UnitedMasters’ David Melhado on sync, brand partnerships and artist support

Team Talk is Music Ally’s weekly interview series, where our marketing experts speak to music industry teams about their latest work, best practices, and smart strategies. You can find the archive here.

David Melhado is VP, music and marketing at UnitedMasters, where he leads a team to develop a global roster of partner artists. Here, he chats to Music Ally’s Marlen Hüllbrock about how UnitedMasters has evolved as a business, how sync and brand deals are increasingly important for artists, and UnitedMasters’ global expansion.

Marlen Hüllbrock: Can you explain how UnitedMasters has evolved its business model from distribution to other layers of support for artists?

David Melhado: To date, nearly two million artists have used our platform’s services. What sets us apart from our competitors is our ability to secure brand and sync deals for our artists. Early partnerships with the NBA, ESPN, and other brands allowed us to feature music from our platform’s artists in their content, games and commercials. Our goal has been to create earning opportunities for artists beyond streaming. As a result, we have expanded the range of services we offer, strengthening our artist partnership business.

MH: So what are the sort of artists that you work with on this side of the business, and how do you identify them?

DM: We take pride in supporting artists at every stage of their careers. Some artists, like BigXthaPlug, began their journey with UnitedMasters from their first upload and quickly grew from 500 to over 14 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Others, such as Earthgang, transitioned from major label systems to independence with our support. We also back artists like Brent Faiyaz, who have chosen to stay independent despite offers from major labels.”

We’ve also expanded internationally and recently had success with artists like Floyymenor from Chile, whose song has held the number one spot on the Billboard Latin chart for six weeks. We’re now preparing to release a remix of that track. We’ve expanded into Africa where we partnered with Sarz and recently released a single called Happiness featuring Asake & Gunna and that song ultimately highlighted the power of the platform where we partnered with Chase to do a sync placement in a commercial that highlighted jollof rice with actor Michael B. Jordan.

MH: Where do you think you provide the most value in terms of how you support artists – and where do you think the artists that you’re working with want the most help? Is it with sync or brand partnerships – or something else?

DM: It varies for each artist. Some artists might prioritize getting their music synced before attracting the attention of DSPs.

For instance, BigXthaPlug secured early sport syncs with the XFL, creating a custom song for their football season last year. He then landed sync placements with the Texas Rangers, followed by the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T. These sync placements generate momentum that we can leverage to approach DSP partners and develop additional marketing strategies.

For other artists, we provide full-service A&R support, helping them craft their music. Additionally, we assist some artists with their marketing strategies and narrative building.

MH: Do you have any markets or genres you’re focusing on specifically or do you have a global, cross-genre approach?

DM: We’re very proud of the diversity among our artists. Currently, we have artists from LATAM, Canada, UK and Africa on our Artist Partner roster. Last year, Our product team did amazing work to localize our mobile app for multiple territories.

For Floyymenor we did a record with Cris MJ who had a significantly large following in Mexico and that helped accelerate and help his music cross over into the US. A lot of our marketing tactics are taken from a global lens so we’re looking at how do we use hot spots around the world that could help expose the artists to new audiences. For Sarz our goal is to be able to expand him in the UK and also in the US.

MH: When you build your team what are the key skills and attributes you look for?

DM: Someone who is brings a lot of tenacity. In an independent landscape you have to be entrepreneurial-minded so that is one of our core values. And we believe that having a diverse team unlocks potential and it gives us a unique advantage when it comes to relatability to our artists.

MH: Where do you see the the future of independence and what are the things you’re thinking about when it comes to the future evolution of United Masters?

DM: Helping independent artists earn beyond streaming is going to be a big piece of it – you’ll see more and more companies helping artists get sync opportunities and brand opportunities. You’ll start to see artists find unique ways to be able to create content and leverage that content to create an attention engine to drive community with their fans leveraging it to launch other businesses – which ultimately is a massive opportunity.