Randy Joe Haaga

Founder and President of SoSouth Music Distribution in Houston Texas.

Randy Haaga started his professional career in the music business as a drummer in the mid-80s. 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 came with little pay, no benefits, and no notice before it ended. Randy worked much of the 90s at Southwest Wholesale, a historically important outlet for Texas Rap and other regional music, serving as the initial CD and cassette distributor for many classic releases. During the same decade, Mr. Haaga opened a CD shop and launched an online store focused on the Texas underground rap scene that originated at 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 the world.

Then, as the digital era began and physical product sales declined, Mr. Haaga was in the right place at the right time. He launched SoSouth Music Distribution in 2005, when iTunes was only two years old—years before Spotify was launched. The service quickly gained traction, attracting hundreds of significant customers within the first few years. Randy signed artists and catalogs such as DJ Screw, Big Moe, Lil’ Keke, Slim Thug, Z-Ro, and later breakout acts like Megan Thee Stallion and Finesse2Tymes, among others. Mr. Haaga continues to be the president of SoSouth Music Distribution, now distributing via Virgin Music Group, a part of Universal Music, along with the added service of SoSouth’s music publishing administration, which is partnered directly with Universal Music Publishing worldwide.