Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line’s massive single “Cruise” and the rise of Bro-Country-Scott Borchetta had been right way more than he’d been wrong. Apparently, Scott Borchetta didn’t see the sucker.īut who can blame Borchetta for thinking he had the Midas touch? For so many years, he did. Billionaire Mark Cuban loves to say if you don’t see the sucker in the room, the sucker is you. It was like Scott Borchetta was trying to relive his halcyon hair metal days though his label, and nobody was willing to criticize the emperor’s new “Music Has Value” clothes.Īnd whoever thought that any venture with Cumulus Media-which was so underwater in red ink at the time of the deal-would every positively pay off? 18 months after launching NASH Icon, Lew and John Dickey were out at Cumulus, the radio company was in court with creditors, and stocks were at $0.76 a share, threatening to be delisted by the exchanges. Not enough ink has been expended on that embarrassment. Was it really worth all the manpower to put out a country-themed Mötley Crüe tribute record in 2014? Remember Borchetta was running around, flipping the bird at cameras with Nikki Sixx and the boys? The next year he signs Steven Tyler to a country record deal, which turned out to be an incredible disaster, despite the money spent on numerous radio singles, and trying to fit the square Steven Tyler in to the round hole of country. Details went overlooked, releases went under-promoted, and there weren’t enough hours in the day to keep up. But the problem was, he wasn’t omnipresent.Īnd so the bad signings and the failed releases began to pile up. He was opening boutique shops in downtown Nashville for his “Music Has Value” fashion brand. The next year he was mentoring on American Idol, and all of a sudden was a household name.
In 2014, Scott Borchetta though he was invincible, and why wouldn’t he? In 2014, Taylor Swift’s 1989 became the biggest blockbuster record in modern music history. And then came Dot-the home of Steven Tyler, Maddie & Tae, and those who didn’t fit elsewhere.īoth Dot and NASH Icon were launched in 2014. There was NASH Icon-Big Machine’s joint venture with Cumulus Media meant to give more attention to older artist, and the signing of Reba McEntire, Hank Williams Jr., and Ronnie Dunn. Then there was the joint venture with Universal Republic on the label Republic Nashville, which Big Machine later brought under sole ownership in 2016. In 2007, the record label became a label group after launching the Valory Records imprint with artists like Justin Moore and Jewel. Launched in 2005 with flagship artist Taylor Swift, Big Machine Records has seen nothing but incredible growth and increasing market share since the very start.Īfter Swift’s success, Big Machine brought in more artist, and more artists. Perhaps that’s because the label group is not used to delivering bad news since they’ve never really had to before.
We’re still trying to sift out what exactly has happened to the Big Machine Label Group’s Dot Records, which has apparently bit the bullet, though no official word has come down from Big Machine. The problem here was pretty simple to see, even without any leaked balance sheets or unnamed sources inside the company: there was too much growth, and too quickly. But nobody is putting calls into liquidation lawyers. The Big Machine Label Group has suffered a number of setbacks recently, and there’s no sugar coating that assessment.
Despite the rumors and speculation, and Saving Country Music once naming him the “ Country Music Antichrist,” apparently Scott Borchetta is indeed a mortal after all.
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