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Music City
NEXT-WAVE PUBLISHERS: JOSH VAN VALKENBURG (SONY/ATV NASHVILLE, A&R)
7/8/19

Josh oversees the SATV Nashville A&R team, home to such superstar artist/writers as Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker and Thomas Rhett. He’s guided the careers of hit songwriters Josh Osborne (Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road,” Midland’s “Drinkin’ Problem”), Ross Copperman (Kenny Chesney’s “Get Along,” Dierks Bentley’s “Woman Amen”) and Jon Nite (Cole Swindell’s “Break Up in the End,” Luke Bryan’s “Strip It Down”), as well as star artists Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Eldredge and Chase Rice. Writers in his charge have amassed over 60 country #1s.

“As record labels have enjoyed a serious increase in revenue due to streaming,” he says, “we’ve seen an increase in artist signings and thus more product. More releases equals more opportunities for our writers to get songs on records. While we’ve still got a long way to go in terms of fair compensation for songwriters and publishers from streaming, it’s encouraging to see more songs get a chance to be heard and consumed. Hopefully, this will lead to more songwriters getting the chance to make a living doing what they were born to do.”