Downtown Music Publishing Expands Direct Licensing Agreement With YouTube To Encompass Performance Rights

Downtown Music Publishing has expanded its licensing agreement with YouTube to include performance rights for music streamed on the video platform. By including performance rights, the new deal expands the breadth of rights licensed to YouTube and facilitates more streamlined payments from Downtown to its songwriter clients.

Downtown and YouTube have been partners for the past three years, working together to license reproduction rights for Downtown's songwriter clients. The new licensing agreement deepens Downtown's relationship with YouTube by including a grant for public performance royalties formerly paid through performing rights organizations.

With a quarter of its staff dedicated to the development and implementation of new technologies in the rights management value chain, Downtown has long worked in collaboration with select digital providers in an effort to materialize improved methods of ensuring fair and equitable payment to songwriters. Through joint efforts with YouTube, Downtown has reached another step in its continued investment in content management systems and their dedication to collaborating with both songwriter and licensing partners.

Andrew Sparkler, Downtown's VP of Business Affairs and Operation, noted, "Certain methods of royalty collection have been in place for over one hundred years and may need to be reconsidered. This broader licensing arrangement, which includes performance income, provides our songwriters with reduced administrative fees, expedited payments and more robust usage and royalty data. We are excited to collaborate with a platform like YouTube, who is also invested in rights management, transparency, accuracy and precision in licensing. "

Anjali Southward, YouTube's head of US music publishing said: "Downtown Music Publishing has been a trusted, forward-looking partner for many years. Downtown's ability to provide YouTube with up-to-date accurate repertoire ownership information is a key component of our partnership. We look forward to continuing our work together and supporting innovative ways to connect songwriters and content providers."

About Downtown Music Publishing:

Founded in 2007, Downtown Music Publishing is one of the world's leading rights-management firms, with offices in New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, London, and Amsterdam. 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, The Kinks, Randy Newman, Hans Zimmer, Bruce Springsteen, Mötley Crüe, One Direction, Hardwell, Santigold and Carla Bruni. The company also represents such renowned publishing catalogs as Cy Coleman's Notable Music, the legendary Latin music catalog, Fania, the UK's Kassner Music, Italy's Edizioni Curci and Germany's Budde Music. The company's technology platform, Songtrust, powers global royalty collection for over 80,000 individual songwriters as well as companies such as CD Baby, The Orchard and Downtown's own catalog in over 90 countries around the world.