Top Entertainment Executive Scooter Braun Joins NASH Next Country Music Talent Competition as Judge

Scooter Braun

ATLANTA, August 31, 2015 – Cumulus (NASDAQ: CMLS) today announces that Scooter Braun, one of the entertainment industry’s most influential music executives, will serve as a guest judge during the NASH Next Challenge, which will discover and release music from the most promising Country musicians. 

The NASH Next Challenge grand prizewinner will be signed to the new NASH Next record label, and all of the top 10 finalists will participate in a national NASH Next concert tour next year. Winners will be decided based on a combination of the music industry judges, an original “Spin Index” of social media activity and online fan voting.

Braun, the founder of the diversified entertainment and media company SB Projects, has broken more new music acts than any other music executive in the past decade. Braun has discovered some of today’s biggest stars, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Cody Simpson, each of whom he continues to manage. Braun’s chart-topping roster also includes Country music duo Dan + Shay, singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen and this year’s breakout star Tori Kelly. 

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Today marks the beginning of Challenge #2, where the 85 entrants who have been selected to advance begin competing in the NASH Next Jingle Challenge. During this challenge, bands will perform an original jingle and fans will select the last five words of the song on Twitter.

Braun will participate as a guest judge in the Periscope Live Broadcast Challenge, which runs from September 14-23. During this third round challenge, artists and bands will perform an original song live on Periscope and fans will vote for their favorite on the NASH Next website. The 55 Country artists remaining after this round will move on to the Instagram Visual Story Challenge, followed by the PicCollage fan collaboration challenge. The final challenge will involve producing an original music video. 

The three full-time NASH judges are legendary music producer James Stroud, award-winning Country music artist and radio personality Kix Brooks and Cumulus Executive Vice President of Content and Programming John Dickey. 

“Since the beginning of my career, I have been dedicated to discovering new talent across all genres of music,” said Braun. “With NASH and my fellow judges, we are going to find the best new acts in Country music at this year’s competition and bring that music to fans through social and digital platforms.” 

“We are thrilled to welcome Scooter as a guest judge for this exciting phase of the competition,” said John Dickey, Cumulus Executive Vice President of Content and Programming. “Scooter’s creative expertise, which spans music, film, technology, culture and social good, brings a unique perspective to our panel of NASH Next judges.”

NASH Next marks the latest expansion of the popular NASH entertainment and lifestyle brand, and NASH’s second launch into the recorded music business – joining the NASH Icon label, whose first album by Reba McIntyre, “Love Somebody,” debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country album chart. NASH Next is based at the NASH Campus in Nashville, the nation's only multi-media facility devoted solely to producing and distributing content based on the Country music lifestyle. 

Photo Courtesy Goldin Solutions