neXt2rock Rolling Right Along
• Cumulus Media announced that its neXt2rock 2017 competition — a national and local grassroots search for America’s newest rock star — is off to a strong start, pulling in over 1,800 submissions, and thousands of fans have already weighed in on their favorites thus far. The winner of this four-month-long competition will receive a record deal with Big Machine/John Varvatos Records, as well as substantial exposure, commensurate with a major label release, on Cumulus radio stations nationwide. Emerging artists are being initially rated by Cumulus listeners through this Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 11:59pm ET. Everyone participating in the rating process will be automatically entered to win a trip to the neXt2rock 2017 finale at the famed Viper Room in Los Angeles on Dec. 12.
Mentor Judges for the big finale include Big Machine Label Group President & CEO Scott Borchetta; musician, songwriter and producer Desmond Child; record producer Bob Ezrin; Sex Pistols’ guitarist and host of Jonesy’s Jukebox, Steve Jones and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. Video messages from the mentor judges can be found at neXt2rock’s Facebook page, and Rossdale just released a personal video this week extolling the virtues and importance of fans to the neXt2rock competition and to the artists they love and support.
“It’s refreshing and exciting to see and hear the wide spectrum of entries we’ve received for our first neXt2rock competition,” said Mike McVay, EVP of Content & Programming. “It’s especially encouraging to see how diverse the submissions are within the genre, which further proves that rock music is alive and well, and its future remains bright.” Sixty-One Cumulus stations in 47 markets have conducted local grassroots searches, with additional national participation made possible by Cumulus’ digital properties and syndicated rock shows.
