Those hot August nights are most certainly in full force especially when it comes to the music in the Summer of 2015. We can’t remember a time when there were so many releases during one quarter from Mainstream to Country and it shows us that the music industry is as hot as ever. In fact, if you are an artist or band and appear on any chart in the USA, consider yourself lucky as the competition has been fierce. During this issue we will focus on the many chart-makers and chart-breakers that are setting the world on fire during this musically hot time of year.

As in many summers past there are always artists that try to capitalize on this time of year as they should. Demi Lovato got a late start but that has not stopped her “Cool For the Summer” from becoming one of the fastest rising songs of the sunny season. Radio can’t seem to figure out what to do with Maroon 5 and their “This Summers Gonna Hurt Like A…” but with Adam Levine being as hot as he is right now many radio programmers just suck it up and run with it. We have spoken to music and program directors in the smaller markets that won’t touch this single. Although not using the word Summer in its title, the Omi single “Cheerleader” continues to move to the top of the Mainstream charts in record time with its summer feel.

The Big Machine label group can look back to the Summer of 2015 as one of pure magic. With their core flagship artist in Taylor Swift, they have dominated mainstream radio with a boatload of #1 singles. That has also opened the door for others on their roaster such as Sam Hunt who now finds himself crossing other formats with his “Take Your Time” single. When you throw in what they have been doing in Country from Florida-Georgia Line, Frankie Ballard to Tim McGraw (among others) it has been a very powerful run for Scott Borchetta and company. Their staff deserves a nice paid vacation and maybe they can get Taylor Swift to pay for it.

Just when you thought there might be a break in all this activity, Country artists abound with new releases, almost one after the other. Just this week alone we’ve seen new singles from Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton to name a few at the superstar level and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With touring in full swing and music at an all-time high it has really been quite a money generating time of year.

In this issue all you have to do is take a look at our charts to see just what we are talking about. Not only does music abound with the major labels and their artists, the music from the independent artists and labels is at an all-time high as well. Many programmers find that they have to pick and choose very carefully about what goes in and what stays out and for many this is a nice change of pace. Programmers had been holding on to a lot of songs in their current category and now many are having to throw even some of the hits into re-current just to make some room.
Regardless of the overflow, it’s really created quite a rather healthy environment. The music is quite varied and it’s great to see many artists actually crossing formats. We saw this recently with Little Big Town, Sam Hunt to Florida Georgia Line, among a few and this trend can only be of value to both the listener and the artist. Music producers have had to plan their mixes a bit more carefully to accommodate the various format and to allow for the crossover activity to take place. So far looking back to the 2015 year in music, it might come down to “the year the music refused to die”.