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Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves @ ACL 2019

May 2, 2019 by admin
Kacey Musgraves, News
ACL, Austin, Austin City Limits, kacey musgraves

Kacey Musgraves has come a long way since 2008, when Triple Pop first discovered her in Austin. 

When I first met Kacey, she gave me a private solo concert at Momo’s Bar in March of 2008 (above the old Katz’ Deli on 6th street).  It was just me, her grandma and the bartender.  She was playing for tips. 

We all start somewhere.

Kacey doesn’t talk about it, but she got her recording start here in Austin – not in Nashville.

It’s cool to see her now, ten years later, performing as a headliner at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, along with Guns N’ Roses, Mumford & Sons, Childish Gambino, The Cure and Thom Yorke, among so many others.

The 18th annual concert fest in Austin, Texas’ Zilker Park will take place on Oct. 4-6 and again on Oct. 11-13.

Kacey Musgraves & Triple Pop

February 18, 2019 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves, News
35million, kacey musgraves, spotify

Last week, Kacey Musgraves won a total of four (4) GRAMMYs for Album of the Year for her latest album, Golden Hour, which she can add to her growing list of accomplishments.

In addition, Kacey won awards for Best Country Song, Best Country Performance and Best Country Album.  Kacey Musgraves has reached the pinnacle of success and crossed over into the mainstream.

As before, I’ve been getting questions from people about my producing involvement with Kacey before she became famous.  My close friends and family know some of the story, but not certain crazy details, like how my label, Triple Pop, produced one of her biggest streaming hits.

The first thing to know is despite whatever is written in her official biography, Kacey had a long history of recordings before she moved to Nashville.

After Kacey signed to Universal Records in 2012, her management company wanted to make it appear as if Kacey was a brand new artist – with no past.

They removed from distribution and omitted most references to all of her prior recordings out of her biography, including the three (3) albums she released while in high school — except they couldn’t do that for the recordings she made with Triple Pop.

The recordings I produced with Kacey were during her time in Austin in 2008, right after she graduated from high school, when she was just 19 years old and are owned by my label.

At that time, YouTube was still a new platform. The digital revolution had just started.  The first iPhone hadn’t even been released. The music business was in decline. Producers who were experimenting with artists doing cover songs on YouTube was a new phenomena.

I had no idea that I would make any money with my new digital label, Triple Pop.  With limited resources, I scoured MySpace and Craigslist for up-and-coming singers.  I also had a full-time job. My record label was just a side hustle I operated out of my spare bedroom for fun in my spare time.

Social media was still on the old clunky Myspace and that’s where I first discovered Kacey Musgraves.

I immediately knew she had the talent; she was a diamond in the rough.

I listened to songs Kacey had posted on MySpace from her three (3) self-produced albums: Movin’ On (2002), Wanted: One Good Cowboy (2003) and Kacey Musgraves (2007).

Although the songs were straight forward generic country songs with titles like “When It’s Peach Pickin’ Time in TX”, I remember hearing her voice and being mesmerized.

She had great raw talent to become superstar but she needed better songs to sing, I thought. This was a young Kacey Musgraves, before she became the country pop superstar she is today.

I got in touch with Kacey and we met up outside a yogurt shop in North Austin.  Kacey told me she just graduated high school and had moved to Austin from Golden, Texas to pursue music.  Nobody knew her name. 

She had no fans and had just struck out at her first attempt in Nashville — she appeared on the TV show, Nashville Star, a year earlier when she was 18 years old but she failed to place (she came in seventh). 

I told her my prior background in producing albums with Dee Dee Ramone, The Alarm, The Call and working at the talent agency, ICM.  I had a good sense in spotting new talent.

Many moons ago, I befriended the legendary A&R executive, Don Grierson, who told me one his biggest challenges was getting artists to record songs they didn’t write, but it can also lead to their biggest hits.

With Don’s sage advice in mind, I pitched Kacey my idea to record a couple current hit cover songs together in the studio to see how we worked together.  I produced, arranged and paid for everything, including a fee to her. If it all worked out, I told her it was my intention to produce her original songs afterwards and use “social media” to market  all of it.

In 2008, saying you’re going to use “social media” to market music (or anything else) was a crazy new idea – the next frontier that had yet to be explored.  Recording with new musicians is always risky – there are personality and timing issues and it takes time and money to rent good recording studios.

I pitched Kacey about five song choices to her including “Yellow” by Coldplay.  She was to choose two (2) of my suggestions to record in the studio – she chose “See You Again” (Hannah Montana) and “Apologize” (OneRepublic), which reflected her interest in pop music.

Kacey Musgraves, Brain Machine Recording Studio, March 2008

I remember trying to persuade Kacey to record Coldplay’s “Yellow” instead of “See You Again,” as I thought it was a better song, but she passed.

During the recording sessions, Kacey was professional and focused.  She wanted the songs to be ‘just right’ and we spent a full evening recording and mixing the recordings. 

Here’s some video I took of Kacey in the studio:

Kacey was happy with the recordings – soon afterwards, she performed “Apologize” live at a local charity event:

Kacey then invited me out to see her perform at Momo’s, a local bar in Austin. I remember showing up and it was just her grandmother, the bartender and me in the audience. I got a private concert from the future GRAMMY superstar.  She was a great live performer, too.

Then, again, Kacey invited me out to lunch (she was persistent – one the key traits of success). Although she was young, Kacey struck me as being very wise beyond her years.

Kacey asked me for advice and asked if I would manage her.  We talked about recording some original songs together in the future.

I could sense that she needed direction on what to do next. I encouraged her to keep writing songs and suggested she move to Nashville and work with other songwriters to develop her craft and come back to me with the original demos. 

At age 19, Kacey just wasn’t fully developed yet as a songwriter – she hadn’t yet developed her clever songwriting craft for which she has become famous for today.

Triple Pop released “See You Again” on iTunes in 2008.  Kacey ended up in Nashville a few years later.  We lost touch over the years.

When I heard Kacey’s first major label album was going be released in 2013, I went back into my archives and luckily found the digital CD master for “Apologize” which I had thought was lost.  I also found the videotape of the recording session.

My label, Triple Pop, released both “See You Again” and “Apologize” on a digital EP on April 9, 2013.

Her manager later made an offer to buy out the Triple Pop contract.

In 1953, Elvis Presley walked into Sun Studio Studios and recorded his first songs.  They were also acoustic guitar cover songs: “That’s When Your Heartache Begins” and “My Happiness” by The Ink Spots.  Luckily, producer Sam Phillips kept the masters and released both and they exist as a recording artifact of the evolution of a legendary artist.

We passed on the offer to sell the master rights, although there was no certainty of her success. But I believed in her talent and I had a strong conviction the recordings would be valuable one day.

Within a couple years, the snowballing of her achievements and acclaim began to gather steam. Then, in 2015, it hit — “Apologize” went on to become Kacey Musgraves’ #1 most streamed song on Spotify, racking up nearly 35 million (35,000,000+) streams by 2018. 

Between 2015 and 2018, “Apologize” was her #1 most streamed track worldwide:

In 2014, “Apologize” charted in Billboard’s Hot Singles chart at #23, marking my first Billboard chart entry as a producer.

The Official YouTube video did well, too, with over 500,000 views to date:

The combination of “Apologize” with Kacey’s voice was just magic — her fans recognized it, too, and they made it into one of her biggest streamed hits.  It had Kacey’s vocal pixie dust sprinkled all over it.

Marie Claire magazine recently ranked “Apologize” as her #4 best song!

Oh, yeah, and Kacey finally performed an acoustic version of Coldplay’s “Yellow” live for Prince Harry in the UK in 2015:

Triple Pop celebrates Kacey Musgraves continuing success by making sure everybody hears where it all started, with these endearing and popular acoustic recordings.

Available on Spotify and Apple Music and everywhere else.

Marie Claire ranks “Apologize” as Kacey’s #4 best track

February 8, 2019 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves
kacey musgraves, Marie Claire, media, press

Marie Claire magazine recently ranked Kacey Musgraves‘ top ten (10) recordings — and they slotted “Apologize” in at number #4. Dy-no-mite!!!

The magazine ranked her other hits “Slow Burn” (#1), “Space Cowboy” (#2) and “Merry Go ‘Round” (#3) – we’re very thankful to have been included in the top five.

Thank you Marie Claire magazine!

Kacey nom for Album of Year (GRAMMY)

December 7, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves, News
35million, kacey musgraves, spotify

Kacey Musgraves‘ latest album “Golden Hour” has been nominated for the GRAMMY Album of the Year, alongside Brandi Carlile‘s terrific “By The Way, I Forgive You.”

Kacey recently won the Country Music Award/CMA Album of the Year award.

Kacey’s version of “Apologize” remains as one of her most streamed tracks at thirty-six million (36,000,000) streams to date on Spotify.

Triple Pop thanks all the fans and listeners for making this a streaming hit.

The “Apologize/See You Again” EP is available exclusively from Triple Pop.  A remastered version is also now now available on iTunes.

Listen to the EP on iTunes and Spotify.

Marketing Playlist Agreement with PCMusic

August 14, 2018 by admin
Kacey Musgraves, Music Business
kacey musgraves, music business, playlists

Triple Pop has entered into an marketing playlist agreement with PCMusic (aka RXMusic & Prescriptive Music) which creates custom brand music playlists for retail businesses nationwide, such as Four Seasons, Cheesecake Factory, Wolfgang Puck, Ritz Carlton Hotels and Canyon Ranch Spa. 

Kacey’s “Apologize” reaches 35M+ on Spotify

July 31, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves, News
35million, kacey musgraves, spotify

“Apologize” remains as #1 most streamed track from Kacey Musgraves on Spotify.  It’s still out-streaming all of her other songs and is now at thirty-five million (35,000,000) streams to date.

Along with downloads, Apologize has tallied up over 275,000 copies sold per RIAA rules, which is over halfway to RIAA Gold Sales Certification.

Her Billboard hit single “Follow Your Arrow” is close behind at 34,166,000 streams on Spotify.  Her new singles are also coming up fast.

No track can stay #1 forever and “Apologize” has remained #1 for over three (3) years now, so it’s inevitable it’ll be surpassed.  It’s been an amazing run.

Triple Pop thanks all the fans and listeners for making this a streaming hit.

The “Apologize/See You Again” EP is available exclusively from Triple Pop.  A remastered version is also now now available on iTunes.

Listen to the EP on iTunes and Spotify.

Kacey’s “Acoustic Remixed” EP now available

March 27, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves, News
kacey musgraves, new music, new release, vinyl

To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the recordings, Triple Pop has today announced the release “Acoustic Remixed” by Kacey Musgraves.

The brand new EP features three (3) new remixed and mastered mixes of the recordings Kacey recorded for Triple Pop ten years ago on March 27, 2008.  There are two new versions of “Apologize” (Chill Remix & Republic Mix) and one new version of “See You Again” (Mood Remix).  We’ve enhanced the recordings with newly added synths, guitars, drums and strings and they sound absolutely amazing!

The digital EP is now available online at iTunes & Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and everywhere else.

The first single, Apologize (Chill Remix) is available on iTunes for only $1.29.  Get the entire five (5) track EP for only $3.99 featuring remastered versions of the original masters.

Kacey Musgraves’ “Acoustic Remixed” digital EP – PR Release

March 15, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves, News
kacey musgraves, new music, new release, vinyl

To commemorate the ten (10) year anniversary of recording, Triple Pop has today announced the release of “Acoustic Remixed,” a digital three (3) song EP with vocals performed by GRAMMY award-winning musician Kacey Musgraves.

The EP is a newly remixed and remastered version of the “Apologize/See You Again” EP (Triple Pop, 2013) available on iTunes. It features three new mixes of the recordings Kacey recorded on March 27, 2008, including two new versions of “Apologize” (Chill Remix & Republic Mix) and “See You Again” (Mood Remix).

Working with professional musicians and producers, Triple Pop enhanced the original masters, which were acoustic vocal-guitar only recordings, by adding with newly recorded synths, strings, guitars and percussion.

“The simple acoustic version of “Apologize” is Kacey’s #1 most streamed track on Spotify with over 31 million streams – it just connected with her fans. To commemorate the ten year anniversary of the recordings, we’ve taken the original masters and enhanced them for all her fans.” said Mr. Robison, producer of Triple Pop.

The pre-sale for the EP begins Friday March 16, 2018, with the first single “Apologize” (Chill Remix) available for digital download on iTunes and Google Play.

The full digital EP will be released on March 30, 2018 on all streaming music stores worldwide, including Spotify, Pandora and Amazon Music.

The official music lyric videos for “Apologize” (Chill Remix) and “See You Again” (Mood Remix) are also now on YouTube.

About Kacey Musgraves

Singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves is an alternative-country music singer and songwriter from Golden, Texas. In 2008, Triple Pop was the first record label to discover and record Ms. Musgraves when she was just 19 years old in Austin, Texas.

For Triple Pop, Kacey performed the acoustic songs “See You Again” and “Apologize,” which are now both available digitally on the two (2) song EP “Apologize & See You Again” (Triple Pop, 2013).

“Apologize” (Acoustic Version) charted in the Billboard Hot Singles Chart at #23 on February 15, 2014. As of 2018, the single has gone on to become Mrs. Musgraves #1 most streamed song on Spotify with over 31,000,000 (31M) streams.

Both songs showcase Kacey’s natural performing talents at an early age. The songs were recorded at Brain Machine Recording Studios in Austin, TX.

In 2012, Kacey signed with Mercury Records (Universal Nashville) and released her first major label single “Merry Go ‘Round” in 2012, which has been certified RIAA Gold. Kacey’s debut major label album, “Same Trailer Different Park,” debuted at #2 in the Billboard Country chart. Her follow-up album, Pageant Material, reached #3 in the overall Billboard Top 200 albums.

Kacey has been nominated for multiple American Country Music Awards. Kacey was a multiple nominee for the 2013 Country Music Association Awards. In 2014, Kacey won two (2) GRAMMY Awards for Best Country Album and Best Country Song of the Year.

Musgraves’ third studio album “Golden Hour” also arrives March 30th. Musgraves is currently on tour as part of Little Big Town’s the Breakers Tour, and is set to join pop star Harry Styles’ tour on June 6th in Dallas, Texas.

About Triple Pop

Triple Pop is an independent record label based in Austin, Texas. Triple Pop’s current and alumni artists include Iva Dawn, Whisper Suite, Donald Gould and Kris Farrow.

Triple Pop distributes worldwide on all major digital music retail platforms.  Triple Pop is an authorized iTunes/Apple Music content distributor.

 

Remix Videos for “Apologize” & “See You Again”

March 14, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves
music videos

The official music videos for Kacey Musgraves‘ “Apologize” (Chill Remix) and “See You Again” (Mood Remix) are now available on YouTube. 

Both tracks are from the forthcoming new EP “Acoustic Remixed” (Triple Pop) available March 30, 2018 on all digital stores worldwide.

Kacey’s “Apologize” reaches 30M+ on Spotify

January 31, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves, News
35million, kacey musgraves, spotify

“Apologize” remains as #1 most popular track from Kacey Musgraves this month on Spotify.  It’s out-streaming all of her other songs and is now over thirty-million (30M) streams to date.

Along with downloads, Apologize has tallied up over 250,000 copies – halfway to RIAA Gold Certification.

The “Apologize/See You Again” EP is available exclusively from Triple Pop.  Listen to the EP on iTunes and Spotify.

Variety: New Kacey Musgraves studio album

January 9, 2018 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves

Variety says Kacey Musgraves new studio album, Golden Hour, is one of the most anticipated of 2018.

Variety writes “Country’s boldest young female star has tackled brash themes on her first two studio albums, but she also tended to go retro with some vintage countrypolitan sounds and clever, old-school lyrical hooks …”

Sounds like she’s going more into alt-rock direction working with one of the Weezer producers.

It lists her new album alongside new ones also expected from Justin Timberlake, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Ocean and Paul McCartney.

Read the article (link).

Kacey Musgraves performing “Apologize” live

November 28, 2017 by admin
Artists, Kacey Musgraves
apologize, kacey musgraves, live

In honor of Kacey Musgraves, we came across this old video of Kacey singing “Apologize” live back in 2008 at a charity benefit concert.

The single remains her #1 song on Spotify with over 30 million (30,110,000+) streams and counting as of January 10, 2018.

We’ve been hoping she would add the song to her current shows!  Fingers crossed.

More exciting news regarding Kacey and these recordings coming soon.

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