JO:LA Labs has launched Roster, a fully agentic, end-to-end operating system built to run an artist’s entire music business from a single place. Founded by Thabiso Khati, one of South Africa’s most influential music executives, Roster is now rolling out to a select group of artists, managers and labels by invitation.
Over three decades, Khati has sat in almost every seat in the music business. He compiled The Muthaload, the first original South African hip hop compilation. As Head of Marketing at Gallo Record Company he launched Skwatta Kamp, ProKid and Mr Selwyn. He launched Thandiswa Mazwai and Simphiwe Dana, and coined the term Afro-Soul to describe their sound. He built the concerts and festivals that put South African artists on the same stage as Pharrell and N.E.R.D and Usher, and staged the first and only hologram performance in the country, by the late Brenda Fassie. He co-founded Cashtime Life with K.O, ran three divisions at Universal Music Group Africa, produced on the Global Citizen Mandela 100 festival, and most recently managed some of Amapiano’s biggest artists.
Across all of it, Khati kept running into the same wall. The tools were limited, and where they existed they were scattered and disconnected. Bookings did not talk to finances. Release plans did not talk to royalties. Fan data, contracts and payments lived in separate places, and the gap between them cost artists real money and momentum. In Africa and across the Global South, where some of the world’s best music is made with the least infrastructure, that gap is even wider.
“I have spent 30 years breaking down doors in this business, and the hardest part was never the music, it was the machinery behind it,” said Khati, Founder and CEO of JO:LA Labs. “Roster is the platform I always wished I had. It does not just store your information, it does the work with you.”
Roster brings the whole business of being an artist into one connected system. It runs the entire booking pipeline, from dealing with promoters and building a gig calendar to checking flights and building travel itineraries. It builds release strategies and manages every deadline. It is a fan CRM and a merch platform. It registers works with local and global collecting societies, and it handles contracts, royalties, catalogue valuation and advances. It is stacked with hundreds of tools, templates, contracts, calculators and guides, and because it is fully agentic, users can simply ask it to get the work done.
What sets Roster apart is that every feature is aware of every other. Enter your details once and forms, contracts and reports fill themselves. There are no silos and no blind spots, giving artists and their teams a single, real-time view of their entire business for the first time.
“Africa makes some of the best music in the world, but we have never had the systems to carry it to the top,” said Khati. “Roster is built first for our artists and our realities, and then for the world. This is how we close that gap.”
Roster is already in the hands of an early group of 50 artists, managers and independent labels across South Africa and the continent, with more onboarding through an invite-only rollout.
Roster is available now by invitation, with subscription plans including a Pro Plan tier. Artists, managers, labels and booking agents can request early access at rosterapp.ai.
