wait for the world to hear Larry Fleet. When you hear him live, it just stops you in your tracks.
We have awesome things coming from Hailey Whitters on Songs & Daughters. I am so excited about her. HARDY’s album came out on September 4th, and there’s been so much incredible feedback regarding that album. There’s a lot of really exciting things going on with Sean Stemaly, and he’s about to get his moment at radio. The fans are definitely raising their hands when it comes to Sean for sure.
Chris Lane’s record went for adds at Country radio on October 28th of last year and it is just now top 15, but it is now a rocket. The research is kicking in, and I think that if you would ask me right this moment what I’m most proud of on a Wednesday at five o’clock, it is that record for sure. We get to that spot in every Chris Lane radio single, and I just hope in the future that there can be a little bit more confidence [in him] from the get go from our friends at radio.
Isn’t that just happening more now with records in general taking a longer time?
Yeah, Country is definitely the slowest moving chart. The issue is there’s so much great music coming out of Nashville and out of our format right now, and from all across the board, and all of these new, young artists. It’s taking longer, but there definitely are some things that need to get an earlier nod for sure.
Where do you see the label and your team in particular five years from now?
If my bosses are reading this, I hope that I can be lucky enough to still be part of Big Loud in five years. This has been the most rewarding time, and Big Loud has, no pun intended, some really big things coming in the next year. There really is no telling where the next five years will take us, but if it’s anything like the past five years, we have grown our artist roster exponentially, and that’s not slowing down. So we’re looking forward to adding more talent to the label and every department.
I keep joking with people that it feels like we’re growing into a “real” label, but what I mean by that is we’ve been operating for five years on a pretty skeleton crew, and now we’re filling in those spaces where we have had so many people wearing so many different hats, Kenny [Jay] being a great example, taking the lead on the radio marketing efforts. I definitely can see our staff expanding, and the artist roster expanding exponentially. But there’s some really exciting young talent already on the label that will have their time to shine over the next five years. I’m really excited about Ashland Craft. I am so excited for the world to hear what is going on with her and for radio to really get a hold of Ashland.
We are truly a family. I know that people hate when everybody at every company says, “Oh, we’re a big family,” but we really are. We kind of roll as a pack. If you’ve been to the Red Door [bar] any day of the week, you’ve probably seen a lot of Big Loud people there. So, in the next five years, I just hope that the same team that we have now is still what we have in five years with open arms, welcoming some new people into the family and just increasing success.
It’s always so hard to say what the future holds, because if you would have asked me in 2015 where Big Loud would be in five years, this -- where we are right now -- would never have been in my wildest dreams. The fact that Morgan Wallen just set so many new records with a release, I never in my wildest dreams would have predicted that. So I can only hope that we’ll just continue to be as blessed as we have been.
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