A couple of weeks ago, we told you about the 21 biggest deals of 2024. Now, we’ll have to make that 22.
On Monday (December 16), Universal Music‘s Virgin Music Group revealed that it’s agreed to buy Downtown Music Holdings LLC (Downtown) in a deal worth $775 million.
The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second half of 2025.
Downtown, founded by Justin Kalifowitz, started life as a music publisher in 2007 but today acts as a ‘pure’ services company that operates across recorded music, publishing, and other areas.
As part of a plan to go all-in on the global services sector (by being a partner to copyright holders rather than owning copyrights itself), Downtown sold its owned catalog of 145,000 copyrights to Concord in 2021 for around $400 million. Several M&A deals over the past five years have been central to Downtown’s services-focused strategy.
Today, Downtown works with over 5,000 business clients and more than 4 million creators in 145 countries across its various businesses.
Below, you’ll find key facts and stats about the businesses and platforms owned by Downtown today, showing the breadth of Universal Music/Virgin Music’s mammoth $775 million deal…
FUGA
FUGA is an Amsterdam-born B2B tech and services company, which was acquired by Downtown in January 2020.
FUGA claims to be “the largest full-service B2B music distributor in the world” and says on its website that it works with “more than 1,000 music rights holders”.
As a B2B services provider, the company offers custom company-branded white-label distribution and analytics dashboards as well as global physical distribution.
FUGA’s B2B clients also have access to marketing services, royalty accounting, UGC and rights management and more.
Downtown Artist & Label Services
Downtown’s Artist & Label Services division was formed in April 2023 and is led by Ben Patterson (pictured), who serves as President.
The Artist & Label Services unit was born from Downtown’s distribution arm DashGo, and the company has previously said that it is “integral” to its “core mission to empower artists and build an equitable music ecosystem”.
DashGo was acquired by Downtown in 2019 when it acquired AVL Digital Group for an estimated $200 million. Patterson founded DashGo in 2004.
Downtown says that its Artist & Label Services division’s clients include “career artists and independent labels at the forefront of popular culture”.
The Artist & Label Services division was launched six months after Downtown formed a division called ‘Downtown Music’, combining all of its global business and professional services.
Curve Royalties
Curve Royalty Systems is a royalty processing platform acquired by Downtown in January 2023.
In May of this year, Curve founder Tom Allen was appointed President of a new division called Downtown Royalties & Financial Services (DR&FS).
The division focuses on three core activities, including royalty processing (powered by the Curve Platform), royalty accounting services, and payments.
Via Curve, DR&FS already works with more than 1,000 labels and publishers worldwide, including Domino, Defected, Epitaph, Mad Decent, Armada, Cloud9, Demon Music and Big Machine, among many others.
Downtown said at the time of its launch that the aim of the Royalties & Financial Services Division is to “make royalty services, accounting, and payments faster and simpler across rights for its more than 5,000 business clients and 4 million artist relations”.
CD Baby
CD Baby is Downtown’s ‘Direct-to-Creator’ division, led by President Molly Neuman.
CD Baby became part of Downtown in 2019 when it swooped for AVL Digital Group and its portfolio of services for independent artists – in a USD $200 million deal.
Downtown then transitioned from being a significant owner of music rights at the beginning of 2021, to focusing exclusively on the global services sector when it sold its owned catalog of 145,000 copyrights to Concord for around $400 million.
The operations of CD Baby recently merged into DMH’s Downtown Music division. The move arrived as part of DMH’s long-term plan to focus exclusively on the services sector.
Downtown announced in April that it had completed its integration strategy across its business-to-business and creator-focused businesses into a single operating company. As part of the integration, Pieter van Rijn was appointed CEO of Downtown Music, reporting into Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown Music Holdings.
Downtown Music Publishing
Downtown notes that its Music Publishing division, led by President Emily Stephenson (pictured), represents “nearly 100 years of popular music”.
The division’s clients include John Lennon & Yoko Ono, George Gershwin, Miles Davis, Wu-Tang Clan, John Prine, and many others.
On Monday, citing an interview with Stephenson, Billboard reported that Downtown Music Publishing is on course to generate over $200 million in gross revenue in 2024, up 40% YoY.
The Billboard article noted that Downtown’s Music Publishing division manages over 1.5 million copyrights and has distributed over $100 million in royalties through Songtrust.
In August, Downtown Music Publishing struck a global deal with Double P Records, the label and publishing arm founded by George Prajin and Música Mexicana superstar Peso Pluma.
In September, DMP struck a global music publishing deal with PDU, the record label and publishing company of iconic Italian singer Mina.
Downtown Neighbouring Rights
Downtown Neighbouring Rights is described as “a bespoke, client relationship-focused neighbouring rights collection service for performers and rights holders”.
The division was launched in 2020 under the leadership of General Manager Dean Francis. Its superstar clients include Lindsay Buckingham (pictured), whom it signed in 2021, among others.
The division offers neighbouring rights collection and analytics services with direct affiliations with more than 50 collection societies and performance rights organizations around the world.
Downtown Neighbouring Rights has made a raft of global signings since the beginning of the year. The company announced international neighboring rights agreements with singer-songwriter, ANOHNI – representing the songwriter’s Academy Award-nominated song, Manta Ray and Mercury Prize-winning album, I Am a Bird Now – as well as global agreements with publisher and label, Position Music and TH3RD BRAIN Records; home to Brazilian producer, Zerb whose single Mwaki hit No.1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global and No.2 on Global Shazam charts.
Sheer Publishing Africa
Johannesburg-headquartered Sheer Publishing is claimed to be the largest independent music publisher on the African continent.
Downtown’s acquisition of the company in 2020 marked Downtown’s formal expansion to Africa.
Following the acquisition, Sheer continued to function as a standalone business within Downtown’s portfolio of music publishing, distribution, monetization, artist, and label services businesses.
Founded in 1996, Sheer has well-established relationships with collection societies around the world, and is a direct member of Africa-based royalty collection entities, including the South African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO), MCSK (Kenya) and COSON (Nigeria).
Songtrust
Songtrust is claimed to be the world’s largest global royalty collection platform for songwriters and music publishers.
According to the company’s website, it administers over 4 million songs for more than 445,000 songwriters, businesses, and rights holders around the world.
Songtrust says that it monitors, registers, and collects publishing royalties from 65 global pay sources, “providing access to the majority of the world’s music market in over 240 countries and territories on behalf of our clients”.
Found.ee
Found.ee (pronounced FOUN-dee) is an advertising and digital marketing platform that povides artists, managers and labels with a range of tools to build, target and optimize promotional campaigns.
Downtown Music Holdings acquired the intellectual property and technology that underpins the Found.ee platform in 2021.
Downtown-owned CD Baby was a minority investor in Found.ee prior to the acquisition and was already using the platform to power its promotional and marketing capabilities available to CD Baby artists.
Found.ee says that it is used by more than 25,000 creators worldwide.
Soundrop
Soundrop is a DIY music distribution service.
The platform was previously a division of AVL Digital, which was acquired by Downtown Music Holdings in 2019, in a $200 million deal.Music Business Worldwide
