Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown Music Holdings, and Spirit Music Group Chairman Jon Singer
Spirit Music Group (SMG) has entered into an administrative services agreement with Downtown Music Publishing (DMP).
Spirit said in a press release on Wednesday (January 24) that it aims to use Downtown’s global administration, registration and technology platform to “help further meet their increasing infrastructure needs”.
Spirit Music Group added that its current sub-publishing arrangements remain in place.
Commenting on the deal on Wednesday, Spirit Music Group Chairman Jon Singer said that the move allows Spirit to pair its “expertise at A&R, marketing, branding, digital and synchronization with Downtown’s extensive administration, technology, and registration capabilities to provide the best infrastructure available for our songwriters and partners” and that “by uniting these strengths for Spirit clients, the sum is even greater than its parts”.
“As Spirit continues to grow, invest in new talent, and acquire repertoire, we want to continue to focus on what we do best — ensuring that our songwriters and artists are seen, heard and prioritized and driving growth for them through proactive, innovative song management.”
Jon Singer, Spirit Music Group
Singer added: “As Spirit continues to grow, invest in new talent, and acquire repertoire, we want to continue to focus on what we do best — ensuring that our songwriters and artists are seen, heard and prioritized and driving growth for them through proactive, innovative song management.
“Linking arms with Downtown ensures that we stay ahead of the curve and in so doing allows us to maintain a laser focus on creating value for our copyrights as we continue to aggressively scale our business in the coming years.”
Also commenting on the deal, Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown Music Holdings said: “We are pleased to be working with the amazing team at Spirit and to administer a catalog so filled with musical gems.”
“We designed Downtown and our suite of service offerings specifically with these types of deals in mind so it is immensely gratifying for Spirit to have chosen to work with us.”
Andrew Bergman, Downtown Music Holdings
Added Bergman: “We designed Downtown and our suite of service offerings specifically with these types of deals in mind so it is immensely gratifying for Spirit to have chosen to work with us.”
“Downtown is committed to providing the best services to our clients via investments in administration, rights management, data and technology
Emily Stephenson, Downtown
Emily Stephenson, President of Downtown Music Publishing said: “Working with Spirit Music Group reinforces our dedication to fostering the success of legendary musical catalogs as well as supporting new talent, both abundantly represented in Spirit’s catalog.
“Downtown is committed to providing the best services to our clients via investments in administration, rights management, data and technology.”
In April 2021, following the sale of its owned song copyrights to Concord, Downtown Music Holdings (DMH) shifted its focus exclusively to the music services sector.
In September 2022, DMH established a new division called Downtown Music (led by Pieter Van Rijn), that combined all of its global business and professional services including distribution, label and artist services, publishing administration, video and user-generated rights monetization, neighbouring rights, royalty accounting solutions, sync licensing and creative support services.
In April 2023, DMH-owned Downtown Music formed a new Artist & Label Services division headed up by Ben Patterson.
Downtown Music Holdings reports that, across its operating brands, it currently manages more than 23 million music assets on behalf of more than one million creators and 2,500 enterprise clients, making it, what it claims to be, “the largest pure-play service provider in the global music industry”.
Downtown reports that Downtown Music Publishing’s client distributions have exceeded $100 million since 2021, with “annual increases of 14% year over year”.
Spirit Music Group represents combined catalogs totaling over 100,000 songs. The company reports that its catalog includes over 800 “charted hits” and over 200 No.1 songs.
The company’s repertoire includes hits recorded by iconic artists like The Who, John Legend, Chicago, The Go-Go’s, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Camilla Cabello, Jay-Z, Ricky Martin, Brad Paisley, Toto, Madonna and more.
In February 2023, Spirit Music Group’s parent company, New York-based private equity firm Lyric Capital Group, successfully closed its second fund, with total commitments of approximately $410 million. In addition, the firm also raised senior debt financing bringing Lyric’s deployable capital to over $800 million.
Lyric Capital Group was founded in 2019 by Jon Singer and Ross Cameron. The company’s fundraise in February 2023 followed the news in October 2021 that the firm had struck a $500 million strategic alliance with Northleaf Capital.
Since that deal, Toronto-based Northleaf has used Spirit Music Group’s music assets to support the raise of a $303.8 million bond offering.
In February 2022, Spirit Music Group acquired the recorded music catalog of multi-Platinum country superstar, Jason Aldean, in a $100 million-plus deal.Music Business Worldwide
