Mentor Session: Randy Haaga (SoSouth Music Distribution)

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  "publish_at": "2026-01-16T10:00:00.000-06:00",
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  "date": "2026-03-18",
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      "name": "Randy Joe Haaga",
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      "details": "Randy Haaga began his professional career in the music business as a drummer in the mid-1980s. He later became the manager of a DIY rock band, touring the U.S. several times in his early 20s. It was a dream job, but it came with little pay, no benefits, and no warning before it ended.\n\nThroughout much of the 1990s, Randy worked at Southwest Wholesale, a historically important outlet for Texas rap and other regional music that served as the initial CD and cassette distributor for many classic releases. During that same decade, he opened a CD shop and launched an online store focused on the Texas underground rap scene that grew out of Southwest Wholesale. The online store was among the first to distribute DJ Screw mixtapes, Swishahouse, Slim Thug’s Boss Hogg Outlawz, and other Texas legends to a worldwide audience.\n\nThen, as the digital era began and physical sales declined, Randy was in the right place at the right time. He launched SoSouth Music Distribution in 2005, when iTunes was still in its early years and well before Spotify launched. The company quickly gained traction, attracting hundreds of notable clients within its first few years. Over time, Randy worked with artists and catalogs such as DJ Screw, Big Moe, Lil’ Keke, Slim Thug, Z-Ro, and later breakout acts including Finesse2Tymes and Megan Thee Stallion.\n\nRandy remains President of SoSouth Music Distribution, which now distributes through Virgin Music Group, part of Universal Music Group. SoSouth also offers music publishing administration through a direct partnership with Universal Music Publishing worldwide.",
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      "postal_code": "78701",
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