Downtown Music has launched a new division: Downtown Royalties & Financial Services (DR&FS).
According to Downtown Music, the global services unit of Downtown Music Holdings, the new initiative extends the company’s efforts to expand its royalty and financial services for its artists, labels, and businesses.
The move follows Downtown’s acquisition of royalty processing platform Curve Royalty Systems in January 2023.
To lead this new division, Downtown has appointed Tom Allen, founder of Curve, as President of Downtown Royalties & Financial Services.
Allen will report to Downtown Music’s Chief Business Officer, David Driessen.
Richard Leach, currently General Manager at Curve, will, in his elevated capacity as Managing Director of Curve, oversee the day-to-day management of the Curve Platform, reporting to Allen.
Downtown says that the new division will focus on three core activities, including royalty processing (powered by the Curve Platform), royalty accounting services, and payments.
Through Curve, Downtown Royalties & Financial Services 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.
Across all of its services, Downtown says that it currently supports over 4 million artists and 5,000 business clients in 150 countries who collectively generated over 1.5 trillion streams across major streaming platforms in 2023.
Downtown says that the aim of the new 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”.
“Tom’s leadership at Curve has already elevated the industry standard for royalty management and financial services. His expertise will be crucial as he guides this new division at Downtown.”
David Driessen, Downtown Music
David Driessen, Chief Business Officer of Downtown Music said: “Downtown Royalties and Financial Services is both a commitment to the expansion of our core offering into deeper services and solving payment problems to our customers, and to simplifying the financial complexities that artists and businesses across the industry face daily.
“Tom’s leadership at Curve has already elevated the industry standard for royalty management and financial services. His expertise will be crucial as he guides this new division at Downtown.”
“We’re committed to expanding our full services offering to report and pay their earnings efficiently, ensuring every stream is accounted for.”
Tom Allen, Downtown Royalties and Financial Services
Downtown Royalties and Financial Services President, Tom Allen, said: “In 2023 alone, Curve clients generated hundreds of billions of streams across major streaming platforms,” said
“We’re committed to expanding our full services offering to report and pay their earnings efficiently, ensuring every stream is accounted for.
“Downtown Royalties and Financial Services is the next phase of our vision, with our services and payments divisions, and even though I will continue to oversee Curve, it feels great to be able to leave the day-to-day management and growth of the platform in Richard’s hands.”
At the beginning of 2021, Downtown sold its owned catalog of 145,000 copyrights to Concord for around $400 million as part of a strategy of becoming a partner to copyright holders rather than owning copyrights itself.
A services-focused M&A spree over the past five years has also been central to this plan. In 2019 for example, Downtown acquired AVL Digital Group and its portfolio of services for independent artists like distro platform CD Baby – in a USD $200 million deal.
Further services-focused M&A activity at Downtown followed with the acquisitions of Amsterdam-based B2B tech and services company FUGA in 2020 and Curve Royalty Systems in January last year.
Elsewhere at Downtown Music, last week, we reported that the company had secured another $500 million of credit capacity from Bank of America to expand its services for independent artists and labels.
Downtown said that it initially established its partnership with Bank of America in 2022 with a $200 million credit facility to provide artists and rightsholders with advances in exchange “for a short-term share of future royalties”.
Last month, Pieter van Rijn was appointed CEO of Downtown Music, reporting into Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown Music Holdings.
Today, across its operations, Downtown Music Holdings claims to be the world’s largest independent service provider.
Well-placed sources have told MBW that the company is on course to generate USD $900 million in revenues this year.Music Business Worldwide
