STATE OF THE STATE: BIG LOUD
No big whoop, but Seth England’s Big Loud just happens to have the year’s biggest album in any genre, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which spent a mind-blowing 18 nonconsecutive weeks at #1 on the album chart, amassed 5.3 in ATD, generated billions of streams and launched single “Last Night” into the stratosphere.
Wallen, whose prior set, Dangerous: The Double Album, spent most of the year in the Top 10, took home the Male Artist of the Year trophy at the 2023 ACMs and the Country Songwriter of the Year prize from BMI (“Last Night” also earned a Grammy nom for Best Country Song). He also embarked on an absolute barnburner of a tour that proved he was one of the biggest stars in live music as well.
While Morgan was ruling the world, his pal HARDY was breaking out bigtime—first with the powerhouse single “wait in the truck” f/Lainey Wilson (Which won Music Event of the Year and the video prize at both the CMAs and the ACMs) and subsequently with the concept album the mockingbird & THE CROW, a dazzling fusion of country and hard rock that scored a Top 5 chart bow. He also won the ACMs’ inaugural Artist-Songwriter of the Year award. His playful but hard-charging new single, “ROCKSTAR,” is headed for Active Rock radio.
There were plenty more awards, including ACM New Female Artist of the Year for hot rookie Hailey Whitters, and numerous accolades for Big Loud itself, notably Country Aircheck Label of the Year, the CCMA Awards Record Company of the Year and the MusicRow Awards Label Group of the Year.
England and team—Producer/President of A&R/Partner Joey Moi, Writer/Partner Craig Wiseman, COO Austen Adams, SVP/GM Patch Culbertson, SVP Promo Stacy Blythe, SVP Marketing Candice Watkins, SVP A&R Sara Knabe and VP Insights & Analytics Eric England—extended not only the profile of Big Loud but its reach. They launched Big Loud Texas with Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall, inked a partnership with Severance Records and opened offices in London, England, and Brisbane, Australia. Big Loud Rock, with Greg Thompson, Lloyd Aur Norman and AJ Kasen rounding out the exec team, is making noise in L.A.
Big Loud brought Cayleigh Shepherd and Johnno Keetels aboard as label managers in the U.K. and Australia, respectively, while upping Brittani Koster to director, streaming & commercial partnerships, Ava Boney to A&R manager, Justin Clark to manager, national promotion/associate label manager Canada and Caitlin Erramouspe to digital, manager.
