Steve Stoute holds his black hat to the camera, ensuring the words written on it are visible: “The future is independence,” a slogan that predicts where the music industry is headed in the coming years.
During a Zoom call with Billboard in October, the UnitedMasters CEO looks back at launching the music distribution company in 2017. To Stoute, the word “independent” in the music business meant the major labels were a priority and everything else was a lower hierarchy. “When the internet blew up, nobody called every content creator that was making podcasts or visual stuff independent,” Stoute recalls. “They really were independent, but there was no classification.”
In Stoute’s eyes, independence was a stigma that made you feel “less than” if you didn’t sign a deal with a major label. He says the stigma needed to be broken, so independent artists could be comfortable with ownership. The stigma changed after artists didn’t need validation from a major label before growing their fanbase. “In today’s world, you find audiences first,” he says. “So really, do you need a label, or do you need a partner?
“And that really was our goal from the beginning. It was to create partnerships, to let artists feel comfortable with being independent,” he continues, tapping the “future of independence” logo on his hat for added emphasis. “Owning their masters and everything that came with that. Running this ‘Believe’ campaign, we’re talking about very three prolific artists here who have all taken part in what we’re building. I’m just proud.”
Launched on UnitedMasters’ social channels at the end of September and rolled out in early October, the Believe campaign centered on messaging that if you believe in yourself, you can reach the heights of artists who distributed their music worldwide through UnitedMasters. Hip-hop artists Anycia and BigXThaPlug, along with post-punk indie artist Ekkstacy, were the faces of single-artist and multi-artist videos directed by Edgar Esteves. The short clips were published on Instagram and YouTube with the hashtag #BelieveWithUM, giving each artist a spotlight to detail their journey, from their early days to their ascension to star status.
The Believe campaign does more than just incentivize artists to sign up for one of UnitedMasters’ membership tiers, like the newly introduced DEBUT+ priced at $19.99 annually. Anycia, BigXThaPlug and Ekkstacy’s stories carry an emotional arc relatable to any artist in doubt, who needs a spark of inspiration. UM’s social assets set the stage: one moment, you have a bedroom view like Anycia, release a six-track EP (Bacc from the Dead) like BigXThaPlug, or perform solo shows in your garage like Ekkstacy, and then the next you’re on tour, performing in front of thousands of fans. “Believe in you. We do,” the campaign promises, directing followers to a landing page that demonstrates they believed in their artists’ music when no one else did.
Anycia, BigXThaPlug and Ekkstacy haven prove they aren’t overnight celebrities. The path to becoming a partner artist with UnitedMasters, an invite-only plan for emerging talent to get label-quality artist resources after they get upstreamed, begins with having faith in turning dreams into reality. If you choose UnitedMasters to distribute your music, they play the role of support. However, Stoute states that the difference between other distribution competitors and UnitedMasters is infrastructure, a collection of creatives, industry experts and engineers who work together to launch careers. “Whether it be Distrokid or Tunecore — part of the infrastructure is tech, part of the infrastructure is the people,” Stoute says. “When I built the company, I wanted to sit at the convergence of culture, technology, and storytelling. The technology is one thing, but you still need people first.”
He hammers this point: “Humans are for quality, machines are for scale. Don’t let the machines confuse you for quality.”
The ‘Believe’ campaign is a series of vignettes, zooming out from the artists’ concert crowds to how they fueled their visions for themselves. Anycia’s video starts in a bedroom, mirroring what the Atlanta rapper’s actual room would look like at her mother’s house throughout her life. For her, it represents nostalgia, imagery that has been depicted in her “Type Beat” video and the cover of Princess Pop That.
“I want to be the girl that you can have a conversation with and not feel judged. You can feel safe with me, which it always is. I’m trying to be everybody’s big sister, everybody’s auntie,” Anycia says. “I feel like the most comforting place for somebody to be is in a cozy bedroom.”
Before rapping, Anycia worked several jobs. Around 2022-2023, she didn’t feel confident about calling herself an artist, reflecting on a time when she was at a smoke shop and going to barber school. The work didn’t stop there for the struggling artist: She taught at a daycare and hosted at a nightclub in Atlanta. She used what spare time she had to work on music, and hit up studios that her friends had access to. After feeling stagnant, she quit both her jobs to do music full-time.
“I’m a strong believer in what is meant for me will be for me,” Anycia says. “So throughout my life, I’m not against trying. I’m a ‘You got to try it before you say you don’t like it’ type of person. I never really got a problem with cutting off things that I felt weren’t for me that I wasn’t happy doing.”
Anycia took a gamble on herself, reasoning that she was already charging people for features and beat placements. The game plan was there, she just needed to go all in. “I felt like it was going to work, because I was 100% being genuine and I was being myself.”
“So What,” built around a woozy Ciara sample and produced by Popstar Benny, started as a snippet on X with a few hundred views on YouTube. It became so popular that it got Anycia several label meetings before she settled with UnitedMasters. “They did find me pretty early in my situation — and the first thing I did when I walked up in that office was I asked everybody if they wanted a shot,” Anycia says. “I had to loosen everybody up. Pulled some reposado out of my purse and everything. I wanted to see the real everybody, and I liked it. Everybody was cool.”
BigXThaPlug’s video in the Believe campaign starts with him sitting in his living room. In it, he talks about before his album Amar – dedicated to his son – and repping all of Texas. In conversation, BigX knew rap wasn’t his dream or even what he planned to do at first. He was a rising star in football, playing any position on the offensive or defensive line in college. It took missing his son’s first birthday after going to jail that the rapper felt like he owed his child something. When he had no other options to earn money once he got out, he took heed to his friend Rosama’s advice, who suggested he should rap.
“I turned him down a couple of times,” BigX says. “He was the main person constantly in my ear about the music stuff. When it got to a point where I had nothing left and I had to do something, he came by with that something.”
While he’s had jobs before, BigX admits they never worked out. He was destined to be a CEO. “I never been the type to work for nobody. In my head, I’ve always been my own entity,” BigX says. “You always know when you’re meant to work for yourself, but you’re constantly listening to another person. I hate putting money in people’s pockets who I know don’t care about me. I wanted to do something more genuine and easily put my people on as well.”
UnitedMasters discovered BigX in 2021, when he had 500 monthly listeners on Spotify. During this time in his career, he released “Mr. Trouble” and “Big Stepper” on HalfpintFilmz’ YouTube channel. After those videos hit a million views in a short time, he started to see how his city of Dallas was reacting to him, and took Rosama’s suggestion to take rap seriously.
He remembers changing his hustle from working the street corners to being in the studio every day. “Every song that I made at that time, we made together,” BigX recalls. “‘Cause we was broke and we was paying for studio time. So two, three hours of studio time, we was paying $100 for and we would just split it. I would have the majority and Ro would be like, ‘I just want to record one song, I’ll just give you $25.’ I was like, ‘All right, bet.’”
BigX compared UnitedMasters to signing with a junior college, soaking in the knowledge they taught him about the music industry and better preparing him for the next level. Through signing with them, he benefited from the increased visibility and synch licensing deals, with his songs appearing on soundtracks for movies like Fast X and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. “I just knew I couldn’t sign with no major, that’s like going to a D1,” he says. “If I went to a major, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
The guidance he’s received through UnitedMasters has BigX feeling like “[Heisman-winning quarterback] Cam Newton at Blinn [College],” he explains. “I could go anywhere in the world right now, and wherever I go, we’re going to go win a national championship.”
Ekkstacy’s road to fame was similar to Anycia’s and BigX’s: filled with uncertainty and sheer will to be who they wanted to be. The Vancouver, BC native used to process returns at an Amazon facility and made some of his earliest records in his dad’s garage. He started his music career as a producer for a former high school friend who was a SoundCloud rapper. But Stacy had other ambitions of becoming a singer.
“After some years of being around him and him being like, ‘C’mon man, you can sing. You can do it. Just do it. Just do it.’ I’ll always be like, ‘Dude, I don’t have anything to say. Like, what am I going to sing about? My life is fine. My life is good,’” Stacy says, calling from his tour bus. “I went through some crazy psychosis sh-t when I was 16. And really overnight I was a completely different person. So that’s when I started writing.”
Ekkstacy struck viral gold when he uploaded “I Walk This Earth All By Myself” on SoundCloud. After his manager Andrew Mishko suggested he take it down, the song blew up again when he signed with UnitedMasters in 2022. “It went up on SoundCloud a bit, then it went up on Spotify and then it went super up on TikTok, and then it went even stupider on Instagram Reels,” he says. “It blew up four times. It’s a weird song for me.”
Although he started at Distrokid, he moved to UnitedMasters because they allowed him to create on his terms. “They’ve been great. They’ve done everything a label would have done without the f–k s–t,” Stacy says. “I’ve had good freedom in just releasing whatever I want, not having someone be like, ‘Nah, this isn’t you. You need to do this.’ It’s always been like, ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do.’”
During one of Stoute’s recent interviews with The Pivot Podcast, he established how UnitedMasters is a global platform, through FloyyMenor’s unexpected chart dominance with the viral hit “Gata Only.” As a fresh artist out of the Latin urban music scene, FloyyMenor went from downloading the UnitedMasters app in Chile to surpassing over a billion streams on Spotify with his breakout smash. The 19-year-old Chilean artist was a local who performed at clubs, recognized only by his face but not his name. He signed with UnitedMasters after A&R Gerardo Mejía flew to Chile to see him perform, and saw immediately how he was able to connect with an audience.
Speaking through a Spanish translator, FloyyMenor explains how he released “Gata Only” without Cris MJ in December 2023, seeing the streams pick up on DSPs. In February, he added fellow Chilean and rising star Cris MJ on “Gata Only” after he reached out about wanting to work together. He was surprised at how it was trending on TikTok in Chile, teased through images of cars or anything that looked along the correct aesthetic when paired with “Gata Only” lyrics. It continued to pick up in countries outside of Chile like Argentina, Mexico, the U.S., China, France, and Italy.
“Gata Only” was a significant breakthrough for FloyyMenor and Cris MJ, becoming the first Chilean artists to enter the top 10 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart in 25 years. Recently, FloyyMenor made history as the youngest Chilean artist to win the Global 200 Latin Song of the Year at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards.
FloyyMenor isn’t a one-hit wonder, either: Outside of “Gata,” his August EP El Comienzo has more singles streaming in the millions, namely “Peligrosa” and “Apaga El Cel.” These achievements are reminders of how proud he is to represent Chile, breaking language barriers with his addictive songs. The wins he’s had wouldn’t be possible without UnitedMasters establishing trust with the artist, showing their commitment to his talent has only opened more doors for him.
“I’ve had friends who had other distro deals and they talk about bad experiences,” FloyyMenor says of their dynamic. “It’s been cool to have a team that’s serious about what they say and what they do. It’s like a family. I’ve been able to work on what I want and go towards my goals. I’m happy with the team that I have.”
UnitedMasters’ ‘Believe’ campaign proves that their tools and platforms have set these artists up for success. At the beginning of 2024, Ekkstacy felt insecure about releasing his third, self-titled record, but was motivated by the love of his fans every time he connected with them on tour. Now, he continues to hit the road, adding an opening slot for blink-182 to his resume and touring over the summer with $uicideboy$ on their acclaimed Grey Day Tour. He recently got a Gold certification for “I Walk This Earth All By Myself.”
Anycia’s Princess Pop That was a defining debut for her, dubbed Atlanta’s new it-girl by her fans. She’s stacked up accomplishments, like appearing on Flo Milli’s Fine Ho, Stay on “New Me,” and scoring her first hit on the Billboard radio charts – Rap Airplay (No. 25), Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (No. 24), R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (No. 40) – with “Back Outside” featuring Latto, as well as going on tour with Kehlani.
Anycia describes her stage of independence as a “tug of war” phase. She explains it as she can either go “this way or that way.”
“I put it in my head, even though s–t was already going off for me, this Kehlani tour is the start of my career. I’m the opener, I’m the rookie,” she says. “Even if people don’t know me, my goal is to make people know who I am or trying to figure out who the hell I am whenever they leavin’. I want you to have gained a new artist that you’re about to add to your playlist. I’m proving myself right now. Not only can I put out music and be cutesy on the Internet, but I’m showing you guys that I can entertain you all. So just imagine what I can do whenever a b—h got a bigger budget.”
For BigXThaPlug, his wins in 2024 are his induction into the 2024 XXL Freshman class, earning multiple gold and platinum plaques for his singles, breaking into country music with his Shaboozey collab “Drink Don’t Need No Mix,” and embarking on his Take Care Tour with Rosama and Yung Hood. He has one of the most underrated independent stories in rap right now with his latest release Take Care, notching his first top 10 at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, behind major-label artists GloRilla’s Glorious at No. 5 and Rod Wave’s Last Lap at No. 2.
“It’s a blessing to know that now I am something that people can look at,” BigX says. “I’m a guide to where people want to be in life. That’s a blessing. In my music, I am letting them know. ‘Yeah, you can be here. I ain’t going to say it is easy to do, It is possible to do. But once you get here, you are going to deal with a lot so prepare for it.’”
After hearing what these artists have had to go through to become household names, Stoute can’t stress enough how proud he is. He’s amazed at how far they’ve come, listing where they’re originally from to show you can make it anywhere. He reminisces on when UnitedMasters was the launching pad for NLE Choppa and Lil Tecca. UM has made unprecedented partnerships with Brent Faiyaz and EarthGang since then, as well as expanded into finding new African artists through Davido and Nigerian producer Sarz. The norm is perhaps finally shifting towards independence.
“The fact that we were able to touch so many artists over the years and grow is absolutely moving to me because it was something in my head that I thought I could do,” Stoute says. “Building a team and finding talented artists to not only write great songs and perform great songs but also to believe in us as a platform that could help them. That says a lot about my belief in myself.”
