Concord now has a catalog of 600,000 songs, and Downtown will leave the ownership business and focus on music services exclusively.
Downtown Music Holdings has sold its publishing library of 145,000 songs, including tracks by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and more, to Concord Music Group. It’s the latest example of the sale of a large music catalog as the industry has seen a flurry of sales for record multiples. But instead of an artist directly selling their own music library to a private group, another company is now getting out of the music ownership business entirely at a point when the market could be nearing its peak. After the sale, Downtown will now focus exclusively on music services, including publishing administration and its label services division, DashGo. Concord as a result of the acquisition brings its controlled music assets to roughly 600,000 songs. The tracks from Downtown were developed or acquired by Downtown over the past 14 years, and Downtown will continue collecting royalties for the copyrights through the end of 2021. The catalog purchase includes songs such as “Green Onions,” “Dancing In the Streets,” “Runaway,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Change the World,” “Moves Like Jagger,” “Halo,” “Stay With Me” and “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born.
