Many Hats Distribution Hits $50 Million Payout Milestone, Champions Artist Ownership and 'High-Touch' Service

In an industry often dominated by major players, Zack Zarrillo, a veteran artist manager, and Fred Feldman, a long-time label executive, carved out a different path. In 2020, they launched Many Hats Distribution with a clear vision: to create a distribution model that truly serves artists and managers.

"We started Many Hats with what I would want as a manager: to know that I’m doing my job well for my clients and also making them the most amount of money possible, while still getting great service," Zarrillo explains. His journey began with a punk blog, Property of Zack, and managing bands like Knuckle Puck, giving him firsthand insight into artists' needs.

Feldman, whose extensive career spans from Profile Records in the 80s and 90s to a 25-year tenure at Triple Crown Records (which he sold to Round Hill in 2021) and a six-year stint at Warner Music Group’s independent label group, brought a wealth of experience. He understood the disparity between promised services and actual returns for artists and managers.

"I’ve heard every pitch, I’ve sat in every meeting, been promised the world, and gotten very little back for it for a higher fee," Feldman states. "At the end of the day, you could be promised everything, but you’re responsible for your career. So we try to be transparent. That’s part of what a partner should do."

Now, Many Hats is celebrating a significant achievement: over $50 million paid out to its artists in just five years. This is a remarkable figure for a company operating without venture capital or private equity backing, taking a modest 5% cut for its services.

The company’s growth has largely been organic, driven by word-of-mouth referrals, a hands-on approach, strategic catalog management, and a strong focus on physical business. Many Hats offers pure distribution, alongside label services, physical distribution, marketing, and promotion.

It now boasts two label imprints, Wax Bodega and Tight Knit. Their roster includes frontline deals with artists like Hot Mulligan, Mayday Parade, and Saturdays At Your Place, digital distribution for acts such as The Pussycat Dolls, and physical distribution for Mk.gee and Quadeca. The company also handles catalog distribution for major names like Green Day (digital), Mitski (digital), Alex G (digital), and Weezer (physical), alongside partnerships with Crush Management, Monotone Management, deadAir Records, and True Panther Records.

"In the first year we did a million dollars, and that was cool," Zarrillo recalls. "And in the second year we did a couple million dollars, and it just has kept on growing. So to me, $50 million just makes it feel like, this is a real thing. We paid out close to $20 million last year, and I hope we can pay out $20 million or more this year. We’re not looking for explosive growth here — we want it to be manageable for ourselves and for our staff."

The genesis of Many Hats was rooted in Zarrillo's belief in artists owning their catalog. He recounts an early experience with Knuckle Puck where a label offered a mere $10,000 for three EPs that were generating $2,000 monthly through TuneCore. "Why would we sell it for $10,000 to make 15%, when that’s how much the band makes in five months?" he pondered.

This principle stayed with him. His long-standing relationship with Feldman, forged through working on various projects and Zarrillo signing bands to Feldman's label, led to the formation of Many Hats.

Feldman, initially believing he was done with music after selling Triple Crown, was inspired by Zarrillo's dedication to artist income streams. "Many Hats grew out of his desire to make sure these artists have a different income stream by owning some of their music that they’re creating, and we built the company from there," Feldman explains. Their combined experience from management, indie labels, and major label systems provides a balanced understanding of artist needs.

The industry's state five years ago was a key motivator. Zarrillo noted artists making significant income on DSPs through platforms like TuneCore, Distrokid, and CD Baby, but lacked collective marketplace power. A major label's offer of a JV for a 20% cut spurred him to think bigger.

"I said, ‘Hey, I’ve never really thought about putting all this together. I would probably be able to have more power in the marketplace when speaking to, like, Spotify or whoever, if I was able to say our catalogs are doing millions of dollars a year, vs. one or artist on Distrokid,"' Zarrillo recounts. This led to the pivotal decision to partner and seek direct deals with DSPs via Merlin.

For Zarrillo, artists need the best possible digital rates, and Many Hats delivers. "Even though we take 5% our per-stream rate is still better than CD Baby or Distrokid or TuneCore," he asserts. Crucially, they offer human customer service, not slow responses or AI chatbots. They actively pitch playlists, marketing opportunities, and excel on the physical side.

"We’re incredibly bullish on physical distribution and physical catalog, and I think that’s another area where a lot of managers or artists just don’t care that much, and we often are able to educate and turn no business into a five or six-figure profit business for artists," Zarrillo emphasizes. He highlights the rewarding experience of artists seeing their records at stores like Rough Trade, noting a doubling of their physical business in the last 18 months.

Feldman elaborates on their partnership approach: "On the distribution side, we talk directly to retail, we’re out looking for exclusives, we do a tremendous amount of vinyl manufacturing through plants all over the world, several hundred thousand pieces a year. We can just make it seamless for them." For projects involving marketing and promotion, they build a dedicated team, engage directly with DSPs, and initiate radio campaigns on a "smart budget."

"We’re a music company, not a tech company, so some of these strategies and thoughts are a little more old school like the way distribution used to be," Feldman adds, highlighting their focus on community, record stores, and in-store events that draw crowds.

This "high-touch" philosophy is central to their operations. "Every email gets answered," Zarrillo says. "A lot of people are in the unfortunate assumption that, if we’re only giving up a small cut, the company’s not going to care or do a good job. And I want to say, no — we don’t deserve more than 5% for your songs... but we still have to do a really good job. We owe you that respect. And because of that, it just travels. We don’t chase anything on the distribution side, everything is 100% word-of-mouth."

The growth to $50 million was gradual and strategic. "We had almost no overhead to start; I was the one ingesting everything, distributing everything, so we were able to run things at a very low cost while we eventually sucked in a lot of catalog that started to throw off slight profit for us," Zarrillo explains. They also expanded their label side with larger releases for bands like Hot Mulligan, Mayday Parade, and Arm’s Length, and have manufactured close to 1 million records over five years.

Feldman credits some of their success to "lucky with a couple of records that really started to take off, where we saw the potential at retail." He cites instances like the "Pinegrove shuffle" where Zarrillo swiftly connected management with TikTok, demonstrating their ability to "connect the dots." The organic growth also stemmed from artists reclaiming catalogs and seeking new, artist-centric solutions.

A prime example of their collaborative success is Hot Mulligan. Many Hats partnered with them post-No Sleep Records, releasing an EP and their first full-length, which truly connected with audiences. "At the same time their catalog came in, which we treated as a distribution [project], we were able to go to retail and sell a tremendous amount," Feldman notes. The band quickly grew from playing 300-capacity rooms to 1,000-person venues.

Despite receiving major label offers, Hot Mulligan chose to stay with Many Hats. "All of our deals on the label side are one-off deals, and they’re all 10 years or less licenses. That’s what I want as a manager, right?" Zarrillo explains. He proudly shares that Many Hats has sold 25,000 copies of Hot Mulligan's latest album, released in August. "That’s astonishing for a pop punk emo band. That’s real teamwork, that’s real cohesion... We have paid this band hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it’s proof that you can bet on yourself if you have the right team and you don’t have to just submit to kind of the assumption of, well, to keep growing, we have to go to a major label."

Many Hats strategically focuses on two to six albums annually, ensuring they can "really sink our teeth into" each project without wasteful spending, unlike larger, venture-funded companies.

For Zarrillo, the $50 million milestone is proof that "this business is possible. It’s possible to do it your own way. It’s possible for artists to make a livable wage from music." He emphasizes their dedication to this, stating, "My favorite day every month is when we pay out a million and a half dollars or more, hopefully, to artists." He sees potential for more independent artists to thrive with the right infrastructure.

Feldman views it as a validation of their initial idea. "It’s something that was just an idea that we built into a business. We did this ourselves, and I think this is just the start. This is our year that we’re sort of raising our head. And I think we have a proof of concept of how this can work."

In a rapidly evolving distribution landscape, Many Hats remains focused on its core mission. "What we try to do is just do the best work possible. We can’t be concerned with everybody else. We’re in service of the artists and managers, and that’s served us well, and that’s what we’re going to continue," Feldman concludes.

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