Streaming curators, platform executives, artists and label executives discuss how events like CMA Fest help online-popular artists transition into mainstream stars.
CMA Fest 2023: Darius Rucker on the best thing about the festival — ‘no egos’
Darius Rucker talks about the future of country music, playing for the fans and his very first CMA Fest.
- Country music’s popularity has surged due to social media and streaming platforms, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- This surge has led to increased attendance at events like CMA Fest, with fans eager to see artists they discovered online.
- Artists like Shaboozey, Tucker Wetmore, Gabby Barrett, and Bailey Zimmerman have experienced rapid rises to fame due to this trend.
- Streaming now accounts for a significant portion of music industry revenue, and country music has seen a substantial increase in streams.
- This shift has created a new dynamic where social media and streaming can propel artists to stardom faster than traditional radio play.
Nearly one million people have been drawn to downtown Nashville for a weekend in June each year for the past decade, as the Country Music Association Fest has evolved into a major event.
CMA Fest’s popularity has surged alongside the rise of online music streaming. Emerging artists with large streaming audiences are propelled onto CMA Fest stages.
This year, the event takes place from June 5 to 8. Headliners include Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker and Keith Urban.
Over the past three years, country music has transformed from what Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern describes as an expanding “biggest tent” of a musical genre into an epicenter of emerging popular culture, particularly evident at events like CMA Fest.
Music streaming platforms gained dominance during the COVID-19 pandemic, as artists found vast audiences on social media. Interest in these artists peaked at major festivals like CMA Fest, where fans could finally gather en masse and engage with them in real time.
“Long-lasting careers and supercharged success can exist (simultaneously). Social media and streaming’s growth has caused the music industry overall to evolve (to a place where) both of these types of artists are relevant,” said Warner Music Vice President of Digital Marketing Brooke Hardesty. “In country, where the genre has existed for 100 years, we have 50 years of both kinds of artists — that makes things more exciting than ever.”
According to surveys after the 2024 CMA Fest, the Country Music Association found that 82% of attendees use streaming services to discover new artists.
Festival events that have helped launch artists’ careers include pre-planned moments that sometimes exceed expectations, such as breakout stars Lil Nas X or Post Malone performing at Ole Red’s Spotify House installation, or massive crowds drawn to free CMA Fest stages to see Shaboozey and Tucker Wetmore near Bridgestone Arena and the Hard Rock Cafe.
Performers like Gabby Barrett, Jelly Roll and Bailey Zimmerman quickly achieved pinnacle stage recognition at Nissan Stadium after attaining breakout success.
Ultimately, the power of social media and streaming platforms’ increasing grip on the music industry and its fans is showcased from digital screens to Nashville stages.
‘Beatlemania’-level excitement for country’s breakout stars on Nashville’s streets
Streaming platforms and the country music industry have formed a strong partnership, significantly influencing the American music scene.
Streaming platform plays earned nearly nine out of every ten dollars in the music industry, according to 2024 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) data. One-fifth of 2024 gold and platinum-selling albums and singles claimed Music City roots in 2024, the data shows.
Sometimes, watching popular acts on social media and streaming at festivals like CMA Fest is reminiscent of the first time The Beatles hit America’s shores.
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” saw the performer gain a 1,600% increase his monthly listenership. When he performed at CMA Fest, during a daytime set, the rush of fans to Bridgestone Arena forced the gates to be closed. “There hasn’t been anyone else this big on this stage (before),” a Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officer told a Tennessean reporter.
One day later, with his songs “Wine Into Whiskey” and “Wind Up Missin’ You” only massive on social media and streaming platforms, Tucker Wetmore, like Shaboozey, drew over 5,000 fans to a stage outside Lower Broadway’s Hard Rock Cafe.
Emily Cohen Belote has been a curator at Amazon Music for eight years and currently serves as the platform’s principal curator for country music.
She has seen at least two dozen artists break out on playlists including Country Heat, and Americana and rootsy pop-leaning “Bonfire” over the past five years.
They include 2025 Amazon Breakthrough program artist Dasha, Breland, Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, Jelly Roll and the previously mentioned Wetmore and Zimmerman. Between 2023 and 2025, all six acts suddenly emerged as star talent, based mainly on social and streaming interest, and who performed at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest.
“These are artists who have a great work ethic are unquestionably self-aware and (savvy) at building a culture around their point of view on social media. Plus, their music is excellent and reflects who they appear to be online (and in real-time),” Belote said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, social media and streaming platforms initially boosted interest in music, she said. Platforms like Amazon Music can now adopt strategies that stand out, as access to audiences is more democratized and visibility has increased.
“Once those factors blend with these artists having their reach grow, then having more music people want to listen to and engage with equates to popularity everywhere, from festivals to radio and more,” Belote said. “We can’t do everything to support an artist, but with their lead, we can amplify their vision.”
Social media, streaming create stars faster than radio
Since 2019, there has been a more than 700% jump in monthly American streams for country music, according to Spotify data.
Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” earned nearly 25% more streams than Drake’s then-year-old single-week song streaming record for “In My Feelings” in 2019.
Two months later, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus performed the hit song on the Ole Red rooftop as part of the pop-up Spotify House at CMA Fest. The Tennessean described “a sea of cell phone cameras and shouts of “can’t nobody tell me nothing” during their performance.
Like Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus, Post Malone and his “Pour Me A Drink” partner, Blake Shelton, performed at Ole Red in 2024.
It’s become a trend.
Spotify Country editor Claire Heinichen said the accessibility and round-the-clock online news cycle has allowed more artists, like Ella Langley, find fame faster.
“In previous decades, country music moved slower as a whole, relying on traditional album release cycles and working singles to radio for a long period of time. Albums and radio are still important to the genre, of course, but social media and streaming have allowed artists to feed their fan bases with more music in a much shorter time period,” Heinichen said.
“For example, Ella Langley knew she had something special with (her 2024 hit) ‘You Look Like You Love Me.’ I distinctly remember the day she posted the first video of that talking chorus. That song became an instant hit on streaming, and fans have gobbled up every song she’s put out since.”
The incredible two-year journey of Gabby Barrett’s ‘I Hope’
The interruption to business during the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally transformed numerous industries, including music.
EMarketer data shows that TikTok usage grew by 20% in the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which half of the world’s population became social media users. On average, people spent 90 minutes per day scrolling through social media platforms.
Notably, as well, country music’s popularity on streaming services spiked five times greater than the entire music industry during the first nine months of COVID-19 interruptions, according to MRC Data/Nielsen Music.
For acts like American Idol finalist Gabby Barrett, an unprecedented number of eyes and ears were captivated. Barrett’s single “I Hope” became the first female-sung song to top Billboard’s Country Streaming chart. Six months later, it reached No. 1 on country radio. By November, it was a top-five all-genre Hot 100 pop hit that had sat atop country’s sales charts for five months. The song ended 2021 having achieved 5-time platinum-selling status.
But, in 2020 and 2021, CMA Fest was cancelled due to COVID-19 regulations.
By the 2022 return of CMA Fest, Barrett had evolved from a Sunday afternoon free stage performer to an artist spotlighted on Friday night on the big Nissan Stadium stage.
“A song that is real, raw and, years later, stands the test of time, reflected what my fans from social media and absolutely crazy streaming numbers grew to trust about me,” Barrett said.
Bailey Zimmerman surges from ‘A Rock and a Hard Place’ to CMA Fest’s biggest stage
In Oct. 2020, then 20-year-old rural Illinois native Bailey Zimmerman was working on a natural gas pipeline and singing rock covers on TikTok to a growing throng of 300,000 followers.
Four years later, Zimmerman released No. 1 country hits like “Fall In Love” and “Rock In A Hard Place,” leading to becoming a main stage participant at Nissan Stadium during the 2024 CMA Fest.
Returning to Nissan Stadium in 2025, his success now includes 10 times as many TikTok followers. It represents a new era of artists growing on social media, hitting on streaming and maintaining that impact in real time.
“Bailey’s growth from a star in social media’s lifted truck sub-culture to an artist capable of being in tune with his fans and himself is nothing short of amazing,” Warner Music Nashville Vice President of A&R Rohan Kohli said. “An artist who can rise to the occasion and channel crazy on-stage energy into being an incredibly smart and astute musician, successfully learning how to be comfortable as an artist with a huge following, is rare.
Hardesty added: “Bailey’s success at bridging social media, streaming and (well-received) live performances makes him an artist of consequence now capable of reaching far beyond the country industry to reveal many more untapped audiences.”
Social and streaming pushing live country engagement creates ‘an ideal world’
For the first time in recent memory, this year’s headlining performers at CMA Fest on Nissan Stadium’s mainstage feature a whopping 40% of artists whose growth can be tied to five years of social media and streaming interest, keying increased fan intrigue.
“In an ideal world, at Nissan Stadium this June, there’s a Bailey Zimmerman fan who watches Brooks & Dunn sing ‘Neon Moon’ and becomes a fan of theirs and a Brooks & Dunn fan who hears Bailey sing ‘Rock and A Hard Place’ and becomes a fan of his,” Hardesty said.
Kohli added: “All of the lanes are open at a time when a rising tide is lifting all boats.”
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