Dan Galen Hodges

In his almost thirty-year career in the music business, Dr. Dan Hodges has worked for BMG Music Publishing, Rick Hall’s FAME Music, and Murrah Music. As a song plugger, Hodges successfully placed songs on albums generating over 10 million units in sales in his career, including the hits “Where Would You Be” by Martina McBride and “I’m A Survivor” by Reba McEntire (TV theme for Reba), Billy Currington’s ASCAP 2008 Country Song of the Year “Good Directions,” and songs recorded by many other major label acts. In addition to being a publisher, Hodges co-produced the XM radio top 5 hit “Mandolin Rain” for Josh Kelley and discovered and signed many successful Nashville writers and 2 multiple Grammy winners in his career. From 2008 to 2022, Hodges operated his own Music Row-based publishing company, Dan Hodges Music, LLC. The company enjoyed two #1’s and had songs recorded by many Nashville country artists including Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Chris Young, Reba McEntire, Lee Brice, and Kelsea Ballerini (her #1 “dibs”), to name a few. DHM also opened a virtual branch of the company in Australia in 2015, where the company enjoyed six #1 country songs and over thirty major label cuts in the Aussie country music scene. Hodges has been a regular attendee of the international music publisher conference, MIDEM, which has led to subpublishing relationships all over the world and DHM songs being placed on major label acts in multiple countries including Italy, France, Sweden, Ireland, South Africa, United Kingdom, and Germany. Dan Hodges earned his Doctor of Business Administration/International Business degree from Liberty University in 2021. After teaching at Belmont University as an adjunct and lecturer from 2016-2022, he assumed the role of Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver in the Fall of 2022 and, most recently, the role of Associate Chair of the Music and Entertainment Industry Studies department at the university in the Spring of 2024. Hodges is currently an elected board member of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) and a faculty ambassador for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) for his university. He has had his research published in the College Music Symposium Journal, The Journal of Business Diversity, and The MEIEA Journal and presented his research multiple years at the annual MEIEA Summit.