Tag: Downtown Music
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Downtown Music surveys fans on streaming and rights ownership

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Downtown Music Holdings has been surveying 2,200 American adults on their views about streaming and music ownership, with a particular focus on the debate about artists and royalties.

86% of respondents agreed that artists should own and control the rights to their music; 60% believe musicians and artists ‘should determine the fair rate music streaming services should pay them’; and 32% support a user-centric model although 33% don’t know or have no opinion.

“Seven in 10 respondents believe music companies should be responsible for ensuring that the artists they represent are treated and compensated fairly. However, only 29% of those surveyed feel music companies actually do this,” added Downtown.

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Downtown Music Holdings to host a ’summer school’ this July

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

The music industry has been talking and thinking about internships a lot recently: specifically how to use them to make sure a diverse group of people are entering the industry, rather than (for example with unpaid internships) catering to a narrow demographic.

One new challenge, however: internships are tough during a global pandemic when many companies are still working remotely. Downtown Music Holdings is trying to tackle that with something called the Downtown Summer School, which it describes as “a free, week-long virtual continuing education program on all aspects of the music industry and the music business”.

It kicks off on 27 July, with sessions from executives in Downtown’s various divisions (Downtown Music Publishing, Songtrust, CD Baby and Fuga) plus external partners.

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Downtown Music Holdings’ latest acquisition is… FUGA

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Downtown Music Holdings, the parent company of Downtown Music Publishing and Songtrust, is buying distributor and music/tech services company FUGA, for an undisclosed amount.

The deal comes just 10 months after Downtown made a splash with the acquisition of AVL Digital Group, whose subsidiaries included CD Baby, AdRev, DashGo and Soundrop.

AVL is the entity making the acquisition of FUGA, which means that the latter will now be a sister company of CD Baby under the AVL umbrella. Downtown says that FUGA will “continue to function as a standalone business” within the group.