Virgin & Downtown Sell Curve Royalty Systems to Merlin, Jamen Capital – Billboard

The spin-off of Curve, a royalty accounting and rights management business, fulfills a stipulation made by regulators when they approved the Downtown sale. Matt Spetzler, Richard Leach & Charlie Lexton Courtesy Trending on Billboard Independent music label collective Merlin and music tech investment firm Jamen Capital said on Monday (June 8) they plan to buy Curve Royalty Systems from Virgin Music Group. Curve, a royalty accounting and rights management business, was previously owned by Downtown Music Group. Its sale to Merlin and Jamen fulfills a requirement European regulators outlined when they approved Virgin parent Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Downtown over concerns that Curve could give Virgin upstream data about rival labels. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and it remains subject to approval by the European Commission. Related The companies said the acquisition of Curve, a royalty tech processing platform for thousands of record labels, distributors and publishing clients worldwide, “reflects the growing strategic importance of royalty infrastructure within the modern music business, as increasingly complex global rights flows, metadata requirements and reporting demands place greater emphasis on transparent, scalable accounting systems.” Curve will remain an independent company run by its president, Richard Leach, with Merlin and Jamen acting
Read More