When Warner Music Nashville launched Cody Johnsonhis collaboration with Carrie Underwoodexcited programmers took note, giving the ballad enough first-week spins that it debuted at No. 21 on the Country Airplay chart dated October 12.
Parmalee noted it, too, but the band was much less enthusiastic. Guitarist Josh McSwain sent a message to the singer Matt Thomas for what appeared to be a possible threat. Johnson's single, “I'm Gonna Love You”, had almost the exact same title and lyrical hook as “Gonna Love You”, a Parmalee ballad that had reached the top 10 on the same chart, just 11 places ahead of Johnson and Underwood. . Thomas was slightly stressed about it until he could hear it.
“I think I'd be a lot more worried if we weren't in the top 10 and the song was researching and doing well,” says Thomas. “If we had heard it was coming out right before ours dropped, then it would have been like, 'Shit.'”
There is no legal issue – songwriters live by the general rule that titles cannot be copyrighted – but the programming implications are significant. The nation's broadcasters strive to keep the sound of their stations changing while staying within the perceived boundaries of the format. Playing the same title back-to-back is the opposite of variety. Programmers have periodically addressed the issue for years, although many outside of radio may not have thought of it before.
A harsh scenario from 1982 illustrates the potential consequences. The music programming software in WKHK New York introduced a Dolly Parton & Willie Nelson duet, “Everything's Beautiful (In Its Own Way),” alongside Ray Stevens“Everything is beautiful.” The programmer looked at the comparable titles and passed a line from Stevens' single, costing him a spin.
“It's heartbreaking there,” Thomas says.
This scenario is a bit different, however, than Parmalee's situation. The Parton/Nelson single was current in '82, while the Stevens record was 12 years old. A gold title missing a single spin wouldn't hurt anyone's chart position and was unlikely to make much of a difference to Stevens' rights as a songwriter. In fact, developers generally make an effort to keep their singles rotations in the designated rotation, even if similarities in individual singles create separation barriers.
“A great example, perhaps more so than separating titles, is separating artists.” WWWF Farmingdale, NY, PD Patrick C he says. “When you're 14 Morgan Wallen songs and 14 Post Malone songs, how do you make them work? You don't want to miss the spins, because they're all good and they all research really well, so you're juggling as best you can to make sure all those songs get heard.”
The issue comes up more often than you might expect. Jelly roll“I Am Not Okay” shares space on many current playlists with Megan Moroney's “Am I OK?” Meanwhile, Johnson's “Dirt Cheap” and Justin Moore“This Is My Dirt,” two songs with plots and feelings even more similar than their titles, charted at the same time. KUZZ The Bakersfield, Calif. native had both of those titles among the seven singles in heavy rotation at the same time.
“If these are two of the seven best songs we can play,” KUZZ PD Brent Michaels he says, “we will, even though thematically—and even sonically, a little—they're kind of the same.”
Labels pay attention to these kinds of details, especially if the titles are from the same company. Triple Tigers issued a Jordan Fletcher focus track, “Fall in the Summer,” to digital providers in July, just two months after release Scotty McCreary“Fall of Summer” on the radio. Executives looked into the problem and then removed it.
“How many times has the song 'Gone' been written by how many different artists?” Fletcher asks rhetorically. “Or 'Wasted Time?' Or, you know, “Love Me Tomorrow”? How many times have these names been rewritten and associated with different people in different ways, and no one gave it a second thought?'
Likewise, Warner Music Nashville was launched Tyler Braden“Devil You Know” while it was already running Ashley McBryde's “Devil I Know” earlier this year. It wasn't the original game plan — consumption prompted WMN to send Braden's “Devil” to radio — but programming partners didn't protest the move.
“If I'm honest, it shocked me,” WMN Group Radio Vice President Anna Cage he says. “I myself thought there might be some trouble there. But at the end of the day, they are two completely different songs. Apparently, one is a female vocal, one is male, even though they have the same “Devil You Know”, “Devil I Know” joke.
It can create some branding issues, he allows, if consumers search for the song by title online and don't know the artist's name. Braden and McBryde don't care.
“It wouldn't take long for them to realize, 'That's not what I was looking for,'” he says.
Developers are ready to create separation manually if the titles are displayed in the same window. Shea would like them in separate quarters, though with the two “Gonna Love You” singles, their tempo already solves that problem: His rotations only allow one ballad per 15-minute sweep. Michaels has even less of a problem — both songs are among the 11 titles KUZZ has on mid-rotation, and they play back-to-back. One is at No. 1 on this level, while the other comes in at No. 6. They automatically appear about four hours apart.
“Right away, we tried to separate them,” says Michaels, “so they didn't get too close to each other.”
So while these repetitive titles are noticed on Music Row and at music station meetings, they may not be the stumbling block you might expect.
“I don't think it's a radio programming problem,” says Shea. “I think it's a radio nerd problem because I don't think your average listener will notice anything at all.”
Still, one music nerd figured out the conundrum in a heartbeat. Asked about “I'm Gonna Love You” mirroring Parmalee's title track, Johnson was immediately sympathetic.
“That wasn't intentional,” he says. “If you know these guys, tell them, 'My bad.'
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