Pictured (L-R): Maddie & Tae, Jessie Jo Dillon and Laura Veltz

Big Machine Music (BMM) has extended its long-term, exclusive co-publishing agreements with chart-topping songwriters Laura Veltz, Jessie Jo Dillon and Maddie & Tae. The company is also celebrating its 11th anniversary.

“We’re ecstatic to celebrate 11 years of Big Machine Music with the continuation of our partnerships with Laura Veltz, Jessie Jo Dillon and Maddie & Tae,” says BMM’s General Manager, Mike Molinar. “We feel privileged to enjoy commercially successful and personal relationships with all four of these uniquely gifted songwriting talents. Their trust in us is truly a validation of our long-term vision and approach.”

Veltz, Billboard‘s 2022 Songwriter of the Year, has been with BMM for a decade. Since signing her deal in 2013, she has penned songs for Demi Lovato, Maren Morris, Idina Menzel, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Kelly Clarkson, Monsta X, Kane Brown and more. Veltz has garnered four Grammy nominations, and was included in the Recording Academy’s inaugural class of nominees for Songwriter of the Year earlier this year. She took home both the 2020 ACM and CMA Awards for Song of the Year as well as the 2021 BMI Pop Song of the Year, for Morris’ chart-topping smash “‘The Bones.”

Dillon first signed to BMM in 2016. She co-wrote Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s global, crossover smash “10,000 Hours” as well as Cole Swindell’s Grammy-nominated No. 1 “Break Up in The End,” which earned her an ACM Awards Song of the Year nomination and NSAI Song of the Year. She is currently celebrating the rise of several tunes, including Old Dominion’s top 10-and-rising single “Memory Lane,” Catie Offerman’s debut single “I Just Killed A Man” and Megan Moroney’s critically-acclaimed “Girl in The Mirror.”

Maddie & Tae’s Maddie Font and Taylor Kerr have also been with BMM for a decade. The award-winning duo first topped the charts with their Platinum-certified debut “Girl In A Country Song.” They followed that up with top 10 Platinum “Fly” as well as Gold “Friends Don’t.” Maddie & Tae’s triple-Platinum No. 1 smash “Die From A Broken Heart” earned ASCAP Country and Pop Awards in 2022, and solidified them as the first and only female twosome to score multiple No. 1s on the Country Airplay chart.

Country music superstar Dierks Bentley will host the 2023 National Hockey League (NHL) Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Monday, June 26 at 7 p.m. CT.

“Hockey plays a big part [in] my daily life,” says Bentley. “I’ve been to rinks all over the country with my travel-hockey son. I coach his spring league games and spend hours in the local hockey store, telling him, ‘No, you do not need a new stick!’ We love watching YouTube highlight reels, the whole family loves going to Nashville Predators games and watching the Stanley Cup Final together. And, I am a proud member of a beer league team here in Nashville. To get to add NHL Awards host to this list is truly an honor.”

The 2023 NHL Awards will open a week of NHL activities in Nashville. The NHL, in conjunction with the City of Nashville and the Nashville Predators, will stage the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft, June 28-29 at Bridgestone Arena.

“We can’t wait to celebrate the NHL’s best and brightest with the best of country music in Nashville,” says Steve Mayer, NHL Chief Content Officer & Senior Executive Vice President. “Dierks has rocked our stage over the years as a headline performer, and we’re so happy to welcome him as host of this year’s NHL Awards.”

A list of NHL and Predators public activities and events, including red carpet arrivals for the NHL Awards show and the NHL Draft, will be held in the area outside Bridgestone Arena and announced in the coming weeks.

Lauren Alaina is opening the door to the next chapter of her life on her revealing first project for Big Loud Records, Unlocked, out everywhere June 9. She’s giving fans a first taste of the new six-song EP today, releasing two tracks, “A Walk In The Bar” and “Hangovers.”

Standing firmly in who she’s always been, Unlocked features a set of new songs anchored in Alaina’s truth, digging deeper and stretching her further both musically and personally than ever before. She announced the new project on her socials this morning.

Alaina laid the foundation for the new EP with a new teaser, narrating over b-roll footage of her time in the studio creating the project with producer Joey Moi. Created by an assortment of Nashville talents, the six-track collection includes cuts by Cole Swindell, Ella Langley and Luke Bryan, as well as mainstay hit makers Josh Osborne, Parker Welling and Hunter Phelps, and many others. It also features a cheeky duet with collaborator/buddy Lainey Wilson.

“It’s been 13 years since we first met, and until a couple of years ago, I don’t know that I ever slowed down for more than a day or two at a time,” Alaina reflects. “I spent more time with the people that matter most to me—my family, my fiancé, my friends—during that period than I had in years. This music comes from my heart and my hometown. I am who I am because of where and who I come from, and I’m more me today than I’ve ever been. I can’t wait to unlock this next chapter with you.”

Alaina will be speaking at Billboard‘s Country Live in Conversation, and performing the new music at CMA Fest on the Chevy Riverfront Stage on June 8.

Unlocked Track List:
1. A Walk In The Bar (Lauren Alaina, Casey Brown, Lydia Vaughan, Parker Welling)
2. Hangovers (John Byron, Greylan James, Josh Osborne, Matt Roy)
3. Don’t Judge A Woman (Autumn McEntire, Joybeth Taylor, Sarah Allison Turner)
4. Smaller The Town (Zach Crowell, Joel Hutsell, Cole Swindell, Hunter Phelps)
5. Like Her (Trannie Anderson, Joe Fox, Emily Landis, Ella Langley)
6. Thicc As Thieves (feat. Lainey Wilson) (Lauren Alaina, Rocky Block, Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Jacob Durrett, Parker Welling)