Founder and CEO Justin Kalifowitz moves to the role of executive director in the new leadership alignment.
Downtown Music Holdings — the umbrella organization that houses several music-services brands like CD Baby, FUGA, Songtrust, Downtown Neighboring Rights and more — is shaking up its executive leadership team. Founder and CEO Justin Kalifowitz will transition to a new role as executive director of the company, while longtime general counsel and COO Andrew Bergman rises to the role of CEO. The moves will take place effective Sept. 1.
Kalifowitz started Downtown in 2007 as a music publisher, a business it largely exited in April when it sold the rights to its 145,000-song catalog of publishing copyrights to Concord in a deal estimated at $350 million. (Downtown still serves as administrator for several catalogs, and bought Sheer Publishing Africa last May.) Over the years, Kalifowitz transformed the company from a pure publisher into one of the leading services companies for independent artists, offering distribution through several channels, publishing administration, marketing and financial services, royalty collection, neighboring rights, digital rights management, licensing and recording studios among its suite of offerings and owned brands.
In his new role as executive chairman, Kalifowitz will be focused on “driving strategic direction,” the company said today, as well as leading the board of directors and working with the executive team on future initiatives.
