announced her intention to retire<\/a> on Jan. 14 of this year, paving the way for an executive search committee to take its time in finding a successor. In what the CMA is calling a \u201cstrategic transition plan ensuring continuity CMA\u2019s staff, board and members,\u201d Schaffer will officially join the CMA on Sept. 8 but not take over until Trahern\u2019s exit at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\tSchaffer will be leaving her current position as Dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville. The CMA said she brings \u201cover 15 years of experience in the music industry spanning entertainment law, partnership strategy and academic leadership in entertainment education.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tBefore taking her role as a dean at Belmont three years ago, Schaffer spent five years as Head of Artist & Label Partnerships for Nashville at Spotify, where she shaped strategy for the streamer\u2019s country, Christian\/gospel and Americana operations and partnerships. Prior to that, she was an entertainment attorney at Loeb & Loeb LLP.<\/p>\n
\n\tHer tenure at Belmont has \u201cbrought energy, clarity, and momentum to the college,\u201d the announcement said, \u201cdeepening industry engagement and launching transformative initiatives \u2014 including the 90,000-square-foot Curb College on Music Row expansion and the Center for Mental Health in Entertainment \u2014 reflecting her commitment to experiential learning and the holistic well-being of artists, songwriters, and the professionals behind the scenes.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOur search committee set out to find a leader who understands the responsibility of representing this industry, not just the opportunity of it,\u201d said\u00a0Jay Williams, CMA board chairman and WME Nashville partner and co-head, in a statement.\u00a0\u201cWe met with an exceptional group of candidates, and we believe Brittany\u00a0is exactly the leader to carry this organization into its next era, and to make sure country music\u2019s influence continues to expand well beyond Nashville.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSaid Schaffer, \u201cCountry music meets people where they are, and it changes lives every day. That starts with songwriters and artists and everyone who carries this music to fans around the world. Serving them is the honor of a lifetime. Sarah Trahern will leave CMA and this community stronger than she found it. I\u2019m grateful for her mentorship and friendship, and for a transition marked by the same professionalism and intentionality that defined her tenure. Together with CMA\u2019s talented staff and members, we\u2019ll build on that foundation. We\u2019ll reinforce the connectivity within this community, bring renewed energy to our signature events, and find new ways to connect country music with fans around the world. And if we get that right, somewhere a song will find somebody who needs to hear it. That\u2019s the heart of this work, and I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTrahern said, \u201cLeading this organization for 13 years has been the honor of my life, and I have this community to thank for that. I\u2019m grateful to our search committee for the time, care and integrity they brought to this process, and I trust the thoughtfulness they poured into it. I wish Brittany every success as she steps into this role, and I look forward to cheering this entire industry on for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Country Music Association announced Wednesday that Brittany Schaffer will be its next CEO. Schaffer, presently a dean at Belmont University and formerly a top exec in Spotify\u2019s country operations, will succeed current CMA head Sarah Trahern as of Jan. 1, 2027. Trahern, who has led the organization for 13 years, announced her intention to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2493851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[343893,347518,491091],"class_list":["post-2493849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-brittany-schaffer","tag-country-music-association","tag-sarah-trahern"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Country-Music-Association-Names-Brittany-Schaffer-as-New-CEO.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493852,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493849\/revisions\/2493852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2493851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}