Capitol Christian Music Group Celebrates 50-Year Anniversary, Holds Annual Partner Summit in Nashville

What a difference a year makes.

Capitol Christian Music Group celebrated its 50-year anniversary as it held its annual partner summit at its headquarters in Nashville on Aug.

20, but also feted the massive growth the genre has experienced in the past year.

“A lot has changed in 50 years — really a lot has changed since we got together 12 months ago,” CCMG president Brad O’Donnell told those in attendance, which included CCMG staffers and Interscope Capitol chairman/CEO John Janick and Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Tom March.

“There were early signs [a year ago] about the Christian and Gospel market getting ‘hot.’ Things that we would never have imagined before have happened, including how young our fanbase is getting.” “Christian and Gospel is now one of the most frontline-focused genres,” O’Donnell added.

“Even more impressive, streaming in our genre grew by 18.5 points in 2025.

We are entering an amazing period for faith-based music globally.” According to recent Luminate data, Christian/Gospel is the fastest-growing genre behind rock, increasing its marketshare by 0.25 percentage points.

One of the many artist highlights over the past year for CCMG has been the career surge of Josiah Queen.

Queen’s sophomore album, Mt.

Zion , debuted at No.

1 on Billboard ’s Top Christian Albums chart in 2025, and he made his all-genre Billboard Hot 100 debut last year with the song “Dusty Bibles.” He also notched a three-week No.

1 Christian Airplay hit last year with the Brandon Lake collab “Can’t Steal My Joy.” Pictured (L-R): Brad O’Donnell, Chris Tomlin, Tom March, Anthony Piedmonte.

Photo courtesy Raymond Alston / CCMG March noted that CCMG and the greater Capitol Music Group team “focused on Josiah in the same way we focused on breaking Doechii or Leon Thomas… These artists, they are just great artists.

We don’t necessarily look at the genre, we go, ‘How can we find an audience and how can we get their music in front of those audiences? We need to use the traditional routes, those are still incredibly important, but the walls have come down — we can find audiences everywhere.” For Queen, one of those focuses was looking at building an international fanbase early, taking him to tour cities in Europe.