DistroKid Names Music Industry Vet Ché Pope To Lead New Upstream Initiative

Che' Pope

Independent Music distributor DISTROKID announced THURSDAY (1/28) they have launched UPSTREAM, a revolutionary new product that provides record labels and artists looking to be signed with a powerful new way to find each other. DISTROKID Founder and CEO, PHILIP KAPLAN, also announced Music Industry Veteran CHE' POPE will head up the new UPSTREAM initiative. 

POPE previously served as A&R at WARNER MUSIC, and was COO at KANYE WEST's record label, G.O.O.D. MUSIC. A GRAMMY Award-winning producer, POPE has worked with such musical superstars as LAURYN HILL, EMINEM, TEDDY RILEY, DR. DRE, HANS ZIMMER, ASAP ROCKY and THE WEEKND. In his role at DISTROKID, POPE will work closely with the labels that join UPSTREAM, and act as an advocate for artists who opt-in. 

UPSTREAM allows artists who opt-in to automatically share their streaming data with approved record labels. REPUBLIC RECORDS, home to such artists as ARIANA GRANDE, DRAKE, LIL WAYNE, NICKI MINAJ, POST MALONE, TAYLOR SWIFT, THE WEEKND and others, is the first label announced to participate in UPSTREAM.  

KAPLAN said, “CHÉ is a visionary with unparalleled experience & insight as an artist, label exec, and technologist. He will be hugely valuable to UPSTREAM label clients, and his foresight into helping artists get a fair deal is trailblazing. CHÉ is awesome.” 

POPE added, "PHILIP and his team have built DISTROKID into a phenomenon that more than 2 million unsigned artists rely on, with thousands more joining every day. For those artists who want to be noticed, UPSTREAM provides a powerful way to connect with record labels. For labels, UPSTREAM opens a window into a cache of data that can help identify promising artists early in their career. I believe this will be a game-changer for both artists and record labels and I couldn't be happier that a world-class label like REPUBLIC RECORDS will be our inaugural partner."

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