BIG MACHINE LABEL GROUP SCORES  2011 CMT MUSIC AWARD NOMINATION TRIFECTA

Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift and The Band Perry All Score Three Nods

Online Voting Underway at CMT.com

Nashville, Tennessee (Thursday, April 28, 2011) – The Big Machine Label Group scored big during yesterday’s 2011 CMT Music Award Nominations with a collective 13 nods – at least one in every category. Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, The Band Perry each earned a 3 and Reba garnered 2, while Martina McBride and Steel Magnolia received 1. The 10^th Anniversary 2011 CMT Music Awards will air LIVE from Nashville on Wednesday, June 8 on CMT and CMT.com. Online voting runs through Tuesday, June 7 at CMT.com.

Rascal Flatts’ “Why Wait,” Taylor Swift’s “Mine” and The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young” provide some stiff competition for Video of The Year, which is award to the artist and video director. This is the only award where final voting will be held online at CMT.com and via text message throughout the show, with final nominees being announced during the live telecast.

Female Video of the Year contenders include Taylor Swift (“Mine”) and Reba (“Turn On The Radio”) while Rascal Flatts (“Why Wait”) and The Band Perry (“If I Die Young”) vie for Group of the Year. Steel Magnolia’s Meghan Linsey and Joshua Scott Jones are up for Duo Video of the Year with “Last Night Again.” Rascal Flatts and Justin Bieber bested the other cross-genre duos for a spot in the Collaborative Video of the Year category with “That Should Be Me.” Reba and Martina McBride both achieved CMT Performance of the Year nominations for “If I Were A Boy” from UNPLUGGED: REBA and CMT CROSSROADS: TRAIN AND MARTINA MCBRIDE. Tech savvy Taylor Swift is up for Best Web Video of the Year (new for 2011) with “Mine” (Live from the Speak Now Album Release Party).

“I’m so proud of our artists and their creative vision and how they present their music in this visual medium. I also want to give a big shout out to all of the video producers, directors and our own in-house Creative Services team for continually raising the bar in bringing our songs to life in our music videos. June 8th is going to be a great party!” said Scott Borchetta, Big Machine Label Group President and CEO.

CMT’s Evan Farmer and TODAY show hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb revealed the nominees live from New York yesterday morning. The Band Perry was in the studio as well for the announcement to perform their platinum hit, “If I Die Young,” which merited them all of their first-ever CMT Award nominations. As previously revealed, they are also in the running for USAWEEKEND Breakthrough Video of the Year for the tune, which earned David McClister a spot in the Video Director of the Year category.

ABOUT THE BIG MACHINE LABEL GROUP: Scott Borchetta serves as President/CEO of the independent Big Machine Label Group, which includes Big Machine Records (founded in 2005), The Valory Music Co. (founded in 2007) and Republic Nashville (a partnership with Universal Republic founded in 2009 with Jimmy Harnen serving as President). In 2010 Big Machine was named Country Label of the Year by Country Aircheck Magazine/Powered by USA Today. Signature artist Taylor Swift’s third album, SPEAK NOW, became the best-selling Country studio album debut of all time with over 1 million units sold in its first week, making Taylor the 4^th female artist in history (across all genres) to debut with more than 1 million units sold. In 5 years, Big Machine Records artists have received 6 Country Music Association Awards, 7 American Music Awards, 4 GRAMMY Awards, 7 Academy of Country Music Awards, 4 CMT Music Awards, 3 Teen Choice Awards, 1 MTV VideoMusic Award and 1 People’s Choice Award as well as 1 Brit Award and 1 JUNO Award nomination.

The Big Machine Label Group’s current artist roster includes Multi-Platinum superstars Taylor Swift, Reba, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride and Jewel, Platinum sensations The Band Perry, established acts Justin Moore, Jack Ingram and the Eli Young Band and hot newcomers Steel Magnolia,Sunny Sweeney, Edens Edge, Brantley Gilbert and comedienne Melissa Peterman.

Rascall Flatts will perform June 26, and The Band Perry will perform May 21 with Tim McGraw, both at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at St. Louis this summer. For show and ticket information, log on to www.livenation.com.