Downtown Music Holdings has acquired London-headquartered music technology company Curve Royalty Systems.
The latter company was founded in 2019 by Tom Allen, Richard Leach and Ray Bush, all veterans of music companies such as Cooking Vinyl, Essential Music and ADA.
Curve is the latest in a series of strategic acquisitions made by Downtown in recent years.
In addition to Curve, New York-based Downtown has acquired companies including B2B music tech and services platform FUGA and indie distributor CD Baby. Downtown has also made investments in the likes of Beatbread and Vampr.
The acquisition of Curve comes four months after the formation of Downtown Music, a new division led by Pieter van Rijn that combines all of Downtown’s 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.
Curve says it will continue to provide royalty services to its client base while integrating with the suite of distribution and monetization capabilities that operate across the Downtown Music division.
Curve serves over 1,000 labels and publishers worldwide and reports to have processed nearly $1 billion of revenue across 2.3 billion lines of data in 2022 alone. Curve says it has processed nearly $4 billion in revenue since its inception.
Curve says it has the ability to ingest an unlimited number of income statements each month, “collating complex information from a variety of different distributors and sources and distilling it into bespoke reports”.
The company’s client base includes the likes of Cooking Vinyl Group, the Domino Recording Company, Hospital Records/Songs in the Key of Knife, Epitaph Records, Warp Records, Ingrooves, Mad Decent, MRC, Royalty Solutions Corp., Cal Financial, Alta Fonte and many more.
In November, Curve launched ‘Curve Lite’ a new version of its platform specifically designed for smaller music content owners and distributors.
“We know the future of Curve is in safe hands with Downtown, and we’re super excited to see what we can build together.”
Tom Allen, Curve
Curve co-founder Tom Allen, said: “Over the course of our discussions, it became apparent that we had a shared vision – Downtown provides real value for their customers and focuses on providing best-in-class products and services.
“That’s exactly what we’ve tried to achieve with Curve. So, when the opportunity came to work together, we knew this was a perfect fit for our team and client base. We know the future of Curve is in safe hands with Downtown, and we’re super excited to see what we can build together.”
“As we got to know them and their team, it became ever more obvious that their dedication and forward-thinking vision were a great fit for Downtown.”
Andrew Bergman, Downtown
Downtown CEO, Andrew Bergman, said: “For some time, we have been admirers of the technology and service quality that Tom and Richard have been building at Curve.
“As we got to know them and their team, it became ever more obvious that their dedication and forward-thinking vision were a great fit for Downtown.
“Accuracy, precision, timeliness, and innovation in royalty services are core to Downtown’s mission of supporting creators and the businesses that serve them. Welcoming the Curve team to Downtown is another important step in furtherance of our mission.”
“Curve perfectly complements our mission to be the leading music industry platform and their past work speaks to their high standards and pioneering technology.”
Pieter van Rijn, Downtown
Pieter van Rijn, Downtown Music President, said: “In Downtown Music, we’ve combined innovative technology and industry-leading services to create an offering that empowers music businesses and their creators.
“Curve perfectly complements our mission to be the leading music industry platform and their past work speaks to their high standards and pioneering technology.”
