BLOOMINGTON, IN (CelebrityAccess) – Secretly Distribution “Secretly” rounds out its 25th Anniversary with the announcement of global deals with Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records, classic catalog support for beloved singer-songwriter David Gray, and Madlib’s own Madlib Invazion. As a worldwide leader of the independent music industry, each of these multi-year partnerships continues the company’s commitment to ongoing investment and maximal support in elevating independent artists and labels across a vibrant variety of genres, relationships and release models while further extending a period of significant growth in both physical infrastructure and digital mediums.
With 30th Century Records, Secretly will support the label’s new music and back catalog, including vinyl reissues like Gnarls Barkley’s multi-platinum St. Elsewhere. Secretly will also work with Bella Figura Music to support the essential David Gray catalog, including the multi-platinum White Ladder – one of the UK and Ireland’s best-selling albums of all time – with global digital support and vinyl reissues across the catalog. Secretly will also handle distribution for Madlib and his Madlib Invazion label, with new music from the iconic artist-producer coming in 2024.
In addition to the newly signed deals, Secretly has also announced multi-year contract renewals with three longtime label partners: Captured Tracks (Lemon Twigs, Mac Demarco, Wild Nothing), Rhymesayers Entertainment (Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, MF Doom) and Run for Cover (Citizen, Modern Baseball, Turnover).
“Rhymesayers is grateful for our continued partnership with Secretly Distribution in helping us provide global reach and growth across our active roster and back catalog,” says David Barnes, COO of Rhymesayers. “Especially in the physical space. This work is essential for our artist partners operating in the independent music landscape.”
Led by chart-topping new LPs from artists like Mitski – whose single “My Love Mine All Mine” soared to No. 2 on Spotify’s Global chart and spent six weeks at No. on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, and has helped land her in Spotify’s Top 100 overall artists, Sufjan Stevens (Javelin, Asthmatic Kitty), MF DOOM’s always in-demand MM…FOOD (Rhymesayers/Metalface), the reissued Duster catalog with over half a billion streams (Numero Group), and many more, Secretly is projected to ship 3.1 million units by the end of 2023. The amount marks a staggering 29% year-over-year increase in physical units shipped and a total that nearly doubles the company’s annual ship in 2020. Secretly has also experienced a 20% year-over-year streaming increase in 2023, building on 2022, which saw its distributed repertoire count more than one billion streams per month and earn more than 50 billion views in TikTok videos.
To support its growing roster, physical retail account base, demand for physical products, and local-meets-global mindset, Secretly just opened its new 90,000-square-foot warehouse facility in the company headquarters of Bloomington, IN, this fall. With a space that has quadrupled in size and a Bloomington-based staff that has more than doubled in the past few years, the warehouse enables Secretly to streamline logistics further and facilitate continued growth in-house.
Having grown up alongside the Secretly Group labels since its start in 1997 – which now include Secretly Canadian (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jagjaguwar (Bon Iver, Sharon Van Etten), Dead Oceans (Khruangbin, Japanese Breakfast, Mitski), and Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records (MUNA) – Secretly has partnered with hundreds of independent labels, management teams and artists, its work guided by its ethos of empowering and elevating small and medium-sized businesses on a global scale.
