Sticks And Stones (May Break My Single Wide Open)
Written Jun. 11, 2007 by Sean Ross in Content with 1 Comment
There are some particularly baffling things that record labels do. Putting out songs that nobody can yet purchase is one of them. So is the attempt to make more money by not putting out records ('cause if you don't release 'em, you won't lose your promotional calls). But none is more frustrating than the stories that repeatedly emerge of PDs being told not to play a label's songs if they deviate from the singles release schedule.
Last week, there were headlines in the trade press about Country PDs getting a C&D letter from Sony BMG ordering them not to play the album version of Tracy Lawrence's "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" on indie label Rocky Comfort/CO5. The album version featured Sony BMG's Kenny Chesney and the label had not granted CO5 "singles rights," which is sort of a specious distinction as any Urban PD who has negotiated the various tangle of guest appearances on any new artist project can tell you.
Labels have, in the past, tried to discourage radio from playing songs as imports, or songs that existed only as audio from a TV show (e.g., Tim McGraw's recent ACM awards performance, "If You're Reading This"), but the Tracy Lawrence single was different. For the first time, PDs were being told not to play a song that anybody could walk into a record store and purchase. PD reaction was swift and defiant and a day later, Sony BMG apologized.
You may know that part already. But in last week's press coverage, one PD made the comment that programmers would not be rooting for Lawrence to go to No. 1. And, indeed, "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" is indeed No. 1 on this week's Country chart. Then again, in case you think that radio is ready to stop worrying about what the labels want altogether, "If You're Reading This" goes 28-31 and has plateaued in airplay.
Reader Comments
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"For the first time, PDs were being told not to play a song that anybody could walk into a record store and purchase."
Not the first time. I recall when Gail Davies had a wonderful cut on her Greatest Hits album called "It's You Alone." Song featured a cameo by Sony-act Ricky Skaggs who sang just a couple of lines.
If I recall correctly, and I'll bet my left nut I do, Sony would not allow Warner Brothers to issue a single with Skaggs participating and radio was told to not play the album cut. Warners issued a Skaggs-less 45, but Davies was leaving the label anyway and the record stiffed out in the mid 50s.
And a really really nice record was lost.
Back then there was no big Programmer uprising, so I'm heartened to see that there was some independent thinking with the Lawrence record.
I have to believe that heavy-handed record label decrees just won't cut it on the "Infinite Dial." Radio can't survive that type relationship anymore.