Concord Acquires Downtown Music Publishing’s Owned Copyright Catalog

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Downtown Music Publishing has sold its portfolio of 145,000 owned and co-published music copyrights to a Concord affiliate. The copyrights included in the transaction were developed or acquired by Downtown over the past 14 years and bring Concord’s owned and controlled music assets to over 600,000 works. As part of the transaction, Downtown will continue to manage global royalty collection for the copyrights included in the sale through the end of 2021.

Among the works acquired by Concord are songs popularized by Adele, Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé, Blake Shelton, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, the Grateful Dead, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Maroon 5, Marvin Gaye, Mary J. Blige, Mos Def, Mötley Crüe, New Order, Rage Against the Machine, Ray Charles, Santigold, Sam Smith, Stevie Wonder, and The 1975 among many others. Iconic songs such as “Green Onions,” “Dancing In the Streets,” “Runaway,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Change the World,” “Moves Like Jagger,” “Halo,” “Stay With Me” and “Shallow” are all included in the transaction.

This is Concord’s latest acquisition and its most significant since its purchase of Imagem in 2017, underscoring Concord’s longtime leadership position in the acquisition of music and theater assets. Lisbeth R. Barron and her firm Barron International Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Concord on both transactions, as well as half a dozen more.

Downtown’s decision to divest its owned copyright portfolio follows a strategic review of its business interests initiated in Q4 2020. As a result of that process, Downtown has decided to focus exclusively on the fast-growing music services sector to support the extraordinary growth of the independent music economy, as well as the creators and entrepreneurial businesses that rely on its platforms and services. As the global music industry’s largest pure-play service provider, Downtown manages more than 23 million music assets on behalf of more than 1 million creators and 2,500 enterprise clients around the world.

Proceeds from the catalog sale are being reinvested back into Downtown.

“Concord is an excellent home for this extraordinary catalog that we’ve had the unique privilege to build over the past 14 years. Not only does Concord recognize the value of these works, but this transaction further demonstrates the true strength of the modern independent music sector,” says Downtown Founder and CEO Justin Kalifowitz.

“The incredible catalog of songs is an excellent complement to the timeless and valuable copyrights upon which Concord has built a successful business,” says Concord’s Chief Publishing Executive Jim Selby. “Our global publishing team is honored to now represent these songwriters and their works to the world.”

LB Cantrell
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