Universal Music Group has proposed a solution to the European Commission’s recently published objections over the major label’s acquisition of music services company Downtown Music Holdings.
The deal, first announced in Dec. 2024 via UMG’s subsidiary Virgin Music Group, was struck for $775 million, the companies said at the time. UMG’s fix would be to divest the Curve platform, Downtown’s royalty and rights management subsidiary, as part of its deal. UMG would instead keep a “sanitized” duplicate of Curve minus any of the client data that may have followed, as well as requiring non-disclosure agreements from anyone making the jump from Curve to UMG/Interscope.
On Nov. 23, the EC – following its investigation of the merger that began over the summer into whether it could allow UMG to “reduce competition” – announced the objections, which focused primarily on Curve. (Downtown’s distribution service, FUGA, was also mentioned in the document.) The Commission wrote it is “concerned that UMG may have the ability and incentive to gain access to commercially sensitive data that is stored and processed by Downtown’s Curve and that such information advantage for UMG would hamper rival labels’ ability and incentive to compete with UMG.” The EC first announced in April that it had accepted requests from Austria and the Netherlands to “assess” the proposed acquisition.
On its website, Curve says it is “a proud partner to over 500 labels, publishers and rights holders around the world.” The divestiture was first reported by Music Business Worldwide.
The deal has garnered broad criticism from the independent music community. The Europe-based Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA) released a statement Monday asserting that much of the data on Curve is too similar to other Downtown subsidiaries like the distribution platform CD Baby and the publishing management platform Songtrust, neither of which was named by the EC in its objections.
“The competition issues must be viewed in the wider context of multiple concerns around the digital market, the whole ecosystem, cultural diversity and the removal of a significant competitor,” IMPALA wrote.
In addition, a campaign against the deal titled 100 Voices calls for it to be blocked outright, saying it would allow UMG to “increase its bargaining power and enhance its control over key parts of the supply chain of music.”
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A representative for Universal Music Group did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Downtown was founded in 2007 by Justin Kalifowitz, who previously worked for Virgin Records and Spirit Music Publishing; the latter moved its administration to Downtown in Jan. 2024, Billboard reported at the time. UMG relaunched Virgin in 2022.
The European Commission will make a final decision on the merger by Feb. 6, 2026.
From Variety US