David Reich Named President of UnitedMasters
As President, David will focus on growing the team and launching additional products and services that empower artists and enable brands to connect with those pushing culture forward.
Today, I could not be more excited to announce that I have joined UnitedMasters as President. UnitedMasters is one of the few companies I’ve encountered in my career with the audacious ambition of changing culture for the better.
At its core, UnitedMasters has leveraged its intimate knowledge of pop culture and hip hop music to help creators turn their cultural influence into financial success while helping brands reach a broader, culturally connected range of consumers. This know-how is built through the foundation of Its creative arm, Translation, one of the most successful creative agencies in the world (AdAge’s 2021 Small Agency of the Year, Titanium Cannes Lions Winner).
UnitedMasters has taken the bold step of building a music distribution service that, radically, puts artists first - disrupting the legacy music business by letting up-and-coming artists distribute their music directly to fans through streaming services while maintaining ownership of their Masters and up to 100% of royalties. Through the combination of UnitedMasters’ music distribution platform and its deep ties to brands, UnitedMasters enables independent artists and changemakers to grow and earn unlike anyone else.
To date, UnitedMasters has over 1.3 million artists on its platform and is growing rapidly. Brands like Diageo, Ally, and ESPN come to UnitedMasters to partner with these artists and play a role in moving culture forward. In the past year, UnitedMasters subscribers have grown rapidly. With $170M raised to date and valued at $550M, UnitedMasters is backed by Andreessen Horowitz (Ben Horowitz is on the board), Apple, Alphabet (aka Google), and Disney amongst others.
So what’s an Uber guy doing at UnitedMasters?
Empowering creators outside “the system”: First, I believe in supporting the underdog. I’ve spent my career thinking about those who others tend to overlook. Back in 2008, I co-founded Assured Labor, a marketplace that enabled low-to-mid wage workers to find jobs that paid more and were closer to their home by leveraging mobile technology. That business became the largest digital recruitment service of its kind in Latin America. In that vein, I was drawn to Uber as it is one of the largest creators of earnings opportunities in the world. There I led Growth and Product for 60 of the countries in which Uber operated, and later went on to found and lead our Transit team which leveraged Uber’s network and technology to provide vulnerable populations with greater mobility options. Now, at UnitedMasters, we are supporting artists as they look to pursue their dreams, grow their fan base, and get paid to do what they love.
Disruption: The record industry today is a $23B juggernaut. It’s a business built to churn out blockbusters and support the .01% of artists who they decide to work with. Even if you are one of the lucky few, you may well get a raw deal that enriches the label while leaving the artist high and dry. But the world has changed - just as we no longer rely on travel agents as gatekeepers to seeing the world, or TV networks in deciding what programming we can watch - digital streaming has opened up a world of possibilities. As such, UnitedMasters launched its platform to be “a record label in your pocket” providing label-like services to up-and-coming artists, and to those who want to own their Masters and effectively control their own destiny. We are not a record label, but we are creators’ best friend and staunchest ally.
And I do love disruption. During my MBA internship I had the chance to work at Innosight, an innovation consulting firm founded by Clayton Christensen, the beloved HBS professor and author of Innovators dilemma. His theories informed the strategy behind Assured Labor and much of my work at Uber. While I greatly respect the businesses that our friends (and family) at the record labels have built, it’s going the way of the stagecoach.
Marketplaces: While UnitedMasters is building one of the best music distribution platforms in the business, that’s only a piece of the value we bring to artists. Through our creative advertising agency - Translation - UnitedMasters has relationships with some of the most renowned brands - brands that understand the importance of reaching artists and influencers to convey their messages and reach their audiences. At UnitedMasters we are building a tech-driven marketplace to connect artists and creators more broadly with brands and other earnings opportunities so that artists can turn their cultural capital into financial capital.
For the past 14 years I’ve been able to play a role in building some of the most impactful digital marketplaces in the world. The opportunity to scale up a marketplace predicated on connecting “culture, technology and storytelling” is simply profound.
Team: As cited in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great all great ventures begin with the “Who before the What”. UnitedMasters Founder & CEO, Steve Stouteis a legend. After rising to the top in the Music world and realizing the power of culture, he created one of the most celebrated creative agencies in America. His book, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy, is more relevant now than ever. Alongside him leaders like Ann Wool, Eden Gorcey, John Buergler, Jon Weidman, David Melhado, Sally Shin, Mike Weiss, Dan Hostetler make for an enviable team that I’m honored to be a part of.
All in, I could not be more excited about the opportunity ahead. UnitedMasters is one of those rare companies that, beyond creating a massive business, is empowering creators, disrupting an industry, and changing culture for the better.
If you’re interested in joining me - send me a message. You can see some of our open positions here. We are scaling rapidly and looking to add changemakers across the team. - David Reich
