Is one thing amiss within the main label world? Or are they only getting a head begin on the inevitable substitute of just about all human labor with AI? Both method, two of nation music’s main entities are slicing workers, and irrespective of how they spin it, if you’re downsizing versus rising, it’s often not a very good signal.
Ever because the Academy of Nation Music awards moved to Prime Video, it’s felt like they’re on extra shaky floor than after they have been broadcast on community TV. It’s actually laborious to know precisely how profitable the awards have been on Prime as a result of we don’t get any actual rankings. And if Amazon does boast about engagement, it’s important to take it with a grain of salt because the numbers aren’t coming from an neutral third social gathering.
A month after the 2025 ACM Awards on Could eighth, the group laid off one quarter of its workers, or 5 folks whole. That appears fairly vital, even for a smaller group. This included Alexis Bingham (Coordinator, Occasions), Lexi Cothran (Senior Supervisor, Communications and Strategic Initiatives), Jesse Knutson (Director, Publicity and Media Relations) and Brittany Uhniat (Supervisor, Artistic and Content material Manufacturing).
After all, the official line from the ACM Awards tried to color a rosy image.
“Coming off a profitable sixtieth ACM Awards week and renewal with Prime Video via 2028, the Academy applied a strategic workers realignment in an effort to help its future enterprise and development initiatives, ensuing within the elimination of 5 workers positions throughout varied departments,” the assertion stated. “We thank these people for his or her dedication and contributions to the work of the Academy.”
MCA, which is the outdated UMG Nashville (a part of the Common Music Group) additionally lately laid off a reported dozen staffers, which once more, seems like a giant quantity. The corporate is within the means of reorganizing, and maybe is trimming fats because the label seems to be to focus extra on digital and social media methods. However once more, you don’t lay off a dozen folks if all the pieces goes effectively.
For those who’re a fan of the mainstream nation music trade, must you be anxious? For those who’ve been rooting for the Music Row system governing nation music to implode, must you be glad? It’s laborious to find out at this level. But when we proceed to see extra layoffs, it can undoubtedly communicate to a deepening development that both is about rising weak point within the main label world, or a dramatic shift to streamline manpower and rely extra on AI and youthful expertise to switch the outdated guard.
