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NEW YORK, January 13, 2021 — Downtown Neighbouring Rights℠, the Downtown Music Holdings℠ subsidiary specifically dedicated to sound recording performance royalties, announced today it has entered into an agreement to represent the Estate of Ella Fitzgerald for global performance royalty collections outside of the U.S. The deal covers iconic vocalist’s entire repertoire, including some of the most popular recordings in history like “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “Cheek to Cheek“, “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”
“We are so pleased to have Downtown Neighbouring Rights represent the Estate of Ella Fitzgerald. Her legacy as one of the most popular jazz vocalists of all time lives on and we are very excited to have it in such good hands,” said Richard Rosman, President of The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, the non-profit philanthropic organization which owns the rights to the catalog.
“Without question, Ella Fitzgerald is one of the world’s most beloved vocalists. Her distinctive voice and range, inventive phrasing and rhythmic virtuosity are among the reasons she remains ‘The First Lady of Song’. To represent the performance rights of her impressive recording catalog is a true honor,” said Dean Francis, General Manager of Downtown Neighbouring Rights.
Ella Fitzgerald is one of the most popular female jazz singers of all time. Starting her music career as part of the Chick Webb orchestra, she eventually partnered with Norman Granz to produce her famous songbook series, recording songs written by some of the world’s great composers and lyricists, , including those by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart. She also partnered with Louis Armstrong to create some of jazz’s finest and memorable duets. With more than 40M albums sold during her lifetime, Ella received numerous accolades from around the world, including 13 Grammy awards, the National Medal of Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Along with her music legacy, Ella Fitzgerald left a legacy of philanthropic work through The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation which provides literacy, music education, and access to housing, healthcare and related support services to at-risk communities.
This news follows the establishment of Downtown Neighbouring Rights as a stand-alone business unit in June 2020. As part of its continued growth, Downtown Neighbouring Rights also recently hired Fintage House alumna Diane van Beekum-de Mooij as Senior Manager, based in Amsterdam and reporting directly to Dean Francis.
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About Downtown Neighbouring Rights
Owned and operated by Downtown Music Holdings, Downtown Neighbouring Rights is a stand-alone business unit dedicated specifically to performance royalty management and collection. With direct affiliations with more than 50 collection societies and performance rights organizations around the world, Downtown Neighbouring Rights maximizes the income due from its clients’ performances on sound recordings, including the recording catalogs of Justin Bieber, Kimbra, Koffee, Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, OneRepublic, Ryan Tedder, Tori Amos, Young T & Bugsey, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, among others.
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