Recording artist Taylor Swift is changing her focus from Country to a more pop-based approach, and is getting the able assistance of Top 40 and Hot AC radio. But this really comes as no surprise for the member of the Big Machine Label Group.
Big Machine totally gets the continuing power of radio, and has cut deals with major radio groups, beginning with its landmark deal with Clear Channel Media & Entertainment, in which it traded streaming rights concessions for a radio airplay performance royalty.
Swift’s most recent single, “Shake It Off,” added 277 stations in the two formats, said to be the biggest single-week gain in the history of MediaBase measurement of the two. The gains in spins and station adds are continuing to pile up.
RBR-TVBR observation: When radio and records work together, amazing things can happen, including a genre shift, which you would think would be impossible for most musical artists to pull off and difficult for pretty much all of them. We continue to look for more cooperation from labels, who need radio’s airplay, and far less confrontation.
