Secretly Distribution Announces Formation of New APAC Division, Further Expanding Its Global Footprint

Today, Secretly Distribution announces the formation of a new APAC office, marking another period of major global staff expansion for the company. Focused on supporting artists and labels throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the team will be led by Sydney, Australia-based Max Thomas, who has been elevated to Secretly Distribution's Head of APAC, after leading Secretly Group's APAC marketing and strategy for 4 years, and running album campaigns for Mitski, Bon Iver, Bright Eyes, Faye Webster, Folk Bitch Trio, Khruangbin, Japanese Breakfast, Mustafa, Sharon Van Etten, Toro y Moi, Wednesday and more throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Furthermore, Secretly Distribution has promoted London, UK's Chis Cannon to VP of International Strategy.

In the past year, Chris Cannon has led Secretly Distribution to a 30% revenue growth overseas, across both digital and physical formats. He served as a leader in the development of Secretly's Latin American presence, as well as the launch of Cargo Independent Distribution, which Cargo Records, Secretly Distribution and Beggars Group created in order to maintain and promote an independent path to market for physical music in the UK, resulting in a #1 album and three Top 5-charting records in the first half of 2025 alone.

"I am thrilled to be leading the charge as Secretly Distribution continues expanding our global footprint to incorporate our new APAC office," says Chris Cannon, VP of International Strategy at Secretly Distribution. "As our distributed label roster expands not only in size, but in genre, geography and customer profile, SD continues to adapt accordingly.

Our existing team has done a remarkable job helping to leverage our releases in key markets such as Australia and Japan for many years. Now with Max Thomas, our incoming Head of Marketing & Campaigns for APAC, at the helm, we can localise our service whilst adopting a proactive approach in response to the organic growth we can see in fast developing markets such as the Philippines, Indonesia and China. The opportunities for collaboration in these markets are vast, and we have only begun to scratch the surface.

Inspired by our recent success stories in the region and our new local team, we look forward to enhancing our partnerships with the eclectic and incredible labels on the SD roster in order to find their music the global audience it deserves."

Secretly Distribution will also be hiring a new marketing & campaigns manager based in Southeast Asia, and between them the APAC team will oversee priority releases across the SD roster, including those on Australian-based labels such as Chapter Music and Spinning Top, and New Zealand labels Lil' Chief Records and Flying Nun. The new team will also lead relationships with long-time APAC distribution partners such as Leaplay (Korea), Rocket (Australia), Rhythm Method (New Zealand), Southbound (New Zealand) and Ultra-Vybe (Japan), as well as the numerous key local retail partners with which Secretly Distribution works closely.

In recent months, Secretly Distribution has announced full-service, global partnerships with Third Man Records, Hayley Williams' Post-Atlantic, high-quality vinyl leader Org Music and more. The APAC office will further enable independents to challenge the mainstream, championing musicians and creatives that drive culture forward, while providing hands-on marketing, financial and technological support to some of the most exciting record labels and artists across geographies and genres.