Downtown Music Holdings

Photo Credit: Downtown Music Holdings

Lyric Capital’s Spirit Music Group has officially finalized a global admin pact with Downtown Music Publishing.

The involved companies emailed Digital Music News with word of the tie-up, which, as described by the businesses, will see Spirit “leverage Downtown’s global administration, registration and technology platform” to meet “increasing infrastructure needs.”

Having signed publishing deals with professionals including Autumn Rowe and ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons last year, 29-year-old Spirit now represents catalogs containing a cumulative total of over 100,000 songs, according to the business. (“Current sub-publishing arrangements,” Spirit elaborated in light of the just-detailed agreement, will “remain in place.”)

Downtown, despite having experienced several shakeups and reorganizations last year, is said to have hit annual client distributions in excess of $100 million since 2021, with “23 million music assets” managed across the overarching operation.

Addressing today’s agreement, Downtown Music CEO Andrew Bergman said his company is “pleased” to work with Spirit, the aforementioned Lyric parent of which announced an $800 million catalog fund and “a robust pipeline of proprietary opportunities” in February of 2023.

“We are pleased to be working with the amazing team at Spirit and to administer a catalog so filled with musical gems,” communicated Bergman.

“We designed Downtown and our suite of service offerings specifically with these types of deals in mind so it is immensely gratifying for Spirit to have chosen to work with us,” finished the Downtown CEO of nearly three years.

And in remarks of his own, Spirit chairman Jon Singer indicated that the union will complement his company’s “expertise at A&R, marketing, branding, digital and synchronization with Downtown’s extensive administration, technology, and registration capabilities.”

“As Spirit continues to grow, invest in new talent, and acquire repertoire, we want to continue to focus on what we do best—ensuring that our songwriters and artists are seen, heard and prioritized and driving growth for them through proactive, innovative song management,” proceeded Singer, whose company reportedly spent $100 million on Jason Aldean’s recorded catalog.

“Linking arms with Downtown ensures that we stay ahead of the curve and in so doing allows us to maintain a laser focus on creating value for our copyrights as we continue to aggressively scale our business in the coming years,” he concluded.

In other recent news from Spirit and Downtown Music Publishing, the latter last week announced a pact with Colbie Caillat, whose songwriting credits include Taylor Swift’s “Breathe.” Meanwhile, January has seen Spirit Nashville sign veteran songwriter Shane Stevens (“Nobody,” “American Honey,” and many more), besides renewing a deal with Luna Halo co-founder Nathan Barlowe.