Downtown Music Holdings In The News

Catalog management platform OpenPlay strikes partnership with payouts service Trolley

Partnership will see Trolley integrated into recently launched distribution and monetization service, OpenPlay Reach

European competition regulators to make initial ruling on Universal’s $775m Downtown buyout by July 22

EU competition regulator sets July 22 deadline to make initial ruling

Music publishers and Elon Musk’s X granted 90 day pause to copyright lawsuit for ‘good faith negotiations’ to try to settle out of court

Publishers 'to discuss with X the resolution of the suit and proper compensation to songwriters and publishers for past unlicensed uses, while providing an opportunity for go forward licensing,' says NMPA spokesperson

Analysis

Nothing will stand in the way of independents (and why the world’s first three-person indie unicorn is only a matter of time away)

Revelator's Bruno Guez on the strength of the independent music sector

News

FUGA makes first step into D2C commerce for artists and labels, in partnership with Shopify-backed Single

This is B2B music distributor FUGA's first foray into direct-to-consumer e-commerce

Interviews

‘A&R is based on three things: trust, relationship and accountability.’

After more than two decades with the majors, Amanda Hill now heads up Runner Music, the publishing company founded in 2023 by Ryan Tedder, Ron Laffitte and Andrew Sparkler. Here she discusses her career to date, artist development and archaic business models

News

From Taylor Swift’s masters victory to HYBE’s eventful week… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

The five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days

News

Downtown expands presence in Africa, as Sheer rebrands to Downtown Music Publishing Africa

Sheer was acquired by DMP parent Downtown Music Holdings in 2020