Downtown Promotes Steve Markland to SVP A&R in Nashville

Nashville, TN, Thursday, April 24 -- Today, Downtown Music Publishing announced that Steve Markland has been promoted to Senior Vice President, A&R in Nashville. Markland will continue to report to Downtown CEO, Justin Kalifowitz and COO, Andrew Bergman. The announcement comes on the heels of the company celebrating a successful four years in Music City with over twenty singles on the US and Canadian charts, dozens of sync placements for its local writers, recent major signing with John Prine, the acquisition of catalogs from Major Bob Music, and the launch of groundbreaking new initiatives aimed to take Nashville's writers and music across the globe.

"In just four short years, Steve has built an incredible foundation for Downtown in Nashville," said Bergman. "From championing a roster of songwriters that reflects the city's diverse music ecosystem to actively working to redefine the city's role on the global music stage, we couldn't be more proud of Steve and his exceptional team. We are looking forward to many more years of investing in songs and songwriters together."

Since opening Downtown's Nashville operation in February 2014, Markland and his team have developed a roster covering all facets of Nashville's music industry from breakout songwriters, artists, and producers like Jillian Jacqueline, Andy Albert, Tony Esterly, Who is Fancy and Sara Haze to veteran writers Marc Beeson, Kendell Marvel and Kelly Archer, and trailblazers like Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, John Moreland and recently announced Country-folk legend John Prine. Downtown has also inked deals with independent powerhouses Big Yellow Dog (Maren Morris, Meghan Trainor, Josh Kear) and Major Bob Music, and multi-award winning songwriter and playwright Wayne Kirkpatrick.

Downtown Nashville's homegrown writers have had numerous Top 10 hits on Billboard's Country Airplay Chart under Markland's leadership, including Kelly Archer's "Sleep Without You" performed by Brett Young, her 2017 #1 "Somebody Else Will" by Justin Moore, "For Her" by Chris Lane, and "Summer" by Cassadee Pope, alongside Marc Beeson's chart-topping "Hometown Girl" by Josh Turner and "She's Got A Way With Words" by Blake Shelton, written alongside Andy Albert, who co-wrote "If The Boot Fits" by Granger Smith and Billboard Pop hit "All On You" by Nick Fradiani.

Working closely with Downtown's global sync licensing team, Markland has cultivated a link between his Nashville songwriters and key sync licensing markets around the globe. Since 2014, Downtown songwriters in Nashville have secured over 50 sync placements from brands such as iTunes, PetSmart, and DSW to film, television, and video game productions like Amazon, Netflix, and Assassin's Creed.

Recognizing the opportunity for Nashville-based songwriters on a global scale, collaboration has been a key to success for Markland. The Nashville team has instigated several cowrites and writing camps in New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, London, Paris and beyond. Most recently, Markland took Jillian Jacqueline, Who is Fancy and Kelly Archer to Europe for transatlantic writing sessions with pop artists and producers like Cheryl Cole, Flo Rida, and Naughty Boy, and two special Nashville-style writers rounds in Paris and in London at the C2C country-music festival. The shows were part of Downtown's new Songwriters Without Borders initiative that is creating global collaborations between the company's songwriters and other writers, artists, and producers across the world.

Downtown is looking to grow its team in Nashville, with two new open positions on its Licensing and Administration teams.

About Steve Markland

Downtown Nashville is led by Steve Markland, a 25-year veteran of the music publishing industry, who has discovered and nurtured some of the most talented songwriters in Nashville including Brett James, who was named as the ASCAP "Songwriter of the Year" twice; Jeffrey Steele, who won multiple BMI and NSAI "Songwriter of the Year" awards; Randy Houser, Brothers Osborne, Michael Hobby of A Thousand Horses; and two-­time 2014 Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves. Prior to joining Downtown, Markland served as VP of A&R, Nashville at Warner/Chappell Music, a position he held since 2009. Previously, Markland was tapped to open Windswept Publishing's Nashville office in 1996. Under Markland's leadership the company earned over 75 ASCAP, BMI and SESAC "Most Performed Songs" awards. From 1993 to 1996, he was Director of Creative Affairs at Patrick Joseph Music. A native of Ohio, Markland began his career in the music industry as an intern at RCA Records while attending Belmont University in Nashville.

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.