About
Within 48 hours of our launch on May 8th, 2017 our membership total hit 250 people, and we’ve seen exponential growth as we move forward. Our carefully curated and hand-selected membership includes Grammy Award-winning songwriters and producers, attorneys, managers, labels, and publishers for some of the biggest acts in the world, and representatives from the global music tech companies that are changing the way music is created and business is done.
Josh Collum
Co-Founder & Partner, Sorted Noise
Nashville, TN
Josh Collum is Co-Founder and Partner at Sorted Noise. Sorted Noise makes and licenses music for TV, film, advertising, trailers, and other media, and is built around a community of Nashville based artists and composers. Recent work includes TV spots for Nutella, IKEA and DKNY, as well as songs in multiple TV shows such as This Is Us, Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries. The company’s boutique digital label, Sorted Noise Records, has over 70 million streams on Spotify with its releases.
In addition to Sorted Noise, Josh is also a successful singer / songwriter. His band, Secrets in Stereo, has been licensed in film, TV, and advertising over 150 times and his songs have collected over 250,000,000 views on Youtube.
Just last month, Josh co-founded The Other Nashville Society. An organization that aims to bring together the growing non-country music community in Nashville.
Mark Abramowitz
Mark Abramowitz is a Senior Manager of A&R/Creative for Sony/ATV Music publishing based in Nashville, TN. Mark recently worked out of Sony/ATV’s New York office, but was relocated to the company’s Nashville office in March of 2015 to specialize in non-country music. In his new role he has been tasked with signing, developing and working with Sony/ATV Nashville’s non-country songwriters as well as supporting Sony/ATV’s signings from other destinations who come to Music City for songwriting and recording sessions.
Abramowitz joined Sony/ATV in New York in 2011 as an intern having graduated from Rutgers University and been part of Sony’s College Marketing Department. Songwriters and artists he has signed included artists Wild Cub and No Wyld, along with Grammy-nominated writer-producer Kevin Kadish, who co-wrote Meghan Trainor’s worldwide No. 1 hit “All About That Bass” and its follow-up “Lips Are Movin”. Abramowitz also works closely with Nashville-based singer-songwriter Marc Scibilia. Since his re-location, he has already began working and developing Nashville based talents Apollo LTD, Daphne Willis, and Daniel James, along with recent Nashville transplants singer-songwriter Noah Kahan and pop/R&B trio NAWAS.
Katie Fagan
Katie Fagan is Head of Prescription Songs Nashville, the first office to open from their home base in Los Angeles. After nearly seven years with Dr. Luke and company, Katie has seen the roster grow from twelve to almost 90 songwriters, artists and producers; a handful of which she has personally signed. Among them, Katie has developed breakout songwriters such as FRENSHIP, Soaky Siren, and Shy Girls, and in addition has serviced hit writers such as Sarah Hudson and Cirkut. Last year, FRENSHIP’s single “Capsize” (featuring Prescription writer Emily Warren) was one of Spotify’s biggest success stories and has over 370 million streams to date, and was recently certified platinum by RIAA. Additionally, Katie has placed numerous songs over the years with artists such as Justin Bieber, Rita Ora, Tinashe, Cashmere Cat and Dua Lipa.
Originally from Indiana, Katie moved to Los Angeles immediately after graduating from Indiana University with a degree in Popular Vocal Performance. After graduating, Katie found her way to an internship in the Los Angeles A&R department at Warner Chappell in the summer of 2010. In early 2011, Katie started with Dr. Luke as his assistant and has climbed the ladder from there. As her new chapter starts in Nashville, she will continue to oversee her current writers while also finding new talent in Music City, planning to focus primarily on non-country writers, producers and artists. In addition to building and running the Nashville office, she will also be the liaison between the Los Angeles and Nashville writers, launching more creative opportunities among the Prescription roster.
Holley Maher is a songwriter, recording artist, illustrator, and graphic designer based in Nashville, TN. As an independent artist, she made a name for herself in micro-licensing as a top-seller on Music Bed following the release of her first album, and later signed with Nashville licensing company Sorted Noise as one of their flagship artists. Her music has been licensed around the world in film and television, including advertisement campaigns for brands like Ikea, Nutella, Cheerios, Birchbox, and ModCloth. Holley is also theFounder and Creative Director behind Wink Wink Paper Co., a stationery line that creates boutique greeting cards, art prints, and gift wrap. Holley fills the roll of Branding Director for The Other Nashville Society, and also offers unique perspective as the only singer/songwriter among the TONS founders.
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Current News
- 08/04/201708/04/2017
How The Other Nashville Rocks (and Pops and Raps): The Other Nashville Society Wants to be a Hub for Non-Country Music Pros
How The Other Nashville Rocks (and Pops and Raps): The Other Nashville Society Wants to be a Hub for Non-Country Music Pros
Nashville’s only a country music town at first glance. Look deeper, and you’ll see the Other Nashville, a musically diverse and business savvy community of creatives, artists, and music pros. There’s just one problem: No one knew how to find each other, outside of country’s usual professional stomping grounds.
The Other Nashville Society aims to...
- The Tennessean, Article, 03/20/2014, Sorted Noise emerges as musical force for TV shows, movies Text
- Nashville Business Journal , Feature story, 02/05/2015, Nashville music startup Sorted Noise finds growth path in TV, film licensing Text
- The Tennessean, Feature story, 05/15/2015, Nashville songwriters, publishers find hits outside of country Text
- The Tennessean, Interview, 03/25/2017, Nashville artist Holley Maher finds inspiration everywhere Text
- + Show More
News
How The Other Nashville Rocks (and Pops and Raps): The Other Nashville Society Wants to be a Hub for Non-Country Music Pros
Nashville’s only a country music town at first glance. Look deeper, and you’ll see the Other Nashville, a musically diverse and business savvy community of creatives, artists, and music pros. There’s just one problem: No one knew how to find each other, outside of country’s usual professional stomping grounds.
The Other Nashville Society aims to change this. Founded by nationally recognized veterans of publishing (Sony/ATV Nashville’s Mark Abramowitz and Katie Fagan of Prescription Songs), songwriting (artist Holley Maher), sync/licensing (Josh Collum of the music licensing and sync company Sorted Noise), and artist manager (Ally Venable of Iconic Entertainment), TONS is a carefully selected professional networking and skill-development organization designed to shine a light on the many other sides and sounds of Music City.
“Genre diversity is really important to Nashville. There are a lot of other musicians and styles that have started here, flourished here; from the likes of Meghan Trainor to the Black Keys,” explains Venable. “There are so many amazing talents in Nashville who don’t know how to find each other because they weren’t making country music.”
The talent is there, but not the platform or hub to enable more opportunities. Maher, for example, carved out a successful niche for herself in sync placements and music licensing via trial and error, after looking unsuccessfully for resources outside the country music business to guide her. She longs to support other artists and ease the struggle: “I met a lot of supportive people here, but most folks couldn’t point me in the right direction. I went to speaking events, for example, and they were all geared to country writers. I would have loved to know more about sync, where I ended up eventually.”
“Because there hasn’t been a clear gathering point for the non-country music community, in many ways, everyone kind of just does their own thing. That’s why we’re so fragmented and siloed.” reflects Collum. “We believe everyone benefits when we pull those fragments together.”
The creative opportunities Nashville offers are sometimes overlooked by non-country artists hoping to record new tracks or find a producer to work with. “The next step is for artists to make a lot more records here,” states Abramowitz. “A lot of people go to the coasts. That’s great, but we know the quality of musicians and producers and the studios in town. It’s happening more that artists are coming or staying here to work. It’s just the beginning.”
This promising beginning reflects a broader transformation that’s happening in the city. From the cradle of a very certain style and genre, Nashville is becoming a music crucible as more industry heavyweights expand their presence, and tech-driven startups spring out of its music-rich environment.
The TONS launch event last month (July 2017) speaks volumes to this major shift and growing energy: More than 350 artists, songwriters, and reps of major labels, publishers, platforms, and media organizations gathered. “It wasn’t the typical get together of music folks, which was the goal,” Collum says. “I can’t tell you how many times the other co-founders and I had people tell us they made an awesome connection in the room.”
The connections will continue at a series of events, dubbed “TONS Talks,” planned in the coming months. Each TONS Talk will address major pain points specific to the non-country music community in Nashville. The first in the series, on August 28th, brings together four hit songwriters that most might not realize spend a significant amount of time in Nashville. Jim Jonsin (Beyonce’, Usher, Lil Wayne), Brett McLaughlin (Daya, Capital Cities, Selena Gomez), Tommy English (BORNS, K.Flay, 5 Seconds of Summer), and David “DQ” Quinones (Jennifer Lopez, The Pussycat Dolls, Jason Derulo) will come together on a panel, moderated by Katie Fagan (Prescription Songs, TONS co-founder), to discuss their Nashville experience, and ways to build the pop songwriting community in the city.
“The response we’ve seen so far shows how badly people need a network they can plug into and how our members are really engaging with each other,” says Collum. “It’s about all the people in the room. Everyone is so hungry for it. “
About The Other Nashville Society
Today’s Music City is more diverse musically than it was 10 years ago, and will be even more diverse 10 years from now. Our country music friends have done an amazing job of telling their stories and building their community, and they will continue to do so. But, there is a glaring lack of a gathering point for those of us that don’t fit into that community. This includes creators and industry professionals in the city’s Pop, Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Soul, Emo, Hip Hop, R&B, Jazz, Orchestral, Electronic, and Christian music scenes. The Other Nashville Society was created to be our gathering point.