Triple 8 Management is adding to their Nashville and Austin teams with four new hires: Evan Kaufmann, Shawn Pennington, Cara Kozulak and Alena Moran. The new additions bring the company, which is headed by partners Bruce Kalmick and George Couri, to a total of 42 staffers.

Joining Triple 8 as Creative Director, Evan Kaufmann is an award winning filmmaker, photographer, and graphic designer who has previously worked for Disney, Warner Brothers and Universal Music Group. In his new role, Kaufmann will oversee visual branding for the company’s growing roster of artists and clients.

A music industry veteran with over two decades of experience, Shawn Pennington joins Triple 8 as a manager. Pennington’s career began as a bandleader and road manager, then as a manager at Morris Management, where he helped develop the careers of Gretchen Wilson, Big & Rich, John Rich and more. Pennington then joined BBR Management as Senior Vice President, where he represented Thompson Square, Parmalee and Lindsay Ell, and in 2016, he founded Pennington Entertainment, a full-service entertainment management and marketing company. He joins the management team for Eli Young Band and will continue to manage Thompson Square as part of Triple 8.

Cara Kozulak joins Triple 8 on the management team. As a student at Belmont University, she completed internships at iHeart Radio, AEG and Cromwell Radio Group and following graduation, began her career at BBR Management as a management assistant working with Thompson Square, Parmalee and Lindsay Ell. Most recently, Kozulak worked in management at Pennington Entertainment.

Alena Moran is stepping into a new role at Triple 8 as a Creative Manager representing producers, engineers, and other creatives. Her experience includes representing Grammy Award-winning engineer F. Reid Shippen (Kenny Chesney, Ingrid Michaelson), Pete Lyman (Panic! At The Disco, Chris Stapleton), Dave Gardner (Bassnectar, Weezer) and Daniel Bacigalupi (Parker Millsap, Kane Brown). She has also been a production coordinator for projects by Kane Brown, Maren Morris, Jesse James Decker and Dustin Lynch.

“Here at Triple 8 Management, we have grown to 42 team members because we strive to build a team of people around our artists that think beyond the basics,” said Kalmick. “Creative direction, senior managers and a new vertical into the engineer, producer/writer space are all welcomed additions into our Triple 8 family and we are excited to see each of them grow with our firmly established base within the music industry.”

The CMA has revealed the first group of performers slotted for the 52nd annual awards show will include CMA nominated country artists Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Dan + Shay, Old Dominion, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.

The show will be hosted for the 11th consecutive year by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood and will air live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Wednesday (Nov. 14) at 7 p.m. CT on ABC

Over 200 students at Belmont University attended United Talent Agency’s (UTA) inaugural Digital Summit on Thursday (Oct. 18) at the university’s campus. The summit featured discussions with UTA executives including Digital Strategy Agent Nick Barnes, Head of IQ Strategy Kendall Ostrow, Digital Agent/Emerging Platforms Oren Rosenbaum, as well as Spotify’s Head of Originals Jesse Burton.

The Digital Summit was developed by UTA, alongside Belmont, to educate students on the various career opportunities in the digital marketplace, as well as explore what the current landscape looks like across practice areas such as social media, podcasting and fan retargeting.

Three sessions took place including “Retargeting: How to Cut Through the Noise and Market to Your True Fans” by Nick Barnes, followed by “Social Media: What Could go Wrong? Brand Crisis Management in the Digital Age” by Kendall Ostrow and “Creation to Syndication: How to get a Podcast off the Ground” by Oren Rosenbaum and Jesse Burton.

“We created The Digital Summit alongside Belmont to educate the next generation about career opportunities in the digital world,” said Barnes. “Upon graduating, music business students tend to only consider the traditional route of labels, publishing, management, etc. and we wanted to highlight the value of the growing digital marketplace.”

“Our ongoing relationship with UTA has resulted in countless professional and educational benefits for our students here at Belmont,” said Dr. Cheryl Slay Carr, Associate Dean of Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. “By hosting a unique event like The Digital Summit, we were able to introduce them to career opportunities in a burgeoning field and invaluable insights from industry thought leaders.”

Capitol Records Nashville artist Darius Rucker celebrated his ninth No. 1 country single, “For the First Time,” with a party at performing rights organization ASCAP’s Nashville office on Wednesday (Oct. 17).

ASCAP’s Mike Sistad led the celebration, in conjunction with First Tennessee Bank, honoring Rucker as well as “For The First Time” songwriters Scooter Carusoe, Derek George and producer Ross Copperman.

“The first time I heard it, I just knew this was the biggest smash ever,” Copperman said. “Derek sent me this demo and he sent me a lot of tracks to use so I thank him for that. Darius is one of my musical heroes so it’s an honor to work with him.”

Derek George has 25 years in music business, with hits spanning three decades as songwriter producer and publisher. In the past six years, produced eight top 10 hits, with five hitting No. 1. This is Derek’s third No. 1 as a songwriter.

“Alicia Pruitt set this write up and she is like my soul sister,” Derek said. “I want to thank Darius for liking the song and singing the crap out of it. Ross you make incredible records. Travis you know I love you man and I’m so happy to be here. Capitol thanks for working this song so hard on the charts.”

Scooter Carusoe, part of the Nashville music community for 20+ years, celebrates his fifth No. 1 as a writer and 15th No. 1 as a publisher with “For The First Time.”

Carusoe said, “I got an email from Alicia saying, ‘Hey do you want to fly to Charleston and write some songs with Darius Rucker?’ No, I don’t want to do that,” he laughed. “I could be putting nail in a roof or something.’ I say that jokingly, because what a blessing it is to do this job for a living, and specifically on this song and with these guys.”

Since Rucker released his first country album in 2008, he has earned four trips to the top of the country albums chart. In 2014, he earned a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance for “Wagon Wheel.”

Among those in attendance were Troy Tomlinson from Sony/ATV, Rezonant’s Tim Wipperman, Carnival Music’s Frank Liddell, and David Friedman from Capitol Records Nashville. Sony/ATV also made a donation to MusiCares on behalf of the songwriters.

“Ten years ago, Hootie [& the Blowfish] decided to take a break and I decided it was time to make my country record,” recalled Rucker. “ I say this every time I’m up here, but I’ve been on labels that you don’t want to be on before, and every day, I thank God I’m on Capitol Records. I’m 52 years old and you guys still fight for me like I’m that new kid and you want to break my first record. To my publishing partners, you guys allow me to write songs for a living. What is better than that? Ross, you made a great record. When I say you made a great record, there’s a reason my records don’t say ‘Produced by Ross Copperman and Darius Rucker.’ I don’t know shit. I show up and I sing and you made a great record. I can’t wait until we get to do it again.

“Charles Kelley [of Lady Antebellum] called me when this song went No. 1 and said, ‘Darius, this never gets old does it?’ I said, ‘No, number ones never get old, ever.’”