Zach Bryan Re-Ups Deal With Warner Records
The singer/songwriter will play stadiums this summer.
Zach Bryan has re-upped with Warner Records, Billboard has confirmed.
The extremely prolific singer-songwriter has released three studio albums on the label since first signing with it in 2021: 2022’s American Heartbreak, 2023’s self-titled set and 2024’s The Great American Bar Scene. He’s also put out three EPS and two live sets. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news, adding that the new deal is for at least two albums.
Bryan’s rise has been meteoric. Billboard named him its top new artist of 2023, and he has dominated at both country and rock since then. “I Remember Everything,” his duet with Kacey Musgraves, and “Something in the Orange” were the top two songs on Billboard’s 2024 year-end Rock Streaming Songs chart. That same year, he ranked third on Billboard’s Top Artists of 2024 and No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Artist chart. His self-titled set became his first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and all three of his full-length Warner Records sets have bowed atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.
Bryan has also been a critical favorite, earning four Grammy nominations, with “I Remember Everything” winning best country duo/group performance at the 65th annual Grammy Awards in 2024.
He’s also a crowd favorite. After headlining the opening night of Stagecoach last month, Bryan is headed to Dublin for three shows in June and then will play BST Hyde Park in London on June 28-29. He will then return stateside for seven stadium shows, including three nights at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Bryan helped usher in a new wave of country-oriented acts signing with coastal labels, as Billboard reported in September. Bryan wasn’t the first country-leaning act signed by a major coastal label, but his massive success has proven that an act no longer necessarily needs the usual Nashville methods, including country radio, to break through.
Prior to the pandemic, Nashville labels generally had a lane to themselves when it came to signing country artists, with their relationships at country radio giving them almost exclusive access within the genre. But once COVID hit and touring slammed to a halt, labels became laser-focused on data and analytics as the only available metrics to gauge an act’s success. The coastal labels saw tremendous opportunity and jumped in, with New York and Los Angeles labels signing country-leaning acts with strong streaming numbers and a high TikTok engagement rate, including Warren Zeiders (Warner Records), Koe Wetzel (Columbia), Dasha (Warner Records) and Ella Langley (Columbia); or jointly with a Nashville partner, such as Megan Moroney, who is signed to both Columbia and Sony Nashville.
Warner Records declined to comment on the news.
