After the jump is a Tennessean story by Ryan Underwood about how tough it's been to sell country music overseas. It sparked a couple of thoughts. First, the story doesn’t mention that for many Americana artists, who play country music closer to its roots than most mainstream radio country, Europe and other foreign markets have been more welcoming than the homefront. Elizabeth Cook, Raul Malo and Lambchop are just a few artists that come quickly to mind who have toured overseas and who are building long-term fan bases there. Second, the story might have grappled with socio-political perceptions, which is to ask whether country music, America’s most patriotic and conservative music format, is just of step with world opinion these days. I’m not sure if Canadians, British, German and French audiences are really going to get on board with home-of-the-brave songs and postures after what’s gone down in the past four years.
Read the story HERE...
Country music struggles to find foreign market
Sales overseas play discouraging tune for Music RowBy RYAN UNDERWOOD
Staff Writer - TENNESSEAN.COM
The United States wasn't the only place where Rascal Flatts sold lots of albums in 2006.The trio also made a respectable showing in Japan after simultaneously releasing four albums there last year, throwing some sales competition into a region whose fledgling country music tastes have long favored bluegrass.
In China meanwhile, a growing pocket of country music fans tend to prefer Alison Krauss over Alan Jackson, according to the host of a country music TV show in Shanghai. Elsewhere in the country, some audiences enjoy the Nashville sound simply because it gives them an excuse to throw on a pair of chaps and a cowboy hat — like characters in Brokeback Mountain, which became a hit film in many parts of China.
Unfortunately for Music Row, these kinds of anecdotes appear to be just that, and they don't necessarily point to a larger sales trend.
While country music captured nearly 13 percent of the U.S. market in 2006 — the largest share of total domestic album sales the category has seen in nearly a decade — that success has failed to translate in foreign markets.
For regions where country music registers as a percentage of album sales — Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, among them — numbers have mostly either slipped or held steady over the past five years, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Hard to pin down
Global music sales topped $33.5 billion in 2005, though methods for tracking those sales, as well as varying definitions for genres, make it hard to paint a definitive picture of worldwide country music results.
But executives on Music Row say the amount of foreign sales they see is miniscule and actually may be shrinking, due in part to illegal downloading as well as the lack of a ready-made network of country radio and TV outlets abroad.
Ben Kline, executive vice president of sales, marketing and new media for Universal Music Group Nashville, said that a decade ago, Canada typically accounted for about 10 percent of the company's sales. Today, Kline said, that number has dropped to 4 percent or 5 percent.
"American country music continues to be a struggle overseas," Kline said. "From superstars to developing artists, it's the same story."
CMA seeking a remedy
That's a situation the Country Music Association has been working to remedy in recent years after setting up a Global Markets Task Force in 2000, headed by Nashville publicist and Australia native Jeff Walker.
For instance, on Jan. 30, the Country Music Association will invade Ireland and the United Kingdom with its Third Annual "New From Nashville" concert series featuring singers Jace Everett and Julie Roberts. Everett trekked across the pond with performer Dierks Bentley for last year's "New From Nashville" series as well.
And in Guangzhou, the third-largest city in mainland China and the capital of Gaungdong province, the CMA and the Tennessee Department of Tourism maintain a kiosk offering information about country music and a continuously playing DVD highlighting music stars.
Judy Seale, a Nashville booking agent who organizes international country music festivals, said she thinks there's plenty of demand for country music overseas. It's just that filling that demand isn't always easy.
"For example in China, you can't sell CDs for more than $1, maybe $2, if you're lucky," Seale said. Consumers there simply won't bear a higher cost.
"I don't think that's going to get many Nashville labels too excited."
Cathy Chen, who hosts the country TV show in Shanghai, called Sound of Country, said another hurdle for media companies doing business there is that they can only export about 30 CD titles per year. (Chen's show is done entirely in Chinese with translated lyrics available on its Web site.)
"So if country music is not a priority for a record label, it's hard to sell it here," said Chen, the CMA's only Chinese member.
She said that's the reason an artist like Keith Urban has been able to sell only about 7,000 albums in her area.
That's true even though Urban and Carrie Underwood appear to be gaining popularity among the small group of country fans in China, Chen said.
Difficult to tour
Kline said from the record company side of things, artists can't easily go on a promotional tour in foreign markets because country music radio and TV stations mostly don't exist.
"Whatever media there is tends to be specialty programming. It's not usually in the mainstream," Kline said.
Having a hit song coast to coast in the U.S. makes a much bigger sales impact than having a hit in a small foreign country, Kline explained.
"To try and build something internationally, you've got to have an artist over there," he said. "And every two-week period you have them abroad is time you don't have them in the States."
Seale said she's well aware that a hit country act can make much more money in the short term touring in the U.S. But she counters that a group like the Bellamy Brothers made an early commitment to its international audience, which has paid long-term dividends ever since.
Said Seale: "I could book them in South Africa for every weekend of the year if they wanted to do that."
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