Concord Buys Downtown’s Music Copyrights
• Downtown℠ and Concord announced that Downtown has sold its iconic 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.
The catalog purchase includes hits from 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, along with K-Pop and J-Pop hits, 30 years of French pop music staples and repertoire spanning some two dozen languages. This marks Concord’s most significant acquisition since its purchase of Imagem in 2017, underscoring Concord’s longtime leadership position in the acquisition of music and theater assets.
The sale of its owned copyrights enables Downtown to focus on its core music publishing service offerings, including all global creative and sync licensing capabilities, as well as Songtrust®, its underlying technology and assets, which are unaffected by this transaction. Downtown also retains its complete roster of publishing administration clients, including the Estate of George Gershwin, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Miles Davis, John Prine, Wu-Tang Clan, Ryan Tedder/OneRepublic and others.
Downtown Founder & CEO Justin Kalifowitz (left) said, “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.” Concord’s Chief Publishing Executive Jim Selby noted, “The incredible catalog of songs is an excellent complement to the timeless and valuable copyrights upon which Concord has built a successful business. Our global publishing team is honored to now represent these songwriters and their works to the world.” Proceeds from the catalog sale are being reinvested back into Downtown. Financial terms were not disclosed.
