Big Machine Records

• Taylor hasn’t revealed who she’ll be working with for her new project, but chances are she may collaborate again with Shellback and Max Martin who she called her “absolute dream collaborators” because of how much they pushed her and challenged her as a songwriter and an artist.  Some people felt Taylor pushed the musical boundaries quite a bit with her latest album, Red, but she says, “I am blown away at getting six CMA nominations in a year that I pushed the boundaries of what a genre is more than ever before. I’m so happy that people understood what I was doing conceptually. Getting those six CMA nominations to me signified that this community knew that I was not running from where I come from. I was exploring.”
  Taylor says she’ll be continuing to write while she’s in South Africa filming the new movie The Giver with Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges, and when she heads to Australia next month for her stadium tour. Get more details here.

• CMT will celebrate a remarkable year in country music by honoring BMLG’s Tim McGraw and Florida Georgia Line, along with Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Hunter Hayes as 2013’s country music artists of the year in the 90-minute special, CMT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR, premiering LIVE for the first time Tuesday, December 3 at 8:00 p.m., ET.
  This year’s five honorees will gather in Nashville alongside their peers and notable luminaries for an evening filled with rocking performances, surprise guests and cheers to the achievements of each CMT ARTIST OF THE YEAR.Over the past 12 months, the five honorees have illustrated their impact in country music through massive radio airplay, chart-topping album sales and millions of individual downloads of their current singles. Additionally, these acts have sold out concert tours and collectively their videos have received hundreds of millions of streams, earning them the honor of being named one of CMT’s ARTISTS OF THE YEAR.

• Rascal Flatts has been working on a new album, the follow-up to their Changed CD, which they released 18 months ago, and Jay DeMarcus says, “We’re getting close.”  He told Billboard, “We’re finishing up some music right now. We hope to have a new single out by the end of the month, and a new album out in the first quarter. We’re getting some of the first mixes back that we’ve done with Howard Benson, and it’s really exciting stuff. I’m thrilled with the new music that we’re making.”Benson is known for working with acts like Bon Jovi, Daughtry and Hoobastank.
  Back in August, Joe Don Rooney said, “We just want to make a great project, and sonically we want it to sound different and do some songs we would have never cut, maybe, in the past and try to push ourselves and see what else we can come up with.”
  In addition to working with a new producer, Jay, who has produced albums for Chicago, Michael English and Jo Dee Messina, is also producing some of Rascal Flatts’ new music.  He says, “I’m finishing vocals up with Gary in the next few weeks or so on the stuff that I’ve been able to produce for us. I’m very thrilled about that opportunity as well.”

The Valory Music Co.

• Congratulations to Thomas Rhett, who scored his first-ever #1 single as an artist this week with “It Goes Like This” – the hit title track from his upcoming album. You can now pre-order It Goes Like This, the debut release from TR here.

Republic Nashville

• Congratulations to Cassadee Pope, whose first Country solo album Frame By Frame debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country charts this week! Get her new album here. Be sure to check out her CMT Listen Up performances here too!

• More performers have been added to the 47th Annual CMA Awards, including Florida Georgia Line. The duo joins recently announced Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Brad Paisley, and Carrie Underwood are scheduled to perform.  Plus, Alan Jackson and George Strait will perform together in a tribute to the legendary George Jones, who passed away in April.  Unfortunately, tickets for the November 6th awards show, which will be hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood in Nashville, are already sold out, but you’ll be able to watch the show live on ABC.

• Florida Georgia Line spent a good part of 2013 opening for Luke Bryan on his Dirt Road Diaries Tour, and now they’re out on their own headlining tour.  Tyler tells The Daily News the difference between being the opener and the headliner is, “We’re going to get to do whatever we want and play as long as we want, which is nice. We’ll have a lot more production, a lot more smoke and lights and a lot more energy.”
  While they may plan some more headlining dates in 2014, Tyler says Florida Georgia Line will be part of another tour next year and they’ll be working on their next album.  In the meantime they’ll release the repackaged deluxe version of their Here’s to the Good Times album on November 25th, with a few new songs to help tide fans over until they can get in the studio and record an entire new studio album.