Downtown Music has launched a new rights and financial services division called DR&FS, which will streamline all of its rights services, accounting and payment systems, the company announced on Tuesday (14 May).
The division is an outgrowth of Curve Royalty Systems, a royalty processing platform acquired by Downtown in January 2023. Curve's founder, Tom Allenhas been appointed president of Downtown Royalties & Financial Services and will report directly to the Downtown Chief Operating Officer David Driessenthe company said.
Tom Allen
Downtown Music
Through Curve, DR&FS already supports over a thousand labels and publishers worldwide, including Big Machine, Mad Decent, Epitaph, Domino and more. He will be the leader of the Curve unit on a daily basis Richard Leachwho has been promoted from general manager to managing director and will report directly to Allen.
Allen said the goal of the expanded financial services division is to ensure “every flow is accounted for” to more than 5,000 business customers and 4 million artist relationships. DR&FS provides real-time access to state balances and detailed analytics data by region, usage type and income source.
“Downtown Royalties and Financial Services is both a commitment to expanding our core offering to deeper services and solving payment problems for our clients, and to simplifying the financial complexities that artists and businesses across the industry face every day” , said Driessen. “Tom's leadership at Curve has already raised the bar for rights management and financial services. His expertise will be critical as he leads this new division in Downtown.”
