Pollstar Live! 2020: Breaking Country Overseas With Chris Young (And His Dog)

Having now been with RCA Nashville for 15 years, Young, a member of the Grand Ole Opry with 11 career No. 1 country singles, says he was fortunate to have early and long-term label support in lean times, which may not be the case these days for most artists.

“People having that belief and hanging onto me early on in my career was really important, and it’s one of the reasons why I get so passionate about building something like a career overseas,” said Young, whom Beckham jokes has been “a 14-year overnight success.”

 “Being able to put time and an investment into it, if there’s a short-term goal, that would be really cool, but if there’s a long-term goal and it takes a couple years to build a base around it, if I go back and see a return on it from that end, I’m willing to put that effort into it,” Young said. “Especially something that’s going to exist and subsist for a very long time.”

Young has now found audiences in the somewhat untapped country music potential of Europe – and not just London as many Nashville-based artists are known to do – with strong showings in Sweden, Oslo and other markets, including selling out a tour opener in Manchester, his first time playing there.

Young encourages artists to put in the work to develop markets internationally, especially with the continued growth of streaming platforms in country music, which has been notoriously slow to fully move on to streaming services and become empowered by the specific analytics that come back.

“Data like that is really, really important and something I’m annoying about to everyone that has ever had to email me, so I’m sorry,” Young says with a laugh. “It’s something I’m intrigued by. I want to see every single onsale, each date, and I want us to be able to cross reference that with the numbers. What hasn’t been streaming in that area? What are the numbers? I can geo-target that down to the city and see what is happening.”

Other perks come from growing overseas as well.

“This is going to sound very cheesy but seriously being able to call my mom and be like, ‘Yep, just over here in Sweden, playing country music.’ It’s pretty badass, not going to lie.”

Beckham, now CEO and co-founder of The AMG music management company after a long stint at WME as co-head of the agency’s Nashville operations, predicts further immersion into the digital streaming platforms as country evolves in the next 10 years. 

“We’re already on the wave” of the long-awaited country streaming revolution, Beckham says. “[Tourmate Payton Smith] has 7 million streams on a song that probably none of you has heard. Country has been the last bastion for terrestrial radio, but the idea that we can have Payton go on stage with six songs that have millions and millions of streams, I think it’s going to speed up the process tremendously.”

Also helping speed up the artist-development and fan-engagement processes these days is the ever-continuing maturation of social media. Young joked that even his dog is a star now, admitting that that one even surprised him.

“For the meet and greets, there are always four or five requests on whether my dog is there,” Young says, laughing. “He does have an Instagram with 70,000 followers on it. … He’s a good-looking dog but I don’t quite get it. It’s pretty funny.”

More seriously, his German Shepherd’s social media influencer status speaks to the direct-to-fan engagement artists now use to build their fanbases. 

“Through a podcast I just started, I love people being able to find out my passions about music, sports and things that are building upon what my personality is,” Young adds. “I want people to feel like they know me when they go to a show buy a ticket.”

 The Monday following the keynote discussion, Young announced additional dates to his headlining “Town Ain’t Big Enough World Tour 2020,” which now launches April 30 in Columbus, Ohio, and still includes special guests Scotty McCreery as direct support along with Payton Smith on tour April through September.  In addition, Young will highlight various “Next From Nashville” artists at his shows handpicked by Young and The AMG.