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’s 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 retire 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 “strategic transition plan ensuring continuity CMA’s staff, board and members,” Schaffer will officially join the CMA on Sept. 8 but not take over until Trahern’s exit at the end of the year.
Schaffer 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 “over 15 years of experience in the music industry spanning entertainment law, partnership strategy and academic leadership in entertainment education.”
Before 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’s country, Christian/gospel and Americana operations and partnerships. Prior to that, she was an entertainment attorney at Loeb & Loeb LLP.
