Layoffs Hit Country Music Industry By Jim Patterson Associated Press Writer Wednesday, February 24, 1999; 2:41 a.m. EST NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- As Shania Twain waited to see how many Grammys she would win tonight, some of her country music colleagues were in a far less glamorous situation: waiting to see if they could find work. Even as Twain and Garth Brooks sell millions, the industry has been wracked by layoffs. The problem is Nashville's recent inability to launch new top-selling acts. ``The consumer is changing,'' said Joe Galante, who runs the Nashville office of RCA Records. ``And I'm not sure everybody's got their finger on the pulse. ... Clearly there is a problem in terms of what we are doing as an industry.'' After reaching record heights in 1995, country album sales have sagged. Last year's sales increase of 2.7 percent was due largely to Brooks, who accounted for 10 percent of the nearly 73 million albums sold, according to SoundScan, which tracks sales. As a result, Arista Nashville, a division of RCA, fired six executives last week. Song publisher Sony/ATV Tree dropped about half of its Nashville roster of 100 songwriters in October, citing declining royalties. Mercury and MCA Records, owned by Seagram Co., have laid off seven country-division employees between them. And the publishing divisions of PolyGram and MCA will soon merge, costing jobs in Nashville. Some worry that a repeat of the mid-1980s may be in store. That's when the bottom fell out of the boom started by the 1980 movie ``Urban Cowboy.'' ``Even when you're getting a hit, you're not selling as many units as you did four years ago,'' Galante said. ``You do 2 million (sales) on the Dixie Chicks; a couple of years ago that would have been 4 or 5 million.'' Nashville may be a victim of its own phenomenal success. Revenue from the sale of country music albums quadrupled between 1989 and 1995 to about $2 billion, when Brooks became one of the most recognizable celebrities in America. As the money rolled in, companies like Warner Bros. and MCA built expensive office buildings, gave employees raises and hired more people. Now those companies want to cut costs and small labels like Rising Tide, Magnatone, Almo Sounds, Imprint and Decca have closed their doors in the past couple of years. ``It was a total surprise to me, to everybody,'' said Kim Fowler, a publicist who had barely started at Rising Tide a year ago when the company folded. ``People are getting squeezed out and they have nowhere to go in the music business.'' Promising singers like Shane Stockton, Chris Knight and Matraca Berg have lost their record deals. Dolly Parton did, too, when Decca closed last month, though she won't have trouble getting another. ``Whenever you mix art and commerce, you put yourself in danger of the current craze or trends or style,'' said Jimmie Fadden of The Dirt Band, country music veterans who were about to release an album on Rising Tide when the label closed. They have since signed with DreamWorks SKG. Galante estimated that 10 percent of record company staffers may be cut in the long run, and as many as 20 percent of songwriters will lose the stipends from publishing companies that allow them to write full time. ``I think that we're not done with consolidation,'' he said. Still, far more country albums are being sold now than a decade ago, and country music remains the most popular radio format by far. Del Bryant of New York-based BMI, which distributes songwriting royalties, said all the changes could help in the long run. Bryant, who started his career in the Music City, said larger companies will be leaner and the consolidations may allow smaller record companies to re-emerge, he said. ``Nashville is the classic town that takes two steps forward, then one step back,'' he said. © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
