Kelleigh Bannen’s New ‘This Nashville Life’ Podcast Explains How the Money Works
Every other week, Kelleigh Bannen will provide behind-the-scenes analysis, stories and insight into Music City’s No. 1 export, with help from some of Nashville’s top songwriters, artists, executives and producers. Taste of Country will debut each new episode of her This Nashville Life podcast, and Bannen herself will introduce it as a guest writer. Thoughts and opinions expressed by Bannen are hers alone and do not reflect the opinions of Taste of Country, unless she’s talking about #TomatoGate, in which case, yeah … she’s spot on.
We called this episode “Money Honey.” We could have called it the “Initials Episode,” because we interviewed Jody Williams of BMI (Which is a P.R.O., that is not ASCAP or SESAC … confused? And we haven’t even started talking about copyrights yet).
In this episode, Jody will do a little unpacking on how writers and publishers get paid their royalties. I also ask Jody the question, “What does a #1 country song make?” (money wise). Because I know I’m not the only one who’s doing the math in my head when a friend scores another No. 1 single.
And perhaps the very BEST thing about this interview is just how Nashville it is. Jody was born and raised here in town. The stories he shares are just so quintessentially Nashville. From working with Charlie Daniels (right before “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”) to signing Liz Rose to her first publishing deal (Rose was writing with a young artist who had just been dropped from her development deal — ahem — Taylor Swift) Jody really has seen it all, and has such an incredible perspective on this town, and this music community.
My favorite quote from the episode was when Jody says, “All I had was relationships with writers, and it turns out that’s all I needed.”
Whew! Good stuff y’all. Come on.
Listen to This Nashville Life Season 2, Ep. 1: "Money Honey"
About Kelleigh Bannen: Kelleigh Bannen’s This Nashville Life Podcast offers an authentic, vibrant look at the journey of someone trying to “make it” in country music. Bannen is admittedly still learning what that means. After a short career as an independent artist, the “Famous” singer signed a major label record deal and recorded two-and-a-half albums that were never released. She’s honest, but not bitter about the obstacles female artists face in country music, but her blog and podcast go much deeper.