GoDigital Music has completed the acquisition of Swiss digital music distributor Octiive, allowing it to establish a European headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Octiive has served more than 20,000 artists and over 3,000 labels since its launch.
The platform competes with DistroKid and TuneCore in the DIY distribution market. Its client base centers on European electronic dance music, although the company has also handled releases featuring established artists including Snoop Dogg, Master P, Chief Keef and Chaka Khan.
Following the deal, Octiive is now part of GoDigital Music and “anchors” its newly formed European headquarters in Zurich.
GoDigital Music has retained Octiive’s management team, with CEO and founder Mershad Javan continuing to oversee the Swiss operation while serving as Head of Europe, reporting to GoDigital Music CEO Logan Mulvey. Octiive COO Tobias Witt also remains with the company.
“as part of GoDigital Music and with access to greater capital, resources, and partnerships, we’re positioned to be the leading distributor helping independent artists grow their careers at a global scale.”
Mershad Javan, Octiive
Commenting on the acquisition, Javan said: “We’ve helped thousands of indie artists find their audience. Now, as part of GoDigital Music and with access to greater capital, resources, and partnerships, we’re positioned to be the leading distributor helping independent artists grow their careers at a global scale.”
The transaction follows parent company GoDigital’s $230 million funding round announced over a week ago, bringing the Los Angeles-based firm’s total capital raised to over $1 billion.
GoDigital recently underwent a rebranding, dropping its former “Media Group” identity and creating three new business units: GoDigital Music, Networks, and Brands.
GoDigital has also confirmed recently that Cinq Music, which currently sits within the newly launched GoDigital Music division in L.A., will undergo a rebrand of its own.
The Octiive deal aligns with GoDigital’s strategy to service artists across different career stages.
The company now offers DIY distribution in-house through Octiive for emerging artists, while its main platform, GoDigital Music, handles established acts. Sound Royalties, another GoDigital division, provides financing for artists who prefer to remain with their current distributors. GoDigital recently disclosed that Sound Royalties, which it acquired in 2021 in a “high eight-figure” deal, will remain a separate entity under the wider GoDigital umbrella and will not be part of GoDigital Music.
Meanwhile, alongside the acquisition, Octiive announced a partnership with SoundCloud. The “first-of-its-kind” deal allows Octiive to offer automatic delivery to the streaming platform, which joins hundreds of other outlets already available through its service.
The acquisition comes as music distribution platforms compete for independent artists who seek to bypass traditional record labels to release music directly to streaming services.
GoDigital noted earlier this month that the company’s “flagship music division has been a growing force in the music acquisition space” with a catalog that includes “well over” 80,000 assets, “spanning many music genres, superstar artists and multi-platinum hits”.
In February 2024, Cinq Music raised $250 million from its parent company for acquisitions primarily in the reggaeton, Música Mexicana, Afrobeats, and country genres. A few months later, Cinq acquired the catalog of the late producer and songwriter José Ángel Hernández, aka Flow La Movie.
Cinq also recently acquired the publishing assets of Country music producer and songwriter Jimmy Robbins, who most recently contributed to Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping album, I’m The Problem (Dark Til Daylight, Drinking Til It Does).
Elsewhere, Cinq fully acquired record label Beluga Heights in September 2020, which included multi-platinum artist Jason Derulo’s recording catalog. In December 2012, Cinq Music Group announced that it had acquired the master rights to rapper T.I’s catalog.
Aside from Cinq, GoDigital also owns the likes of Latido Music (a 24-hour linear music channel focusing on US Hispanic audiences), plus mitú (described by Peterson as a “Buzzfeed for Latinx audiences in the US”), which offers entertainment, news and music programming through a video-led platform.
Music Business Worldwide
