Secretly Distribution (SD) has promoted Kristian Downs to Govt Director, Platform Operations.
Downs will report back to SD COO and Accomplice Chris Welz.
The function will see Downs proceed to supervise SD’s Digital Operations staff, whereas taking what the corporate known as “strategic possession, governance, and long-term operational path” throughout its core platform infrastructure.
Central to that remit is RIOT, SD’s bespoke repertoire administration system, which Downs helped construct with the distributor’s improvement companion, Babel Ops.
He’ll lead RIOT’s continued improvement with the Babel Ops staff, together with future operational and metadata infrastructure instruments.
Downs may even work with SD’s senior management to align its platform technique with the corporate’s wider targets because the tech stack grows.
“As we proceed to put money into our expertise and infrastructure, we’re thrilled for Kristian to be main the subsequent part of our platform improvement.”
Chris Welz, Secretly Distribution
“Kristian has reworked our digital operations since becoming a member of Secretly Distribution six years in the past,” mentioned Chris Welz. “His strategic imaginative and prescient, technical experience, and collaborative management have been instrumental in constructing the platforms that assist our purchasers in the present day.”
“As we proceed to put money into our expertise and infrastructure, we’re thrilled for Kristian to be main the subsequent part of our platform improvement.”
Welz was named a Accomplice at SD in February, following what the corporate known as its “largest yr ever”.
“I’m excited to step into this function at a time when expertise is enjoying such an essential half in serving to impartial labels develop and adapt,” mentioned Downs. “A key a part of my focus can be persevering with to develop the techniques and platforms that assist our companions, guaranteeing they’ve entry to best-in-class expertise that permits them to function extra successfully and make knowledgeable selections.”
“One of many actual strengths of Secretly Distribution is that, as an impartial enterprise, we are able to work intently with our label companions, reply rapidly to their wants and construct expertise that displays the way in which they really work,” Downs added.
“Along with our long-standing expertise companion, Babel Ops, we’re investing in platforms that may proceed to evolve alongside our labels and assist the subsequent part of their development.”
“A key a part of my focus can be persevering with to develop the techniques and platforms that assist our companions, guaranteeing they’ve entry to best-in-class expertise that permits them to function extra successfully and make knowledgeable selections.”
Kristian Downs, Secretly Distribution
Downs joined Secretly Distribution in 2020.
He beforehand held senior management roles at AWAL/Kobalt and Beggars Group, and based a music companies distribution and rights platform for impartial artists and labels.
He was named a Billboard UK Energy Participant in 2026.
Secretly Distribution acquired Babel Ops in April, bringing the expertise firm in-house together with its knowledge and analytics platform Leisure Intelligence (Ei).
Babel Ops, based in 2020 by Erik Gilbert and Greg Delaney, builds bespoke knowledge administration, analytics and royalty processing instruments for impartial music firms.
Secretly Distribution CEO Darius Van Arman framed that acquisition in opposition to a backdrop of trade consolidation, with main firms buying distribution expertise companies akin to FUGA and Revelator.
The deal comes as impartial music firms navigate a quickly altering expertise panorama.
Van Arman, who additionally serves as Chairperson of Merlin, the digital licensing company for impartial music firms, has beforehand highlighted a few of these challenges, together with the influence of generative AI on impartial music companies in an MBW op-ed printed in February.
For greater than 25 years, Secretly Distribution has operated because the in-house distribution arm of Bloomington, Indiana-based Secretly Group, whose labels embrace Useless Oceans, Jagjaguwar, Secretly Canadian and the Numero Group.
SD’s wider distribution roster additionally contains Third Man Data, Rhymesayers, Ipecac Recordings and Ghostly Worldwide, amongst others.Music Enterprise Worldwide
