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Within Christian music, few artists of the past decade have made as many waves as Brandon Lake. The singer, songwriter and guitarist, who got his start by crowdfunding his first album, 2016’s Closer, has emerged as one of the genre’s leading lights in recent years, having racked up six Billboard Hot Christian Songs No. 1s, five Christian Airplay No. 1s and one Christian Albums chart-topper, 2023’s Coat of Many Colors.
It was that last album, his first for Provident Entertainment, that really kicked his career into high gear — even beyond the traditional confines of Christian music. As COMC was still producing charting singles, Lake began teasing new music on tour and on TikTok, which started connecting with an audience broader than what he was used to. “With each release, Brandon, his team, and Provident kept raising the ceiling on what was possible and setting a new floor of success for where we could go,” Provident’s president Holly Zabka tells Billboard. By last July, that led to the release of the song “That’s Who I Praise,” which tied the record for longest run at No. 1 on Christian Airplay this decade. But it was his next release that would catapult him into the mainstream.
After teasing the song on TikTok and at shows, Provident released “Hard Fought Hallelujah” in November, months before they had planned, due to fan demand. The response sent the song to No. 1 on Hot Christian Songs, and this week, it not only spends its 20th week at the summit of that chart — making Lake the only artist with three 20-week No. 1s there — but reaches No. 40 on the Hot 100, his first entry on the mainstream chart and the marker of a bonafide crossover smash. And as “Hallelujah” — which also got a high-profile remix from Jelly Roll — continues to gain steam, Provident’s Zabka is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Zabka talks about building into the success of “Hallelujah,” the effects of the Jelly Roll remix and TikTok on the song’s upward trajectory, and why Christian music is growing in popularity right now. “There’s a quote from Moneyball that says, ‘The first one through the wall always gets bloody, always,’” Zabka says. “At Provident, we operate from the perspective of being the first ones through the wall, leading the way for our creators and the genre.”
This week, Brandon Lake’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah” spends its 20th week at No. 1 on Hot Christian Songs, making him the only artist with three songs to lead that chart for that amount of time. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
From the moment we signed Brandon, our goal has been to throw out the “rulebook” of how we historically would release music and, as a team, challenge ourselves to think differently at every turn.
Last year, we were roughly seven months into working Brandon’s first release on Provident, Coat of Many Colors, when he started teasing new songs on socials and the road. At that time, we were successfully working two different songs to Christian radio, with DSPs focusing on a third single. Conventional wisdom would say we shouldn’t move on to new music; there was still a lot of gas left in the tank on COMC. We watched and learned that Brandon’s audience had the capacity and hunger to consume the current release while also making room for what was coming next. While the data showed a growing appetite for more music, we also had to listen and watch how his fans engaged, and then trust our instincts, because ultimately, the fans indicate how artists should release content.
By July, we released a new single called “That’s Who I Praise” that doubled our biggest single from the previous record. With each release, Brandon, his team, and Provident kept raising the ceiling on what was possible and setting a new floor of success for where we could go. “Hard Fought Hallelujah” was the second single to be teased way back in the spring. Before there was a plan for a record, we were two singles in, and “HFH” released in late fall, again doubling anything Brandon had previously released. Not only was the current record holding its activity, but everything new kept exceeding expectations.
The song also got a remix with Jelly Roll. How did that help boost its traction?
Obviously, we recognized that adding an incredible artist like Jelly Roll would attract a new audience to the song. Brandon’s solo version of “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” released in November of ’24, exceeded every goal and demonstrated that his audience was already expanding. Before a collaboration was possible, Jelly had heard and been affected by the song, making the request for a potential collaboration feel organic and natural. The combination of Jelly, who is very open about his faith, and Brandon, whose artistry had already begun to transcend the genre, created broader access and opportunities for discovery in new spaces.
How did TikTok play a role in the song’s success?
In early 2024, Brandon began playing the verse and chorus of “Hard Fought Hallelujah” at a few shows and then each night of his summer arena tour. Even in fragments, you could feel people connecting to the message and posting videos of their experiences with the song, proving that something special and unique was happening; people were asking for it. All of this occurred before a release date was scheduled, but everything indicated that this song had already ignited a deep connection.
He officially began teasing it across all social media in August, and we had planned for a January 2025 release, given the success he was already enjoying with his previous releases. However, demand for the song was undeniable, amassing over 10 million views and 35,000 short-form creations before it was released in November.
“Hard Fought Hallelujah” hit No. 40 on the Hot 100 this week, Lake’s first-ever Hot 100 entry, suggesting it has major mainstream appeal. It’s also one of just three songs to chart on both the Hot 100 and Hot Christian Songs since 2020. What’s behind that surge, and how have you helped fuel it?
Brandon and his co-writers have written a song that beautifully captures the authentic experiences many people have in their faith journeys. Life is hard, and maintaining faith during those difficult seasons can be challenging. Everyone can relate to the idea of struggling through something, holding onto hope, and emerging on the other side. That’s what has sparked the surge. The song resonates with people right where they are.
We fueled that surge by not allowing the artist’s past to dictate or limit the song’s potential. We focused on the connection the song was making across various audiences and leaned into that in every possible direction. We have had Jelly Roll on Christian radio, Brandon at country radio, and featured on country playlists, faith playlists, and worship playlists; the song has been sung in churches and now at Stagecoach, breaking through typical genre barriers. Regardless of how successful a song or artist becomes, we consistently ask what we can do to help it reach more people. This mindset, shared by everyone on Brandon’s team, continues to drive the growth of the song and the artist.
Christian music in general has been surging lately. What is behind that, and how has Provident been able to benefit from it?
When songs like Lauren Daigle’s “You Say” or Brandon’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah” impact culture beyond the Christian music genre, they inspire the creative community to elevate songwriting, artist development and expression. They attract fans who may not have previously explored an artist or a song in our genre, primarily because the song or artist connects to something deeper.
Provident has seen remarkable growth over the last two years with artists like Brandon, Elevation Worship, Seph Schlueter and Leanna Crawford. These artists have contributed to the genre’s expansion and are shaping the future of Christian music.
The Christian genre has experienced double-digit growth in the past two years, during which time Provident has gained eight frontline market share points. We’ve outpaced the growth of the genre because, instead of merely benefiting from the increasing interest in Christian music, we’ve aimed to be the driving force behind it. We will continue to foster growth by remaining curious, continuing to learn and maintaining our willingness to break down genre barriers for every artist signed and yet to be signed to the roster.
How do you see Christian music continuing to grow moving forward?
There’s a quote from Moneyball that says, “The first one through the wall always gets bloody, always.” At Provident, we operate from the perspective of being the first ones through the wall, leading the way for our creators and the genre.
We must be willing to try, fail, take risks, push boundaries and explore new spaces with our music. In the past, for a song in the Christian genre to cross over, we had to take the best our genre had to offer and give it to the mainstream. This surge in Christian music is proving we can attract that audience to us. As the genre walls continue to disappear, more and more “mainstream” audiences are discovering that Christian music authentically represents a part of their life, faith and daily experience that can be supported through our music. The growth of the genre isn’t slowing down, and we will continue to lead the way and challenge perceptions of Christian music through the quality, diversity, and authenticity of our songs and artists.
Trisha Yearwood has a new album on the way — and a new label partnership.
Virgin Music Group has teamed with Yearwood and her label, Gwendolyn Records, for new music from the three-time Grammy winner as well as her more recent catalog. The deal reunites Yearwood with Universal Music Group’s Music Corporation of America (MCA), the Nashville-based label she recorded for from 1990 through 2006. MCA will continue to work Yearwood’s catalog from that timeframe.
Yearwood’s new album, The Mirror — her first project in more than six years — is set for release on July 18. The album marks Yearwood’s first set of songs fully co-written and co-produced by the singer herself. In previewing the new project, Yearwood will release two new songs, “The Wall or The Way Over” and “Bringing the Angels.” The album is available for preorder in digital, CD, standard vinyl and limited-edition custom color vinyl formats.
“I’m honored to join forces with Virgin Music Group as I embark on this exciting new chapter,” Yearwood said in a statement. “Bringing my Gwendolyn label into the MCA/Universal family truly feels like coming home. I can’t wait to share my new album, The Mirror. Creating this music has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
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“Trisha Yearwood is one of the most talented and enduring artists in the world,” Jacqueline Saturn, president of Virgin Music Group North America/executive vp of global artist relations, said in a statement. “We are so proud to have her and her Gwendolyn Records catalog on our roster and are looking forward to her legions of fans hearing this incredible new music.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Trisha Yearwood back to the family, coming full circle as we celebrate and amplify her iconic MCA catalog,” added Mike Harris, president/CEO of MCA. “In partnering her Gwendolyn Records label with Virgin Music Group, Trisha enters an exciting independent chapter — one where she retains creative and commercial control, supported by a world-class global team. We are so happy for her.”
“Trisha is one of the beloved artists in Nashville,” added Jen Bontusa, Virgin’s Nashville-based senior vp of label management. “It’s been amazing working with her and her team so far and we’re looking forward to a long and successful partnership.”
On Wednesday (April 30), Yearwood launched her first headlining tour in six years, starting with a show in Austin, Texas.
Yearwood previously released 10 albums for MCA, starting with her 1991 self-titled debut album, which included her breakthrough debut single: the No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit “She’s in Love With the Boy.” Yearwood’s time at MCA Nashville brought other chart-toppers including “Thinkin’ About You,” “XXXs and OOOs (An American Girl)” and “Perfect Love.”
Big Loud has sold a stake in Morgan Wallen‘s recording catalog to Chord Music Partners, Billboard has confirmed. “Big Loud has sold a minority stake in Morgan Wallen’s master recording catalog to Chord Music Partners, as part of a strategic investment to expand the label’s global footprint and fuel long-term artist development,” a Big Loud […]
Bayker Blankenship’s “Maxed Out” is a bankrupt ballad set in a barren landscape of dead-end towns and nearly-empty bars. The narrator drinks a few too many Jack and Cokes when he’s not spending the night in the clink: “I’m getting into fights and I’m falling hard,” Blankenship sings. “I maxed out one more credit card.”
Blankenship released the track in April 2024 through a distribution company called Foundation. “Maxed Out” performed well — so well that Blankenship graduated to Foundation’s sister operation, Santa Anna Label Group, a more high-touch distributor that’s able to put marketing muscle behind its artists.
“I appreciate their expertise on the content and digital side,” says Brian Schwartz, who manages Blankenship. When Santa Anna promotes songs, “they analyze, see what’s working and what’s not,” Schwartz continues. “And they know how to pour the fuel on what’s working.” “Maxed Out” now has more than 121 million on-demand streams in the U.S., according to Luminate.
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Foundation and Santa Anna are both under the command of Todd Moscowitz, the founder of Alamo Records. After launching Alamo in 2016 and introducing Santa Anna at the start of 2023, Moscowitz has cobbled the companies together into “a soup-to-nuts, fully integrated ecosystem where artists [have] a path to graduate to a premier frontline label,” as he puts it. This approach is becoming increasingly common, as both major labels and independents look to sign more acts and offer an array of options that allows those artists to grow over time — while also remaining attached to the company that initially offered them funding.
Foundation functions as a feeder system, signing a lot of young artists, many in hip-hop and R&B, primarily to low-money, short-term distribution deals. Santa Anna is a level up, with the capability to support labels — including OVO Sound, which scored a No. 1 album recently with the PARTYNEXTDOOR–Drake collaboration $ome $exy $ongs 4 U — as well as individual artists who have already generated some momentum. And Alamo is the more traditional frontline label: It signs a small number of artists directly and provides services to each of them.
Hybrid companies like this — offering the flexibility of a distributor but the promotional firepower of a major label — often work better in theory than in practice. Most distributors “don’t know how to take artists to the next level,” Moscowitz acknowledges. At the same time, frontline labels still “don’t have much experience in indie distribution.” Artists can get lost in the messy middle ground between the two business models.
This makes the growth of Santa Anna/Foundation all the more impressive. In 2024, Santa Anna added more than a point (1.04%) of current market share to Alamo’s 2.11% total. Many competitors would hack off an arm to add a point of current market share in a year. (Foundation’s contribution is included in that number.)
Already this year, Alamo has grown to a 2.91% current share through the first quarter — 1.83% of it from Santa Anna/Foundation — which is good for eighth among all labels in the U.S. Getting to release a Drake collaborative album was a coup for the company; $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which Santa Anna co-distributed with Republic Records, earned 246,000 equivalent album units its opening week. The radio-ready single “Nokia” has risen as high as No. 2 on the latest Billboard Hot 100, and remains in the top 10.
“If it’s a lot harder to create superstars, it’s all about, how do you soak up more?” says a senior executive at a competing company. He calls Alamo’s integration with Santa Anna and Foundation “brilliant — and potentially an indicator of where things are going in the future.”
Moscowitz was experimenting with hybrid models inside the major-label system long before it was fashionable. He worked at Def Jam during its 1990s heyday and then moved to Warner Music Group (WMG) in 2004, initially as president of Asylum Records. There, he designed “a fluid system in terms of the deals, because when you’re dealing with entrepreneurs, you must be flexible,” as he put it in 2022. When WMG launched its Independent Label Group in 2006, Moscowitz was named president of the new outfit.
He later co-founded the indie 300 Entertainment, which launched in 2014, before jumping ship to get Alamo off the ground two years later. Alamo, which now functions as a frontline label under the Sony Music umbrella, signed chart-topping rappers like Rod Wave and Lil Durk, who have combined to earn 11 top five Billboard 200 albums for the label, including four No. 1s.
Even as Alamo enjoyed that traditional label success, however, Moscowitz couldn’t help but notice that “distribution [was] becoming an ever more important entry point into the business for artists.” Major labels have launched their own distribution wings one after another in recent years, whether that’s REPUBLIC (Imperial), 300 (Sparta), or more recently, Warner Records (Revolution). To compete in this landscape “with a credible, recognized offering,” Moscowitz invested in Foundation at the end of 2022 and launched Santa Anna shortly after.
In hip-hop, Foundation “was first with this very small advance, very early outreach, blanket approach,” the senior executive says. Another executive familiar with the company says they can easily send out hundreds of deals in a year. Five separate Foundation contracts viewed by Billboard show that in the past, the company often offered artists advances between $20,000 and $30,000 with few guaranteed services. In exchange, the artist has to fork over a set number of songs — maybe two dozen new tracks, or some already-released music along with a smaller number of future records.
Foundation takes a cut of royalties, usually between 20 percent and 30 percent, which attorneys say is in line with industry norms for these sorts of agreements. (Though more competitors are offering similar contracts recently, according to music lawyers, causing advances to rise.) Foundation keeps earning until it recoups its expenses; after that, the company typically gets two or three additional years to collect on the music (known as the “retention period”) before rights revert to the artist. The contracts seen by Billboard auto-renew after recoupment unless artists give the company 30 days’ notice that they want to end the relationship.
Moscowitz is adamant that Foundation’s purpose “is not to have a thousand artists doing 100,000 streams a week and make some distribution revenue.” “Most of our artists’ streams go up dramatically after signing with us,” he says. “Some go up so much that it makes sense to engage the entire company and spend substantial money and effort marketing them.”
That’s where Santa Anna comes into play. While many new distributors have entered the industry in the last decade, “a lot of them don’t do anything,” says Conor Ambrose, founder of the label Listen to the Kids. He partnered with Santa Anna in 2023 due to their ability to help his acts. “Their marketing people are talking to our artists; their playlisting team is talking to our artists,” he says. “Everybody’s actually on the phone every week.”
“Every time we’ve asked Todd for something,” Schwartz adds, “he’s showed up.”
Another difference between Santa Anna and its competitors, according to Moscowitz, is that his operation “will not offer marketing on any artist unless we have a path to long-term rights.” In other words, he doesn’t want to help blow up an artist, only to have that act split to another record company.
“Many of these sorts of deals come with upstream clauses, meaning the major-affiliated distributor — in this case, Santa Anna — may have the right to trade the artist up to a frontline label,” says Loren Wells, a music lawyer familiar with Santa Anna. “The terms of the upstream will be much less favorable than the initial deal. But many young artists may see that outcome as unlikely, or simply think, ‘If the worst case scenario is getting signed to a major label with a decent advance, that’s not really a worst case scenario.’” And in genres like country that still favor old-school record deals, Wells continues, the upstream terms may still seem more appealing than other labels’ traditional offers.
Moscowitz says Santa Anna is able to secure future long-term rights because artists “value what we bring to the table” in terms of marketing and promotion. “If we don’t value ourselves, then no one will ever value us,” the Alamo founder adds.
He is pleased with the results so far. “We have eight or 10 artists like Chuckyy, Raq baby, and Bayker Blankenship who are breaking and will be the future stars of our company,” Moscowitz says. “Santa Anna is functioning exactly the way we want.”
Kacey Musgraves is coming full circle with her new label deal, signing to the recently relaunched, Nashville-based Lost Highway Records. The eight-time Grammy winner was the final artist signed to the label in 2011. In 2012, Lost Highway was absorbed by Mercury Nashville as Musgraves was crafting her debut studio album Same Trailer, Different Park (which contained her breakthrough hit “Merry Go ‘Round”).
Now, she is the first artist signed to the revitalized label.
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Lost Highway’s revival was announced earlier this month, with former Thirty Tigers executive Robert Knotts and Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) executive Jake Gear serving as co-heads and executive vps of the resurrected label.
“Lost Highway was always a musical stable for artists who might be considered outliers or outlaws; those who live on the fringe,” Musgraves said in a statement. “In 2011, when other record labels questioned my songwriting and my more traditional country sound, Lost Highway believed in me, signing me to my first label deal and helped me take my music around the world. That journey has now come full circle in such a special way with John Janick and Interscope and I’m deeply honored to be able to once again call Lost Highway my musical home.”
Musgraves is celebrating the label deal with Lost Highway Records by releasing her interpretation of the label’s namesake song, the Leon Payne-written “Lost Highway,” which Hank Williams covered in 1949.
John Janick, chairman/CEO, Interscope Capitol and IGA, said in a statement, “Kacey exemplifies the kind of culture- shifting, left-of-center artists that Lost Highway has always been known for. Given the close relationship she’s had with both Lost Highway and Interscope, it seemed only natural for her to be the first artist signed in this new chapter.”
Music exec Luke Lewis, who founded Lost Highway in 2000 and signed Musgraves in 2011, said in a statement: “For 20 years, my job was to run Mercury and MCA labels, which were primarily mainstream country endeavors. The last 10 years of my time there were passionately dedicated to starting and leading Lost Highway, which was the most rewarding time of my entire career. The label went on to cultivate some of the greatest singer/songwriters I have had the honor to work with, and I am extremely proud to have helped them further their amazing musical journeys. I am beyond grateful that this very special label is now in the hands of John Janick, Robert Knotts, Jake Gear and the Interscope team, and I am certain Lost Highway will have an incredible second inning.”
Texas rapper BigXthaPlug has carved out a nice career for himself over the past half-decade, amassing 16 hits and three top 20s on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, a handful of appearances on the back half of the Hot 100 and a successful touring base, emerging as one of the more distinctive voices of his generation of hip-hop artists. But he was always more than just a rapper, and his multi-genre Southern roots first came to the fore with his 2022 song “Texas,” the video for which saw him decked out in full cowboy regalia as he rapped about his home state over a country-inflected acoustic slide guitar.
The song, among other things, proved BigX’s versatility. But it also opened the door to something else: the country music community. And now, as his latest single “All The Way” featuring Bailey Zimmerman spends its second week in the top 10 of the Hot 100 after zooming in with a No. 4 debut last week, BigX has a bonafide smash hit country single, with a full country-infused project on the way.
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It’s a huge moment for BigX as he explores his country interests, and also a big pop moment for the Texas MC as well, representing far and away the biggest hit of his career so far. But it’s also a big moment for UnitedMasters, the company founded in 2017 by veteran record executive Steve Stoute that releases his music — and scored its own biggest hit so far with “All The Way,” too. (The song is officially credited as BigXthaPlug/UnitedMasters/Atlantic.) And it helps UnitedMasters vp of music/head of A&R Mike Weiss earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Weiss talks about what went into making the record, BigX’s country “side quest,” the crowded distribution space of the music business and how UM has helped develop BigX by following his vision. “The plan is simple: stay true to BigX, lean into organic collaborations and let the music speak,” Weiss says. “We’re not mashing together genres for the sake of it. We’re building something that reflects all sides of who he is as an artist and a person.”
This week, BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s “All The Way” spends its second week in the top 10 of the Hot 100, at number eight. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
This record didn’t happen overnight. It took a complete team effort to get us here with a vision for an overarching artist plan, rather than one single. My partner David Melhado and I sat down a year ago with the idea to start mapping out a course for a country-inspired BigX project. We knew from the start that authenticity had to be the foundation. If BigX didn’t feel it, it wasn’t going to happen and that filter guided every decision we made.
Around that time, BigX started spending time with a number of country artists who had become fans after his breakout single “Texas.” We knew there was an opportunity here. We have an amazing team of core producers in Charley Cooks, Tony Coles and Bandplay. They started working on ideas for a country direction that stayed true to BigX’s roots. The initial demo to “All the Way” was Ben Johnson’s vocals over a guitar that hinted at something special. We knew it needed to be “BigX-ified,” so Bandplay built a sound that was unmistakably BigX. We have an amazing A&R team that played it for BigX. He loved the record, and cut it immediately. BigX has some of the best instincts. He trusts his gut and doesn’t miss.
The song exploded out of the gate, debuting last week at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and soaring in at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs, Digital Song Sales and Hot Country Songs charts and at No. 3 on Hot Rap Songs. Why did the song have such a huge immediate impact?
Back in February, BigX teased an early version of the record on Instagram. There was no set release date at the time, but the response was immediate and explosive. Within days, fans ripped the sound from the Instagram post and flooded TikTok with tens of thousands of videos. It was clear we had something special on our hands.
Even with that momentum, we resisted the urge to drop the record prematurely. There was external pressure to release it fast and not “lose the heat,” but we knew that a moment this big deserved a proper runway. We took the time to create the right content, shoot the music video and prepare a full rollout that matched the energy we were seeing online. We were also mindful that this was the first single off the project, and once we launched, we needed to be ready to move with full force.
That patience and discipline paid off. By the time the song dropped, there was such pent up demand that the record exploded.
With a song like that with so much immediate interest, what can you guys do to keep the momentum going?
Our priority is building sustained momentum for BigX as an artist, not just capitalizing on a single moment. From the beginning, our focus has been longterm artist development, and this moment is just one chapter in a much bigger story that BigX is telling with this country-inspired project.
We have an incredible body of work lined up, and we’re deep in the process of mapping out the next singles and the full rollout. Consistency is everything. With BigX, we take the approach of always being on cycle. We’re keeping our foot on the gas and continuing to invest in the music, visuals and storytelling that got us here, while building towards the next big moment.
After landing 16 songs on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, this is BigX’s first song that touches the country genre. What are your plans to make sure that his crossover there works?
Our intention isn’t to fully cross BigX into country. This project is more of a creative “side quest” that allows him to showcase his versatility and explore new territory without abandoning his core. It’s about expanding, not switching lanes.
This isn’t a trend-chasing move, it’s rooted in who BigX is. Back in 2022, we released “Texas,” a country-inspired hip-hop record where he was literally in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat in the video. That record sparked early interest from the country community and planted the seed for what we’re doing now. This moment is a natural evolution of that foundation, not a sudden shift.
The plan is simple: stay true to BigX, lean into organic collaborations and let the music speak. We’re not mashing together genres for the sake of it. We’re building something that reflects all sides of who he is as an artist and a person.
This is the biggest song in UnitedMasters’ history so far. What does that mean for the company?
This is an exciting moment for the company and for our team. We’ve been a partner to BigX for four years with a deep belief in artist development and doing what’s best for our artists. This shows that we can compete with anyone. We touched every aspect of the A&R process, rollout, marketing, digital and overarching strategy. This win further affirms that our model works. That independent artists with the right support can not only compete, but lead.
Just last year, we had a major global success with FloyyMenor’s “Gata Only,” the fastest Latin song in Spotify history to hit a billion streams. That was a global moment. But with “All The Way,” we’ve shown we can dominate domestically, too, and drive immediate, culture-shifting impact in the U.S. market. Delivering on both fronts shows that our approach scales. The exciting part is we’re still just getting started.
The distribution space is getting crowded. How do you make sure UnitedMasters stands apart from the competition?
We don’t see ourselves as just a distribution company, and we don’t operate like one. At UnitedMasters, we’re aiming to reimagine what a modern music company can be. Our mission is to reshape the industry by building something that lives at the intersection of a forward-thinking label, a tech-driven platform and a premium distributor.
What sets us apart is the ability to support artists at every stage of their journey, from emerging creators to global superstars, with a tiered system that scales alongside their growth. We’ve invested in world-class technology and paired it with an elite label services team that delivers across A&R, marketing, strategy and beyond. We’re not focused on just getting music to DSPs, we’re focused on building careers.
Veteran record label executive Gina Tucci has launched a new independent dance label, 146 Records. Today’s launch happens in conjunction with the label’s first release, “Sunrise,” by rising Swedish producer Discrete.
146 Records is based in New York City and currently has a team of four. Distribution is being handled by Virgin Music Group, where, Tucci says, “we benefit from their extensive industry expertise, global reach and robust distribution capabilities to effectively launch and scale our artists’ music.”
“For years, I’ve envisioned an electronic dance music label that nurtures artists with a song-first approach, prioritizing the music above all else,” she continues. “At 146, we provide artists the necessary time, resources and attention to produce their best work. My goal is to discover and develop the next generation of dance music talent, crafting the kind of hits that become classics, hits that resonate decades from now. I want 146 to feel like a creative home — a place artists can experiment, collaborate closely with me and our team, and leverage cutting-edge technology. The goal is to build enduring music catalogs that sustain lifelong careers.”
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Prior to founding 146, Tucci was the longtime head of Atlantic Records’ dance imprint Big Beat Records, the label founded by Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman in 1986. Here, Tucci helped lead the label’s 2010 relaunch and over the next 14 years broke acts including Skrillex, Clean Bandit, Icona Pop and Joel Corry, bringing dance music to new levels of visibility in tandem with the genre’s early 2010’s explosion in America. In the role she also led A&R creative for Galantis, Martin Solveig, Cash Cash, The Knocks, 100 gecs, Tiësto and more. Tucci has appeared on myriad Billboard Dance Power lists through the years.
“I bring to 146 the rigorous standards and global perspective I developed running Big Beat at Atlantic Records under Craig Kallman for over a decade,” Tucci says. “At Big Beat, I learned firsthand the intricacies of successfully launching and breaking dance records globally, recognizing that each rollout requires a uniquely tailored strategy. Dance music has always thrived on global connectivity, and I’m adept at leveraging data-driven insights to map out precise, effective release strategies that connect deeply with audiences worldwide.”
Today’s release from Discrete begins a weekly release schedule where, says Tucci, “we’re diving headfirst into exploring the new sound designs and grooves, but the art of great melodies will always remain paramount.” Discrete’s upcoming tour dates include May shows at Elsewhere in New York City and EDC Las Vegas.
“A lot of today’s tracks flash moments of brilliance but don’t fully ignite,” Tucci continues. “At 146, we’re closing that gap. We’re committed to sweating every detail, inspiring our artists to leave no creative stone unturned. It’s about elevating dance music from disposable moments into timeless anthems.”
Universal Music Group Nashville is undergoing a rebranding under CEO Mike Harris and chief creative officer Dave Cobb. The company will now be known as Music Corporation of America (MCA).
Harris and Cobb came aboard in early February following the departure of UMGN CEO/chairman Cindy Mabe in January. For Harris, it marked a return as he had served as COO/executive VP at UMGN until his departure last September.
“With the popularity of country music and the tremendous impact that it continues to make in popular culture, we recognize the importance of Nashville and the impact it has always made in America,” Harris said in a statement.
Cobb adds “I want to let the art lead, embrace community, and approach the business with intention. We show up, work hard, and put artists, songwriters, community, and fans first. We want to get this right for them. That’s what this is all about.”
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A number of staffing changes have also been made that reflect the changes. Katie McCartney, former GM of the recently shuttered Sony joint venture Monument Records, has been named EVP/General Manager and Tom LaScola is head of artist and audience strategy, through an expanded alliance with his company, The Trenches. The digital promotion and marketing firm formed a partnership with Republic Collective last October.
Under Cobb, the company has also formed a creative strategic alliance with award-winning songwriter Jessie Jo Dillon as the newly minted Song Buddy, a position that highlights the company’s commitment to the vital role songwriters play in the Nashville’s creative ecosystem.
MCA will continue to operate is frontline labels, Mercury Nashville, EMI Nashville, Capitol Nashville and MCA Nashville along with the newly launched Lucille Records, founded by Cobb.
Lucille Records will be lead by Cobb and Austin Jenkins, senior vp of A&R for MCA and Head of Lucille. Its diverse inaugural roster includes Lamont Landers, Landon Smith, Isabel Dumas, and Sons of Habit.
“The incredible staff of these labels will operate with a sense of independence and autonomy, but with a pursuit of excellence and healthy competition as a shared agenda,” Harris said.
In addition to the full resources provided by the Nashville headquarters, MCA artists also leverage the support of the REPUBLIC Collective in the U.S. and UMG globally.
The newly rebranded MCA’s roster includes Alan Jackson, Brothers Osborne, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, George Strait, Jon Pardi, Jordan Davis, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Maddie & Tae, Parker McCollum, Priscilla Block, Reba McEntire, Sam Hunt, Tyler Hubbard and Vince Gill.
It’s an overcast Saturday afternoon in Miami, and Axel Hedfors seems in his natural habitat while eating sushi on the patio restaurant of a luxe beachside hotel. Hours from now, the producer — known to most as Axwell — will play the main stage at Ultra Music Festival, a show he’s been prepping for in his hotel room since arriving in Florida.
This set will contain classics from Axwell’s solo catalog, along with his work with Swedish House Mafia and the catalog of his namesake label, Axtone. It will also be the first time he’s played Ultra as a solo artist and his first Ultra set since selling the Axtone catalog to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment in January.
This sale included approximately 200 songs spanning the last 20 years, including hits by Supermode, Steve Angello, Laidback Luke, Don Diablo, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, CamelPhat, Kölsch and big room-classics like Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl’s “In My Mind” and Axwell’s era-defining remix of this same song. Pophouse, which also acquired Swedish House Mafia’s master recordings and publishing catalog in 2022, has acquired both Axtone’s back catalog and the label itself, with Axwell staying on permanently as its founding partner and creative advisor.
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While Axwell and his team decline to disclose the sale price, the congratulatory handshakes he gets from acquaintances at the restaurant indicate the deal was a good one.
Axwell says the cash infusion from Pophouse has enabled him and his team to operate with “more muscle.” He cites the Axtone & Friends pool party that happened a few nights prior down the street in South Beach as something Pophouse helped pay for, allowing for a splashier event than they might have otherwise been able to afford.
“I know before that we would have been a bit more on a budget,” he says, “and now we were less on a budget, which is nice. There’s opportunity [with Pophouse]. If we have ideas and want to do something differently, we can with their help.”
The sale also made sense given Axwell’s longstanding relationship with Per Sundin, the CEO of Pophouse and former president of Universal Music Nordics. “It’s not some anonymous fund,” Axwell says. “This is somebody we know, and that made me feel like this was worth exploring. Per appreciates music, so he’s not just going to destroy it. He’s going to be respectful about it.”
The sale happened at a good time for Axwell, who acknowledges that he and the team were “kind of maybe stuck in the old routine” of signing records. Given that generating hits has become harder for labels of all genres in the streaming and TikTok eras, Axtone had, like so many other labels, become more focused on volume than Axwell might have liked.
“It’s a small company on a budget trying to make every release recoup and work out financially,” he says. “Then we picked up the pace a little bit, and obviously not all records get noticed in today’s climate. A lot of records don’t do anything, because it’s so much harder these days to get them noticed. Then a lot of records become a project you just do for love, rather than earning. You have one record that pays for 20 other records.”
This strategy had evolved significantly since Axwell launched Axtone in 2005 as a way to untether himself from other peoples’ timelines. “I was tired of dealing with other labels,” he says. “Back then you had to send the CD, and they were like, ‘Maybe we can release it in three months.’ I was fed up with not releasing ourselves, so starting the label was an amazing move.”
This move proved especially prescient as Axtone clocked hits that distinguished Axwell’s taste as a curator and skills as a solo artist as he rose in tandem with the Swedish House Mafia rocket. He says many classics from the Axtone catalog, like Supermode’s “Tell Me Why” (which samples Bronski Beat’s “Small Town Boy”), still generate roughly 100,000 streams a day, partially because they’re featured on big Spotify and Apple Music playlists — placement that almost assures they’ll never fall below a certain daily stream rate.
This, no doubt, made the Axtone catalog especially attractive to Pophouse, a company focused on using acquired music in new IP and brand development. The company’s success stories include the long-running ABBA Voyage show in London, which is set to the music of the famous Swedish disco pop quartet, who appear during the performance in hologram form. ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus is also a co-founder of Pophouse, which announced in March that it raised a total of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to invest in catalog acquisitions and create entertainment experiences around those music rights.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t mind them doing an ABBA kind of thing with dance music,” says Axwell. “A show [that features] not only my music would be great, because obviously Pophouse also has Avicii’s music, Swedish House Mafia’s music. It could be something interesting.” (Pophouse acquired a 75% stake in Avicii’s recordings and publishing catalog in 2022.)
Axwell is consulting with Pophouse on any projects Axtone music might be involved in, with the business partners currently planning a box set to commemorate the label’s 20th anniversary this year. The package feels particularly well-timed given that, as Axwell says, “what we’re noticing is that a lot of the old catalog means a lot to the new generation.”
“When you put on ‘Calling’ or ‘Reload’ or my ‘In My Mind’ remix, they just go,” he says, referencing EDM era hits he was involved with and adjacent to. “Some old records don’t continue to work; they kind of fade out. But these still pack a punch. It’s amazing that we managed to do something that lasts.”
This point is proven extremely true a few hours later, when thousands of people stand in front of a fire-spitting Ultra main stage and sing along to classics including Axwell’s edit of Swedish House Mafia’s 2011 hit “Save The World,” the 2017 Axwell / Ingrosso smash “More than You Know” and inevitably and blissfully, the trio’s all time classic “Don’t You Worry Child,” which he follows with their 2022 hit “When Heaven Takes You Home” and 2010’s “One (Your Name).” “That was fun,” he tells the audience while standing on the decks at the end of the set, “and you are beautiful.”
This is Axwell’s first time playing the festival’s biggest stage as a solo act, though he has a long history at this site through his work with Swedish House Mafia. The group’s Ultra mythology includes ending their massive farewell tour here in 2013, then reuniting at the festival five years later. When asked if he feels any kind of way about playing Ultra Miami on his own, Axwell says he feels “like Seb and Steve are always with me, because of the songs.”
Beyond this psychospiritual connection, Axwell spent time in the studio with Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello fairly recently as the trio continues hashing out new Swedish House Mafia music. Last November, Angello told Billboard that the trio scrapped the second album they’d been working on as a follow-up to their 2022 LP Paradise Again.
Axwell confirms that while he’s “super proud” of Paradise Again — the first Swedish House Mafia album after an earlier run of monster singles — the guys aren’t currently working on an LP “because that’s a heavy process. I think it was something we wanted to do to have that in our lives. But now I think we want to go back to the spontaneousness of just doing one song and getting it out [when we want to], not in 12 months when the album is ready.” (He notes that Paradise Again was not included in Pophouse’s acquisition of the Swedish House Mafia masters, given that the 2022 deal was retroactive.) He also says that the trio will eventually “probably come back” to play Ultra Miami again, as the urge to do so “tickles after a while, you know?”
Axwell is also currently tinkering with his own forthcoming solo work. Famously meticulous — he’s been known to spend months on a single high hat sound and calls himself “the slowest person on earth” when it comes to making music — he says a lot of what he’s working on is roughly 80% finished. The final 20% of each song will take some time, he says, although he’s not sure how long. (One new song samples SNAP’s “The Power,” although he’s thus far had a difficult time clearing one of the samples used in the 1990 club anthem. He assures, however, that “I’m not giving up.”) When his music is finally complete, he foresees releasing it as a series of singles.
In the meantime, Axwell’s life will remain, as he tells it, “a s—storm” of logistics that involve his own touring, flying around Europe with his wife for their kids’ competitive car races (one son is 11 and races go carts, while his 16-year-old competes in F4), and prepping for Tomorrowland 2025 dates with Swedish House Mafia and as a solo act. All in, life will continue on the same dance world megastar trajectory as it did before the Axtone sale, but now with a bit more financial padding and space to focus.
“The good thing for me is that I still make music,” he says, “so even though we sold the label, it’s not like this is a goodbye to my whole life.”
Anjula Acharia remembers when the one person who had set her up for success told her she was going to fail. And Jay-Z was there, too.
In 2008, Acharia and Interscope Geffen A&M’s then chairman, Jimmy Iovine, were sharing breakfast at a New York hotel. Iovine — who had partnered with Acharia’s South Asian music/news hub, Desi Hits, to develop a Universal Music Group-backed imprint — remembered her previously telling him how much “Beware of the Boys,” Jay-Z’s 2003 remix of Panjabi MC’s bhangra single, had meant to her as the kind of cross-continental exchange that she hoped Desi Hits would foster. So when Acharia stood up to leave the breakfast, Iovine asked her to stick around for a few more minutes… at which point Jay made his surprise entrance.
Acharia, who was in her 30s at the time, geeked out, gushing about her love of “Beware of the Boys” and asking the rap superstar about how the remix had come together. Then Iovine pulled the rug out from under her. “While I was sitting with him and Jay-Z, Jimmy told me that Desi Hits was going to fail,” she recalls. “His words were, ‘I know pop culture, I know a visionary, and this is just way too early. This would be right in 10 to 15 years.’ ”
Anjula Acharia. Styling by Kristina Askerova. Hair and Makeup by Shayli Nayak. Versace dress and jewelry, Paris Texas shoes.
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A Punjabi kid and die-hard music fan born to South Asian immigrants, Acharia grew up in Buckinghamshire, England, devouring music that fused styles from around the world and dreaming of creating a platform that spoke to both Eastern and Western demographics. She was a senior partner at a London-based executive search firm who co-founded Desi Hits Radio as a popular early podcast in the mid-2000s; then Iovine backed Desi Hits in 2007 as a stateside label for South Asian artists after she moved to New York. The pair helped engineer a crossover hit in 2009 with “Jai Ho,” A.R. Rahman’s Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire theme that was remade for U.S. listeners with The Pussycat Dolls added to it.
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“She was so talented and passionate about the music,” Iovine reflects today, “but sometimes things just don’t come together.” And by the early 2010s, Acharia admitted her mentor had been correct: The world wasn’t ready. “We didn’t have streaming platforms, social sharing or an ecosystem to support the industry,” she explains. “It was just very segmented back then and really hard for things to travel.” She wondered aloud why Iovine had invested in Desi Hits if he had doubted the idea. “And he says, ‘Because you’re an album, not a single.’ ”
On roughly the timeline Iovine predicted, the industry has changed drastically — and Acharia, who spent that intervening time outside of music, is returning to it with an entirely new album, so to speak. She and Warner Music Group exclusively tell Billboard that they have launched 5 Junction Records, a joint-venture label under WMG, as a pipeline for South Asian artists to reach North American listeners, much like a modern Desi Hits but with significantly more established talent and infrastructure. That talent includes its flagship pair of artists: Bollywood mainstay and pop triple-threat Nora Fatehi and ascendant Indian singer-rapper King. Both already have multiple hits and millions of streams overseas, giving them the ideal foundation to take the first crack at establishing North American footholds.
“It’s always been in our mind to promote this music to the world,” King says. “That has always been the fight, but now, I feel like we are at the right time and right spot. The next five years are looking bright.”
King. Styling by Nikita Jaisinghani. Hair by Javed Sheikh and Makeup by Swapnil Haldankar. Versace jacket and shirt, Brune & Bareskin shoes, Amrapali necklace.
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Nora Fatehi. Styling by Meagan Concessio. Hair and Makeup by Marianna Mukuchyan. David Koma dress, tights and shoes.
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Acharia believes that a cultural wave is about to crash down on the U.S. mainstream, similar to how Korean pop, Latin music and Afrobeats all made an impact on top 40 radio beginning in the late 2010s. Based on the South Asian market boom over the past decade — by the end of 2023, India had become the second-largest on-demand streaming market in the world, behind only the United States — and the English-language artists who have made overtures in the hemisphere through touring and studio team-ups, she’s not alone in that prediction.
“The best way to think about it is, what are your next billion-user markets?” WMG CEO Robert Kyncl says. He notes that the South Asian industry has been top of mind for him for over a decade: As vp of content at Netflix in the early 2000s, Kyncl saw firsthand the scope of demand for Hindi shows, and as YouTube’s chief business officer in the 2010s, he spent every year in the region, developing partnerships that he believes are paying off today. “You have to invest,” he says. “If you don’t, you’ll wake up five, 10 years from now and realize you just missed this whole new growth era.”
Kyncl has been friends with Acharia since his Netflix days (when he first discovered Desi Hits in the course of researching Hindi shows) and has followed her career closely. After leaving Desi Hits in 2014, Acharia stayed in the entertainment space by managing Priyanka Chopra Jonas, whom she originally signed as a Bollywood star trying to kick-start a music career and now helps steer as a global superstar. Acharia also joined the venture capital company Trinity Ventures before launching her own fund, A-Series Management and Investments, where she was an early investor in companies like ClassPass and Bumble.
Yet unfinished business gnawed at her. “Music is a place that makes me feel like I’m home, and fusion music makes me feel like I’m being seen,” she says. Acharia spoke to other labels last year about the idea for 5 Junction, but Kyncl personally convinced her to bring the project to WMG. She will work closely with Warner Records CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck and COO Tom Corson, as well as GM Jurgen Grebner, who steered international marketing at Interscope for over 20 years, and Alfonso Perez-Soto, who served as WMG’s emerging markets leader before recently becoming executive vp of corporate development.
Although Acharia was removed from the major-label world for years, some of its most prominent executives believe she’s the perfect steward for this ocean-spanning endeavor. Corson describes her as “a powerful force who is extremely well-connected across the world. We hit it off from the jump, and we’re thrilled to be in business with her.” Kyncl says that, if he were to describe the “ideal entrepreneur,” that person would resemble Acharia. “You have a vision, you’re strategic about it and you won’t stop until you win,” he says. “She has it. It makes absolute sense for us to partner with her, and she’ll make us better by pushing us.”
From left: Fatehi, Acharia and King.
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Her ties to Kyncl aside, Acharia says that WMG made the most sense as a home for 5 Junction because the label group is “way ahead” in the scene. Since WMG created Warner Music India five years ago, the label has partnered with Diljit Dosanjh, a Bollywood superstar with 25 million Instagram followers who has headlined North American arenas; Karan Aujla, a former songwriter turned singer/rapper/YouTube behemoth; and Kushagra, a 20-year-old indie-pop newcomer whose single “Finding Her” is currently one of India’s biggest streaming hits.
When Jay Mehta became managing director of Warner Music India in April 2020, he was a team of one; now, the label has 34 employees. Part of that growth had to do with timing, as the market quickly expanded globally. Last decade, “India was dominated by Indian streaming services, which did not have a global footprint,” Mehta explains. “Spotify launched in India in 2018, and it took until 2021, 2022 for them to become the leaders [in the country]. We needed Spotify and YouTube to have massive presences in India in order to take artists global.”
Acharia also points out that subtle cultural shifts in North America helped fuel opportunities. “Think about all the foreign-language content on Netflix and other streaming platforms that people have watched — especially during COVID, where people were stuck at home,” she says. “And then, with vertical video, people are watching things with subtitles all the time … Everything affects each other. We’re more used to hearing foreign languages, so we’re more OK to listen to it in our music.”
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At 5 Junction, Acharia will work closely with Mehta’s Warner Music India team, which has utilized streaming data to identify artists who can transcend international borders and songwriting camps to supply them with global hits. Fatehi, a Toronto native of Moroccan descent who moved to India and became a marquee Bollywood act, signed a deal with WMG in early 2024 to help her level up as a singer, dancer and actor. “The larger goal was always to go global, to let the whole world know my story,” she says. When she met Acharia, Fatehi told her that she wanted to become a cross-cultural entertainer along the lines of Jennifer Lopez, and Acharia told her, “Yes, let’s do it together.”
Fatehi says she has never met anyone more persuasive than Acharia. “I feel like our hungers align,” she says. “It’s hard to take a vision and sell it to someone else, because most people don’t have an attention span to listen to you for more than five minutes. But when [Anjula] opens her mouth and starts her pitch, you somehow have FOMO — you feel like you’re going to miss out if you’re not paying attention.”
In January, Fatehi released the Jason Derulo collaboration “Snake,” a thumping dance track built around East Asian melodies. It has earned 18.5 million official on-demand streams globally, according to Luminate; one month after its release, Aujla was featured on “Tell Me,” a OneRepublic collaboration that has earned 28.8 million global streams.
More than two decades after Jay-Z and Panjabi MC linked up, Acharia still believes these types of collaborations are key for breaking South Asian artists in North America. “The strategy that I had 15 years ago was cross-pollination, but we didn’t have the infrastructure to support that,” she says. Now creative borders are easier to cross. For instance, Fatehi and Derulo met up in Morocco to film a music video for “Snake” that combined hip-hop and Bollywood choreography. And after King recruited Nick Jonas for a new version of the former’s smash “Maan Meri Jaan” in 2023, King made a surprise appearance during the Jonas Brothers’ performance at Lollapalooza India in 2024 to perform it, a “cinematic” moment that he says he still can’t believe actually happened.
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At the same time that Western artists are paying more attention to India as a touring market — Coldplay performed in the country for the first time in January, grossing $30.5 million across five shows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, according to Billboard Boxscore — South Asian artists are more clearly identifying North American territories where thousands of fans will show up to their shows. Acharia name-checks New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, but also says that Canadian cities have demonstrated “huge” ticket demand. After Dosanjh scored his first top 10 album in Canada with 2023’s Ghost, his Dil-Luminati tour last year became the highest-grossing North American tour by a Punjabi music artist in history, thanks in part to sold-out stadium shows at Vancouver’s BC Place and Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
Perez-Soto sees Toronto, where the metro area had a South Asian population of more than 1.1 million as of 2021, as a crucial gateway for the rest of North America. “South Asian music through Toronto, like Latin music was through Miami, has established an important bridge between the local origin of the music and the second generation,” he says. “They have this hybrid vision of culture, where things are getting mixed up and mutually enriched.”
Kyncl has kept WMG focused on these macro-trends for years. “It’s not like we’re just starting,” he says. “It’s just that Anjula is adding an additional element, which is bringing talent here.” Under her guidance, Fatehi is spending most of April in the recording studio and will issue the follow-up to “Snake” by the end of the month, with a mix of releases aimed at Eastern and Western markets throughout the year. Meanwhile, King says he is “working on an EP and some collaborations” to follow his January single “Stay,” in addition to multiple Bollywood projects.
Mehta believes that an Indian artist will make an impact on the U.S. mainstream charts in 2025. “We saw it with Hanumankind, on the back of a viral moment,” he says, referencing the Indian rapper’s 2024 track “Big Dawgs,” which exploded on TikTok and peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. “But we want to make a consistent way of bringing a lot of these artists onto the charts. The U.S. is extremely competitive, but if we get the right sound representing the culture and the right artist, with Anjula’s strengths, we should be able to make something big happen.”
Acharia knows this will take time, but for her, the personal stakes are worth the investment. She was once told that Desi Hits wouldn’t last; now, 5 Junction could define her legacy. “It’s something that I started, and I want to finish it,” she says. And for his part, Iovine is proud that the world has finally caught up to her vision.
“I’m not surprised at all at any of her success,” Iovine says, “and I’m glad she’s doing this now.”
This story appears in the April 19, 2025, issue of Billboard.
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