Downtown Music Holdings has launched a new division for its global offerings called Downtown Music, which will streamline all of its business and professional services units, the company announced Thursday (Sept. 22). Longtime FUGA CEO Pieter van Rijn will lead the new division as president; his successor at FUGA will be named soon.
Downtown Music will offer best-in-class global technology solutions, distribution, label and artist services, publishing administration, video and user-generated rights monetization, neighboring rights, royalty accounting solutions, sync licensing and creative support for music businesses as well as artists and songwriters.
“Downtown is committed to placing the tools of the trade in the hands of those who create the art that we all depend on,” said Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown. “Downtown’s new structure offers the most nimble, flexible end-to-end service offering available in the music industry.”
The alignment of these service offerings brings together Downtown companies FUGA, Downtown Neighbouring Rights, Adrev and Downtown Music Services artist, label services and publishing administration units. The new division will provide services for over 2,500 business and professional clients, including a vast roster of publishing companies, iconic songwriters and artists, management companies, leading DIY and distribution platforms, production and gaming companies and other rights owners.
Van Rijn, who was recognized as one of Billboard‘s 2022 Indie Power Players, joins Downtown Music from FUGA, where he’s served as CEO since 2014. In his previous role, he led the steady transformation of the B2B music distributor into a full label-services business that encompassed marketing services, sync, royalty accounting, physical distribution and audience engagement and insights whilst ensuring it remained a music-tech leader. Downtown acquired FUGA in 2020.
“It is such an exciting time to be at Downtown as we shape our offerings into the most potent and strategic music services company in the business today,” said van Rijn. “What we have built and developed at FUGA has grown into the leading partner for independent music companies for distribution, technology, marketing services, analytics and royalty accounting. We’ve added new services in Neighbouring Rights and audience engagement. Being able to bring that experience to the broader offering of business services to all of Downtown is a challenge I am truly energized about. Looking at new markets for us to continue to grow such as Asia, Latin America, Africa and specific parts of Europe are also tremendous opportunities we are focused on group-wide.”
