By the time Morgan Wallen began working on his 2023 album, One Thing at a Time, he was no hit-making novice: He had earned six Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s, and his previous release, Dangerous: The Double Album, had spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200.
Still, Wallen listened when Seth England — partner/CEO at Big Loud, where Wallen is signed in a joint deal with Mercury Records/Republic — suggested he include a particular song on the new album.
“Musically, Seth has one of the best ears in the business,” Wallen says. “On my last record, there was a song that I almost didn’t record, but he felt strongly about it and I trusted him.” That song was “Thinkin’ ’Bout Me,” which ended up ruling Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for five weeks last year, peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going triple-platinum.
For nearly two decades, England’s golden ear, entrepreneurial skill and penchant for strategic risk-taking have transformed what was once a boutique music publishing operation into a multifaceted hit machine with label and management components. Big Loud was named Billboard’s top country label of 2023, one of 24 year-end charts the label and its artists landed on.
Much of that success came courtesy of stadium-filler Wallen. One Thing at a Time led the Billboard 200 for 19 nonconsecutive weeks, tying Garth Brooks’ 1991 album, Ropin’ the Wind, for the most weeks at No. 1 on the chart for a country album. Wallen’s One Night at a Time World Tour, which spanned three continents and over 50 shows last year, won him the top country touring artist honor at the Billboard Music Awards. But Wallen isn’t Big Loud’s only standout signee: HARDY broke through in 2023, earning Country Airplay hits with “Truck Bed” and the Lainey Wilson collaboration “wait in the truck,” and this year, Ashley Cooke notched her first top 20 Country Airplay song with “Your Place.” Big Loud’s roster also includes rising country artists ERNEST, Hailey Whitters, Charles Wesley Godwin, Lily Rose, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Jake Worthington.
But more than chasing hit records, England, 37, has cultivated and supported a dynamic creative community — one with significant impact on music’s mainstream — at Big Loud.
On a shelf in his office at the label’s Nashville HQ, England has a small replica of Hitsville, U.S.A., home of the first recording studio and headquarters of Motown Records, one of his biggest inspirations. Close by sits a first pressing of The Miracles’ 1960 hit “Shop Around,” written by Smokey Robinson and Motown founder Berry Gordy.
“I’ve walked [Motown’s] buildings in Detroit because I’m so fed by the energy they had,” England says. “It wasn’t without complication, because when you’re so intertwined that way, the successes are big, but the failures sometimes hurt more because you’re all trying together.”
England grew up in small-town Illinois and studied music business and marketing at Greenville University, pursuing Nashville internships during his college summers. One was at publisher Harlan Howard Songs, where he met Sara Knabe (now Big Loud head of A&R), who connected him in 2006 with Big Loud Shirt Publishing, founded by songwriter Craig Wiseman (Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying”).
“He was like, ‘I’ll do whatever needs to be done.’ He had volunteered to intern for the summer, even though he wasn’t getting college credit for it,” Wiseman recalls, noting that England’s initiative extended to even pulling weeds outside the office. “I thought, ‘This is an industrious young guy.’ ” England aspired to become a song plugger, and Wiseman eventually granted him a three-month tryout.
“He gave me a trial by fire as a publisher,” says England, who began pitching songs, including “Hillbilly Bone,” recorded by Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins. His talent for calculated risk quickly became apparent: During that time, the then-22-year-old directly pitched the song “Ain’t Back Yet” to Kenny Chesney.
“He hung on to an email I had sent and emailed the song to Kenny himself,” Wiseman recalls. “Seth has always been a cowboy; he’s like a six-shooter and has been from day one. That’s what you got to be.” The song became a top five Hot Country Songs hit for Chesney in 2010. About a year later, Big Loud Shirt Publishing had “an implosion on the business side,” Wiseman says. “Basically, I fired all the adults in the building and realized, ‘Me and the intern that pulls weeds are going to be running this company.’ It was the best thing that ever happened.”
Over the subsequent years, England rose through the ranks, eventually becoming vp of A&R. In 2008, he helped bring another future Big Loud leader to Nashville for the first time: writer-producer Joey Moi, best known then for his work with Nickelback.
“I would go to events with him and probably shake hands with 50 to 75 people I’d never met before,” Moi says. “He was effortlessly introducing me to the entire industry. He’s a natural-born CEO. And he’s such a good pitch guy. If he wants something — he’s going to convince you.”
Moi moved to Nashville from Canada, and in short order, he, England and Wiseman partnered to launch Big Loud Management in 2011. “I’m a song person and Craig’s all creative. Seth’s that grounding force to make sure the ship is on course,” Moi says of the trio’s complementary talents. “That’s the magical thing about our partnership — we’ve all occupied our corners, and none of us is trying to be each other.”
The trio took an artist-development approach with its first three management signings: Chris Lane, Dallas Smith and duo Florida Georgia Line (Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard), which would put Big Loud on the map. FGL’s debut single, “Cruise,” released on Republic Nashville, ruled Hot Country Songs for 24 weeks, hit No. 4 on the Hot 100 and was certified diamond by the RIAA. The duo, which is now on hiatus, has 16 Country Airplay chart-toppers under its belt.
The act also arrived at a pivotal time. In the early 2010s, England watched how streaming boosted Sweden’s music industry into a rebound — and though country music in general was slow to embrace it, he was an early believer and took steps to ensure FGL’s streaming success. “I thought, ‘This is the future,’ ” he says. Initially, his team sifted through data to create their own streaming reports; now Big Loud has a Ph.D. statistician on staff.
England’s bullishness on streaming directly influenced his release strategy for FGL’s “H.O.L.Y.” in 2016. Sensing the song “could be bigger than your standard country moves,” he brought it to Spotify’s then-global head of country programming John Marks, who in turn connected England with pop-oriented Spotify executives Doug Ford and Mike Biggane.
“I sat in a Manhattan recording studio and played [“H.O.L.Y.”] for them and they were floored,” England recalls. “I believe we got the cover and the first or second slot on [the all-genre] New Music Friday.” When “H.O.L.Y.” came out, he continues, “it was reactive right away. I could’ve gotten in big trouble when people really thought I was renegading too hard. But I didn’t want that rollout to happen without maximum potential. You win some, you lose some — but we won that one.”
In 2015, England and his team launched Big Loud Records, with Lane and Wallen their first two signees. In the process, they created an all-inclusive powerhouse of publishing, management and label services, where artist-writers like HARDY and ERNEST pen hits for a range of artists (like Wallen) while propelling their own recording careers.
“[Seth’s] expertise is connecting people and I have a passion for connecting people, so on the business side of things, I look up to him in how he runs the label and is a manager and manages relationships within work, which can be hard to do when you are really good friends with people you’re doing business with,” ERNEST says. “He has provided a perfect playground for me to develop my skill over the past decade.” HARDY is still grateful for England “taking a chance on me early as a songwriter — not a guy playing shows and showcasing my songs only — and saying, ‘I think this guy could be an artist.’ ”
Big Loud Management guides roster artists including Wallen (whom England co-manages with Kathleen Flaherty), HARDY, ERNEST, Cooke and Worthington. While that might seem like a conflict of interest, Moi says England’s experience as a manager only enhances his work as label CEO. “Some managers can come through a record company and be very combative,” Moi explains. “They’re always thinking they have to fight for their artists. Seth’s able to see that perspective right away, and it diffuses any kind of combative process that might be there.” England says multiple artists outside of Big Loud have approached him to manage them, but he has turned all of them down: “That’s not the centerpiece of my mission. My mission is Big Loud.”
In recent years, that mission has required England, in his capacity as both manager and label head, to offer difficult guidance for Wallen, who was caught on video using a racial slur in 2021 and more recently was arrested on three felony counts in connection to a chair-throwing incident at Eric Church’s Nashville bar.
“Morgan and I have always had a very close relationship. We’ve onboarded some new teammates in his life to give him well-rounded help. In a lot of cases, that decays relationships between manager and artist; in his case, it feels like the best year we’ve had,” England says. “But [we always ask] the same question: ‘How are you? What do you need for what is going on?’ I think if you’re a good manager, you’ll know when the right time is to ask that. We don’t condone it. We don’t enable it, we don’t encourage it. We trust that he’s making progress and is heading in the right direction.”
For now, between shows on tour, Wallen is in the studio working on his next album, which England says “is staying true to who he is, but there’s a new creative inspiration happening. There are different sides of him and music he has listened to that will fuel a few of the choices on this next album.”
England has led Big Loud’s progression into a multifaceted music organization, creating independent ventures under its publishing and label umbrellas. In 2019, Big Loud Records teamed with singer-songwriter Nicolle Galyon to launch label and publishing company Songs & Daughters with a combined roster including Whitters, Tiera Kennedy and Lauren Watkins. In 2021, Big Loud introduced imprint Big Loud Rock, which has helped push HARDY’s music to rock radio. Other partners include ERNEST’s publishing company, Cadillac Music, a joint venture with Severance Records, and Back Blocks Music, founded and run by publishing executive Rakiyah Marshall, who is married to England. (The couple have two children.)
Big Loud also recently announced a deal with Mercury Records/Republic, which expanded its distribution services for Big Loud artists beyond the initial three it had already worked with (Wallen, Rose and Dylan Gossett) to the entire Big Loud roster. And in November, Big Loud partnered with Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall to launch Big Loud Texas. The partnership with Lambert is multidimensional: Following her April move to Republic, Big Loud will handle her country radio promotion and marketing.
Over the past year, Big Loud grew even more, adding offices and label managers in Australia and the United Kingdom and bolstering its Toronto branch. But despite occasional rumors that the expanding company is on the market, England says, “The fairest and shortest answer is no.”
Big Loud 2.0, he continues, will “spread wider and collaborate faster. I’m a subscriber [to the idea of] having people around you that you want to be like. Certainly, that’s [Republic executives] Monte and Avery [Lipman] for me. I’m not saying Big Loud is trying to become Republic Records in any way, but we are in a new era — making sure we are staying best in class and, most of all, providing for the artists.”
This story will appear in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
