UnitedMasters is an American music distributor based in the United States founded by Steve Stoute in 2017. UnitedMasters gives artists the ability to distribute music to all major streaming services. Distributed artists are eligible to participate in advertisements, brand partnerships and other promotions that can earn them money and new fans. UnitedMasters gives artists access to their streaming and social data, this gives them information on how to maximize their fan engagement. The company claims to represent 50,000 artists, one of the more notable being rapper NLE Choppa.
History
UnitedMasters was launched in 2017 by Steve Stoute with a $70 million Series A led by Google’s corporate umbrella Alphabet alongside venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and 21st Century Fox. In 2018, UnitedMasters rolled out the distribution feature on its platform titled Releases. The Releases feature allows artists to upload their music and album artwork and distribute their music to all major streaming services through the UnitedMasters platform. In 2019, UnitedMasters announced the appointment of its first President, Lauren Wirtzer-Seawood. Wirtzer-Seawood formerly served as Head of Music Partnerships at Instagram. Prior to that, Wirtzer-Seawood spent two years as the Head of Digital at Beyonce’s entertainment and management company, Parkwood Entertainment.
Partnerships
In 2018, UnitedMasters announced a global partnership with the NBA. In early 2019, UnitedMasters artists helped launch the Bose Frames products by featuring the product in their music videos. UnitedMasters helped identify ambassadors for the campaign and Bose assisted in the development and promotion of each artist’s music videos. In a 2019 partnership with iHeartRadio and AT&T, UnitedMasters helped major radio stations including Power 105.1 in New York City and Real 92.3 in Los Angeles celebrate emerging artists in their cities. Through ‘The Come Up Show’ series, independent artists got the opportunity to submit music for the chance to receive major radio play, $25,000, and a distribution deal through UnitedMasters. Also in 2019, UnitedMasters announced a partnership with NBA 2K20.
Technology
In July of 2019, UnitedMasters unveiled its new iOS app which makes the features of the UnitedMasters platform available on mobile devices. The iOS app allows artists to easily distribute music directly from their text messages, Dropbox, or iCloud to major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple, Tidal, and YouTube. Similar to the desktop platform, artists can view streaming stats, playlisting details, financial earnings, and social stats as well as access opportunities for brand partnerships.
