SMN Folds Arista Nashville
• Sony Music Nashville (SMN) has shut down its Arista Nashville imprint and is relocating its artist roster to SMN’s Columbia and RCA labels. The news was initially broken by Country Aircheck, and a follow-up story by Billboard reports that Old Dominion and Megan Moroney are moving over to Columbia while Nate Smith is headed to RCA. The other artists on Arista, including Brooks & Dunn, Ryan Hurd, Seaforth, Morgan Wade and Adam Doleac will be reassigned when they have projects headed to radio. No acts are being dropped.
In an exclusive interview with Billboard‘s Melinda Newman, SMN Chairman & CEO Randy Goodman explained that this move was made to realign better with radio’s needs. “RCA, Columbia and Arista are really imprint names that we use for three different promotion teams because that gives you multiple calendars. We’re now targeting our approach to radio to be more strategic,” Goodman told Billboard. Goodman also noted that SMN will not be sending fewer songs to radio and that the realignment only strengthens Columbia and RCA by increasing the number of regionals on each team by one.
As part of this restructuring, Arista Sr. Director of Promotion & Artist Development, Lyndsay Church has left the company after seven years. It was also reported that Arista Director of Promotion & Artist Development Ali O’Connell is moving over to RCA, as is Specialist/Promotion & Artist Development Amy Menz, who will succeed Nicole Walden as she segues to the national team. Lisa Owen, also an Arista Director of Promotion & Artist Development, shifts to Columbia.
