By Kurtavia Burton
Content provided courtesy of StarvingArts.org
Earn Your Masters is a collaboration among three companies: UnitedMasters — a digital music distribution company; Earn Your Leisure — a media outlet for business, entrepreneurship and investing; and Ally Financial, recently named Best Online Bank of 2024. Their goal is to provide independent music artists with lessons in entrepreneurship and financial literacy to broaden their knowledge of the business of music. Pride Magazine’s Kurtavia Burton caught up with representatives from all three businesses at their recent pitch competition in Charlotte where businesses pitched their ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win $5,000. Winners from pitch contests held around the country will meet in Miami in December for the opportunity to win a $50,000 grand prize. *Full EYM’s Interviews*
Steve Stoute, CEO of UnitedMasters
Kurtavia: Steve, what was your vision for Earn Your Masters and how is it progressing?
Steve Stoute: Things are progressing well. When I first started talking about building UnitedMasters several years ago, one of the early things that was the foundational truth, was that I wanted artists to earn, or rather learn, that they should never give their masters away to record companies. It’s something that was valuable to them and that they should hold on to that. And it’s something they could pass on to their kids. Having great partners like Ally working with Earn Your Leisure, all the work that we do in spreading the word has helped over the last several years. A generation is changing in which artists are now coming into music, saying, “I want to be owners. I want to own my rights.”
Kurtavia: “We’ve heard great things and it’s even more empowering to see it happening in person. What can you tell us about your vision for the way Earn Your Masters is going?”
Steve Stoute: “Things are progressing well. When I first started talking about building United Masters several years ago, one of the early things that was the foundational truth, was that I wanted artists to earn, or rather learn, that they should never give their masters away to record companies. It’s something that was valuable to them and that they should hold on to that. And it’s something they could pass on to their kids. And having great partners like Ally, working with Earn Your Leisure, all the work that we do in spreading the word has helped, over the last several years. A generation is changing in which artists are now coming into the music business saying, “I want to be owners. I want to own my rights.”
Kurtavia: “That’s incredible. What can you tell us about the connection of passion and culture being mixed into what you all are doing?”
Steve Stoute: “Passion must be a part of it because it’s not easy. What’s easy is taking money and saying, “Ok, I’m good.” What’s hard and requires passion, consistently, is having a strong belief in that we’re going to accomplish this goal and we’re going to all move ahead and have that ownership. That’s the passionate part. Honestly, when you get a group of people, a community to believing in that, that creates a culture. At these conferences and events, you see more people wanting to understand about financial health and more about some of the values on how to grow their nest eggs and how to earn and how to be entrepreneurs. That becomes a culture within itself. I’m happy to be a part of it. I was fortunate when I came up in the music business to have a few people who ran toward me. And now alot of these events give people that education at scale.”
Kurtavia: Yes, that’s wonderful. Just hearing it is exciting. What are you expecting to see here today? What is something you may be looking forward to?
Steve Stoute: We’re taking this pitch competition around the country, allowing entrepreneurs to pitch an idea and win $50,000 to help bring that idea to life. That’s one. Two, that there’s a small group of people that walks away from this and aspires to do something different. Instead of sitting on an idea, they take action with that idea. What unlocks something that they were thinking about, or confirms something that they thought about, and they go, “Oh, it’s a sign, let me go do it.” There’s something that leads to an action. That’s what my hope is.
Kurtavia: That’s amazing. Anything else you’d like to share with us?
Steve Stoute: You guys keep doing great work. Charlotte has a lot of notable talent coming from this city. I’ve watched the city expand. I love the city so I’m happy to be back.
Kurtavia: “Thank you and speaking with us. Please come back and bring more events like this. We appreciate it and giving everyone a platform is amazing work.”
Erica Hughes, Senior Director of Multicultural Marketing, Ally Financial
Kurtavia: Hello Erica, can you tell us a little about your role with Ally?
Erica Hughes: My role is to build programs and content media that help connect Ally with multicultural consumers. We operate out of this mantra to do it right by our communities, our customers and everyone that we’re serving. My team has this mission to bridge the gap between culture and finance. We are at these events to find the best places in culture to bring financial education to communities who often don’t get this education at their dinner tables or in their social networks. We’re excited to be in Charlotte.
Kurtavia: What are some new innovations or practices you are trying?
Erica Hughes: I’ll say that part of my team’s mission is to be authentic to the communities that we’re serving. You’ll see my team is all here today from different communities. We have people who went to HBCUs and people who went to predominantly white institutions..We have people from the LGBTQ+ community as well as bilingual persons on the team. When we’re creating these events, it’s from an authentic place on what do we think we would have wanted to know if we were in those chairs of creators, of artists, of musicians and how we curate run-of-show and content to help meet the needs of our community. I think it’s important to me to make sure we’re reflecting the communities we’re serving.
Kurtavia: “Yes, that’s wonderful. Just hearing it is exciting. What are you expecting to see here today? What is something you may be looking forward to?
Erica Hughes: “We all try to converge the best of what we have offer. Ally is a financial services institution, so we have financial education. United Masters is a music distribution platform, so they have artists and creators. And Earn Your Leisure brings the mix of both of us, where we have Troy and Rashad, who are two guys from the community, who talk about the capital markets, who talk about finances and things that often are not said. One thing that we added this third year of doing Earn Your Masters event is a pitch competition where we have businesses pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges. Troy and Rashad are on the panel, Steve Stoute, who’s a music industry legend, who also is the CEO of United Masters, and then Ally’s Chief Diversity Officer, is one of the judges. The pitch competition is brand new. I’m so excited because the businesses who are pitching have a chance to win up to $5,000, which is amazing to be able to invest back into those businesses. The grand prize winner from today will come with us in December in Miami. We’re excited to give that person another opportunity to get even more money come December.”
Kurtavia: “That’s awesome. That’s great. Anything else you want to add?”
Erica Hughes: “It’s great to be in our home market. Ally has a dual headquarter in Detroit and Charlotte. It’s awesome to be able to, three years in, finally bring this event to our local
community. I think we’re really excited about that.”
Kurtavia: “We’re excited, too. We can’t wait to see how
everything plays out today and even in the long run. Thank you for speaking with us.”
Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal – Earm Your Leisure
Kurtavia: Thank you for speaking with us. This has been great. What can you tell us about the vision — how it started and where it is now?
Troy Millings: First, I want to just congratulate our partners at Ally and UnitedMasters. We created this Earn Your Masters imprint about three years ago. It was to uplift our people through music and through entrepreneurship and through education. For the third year, we said, “let’s just do something different. Let’s hear from entrepreneurs about their visions.Let’s hear about their businesses and give them opportunities to win money to invest in their businesse. We were thinking about cities where we should start that’s underrepresented, but there’s so much talent, so many resources, and it’s the number two financial capital in America, especially when you’re talking about businesses. So, Charlotte was a no brainer, and I’m glad we chose it because they came, they showed up. It was an amazing turnout.”
Kurtavia: “Yeah, I completely agree. Do you all feel you’ll be coming back to Charlotte, bringing more events here, being more present here?”
Troy Millings: “There’s obviously an audience here that’s thirsty for the information. And so, this is our second time being in Charlotte, and there’s a reason for us to come back. They’ve shown and proved that this is an audience that needs it.”(Rashad Bilal, Earn Your Leisure joins interview)
Kurtavia: “And now we have Rashad here as well joining us. Thank you for being here with us and speaking with Pride Magazine. We were just speaking about the impact and vision that has grown to this. How do you feel today?”
Rashad Bilal, Earn Your Leisure: “I feel good. It’s always humbling to come to various places, different cities that have people come out and show support. We feel good.”
Kurtavia: “That’s so good. How do you feel you all are both walking in your purpose and using your passion to connect others through culture and showing up and being present?”
Rashad Bilal: “We’re relaying the message of entrepreneurship and investing in providing people with real-life information and examples. This is something we’ve championed from day one and that’s the way that we are. We’re all about our purpose and providing value.”
Troy Millings: “Yeah, I totally agree. We’re liberating people and giving a world of financial education. It’s been aligned, it’s been destined since day one. And we take the mission very seriously and we’re very blessed to be at the forefront of it.”
Kurtavia: “Yes, that’s great. Regarding your partnership with Ally and United Masters, do you feel that you all are going in the direction that you all expected?”
Rashad Bilal: “It’s a great partnership. It’s one of those things it gets bigger every time, right? We started and it was panel discussions. Now we’re doing a pitch competition. As we progress and grow, it’s something that I think is adding a lot of value.”
Troy Millings: “Yes, and we must give credit to both United Masters and Ally. When we started our mission, they saw it early. After sitting down with them, two or three meetings, Earn Your Masters was birthed. A lot of credit to them for having the foresight to see what we have here now.”
Kurtavia: “Do you all feel you will pick the best talent come December?”
Troy Millings: “If this is any indication, we’re off to a great start. By the time we get to Miami, we will have had 2,000 applicants, so we’re getting the best of the best. And we’re taking our time in the process of figuring out who’s going to make it.”
Kurtavia: “Yes, for sure. Any final words to tell the people?”
Troy Millings: “I want to congratulate you and Pride Magazine. This is a family business been for 30 years. It’s important that those stories get shared. We’re talking about entrepreneurs that look like us that are doing things positive for the community. So, congratulations to you all and thank you for having us here on your platform.”
Kurtavia: “Thank you and thank you all for speaking with us and continuing to share and make an impact.”
Earn Your Masters Photo Gallery • Content provided courtesy of StarvingArts.org
