Downtown Music Holdings (Downtown℠), the world’s leading music services provider, has today announced a new division for its global offerings, streamlining all of its business and professional services units under a single division. The new division, to be known as Downtown Music, offers best-in-class global technology solutions, distribution, label and artist services, publishing administration, video and user-generated rights monetization, neighbouring rights, royalty accounting solutions, sync licensing and creative support for music businesses and globally recognized artists and songwriters.
“Downtown is committed to placing the tools of the trade in the hands of those who create the art that we all depend on,” said Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown. “Downtown’s new structure offers the most nimble, flexible end-to-end service offering available in the music industry.”
Pieter van Rijn will assume the role of President of Downtown Music. van Rijn, who has been CEO of FUGA, which Downtown acquired in early 2020, will offer expanded leadership across the group of service offerings. Pieter van Rijn’s successor at FUGA will be announced shortly.
The alignment of these service offerings brings together Downtown companies FUGA, Downtown Neighbouring Rights, Adrev and Downtown Music Services artist, label services and publishing administration units. Across Downtown Music, the company provides services for over 2,500 business and professional clients including a vast roster of publishing companies, iconic songwriters and artists, management companies, leading DiY and Distribution platforms, production and gaming companies, and other rights owners. Downtown’s strategy of direct relationships with digital service providers, collective management organizations, and UGC / Social Platforms in the music licensing landscape will continue to deliver a significant impact on the companies’ and clients’ collective successes.
Pieter van Rijn has served as CEO of FUGA, the world’s leading B2B music distributor, since 2014, leading the global company through a period of unprecedented growth.
“As we continue to position Downtown as the global leader in music services, this new structure will help us to further empower our artist, label and creator partners around the world,” continued Bergman. “Under Pieter’s leadership, FUGA became the industry leading service provider of services that rights owners need to be successful in the modern music industry and we’re excited for him to bring his vision and energy to this newly integrated division of the company.
“It is such an exciting time to be at Downtown as we shape our offerings into the most potent and strategic music services company in the business today,” said Mr. van Rijn. “What we have built and developed at FUGA has grown into the leading partner for independent music companies for distribution, technology, marketing services, analytics and royalty accounting. We’ve added new services in Neighbouring Rights and audience engagement. Being able to bring that experience to the broader offering of business services to all of Downtown is a challenge I am truly energized about. Looking at new markets for us to continue to grow such as Asia, Latin America, Africa and specific parts of Europe are also tremendous opportunities we are focused on group-wide.”
A graduate of Erasmus University of Rotterdam, van Rijn began his career as a songwriter signed to Sony Music before moving into corporate strategy and M&A, consulting for some of Europe’s largest companies. Following his move to FUGA, van Rijn developed the Amsterdam-based organization’s global footprint, launching new hubs across EMEA, North America, LATAM, and APAC. van Rijn has led the steady transformation of FUGA to become a full label-services business, including marketing services, sync, royalty accounting, physical distribution, and audience engagement and insights, whilst ensuring it remains a music-tech leader. Among a series of complex integrations, FUGA was also the first B2B distributor to launch automated immersive audio delivery. van Rijn was recognized by Billboard on the 2022 Indie Power Players list, and is an active member of the Merlin Board, supporting the continuing growth of the independent music industry.
