Downtown Announces New Global Expansions: Paris and Sydney

Downtown has today announced the opening of new offices in Paris and Sydney, adding to its teams in New York, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Tokyo.

The offices will be focused on investing in local songwriters and artists as well as marketing and promoting Downtown's global catalog of world-renowned song copyrights of the likes of John Lennon, Hans Zimmer, and One Direction.

In Paris, the company has recruited Laura Bedikian as A&R Manager and Charles Braud as Creative Licensing Director, and Armel Bernard as Copyright Coordinator.

- Prior to joining Downtown, Bedikian was an International A&R Executive with the highly-regarded Paris-based music publisher Because Editions, where her roster included Ed Banger, Foals, Metronomy, and Freedo among others.

- Braud, a 12-year veteran of the French music industry, was most recently Head of Sync and Publishing at Believe Digital and served in previous roles at Universal Music Group, Chrysalis Music France, Discograph, and Naive.

In Sydney, Downtown has appointed 15-year industry veteran Rachel Kelly as Creative Director and Head of Sync, covering Australia and New Zealand.

- Prior to Downtown, Kelly served as Creative Director at BMG Australia, having joined the company as part of the acquisition of Alberts in 2016, where she worked for nearly a decade as Head of Licensing. In her career, Kelly has represented the publishing interests of marquee artists and writers including AC/DC, Harry Vanda & George Young, The Angels, The Beach Boys, and The Kinks. She also fronted music-driven campaigns for Cadbury, Australian Football League, McDonalds, Samsung, Toyota, and Volkswagen, among others.

Through Songtrust, Downtown's global royalty collection platform, the Company collects royalties directly from over 120 countries covering more than 20,000 unique income sources.

Both markets make strong business cases for Downtown:

- Last year, the French collective rights management organization, SACEM, announced record revenues of ?884M under the leadership of CEO, Jean-Noël Tronc.

- In Australia, APRA AMCOS reported collections were up 16% to AUD $386M while naming Dean Ormston, a 20 year veteran, as the new CEO.

About Downtown

Established in 2007, Downtown Music Publishing is one of the world's leading rights-management firms with offices in major music markets around the globe, including New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Paris, and Sydney. The company's catalog spans over seven decades of popular music, encompassing some of the world's most beloved songwriters and artists including The Beatles, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Ryan Tedder, Benny Blanco, Hans Zimmer, The Kinks, One Direction, Mötley Crüe, Robin Thicke, Naughty Boy, Hardwell, Sturgill Simpson, Santigold, Carla Bruni, and Social Distortion. Downtown Music Publishing is wholly owned by Downtown & Company, which also owns New York-based Downtown Music Studios and Songtrust, the world's largest technology platform for songwriting and music publishing royalties, which powers technology platform that powers global royalty collection from over 120 territories and more than 20,000 unique income sources worldwide.