Brisbane music publisher SGC Media has revealed astonishing growth in its country music outlet Countrytown, which in December broke into the top 10 country media sources in America – the genre’s heartland – with 270,345 unique visitors across the month.
The publication founded as a COVID project in 2020 is now exporting Nashville to Nashville, overtaking traditional global publications like Music Row and creating exciting export pathways for Australian country musicians looking to break the world’s biggest territory.
“Countrytown really is the little engine that could in a media world that we are constantly told is ‘challenging’,” explained publisher and CEO Stephen Green. “Country music is the fastest growing genre in the world and our Australian take on the global country marketplace is obviously resonating with readers across the globe”.
With global superstars like Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs and Zach Bryan all playing to packed houses in Australia across 2023, the genre is having its breakthrough moment where it’s gone from being a niche genre to being the mainstream and the relatively new publishing company has ridden the wave of popularity.
Countrytown also syndicates its content to Kix Country, Australia’s largest country radio network and its revered Countrytown Hot 50 chart is used by Ray Hadley’s Country Countdown, broadcast across Australia on stations like 2GB and 3AW, creating even greater domestic opportunities in addition to the site’s dedicated global readership.
SGC Media consists of three music publications, TheMusic.com.au, Purple Sneakers and Countrytown, each providing a different take on music journalism, delivered to create a culture that crosses both generational and genre divides.
“Our business was founded on celebrating, developing and unearthing new music while doubling down on the importance of music journalism and telling human stories to connect people with the artists,” said Green. “Music media are the original influencers and we’re here to show that strong mastheads and a focus on tech and audiences can build music culture in a way that no other medium can”.
SGC Media has slowly but surely expanded, acquiring youth publication Purple Sneakers in 2020 and TheMusic.com.au in 2022, both mastheads with rich histories in Australia, including The Music’s roots in street press like Drum Media, Inpress and 3D World. The company has taken an editorial-first approach, with both publications quadrupling their audiences under SGC’s custodianship with continued growth.
“By understanding our audiences and writing the stories people want to read rather than the content people want to pay us to write, we’ve developed a strong bond with our readers and ultimately that has strengthened our mastheads”.
“We are here to tell the stories of Australian music and build communities around passion for songs and artists. We want to create inclusive mastheads where audiences can learn more about their favourite artists and create connections with new songs that could just change their lives. The fact that our approach is resonating not just here at home, but across the world bodes well for the business and the opportunities we can take. It proves our hypothesis that music media can mesh new technology with old-school storytelling to build local communities as well as global pathways”.
