Taylor Swift’s Fearless album has debuted at #1 this week on US and Canadian pop and Country album sales charts and that success is music to the ears of Canadian owned Open Road Recordings and ‘majorly indie” music publishing firm Ole.
Swift’s sophomore album, represented by Open Road Recordings, scanned 27,450 albums in its first week of sales in Canada. The lead single, “Love Story”, is the #1 Digital Track, with 10,848 downloads, and maintains its second consecutive chart-topping status on the Canadian Country radio chart. Meantime, Swift’s two-year old self-titled debut album is parked at #1 – above big hitters such as Garth Brooks and Anne Murray – on the Canada YTD Country Album chart.
Open Road Recordings is part of Ron Kitchener’s diversified RGK Entertainment firm, a 360-styled music-focused company that includes records, management, music publishing, concert production and talent bookings. The five year-old company, with offices in Toronto and Nashville, has fast become one of the most successful music entertainment companies in the country with its roster of home-grown acts that includes Johnny Reid, The Road Hammers, The Higgins, Jason McCoy, Corb Lund and Doc Walker.
Leveraging partnerships with UMG Canada and promoter Ron Sakamoto, RKG and Open Road have generated unparallelled success with a boutique roster that has increasingly dominated domestic awards shows, earned gold and platinum album sales, and rung-up enviable box-office grosses.
Open Road represents Taylor Swift’s label Big Machine Records in Canada. The Nashville-based indie, run, by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta, also includes Jack Ingram, Jewel and Trisha Yearwood on its roster.
Self-styled “majorly independent” music publisher Ole shares half-decade status with Open Road and stands to earn substantial revenues from Taylor Swift’s stunning success through co-publishing rights to three songs on the new album, including the lead single, “Love Story.”
The privately-held publishing firm, head-officed in Toronto and operating satellite offices in Nashville and LA, owns a portfolio of more than 35,000 songs that includes the Jody Williams catalogue. The JW catalogue and roster includes songsmith Liz Rose. This connection scored huge dividends on the then-unknown Taylor Swift debut album with Rose placing seven co-writes on the self-titled album that went on to sell over three million copies. Through Rose, Ole had co-publishing credits on two of the album’s biggest hits–”Tim McGraw” and “Tears on My Guitar”.
Separately, Ole recently received its very first ASCAP Award honouring the most performed country songs of the year for “Me And God,†a Top 20 country hit written and performed by Josh Turner. Other Nashville-based writers Ole represents include “Thank God For Believers†songwriter Roger Springer, “My Life†writer Gerald O’Brien, “15 Minutes Of Shame†co-writer Kelly Archer, “I Wanna Do It All†chart-topper Gilles Godard; “Radio†writer Tebey and Willie Mack.
In Canada, the CCMA named Ole Country Music Publisher of the Year in 07 and 08.
Swift sold 592,300 copies of Fearless in its first week on release in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released yesterday morning. The singer’s 06 eponymous effort entered the chart at #19, selling just 39,000 copies in its first week.
Not only is Fearless the top-selling country debut in over a year, it also managed to outperform the self-titled release from American Idol runner-up David Archuleta. His album clocked in at #2 with 182,900 American scans
