It was last revealed that Jaz-O had signed a deal with Roc Nation. Along with the announcement came the union of Jaz-O and Jay-Z.

But now a report from OnSMASH specifies that the deal Jaz-O lined up was for his Kingz Kounty Media Group and one item was still missing from the deal: Equity Distribution, the company Jaz-O partnered with, is technically not a part of the Roc Nation, but instead is an independent distribution company under the Roc Nation umbrella, according to the source. 

Equity Distribution was launched last year in March to support emerging and veteran acts like Tameka “Tiny” Harris, her son King, Mariahlynn, Vado, Tangina Stone, Chanel West Coast, and Jadakiss’ SoRaspy label. The company aims for these independent artists to gain exposure through worldwide distribution while retaining ownership of their masters, according to OnSMASH.

Krystian Santini, who serves as president of Equity Distribution, shared with Complex what people—prospective clients included—should know about the platform, including the benefits of aligning with Equity. 

“We’re focused on signings, setting up releases, and then focused on how artists move the needle. So, we’re focused on indie playlisting a lot,” Santini says. “We’re trying to build up a database of that, trying to focus on ways to build up streams for artists, especially early on, because a lot of the artists that we’re signing up are emerging artists. They’re new. So, that’s a lot of what we do daily.”

She continues, “For someone who’s put music out before and doesn’t know how distribution works or has used distribution, it’s sort of like the other distribution services, except that once we’ve signed you up, we’ll provide tactical support. So, you sign up for the service, we bring you in on a contract where you own your masters. There would just be a brief licensing period, and the split would be on par with the other distribution services, where you’d keep a majority of the net profits, but we’d split profits.”

When asked if Santini could share why it would make sense for an emerging artist to sign with Equity Distribution rather than another distribution company, she responded:
“I would say because we’re heavily focused on helping artists break. We want to help artists develop and grow their audience, and we want to help them maintain it so they can stay independent if they choose to. I think that they should be able to decide if they want to keep their masters or not based on how they perform, and we want to help them build up an audience and have sustainable growth with their business.”