Downtown launches $200m fund to invest in independent artists and entrepreneurs – Music Business Worldwide

Downtown Music Holdings has established a new multi-million dollar fund to support independent artists and entrepreneurial business owners.

The fund will be supported by a new credit facility with Bank of America, and will see Downtown invest over $200 million.

Downtown’s new $200 million commitment to indie artists and music entrepreneurs comes amidst a global boom in the independent artist and label sector.

Citing Midia data, Downtown notes that independent artists now represent 31% of total streams on Spotify, and separately, that independent artists made up 52% of all winners at the 2021 Grammy Awards.

The launch of Downtown’s new fund comes a year after it sold its owned music copyright catalog to Concord for around $400 million.

Following its deal with Concord, Downtown announced that it would focus exclusively on the music services sector, in a plan it said at the time would support “the extraordinary growth of the independent music economy”.

The company says that the $200 million-plus fund will be used across its distribution, publishing administration and artist and label services operations.

Downtown projected in April last year that it would generate over $600 million from its music services businesses, across both records and publishing, in 2021 alone.

The company now manages more than 23 million music assets on behalf of over 1 million artists and enterprise clients, from 145 countries.

“Downtown’s new fund is a powerful resource, empowering music creators all over the world.”

Randy Hua, Bank of America

Commenting on the launch of the new fund, Bank of America’s Head of the Entertainment Industries Group Randy Hua noted today (March 9) that, “Downtown Music Holdings has built a company that is well positioned to serve the fast-growing independent sector of the music industry”.

He added: “Downtown’s new fund is a powerful resource, empowering music creators all over the world. Bank of America is pleased to help finance this innovative sector of the artistic economy.”

“This financing from Bank of America enables us to expand our music services business by giving creators and business owners the ability to finance projects in an environment where the options are often unpalatable.”

Andrew Bergman, Downtown

Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown Music Holdings, said: “Empowering artists has been Downtown’s core mission from the very inception of the company.

“This financing from Bank of America enables us to expand our music services business by giving creators and business owners the ability to finance projects in an environment where the options are often unpalatable.

“Bank of America recognizes this need in our industry, and we applaud their commitment and belief in our mission.”

“This credit facility enables us to empower the thousands of artists who use our services.”

Alan Goodstadt, Downtown

Downtown Music Holdings’ Chief Investment Officer Alan Goodstadt, added: “We are immensely gratified that Bank of America shares our vision of building financial solutions for creators in our industry.

“This credit facility enables us to empower the thousands of artists who use our services.”Music Business Worldwide