Capitol Christian Music Group Hosts First-Ever Partner Summit

Capitol Christian Music Group (CCMG) hosted its first ever Partner Summit in Nashville last week, with a room full of attendees including artist managers, label partners and industry stakeholders.

"This is something we’ve been dreaming about and planning since we moved into our new building and studios,” CCMG President Brad O’Donnell said as he welcomed everyone. “We wanted to gather our key partners and industry stakeholders to discuss the future of our business and how we can better work together to help artists reach new levels of success. 2025 has been a transformative year for our industry and for our company. There is unprecedented growth happening in our market right now - the Christian genre is outpacing most others, and our fanbase is getting broader and getting younger."

The afternoon included candid conversations on the state of the Christian & Gospel genre, with panels and perspectives focused on emerging trends and changing consumer behaviors. Topics included artist-first marketing, streaming, music publishing, short form video, the changing role of radio and more, all coming back to the idea of how to engage an ever-evolving audience - whether that be with emerging talent, catalog, songwriters or artists that are at the top of the charts.

(L-R, Gary Kelly, Becca Redl, David Sylvester, Mandy Young, Cole Linebarger, Lauren Stellato, Candice Watkins, Kenny Rodgers, Emily Dashiell, Margaret Hart, Tim Foisset, Brad O’Donnell, Walter Thomas, Rodney Jerkins) 

Speakers included key partners Jody Gerson (CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group), Gary Kelly (General Manager/CRO, Interscope Capitol), Rodney Jerkins (Songwriter Hall of Famer & CEO, Evolve Music Group), Tim Foisset (Head of Label Partnerships, Nashville and Canada, Spotify), Margaret Hart (Head of Nashville Label & Industry Partnerships, YouTube), Lauren Stellato (Programming Lead, Christian & Gospel, Amazon Music), and Mandy Young (SVP, Radio, K-LOVE & Air1). Additionally, Becca Redl (VP, Marketing, CCMG) with Cole Linebarger (VP, Marketing, CCMG) spoke on CCMG’s commitment to artist first marketing.

Also, breakout artist Josiah Queen made a surprise appearance to close out the summit just before his Capitol debut “Mt. Zion” released last Friday. Queen has been taking the industry by storm. Leading up to the new release, he’s seen over 140M streams on singles, 344M short form video views, with a focus track from the album, “Dusty Bibles,” increasing his followers by over 600K. At radio, the first single, “Can’t Steal My Joy” has already reached No. 5 at Christian Radio – Queen’s highest peak ever.

(L-R, David Sylvester, Kenny Rodgers, Carlos Monnaco, Candice Watkins, Josiah Queen, Trinity Queen, Devin Poindexter, Garrett Davis, Brad O’Donnell, Cole Linebarger, Emily Dashiell, Matt Reed)

ABOUT Capitol Christian Music Group (CCMG) - Capitol Christian Music Group (CCMG) is the world's leading Christian Music company and market leader in recorded music and music publishing. CCMG operates several divisions, including CCMG Label Group, Sparrow Records, Motown Gospel, Tamla Records, ForeFront Records, sixstepsrecords, Jesus Culture, Commercial Partnerships and CCMG Publishing. CCMG is home to artists Chris Tomlin, Amy Grant, TobyMac, Josiah Queen, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Tauren Wells, Anne Wilson, Jeremy Camp, We the Kingdom, Tye Tribbett, Crowder and many others. Capitol CMG Publishing, in addition to publishing most of the CCMG labels' premier artist/writers, represents many of the leading writers in Christian/Gospel including Ben Glover, Ed Cash, Tommee Profitt, Kirk Franklin, Jeff Pardo and many more. Key Distribution and Publishing Administration partners include Primary Wave/Gaither Music Group, Centricity Music, Maranatha Music, The Belonging Co, and Getty Music. Led by Brad O’Donnell and a strong executive team of long-time Christian and Gospel music veterans, CCMG is characterized by a passionate commitment to their artists, songwriters, customers, business partners, and one another, as well as a strong spirit of community service.

(L-R, Emily Dashiell, Margaret Hart, Lauren Stellato, Tim Foisset)

##