NBA Partners With Music Startup UnitedMasters To Bring Indy Musicians to Its Digital Content
Content created for digital, social platforms will feature deep library of new music
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On Thursday, the NBA announced a new partnership with UnitedMasters, an independent music-management startup, which will make a broad (and growing) new music library available to editors of NBA content. The partnership is yet another example of the NBA’s vision to keep its brand at the crossroads of sports and entertainment culture.
The relationship offers the league’s digital-content creators an entirely new library of music with which to edit. Music by UnitedMasters’ artists will appear across the NBA’s suite of digital products (NBA.com, NBA app) and social-media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Snapchat), which total 1.5 billion followers worldwide.
“We’re excited to partner with UnitedMasters to give up-and-coming artists a massive digital stage to share their music,” NBA SVP, New Media Distribution, Jeff Marsilio said in an official release. “With this partnership, fans will now have a new way to discover music while they enjoy NBA highlights across our social and digital media.”
Plans are to have the music spotlighted when it’s used in the NBA content. For example, when an editor uses a piece of UnitedMasters music to put together a highlight for social-media distribution, the content will be also be tagged or mentioned with a link upon distribution that will offer the viewer a direct link to learn more about the musician and his or her work.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with the NBA to empower independent artists and provide them the opportunity to reach a global audience, amplifying their music at scale,” said UnitedMasters founder/CEO Steve Stoute in the NBA’s official release. “This unprecedented partnership speaks to the ecosystem we are building to directly connect brands and UnitedMasters artists so that their music can be heard around the world. We are proud to provide a platform that has the potential to significantly further their careers.”
