Downtown Music the independent rights-management and music-services companies has left the copyright business.

Downtown sold a library of owned copyrights of hit songs recorded by artists including Adele, Aretha Franklin, and Lady Gaga for $400 million. The company is redirecting their efforts to artist services (distributing, marketing, licensing, royalty collection)

Independent artists make up the fastest growing sector of the music biz. Why? Because the digital streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple made signing with a major label nearly obsolete. While the major label system still rolls out the occasional radio hit, the artists who distribute music without any major music label has morphed into a billion-dollar market.

Artists want nearly full control of their music and rarely want to give up their rights. That’s problematic for the major labels that generally demand artists sell their rights in return for distribution and promotion.

“The motivation to sell your rights at the onset of your career is falling out of fashion,” said Downtown founder and Chief Executive Justin Kalifowitz. “While it is true the top of the pyramid, the top 1% of creators, are selling their copyrights, the general theme of the music business today is ‘how do I own and control my music?'”

To survive in the changing climate, Sony says it is ‘actively pursuing’ music acquisitions. Like Pac-Man eating everything in its path, they even bought a Mexican music catalog.

Sony Group Corp Govt Vice President and CFO Totoki Hiroki said:

“We’re always enhancing our potential to find and nurture artists and regularly create successes, and we goal to proceed to extend our profitability sooner or later,” Hiroki stated of Sony’s music operation, whereas noting that the AWAL settlement and the Som Livre buyout had been accredited however not but accredited by regulation”

Sony bought AWAL and Kobalt, Brazilian label – Som Livre, and Paul Simon’s song catalog.

Lana Del Rey announced that a new album called Blue Banisters will arrive on July 4th. She always comes up with cool album names. In March, the day after she released Chemtrails Over the Country Club, she said a new album called Rock Candy Sweet will arrive on June 1st. That never happened. Regardless, Lana keeps things moving and interesting, always finding herself in a discussion.

Signed to L.A. Reid’s Hitco label, Chelsea Collins releases Hotel Bed along with a steamy video. Reminiscent of Bebe Rexha, the up and coming pop artist comes out of the box swinging, hoping to find a place in the pop world.  The Los Angeles based 22-year-old released her debut track in 2019 “Tobacco and Tears”, following a series of released songs. Her most popular song “Used to love (L.O.V.E.),” clocked more than 25 million streams and was followed up with another track “07 Britney.”

Happy Hour by Felix Cartal and Kiiara gets a piano remix. I like it more than the club version. A really great track that deserves more attention. Only 3 million Spotify streams? C’mon!

Cartal says this about the song: “The idea and lyrics for this song were created during a writing session in Norway. I think my time in Scandinavia was really beneficial to my songwriting process because they have this effortless approach to pop writing.”

Cartal had a string of singles that are certified platinum in Canada. He has collaborated with Kaskade, R3HAB, and Gallant, and created remixes for Selena Gomez, Zedd, Anne-Marie & Doja Cat.

Give it a stream on KOAR’s Indie Invaders playlist. Watch the video here.