State Champ Radio UnitedMasters
When Steve Stoute connected with Davido at his UnitedMasters SelectCon event last year, he didn’t flinch at the opportunity to build with the Afrobeats superstar; after their initial encounter, the executive visited Davido’s homeland of Lagos, Nigeria and dared the “Fall” singer to dream bigger. Stoute envisioned Davido, adept at crafting sugary melodies with a Nigerian flair, leading nothing less than a global takeover — not just as a premier artist but as a businessman.
Starting Wednesday (April 17), the three-time Grammy nominee will embark on a new chapter as a full-fledged executive, signing a deal with UnitedMasters (which recently launched in Nigeria) to start a new label, Nine+ Records. Stoute and Davido are clear that they won’t limit themselves to Afrobeats but will venture into the realms of hip-hop, R&B, Latin, country and more, casting a wide net for new talent.
“I think the music that Davido has been able to make, produce and share with the world has been amazing,” says Stoute. “For me, I think his connection between Nigeria and Atlanta, and everything he’s gone through has brought unique experiences that I can hear and feel through his lyrics and production. I didn’t even know that [at the time], I just knew there was something different about his sound and the way he structured his songs.”
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According to Stoute, it didn’t take much convincing: He sold Davido on the possibilities of building a label reminiscent of the hard-nosed rap imprints he witnessed first-hand in the ’90s and ’00s.
“There’s such a big opportunity globally and I see him as an entrepreneur that could build the next Bad Boy, the next Death Row and the next label that has significant impact like a Cash Money,” Stoute says. “[I told him to] forget everything you were doing before, let’s commit to building something in a joint venture and that’s the formation of Nine+ and UnitedMasters.”
Billboard spoke to Davido and Steve Stoute about their newly minted partnership, the importance of having a great team and more.
Davido, what made you decide to partner with UnitedMasters for your new label Nine+ Records?
Davido: Shout-out to big bro. There’s one thing that I’ll always love, which is nurturing new talent, bringing them up and helping them grow. I’ve been doing that since Afrobeats wasn’t even Afrobeats, since when you guys didn’t even know what it was. Since I came up from writing my first song, I’ve been helping my two cousins work on their music. I put them under my label, but it got to a point where I felt I needed some knowledge. I need some mentors to advise me. Some artists, all you need is one hit song and your life can change. Sometimes, when you get to that point, you don’t have anybody to advise you on how to move and get good paperwork done. I just felt like that was one thing Steve Stoute represents, and that’s helping the artists and making sure they know the best option when it comes to business. My job is obviously to bring the creatives and deliver, but I do need Steve’s vision on how I’m going to advise on these new artists.
Steve, speak to the tutelage you hope to instill in Davido from an executive lens with the years of experience you have under your belt.
There’s a thin line between what a talent and what an executive has to do. For a lot of talent, it’s very hard to be an executive or it’s hard for them to jump that fence. I’m gonna be there to help him because he comes from a lineage of very, very tight, philosophically sound businessmen.
His father was a G. His father was very special and talented. Davido is also very creative. It takes that sort of left brain and right brain to be a talented musician who could work with talent as well as be a business person. To be able to bring that together to build one of these legacy companies, the greatest artists always had that attribute. He has that attribute.
The best thing that I can do is, you use my experience as a veteran in this business to help put up some guard rails to keep him going because I want him to become the biggest artist in the world and continue his trajectory as an artist, but then build something that’s a legacy outside of that with Nine+.
Before this, I was the president at Interscope. When Jimmy [Iovine] built Interscope, it was all about these labels. Whether it was Pharrell’s label, Organized Noize, Timbaland, or Aftermath, these were labels that were built because Jimmy built The Ruff Ryders. Jimmy believed in that model. So I came from working with talent who had labels and I understand how to build that model just from that experience. I want to pass that along to this young entrepreneur, creative genius.
What’s the best advice you’ve gotten from Steve on accelerating as an executive and building out Nine+ on what you ultimately want it to become?
Davido: First of all, you gotta have a good team. There’s one thing I learned from Steve: I didn’t know you had to get all of this to get a label because where I’m from and where you record, there’s no office. Now…with Steve, we’re getting an office, we’re getting [a lot]. I have a studio and a headquarters, but it’s different from the way I’ve worked.
Steve Stoute: If you wanna scale, you gotta bring structure. He’s a super-talented guy. He’s gonna find talented people. There’s been a lot of people who are talented, but they didn’t have the business structure around them. They never got a chance to see the effects of their talents go all the way. It’s the guys who had structure with talent that were able to actually go all the way. My job is bring that structure to him and hopefully to his team.
He has a great team around him. He has a great team of people with chemistry. Chemistry is undervalued and underrated. It’s very important who you want to work with. We’re here to bring that structure and funding so he can do what he has to do. My job isn’t to go in there and A&R records. If I can get him in the room with the producers and the artists, and I can get it out the room, that’s my job. To get in the room and to get out.
Again, my experience in doing this for a while and being able to help bring that structure, whether it’s an office or not, is what I’m bringing to the table and I’m looking forward to working with him and building something that’s an aspect of his legacy.
With Nine+, are you looking to expand beyond Afrobeats?
Davido: Oh yeah, everything. R&B, trap, etc. Obviously, I’m going to start in Africa, but definitely yeah. I can see us going all the way. I don’t see why not.
Steve Stoute: Look, I told you, my man has roots in Atlanta and Nigeria. This is not going to be limited to anything. When you have creative people who can understand melodies, beats, rhythms and songs, whether it’s country music, trap music, hip-hop music, Latin music, none of these things are off-limits. I think we look at it as global music. I think Davido is a global superstar. He’s going to sell out Madison Square Garden like he sells out London, like he sells out buildings in Africa. That’s what he does. He wants to make global music, so we’re looking for artists that have that potential and it’s not limited to genre. It is limited to great music.
UnitedMasters has officially launched in Nigeria, Billboard can exclusively announce. The global music distribution platform aims to connect independent African artists to the global stage.
With UnitedMasters’ premium music distribution services, innovative technology and first-of-its-kind artist marketing solutions, Nigerian artists will be able to upload and distribute their music to global media parters — such as Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Apple Music, YouTube, Snap and TikTok — as well as critical African services, like Boomplay, Audiomack, Muska, Music in Ayoba, Anghami and Joox.
“UnitedMasters’ move into Nigeria is the next logical step in making independence the standard setting for the music industry all around the globe,” UnitedMasters CEO Steve Stoute said in a statement to Billboard. “While we’re active in a number of exciting markets around the world, Nigeria is simply second to none when we talk about talent density and untapped potential, both for individual artists and the Naija diaspora as a whole.”
UnitedMasters offers tailored music distribution plans for artists, from the “Debut” tier with 90% royalty retention to “Select” tier, which includes unlimited music releases and brand collaborations. For the special Nigerian launch, UnitedMasters will introduce reduced pricing, with the “Select” tier at 20,000 NGN/year, as part of its commitment to accessible, high-quality music distribution for all independent artists in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is already a musical powerhouse, and our role is to ensure that the cultural command it enjoys today becomes an economic and political annuity for generations to come,” said Stoute. “Our promise that you can shape the future of music without sacrificing your ownership is critical to establish in Nigeria, while artists from around the world seek to emulate the success of these Naija heroes. As we see it, winning with, not just within, Nigeria is the one move that will accelerate our cause in every market.”
Nigerian American rapper Tobe Nwigwe and Nigerian producer Sarz are already on the platform. In June, Billboard exclusively announced that UnitedMasters was partnering with Sarz and his 1789 imprint in efforts to discover, develop and empower the next generation of African artists and producers. Sarz recently released his “Happiness” single, featuring Asake and Gunna, via 1789 and UnitedMasters ahead of his new album, which is due in 2024. “Happiness” arrived three months before his previous “Yo Fam!” single with Crayon and Skrillex.
As part of the launch, Nwigwe and Sarz will perform during a “Live from Lagos” concert on Thursday (Dec. 14) in collaboration with Don Julio, with VIPs being served Don Julio 1942. In the coming months, Don Julio and UnitedMasters will continue working together by unveiling a series of programs aimed at spotlighting independent Nigerian artists and making strategic investments in the future of Nigerian music. UnitedMasters will utilize the brand partnerships they already have with Don Julio, Coca Cola, the NBA and more, while simultaneously building relationships with brands on the ground to support local artists and contribute to the prosperity of the Nigerian music industry.
“Don Julio partnerships are often driven by cultural truths. Don Julio has organically been a part of the Afrobeats scene for years, so when we were looking for meaningful ways to enter into the Nigerian market, the UnitedMasters launch was an obvious choice,” added Sophie Kelly, svp of global tequila and mezcal at Diageo. “This partnership will begin in December, but ultimately expand Don Julio’s presence in the music scene of Nigeria throughout 2024.”
After partnering with Brent Faiyaz earlier this year, UnitedMasters continues to stockpile their roster with more proven talent by joining forces with EARTHGANG. The newly minted partnership between the rap duo and UM will allow the Atlanta MCs to fortify their lanes as independent artists for the first time in their careers while remaining at […]
UnitedMasters is partnering with Nigerian producer Sarz on his 1789 imprint that aims to discover, develop and empower the next generation of African artists and producers, Billboard can exclusively announce today (June 13).
Sarz (real name Osabuhoien Osaretin) has produced records for some of the biggest African artists, such as Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tiwa Savage, and is responsible for spreading the Afrobeats sound to the U.S. and U.K. charts with hits like Drake, Wizkid and Kyla‘s “One Dance,” which became the most-streamed song on Spotify in 2016, and Lojay and Sarz’s “Monalisa,” which received a Chris Brown remix and has amassed 297.3 million official global on-demand streams through June 8, according to Luminate. He also won the producer of the year award at The Headies last year.
LV N ATTN, the parent project of “Monalisa” that Lojay and Sarz released in 2021, as well as WurlD and Sarz’s I LOVE GIRLS WITH TROUBL from 2019 fall under Sarz’s 1789 imprint, which he established in 2018 to discover and develop African artists and producers. (It symbolizes his birthdate: March 17, 1989.) Now, UnitedMasters is coming in to amplify the work Sarz has already been doing by providing its cutting-edge label services and digital distribution technology.
“Sarz, for the last five years, has been developing some of the biggest producers on the continent that have gone on to produce for the Wizkid’s, the Burna’s, the Tems’, the Lojay’s, etc. We wanted to be able to say, ‘How do we add value to you guys and help give you resources so that way you can ultimately develop the talent on the ground?’” David Melhado, vp of music at UnitedMasters, tells Billboard. “You can see why he’s able to spot talent when you hang out with him. His energy is infectious. He’s just doing what he wishes he had. There’s something so powerful in that where he’s like, ‘I’m paying it forward to these producers.’ He’s really creating a movement.”
“I met with David and Julian McLean [director of producer relations/editorial at UnitedMasters], and it just felt right. I could tell we shared the same vision and we’re very passionate about emerging talent,” Sarz tells Billboard, adding that he hopes his new strategic partnership with UnitedMasters will bring “more opportunities to the continent, bring more opportunities to Afrobeats artists and producers globally. I hope to be the bridge between an emerging artist and everything they desire globally.”
Those signed to 1789 will be able to access “everything that you would get from a major label, from marketing to digital marketing to playlist pitching and, when the time is right, we can scale up and do radio campaigns,” says Melhado. He adds that the partnership will also provide artists and producers “transparency around the money they make” through UnitedMasters’ mobile app, where “they’ll be able to see their streams in real time,” as well as “brand partnerships with some of the world’s biggest brands [NBA, ESPN, WhatsApp], and they all have ambitions to be a part of the global music conversation.”
Adds Steve Stoute, UnitedMasters CEO/founder, in a statement: “We are extremely excited to be in partnership with Sarz and 1789. Sarz, a true hitmaker, has a keen ear for talent and has proven that he cares deeply about the artist development process. Our shared mission in supporting artists from Africa through education and resources will empower them to unlock their true potential.”
United Masters began discussing how to enter the African music conversation two years ago, when Stoute sent Melhado Billboard‘s 2021 feature on Wizkid following the global success of his Tems-assisted smash “Essence.” Melhado told Stoute, “‘When it’s time for us to go expand to Africa, I got a big network there.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, you should go in December,’” Melhado recalls with a chuckle. Melhado and McLean ended up traveling to Nigeria in December 2021, where the two were hosted by Melhado’s good friend Bizzle Osikoya, a Nigerian A&R expert and music executive who founded the talent management and music services company, The Plug. “We went out to really see what the culture was, the music, the food, the fashion, the art, and really engulf ourselves in the community there but really try to figure out, ‘Where can we add value?’ We didn’t want to just go to Africa and throw money at it. We wanted to not be opportunistic from a perspective of, ‘Let’s just go sign some artists,’ but we wanted to be able to make sure that we were going to be really impactful and additive to the music scene there. We wanted to be able to find the right partner, and that’s ultimately what we did with Sarz.”
In 2015, the 34-year-old producer founded The Sarz Academy, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating African artists and producers and helping them launch successful careers. “I’ve always been passionate about helping people’s journeys, even unofficially I’ve mentored so many producers in the Afrobeats space before I thought about starting an academy,” he says. “It took me at least 10 years just grinding in the industry to find my position. And I thought, if I can mentor these guys, they could probably do it in two years or three years.” The academy’s esteemed alumni includes Kel-P, Legendury Beatz, P.Priime and Tempoe, who have gone on to work with Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema, Fireboy DML, CKay, Angélique Kidjo and Teni, among many others. “I plan to break out of Africa. I am doing it for global Afro music,” P.Priime, a 2018 graduate of The Sarz Academy, told Billboard in 2020. Two years later, he was a part of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Songwriter & Producer Class of 2022 and earned credits on Wizkid’s Made in Lagos deluxe album that went on to receive a 2022 Grammy nomination for best global music album. Another 2018 graduate, Tempoe, went onto produce CKay’s “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” the following year, which has since garnered 2.46 billion official global on-demand streams and spent two weeks at No. 1 on Rhythmic Airplay.
After meeting Sarz through their mutual friend Osikoya in March 2022, Melhado and McLean traveled back to Nigeria this past October to witness The Sarz Academy firsthand. “He had producers and artists from all over Nigeria. There were artists that flew in from London, from Costa Rica, to Nigerians who came from Canada to be a part of this experience. They all lived in a house. And they just created some of the most amazing music that I’ve heard in a long time. The collaboration, the desire to get on, the hunger — all these kids had that. It was inspiring overall,” says Melhado. “At that moment, I knew that we had the right partnership and the right partner.”
Sarz says the music coming out of last year’s Sarz Academy will be compiled into an album that will be released next month. Three singles — “Jam One Kele” by Sarz, Millymay_pod, Gimba and Fxrtune; “Good to Me” by Sarz, Perfext and Gimba; and “Body Wicked” by Sarz and Millymay_pod — have already been packaged as The Sarz Academy Presents: Memories That Last Forever 2 and released under 1789 and UnitedMasters on DSPs last week. One of the artists, Gimba, was also recently featured on the single “Blessings” with DJ Tunez and Wizkid.
UnitedMasters’ partnership with Sarz includes supporting his endeavors at The Sarz Academy, as education is one of the company’s core missions, according to Melhado. “We didn’t just come into the business trying to tell everybody they needed to be independent. We had to walk them through what it is like to be independent, and for artists on the [African] continent, we want to be able to help artists with those tools and educate them,” he explains. “Our ambition is to be able to support these artists, see them at the beginning of their career and ultimately take them to global superstardom.”
Superstar Pride’s breakout hit “Painting Pictures” has been one of music’s early success stories so far in 2023, as the song — part of the Mississippi MC’s 5 LBs of Pressure EP that was originally released last October — stormed onto the Hot 100, debuting at No. 99 in the week ending Feb. 25, before leaping to No. 35 the following week and No. 25 last week, reaching No. 7 on the Streaming Songs chart.
The song’s viral success — fueled in part by TikTok — caused a stir, with multiple labels coming in with offers to sign the rising rapper, who had originally uploaded the EP through independent distributor and services company UnitedMasters, launched five years ago by industry entrepreneur and Translation founder/CEO Steve Stoute.
But then, just as the song was beginning to reach new heights and seemingly poised to soar into the upper echelon of the charts, its momentum was briefly halted: The song’s production — which samples the Faith Evans song “Soon As I Get Home,” released in 1995 by Bad Boy/Arista Records — was flagged by Sony Music Publishing for not being properly cleared, the song was removed from Spotify for two days and some versions were also taken down from YouTube, though it remained available on Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music. The issue in part contributed to a 29% drop in U.S. streams over the prior week, from 14 million to 10 million, and “Painting Pictures” came in at No. 62 on the Hot 100 this week. (While the drop in placement on the Hot 100 is partially due to the streaming hiccup, the strong performance of Morgan Wallen’s new album One Thing At a Time saw its songs flood the Hot 100, meaning a placement jump would have been difficult regardless.)
That sample issue has now been cleared up, Stoute told Billboard this weekend. According to Stoute, Bad Boy chief Sean “Diddy” Combs, who also co-wrote and co-produced “Soon As I Get Home,” met Superstar Pride and “loved him,” and subsequently cleared the Faith Evans sample, paving the way for the song’s return to Spotify. Additionally, Stoute confirmed that Superstar Pride has decided to stick with UnitedMasters and remain independent for now, despite strong interest from major labels to sign him.
Now, Stoute and his UnitedMasters team are focused on re-starting the song’s momentum, with a video to be shot this week and a radio campaign that is now underway. In the past week, sales increased a modest 15% and radio airplay jumped significantly, up 270% week over week to 3.1 million in audience, according to Luminate.
“This video, more playlisting support, radio, that’s the next step to making a top 10 record,” Stoute told Billboard in a conversation last week. “It’s a phenomenal song that has been growing like wildfire. This seismic growth, I haven’t seen anything like this since Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road,’ or something like that. It’s been pretty crazy when you look at the steep, hockey stick growth curve. But I give credit to the platform for being able to allow artists like Superstar Pride the opportunity to put music out, be able to track his performance and have the confidence that he’s distributing music and it’s in good hands.”
Superstar Pride originally uploaded the song on his own through UnitedMasters, before the company started to track its growth and reached out to offer support with playlisting and the TikTok campaign that eventually pushed it onto the Billboard charts. But Stoute sees the song’s success as stemming from its inherent quality — and as further evidence as to how the industry is changing.
“I think the artist should always own their music, because the biggest lift in all of this is the work that they did, which is making the song,” Stoute says. “There’s nothing a record company or anyone can do to make a non-hit a hit. And if the artist has a hit, in today’s music business, it’s less about what a record company can do and more about, how can you support the artist and what they want to do? It’s not like we have this magic silver-bullet idea that the artist doesn’t understand. What are your marketing ideas? What do you believe in? We’ll give you money and support to help accentuate what you believe in. And that’s why [artists] also get a lion’s share of the revenue — because it’s you. With the old record business, they didn’t respect that. The old record business was, ‘You make the song, and we’ll take it from here.’”
Since Stoute launched UnitedMasters in 2018, the music business at large has seen a shift as more services-oriented companies have come into the industry, and some established players shifted their business models toward a more distribution-and-services offering, giving artists more choices to chart their paths than the traditional record label model, while even the majors have increased their distribution offerings to reflect the reality of the marketplace. UnitedMasters, through Stoute’s sister company Translation, has marketed itself as an option with more brand services offerings to artists than its competitors; Translation represents clients such as the NFL, NBA, AT&T and State Farm, among others. But its path towards success also lies within the broader shifts in the industry.
“[The indie path] is much bigger than a cottage industry that is an alternative for people who can’t get a record deal; this is actually a solution that empowers the artist,” Stoute says. “[Superstar Pride’s success] is just another example of an independent artist finding tremendous success without the need to give up his rights, and ownership of his rights, to a record company. And the more successes that are happening like this much more frequently, the more people are seeing that the record companies are nothing more than just banks.”
Pepsi has officially launched Pepsi Music Lab, an annual academy committed to shining a spotlight on the next generation of music superstars, the company announced Thursday (Oct. 20).
The new platform aims to foster talent career growth and provide developing artists with new performance opportunities, mentorship and coaching, brand-building workshops, professional content capture, radio amplification and more.
After unveiling the concept with a pilot program last year, Pepsi Music Lab has evolved into a full scale, multi-service platform with an array of opportunities and services for aspiring artists. The brand enlisted Steve Stoute‘s digital distribution company UnitedMasters to help identify musicians across a variety of genres, styles and regions across the U.S. who will take part in this year’s academy.
The Class of ’22-’23 is comprised of 12 aspiring artists from across the country, including five who were contestants on this year’s music competition series Becoming A Popstar, co-produced by Pepsi, MTV and TikTok. They are: AKINYEMI, Amira Unplugged, Brian V., Cain Lofton, GODBY, Kbthesinger, Lexie Hayden, Lynnea M, NOHEMY, Oompa, SERGIO and Tarik. Pepsi is also bringing Samy Hawk, the winner of Becoming A Popstar, into the Pepsi Music Lab family to continue supporting his career through new performance and brand partnership opportunities.
“Pepsi has a long history of helping great artists break through, reshaping pop culture and leaving an unforgettable impression on all of us,” said Steve Stoute, CEO and founder of UnitedMasters. “Now in partnership with UnitedMasters, Pepsi is empowering the next generation of creators, helping them hone their craft and develop their talent so that they can generate the next big moment. Connecting independent artists to a brand with this rich legacy is the formula for creating a new future of music.”
The yearly program will kick off with the Pepsi Music Lab bootcamp in New York City from Oct. 25–27, where artists will get the opportunity to learn from industry experts including Laurieann Gibson, LaRussell, Lenny S and Director X.
The artists’ partnerships with Pepsi will continue throughout the year with performances, event appearances and strategic programming to help grow their careers. Pepsi will also be hosting a two-day virtual summit with renowned music industry experts targeted at aspiring artists all over the country.
“Pepsi is a brand that has a proven global track record for minting music superstars and shaping some of the most iconic moments in music and pop culture. Now, we are excited to shine a spotlight on the next generation of artists with our new Pepsi Music Lab platform” said Todd Kaplan, CMO of Pepsi. “By removing barriers within the music industry, we can provide these talented artists with the resources, knowledge, exposure, and connections to help accelerate their growth as musicians and further enable their success – it will truly make a positive impact on the futures of the artists we believe will push the industry forward.”
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