SGC Media's country music publication, Countrytown, has made a significant breakthrough in the United States, ranking among the top 10 country music publications last month.

The Brisbane-based media company reported Countrytown attracted 270,345 unique monthly visitors, surpassing traditional global publications such as Music Row in terms of unique monthly visitors.

Countrytown was established in 2020 during the lockdowns and has since been making waves in the music industry. The publication's content is syndicated to Kix Country, Australia's largest country radio network, and its Countrytown Hot 50 chart is utilised by Ray Hadley's Country Countdown.

Publisher and CEO of SGC Media, Stephen Green, expressed his enthusiasm for the publication's success. “Countrytown really is the little engine that could in a media world that we are constantly told is ‘challenging’,” he said.

Green also noted the growing popularity of the country music genre, stating, “Country music is the fastest growing genre in the world and our Australian take on the global country marketplace is obviously resonating with readers across the globe.”

SGC Media, which also owns TheMusic.com.au and youth publication Purple Sneakers, has seen a significant increase in audiences since acquiring the two platforms in 2020 and 2022 respectively. Both Purple Sneakers and TheMusic.com.au have quadrupled their audiences under SGC's ownership.

The company attributes its success to its commitment to music journalism and storytelling.

“Our business was founded on celebrating, developing and unearthing new music while doubling down on the importance of music journalism and telling human stories to connect people with the artists,” Green explained. “By understanding our audiences and writing the stories people want to read rather than the content people want to pay us to write, we’ve developed a strong bond with our readers and ultimately that has strengthened our mastheads."

SGC Media's approach to music journalism seems to be paying off, not just domestically, but on a global scale. The publisher said it's here to tell the stories of Australian music and build communities around passion for songs and artists.

"We want to create inclusive mastheads where audiences can learn more about their favourite artists and create connections with new songs that could just change their lives.

"The fact that our approach is resonating not just here at home, but across the world bodes well for the business and the opportunities we can take. It proves our hypothesis that music media can mesh new technology with old-school storytelling to build local communities as well as global pathways,” the company stated.