Country music star Tim McGraw, left, shakes hands with Scott Borchetta, right, president of Big Machine Records, after a news conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Monday, May 21, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn. McGraw and Borchetta announced McGraw has signed a multi-album deal with Big Machine Records, officially ending his rocky relationship with his only previous label, Curb Records. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
In this Nov. 20, 2012 photo, Taylor Swift arrives at the 39th Annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles. Swift is donating $4 million to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to fund the 7,500 square foot-plus Taylor Swift Education Center in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Country superstar Tim McGraw’s manager was on a mission. He called it: “Find a future home for Tim.”
The mission took manager Coran Capshaw into meetings with chief executives at the world’s biggest media corporations — companies such as Sony, Warner Music, Capitol Records, Universal Music. He was on a quest to negotiate a deal for one of country music’s biggest commodities, a 40 million record seller and a movie star who had just parted bitterly with his former company, Curb Records.
In the end, however, McGraw chose a small, independent label, Big Machine Label Group, started seven years ago by former radio promoter and NASCAR driver Scott Borchetta. The label has fewer than 50 employees and remains a relative newcomer to Nashville’s country music business, which has long been dominated by establishment record companies with corporate headquarters elsewhere.
“When I knew that I was going to be looking for another record label deal, I knew there would be lots of different scenarios and lots of different ways to put a deal together,” McGraw said at the formal announcement of the deal last week at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Ultimately, I wanted someone who was passionate about what they did and believed in their artists, and that’s what led me to Scott Borchetta.”
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