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 a...
On July 20th, 1990, The Freshman hit theaters with all the right pieces. It had solid pitch, one of Hollywood’s sharpest scribes in writer/director Andrew Bergman, and ’80s icon and heartthrob Matthew Broderick. To top it all off, the mob comedy managed to even wrangle the Don himself Marlon Brando, who had all but retired by that point. It wasn’t a summer blockbuster, but it was a success for TriStar. Critics loved it, audiences enjoyed it, and the box office returns managed to nearly double the budget. In the years since, however, it has garnered a cult following, and many view it as one of the last great works of Brando’s legendary (and oft-puzzling) career. To commemorate the film’s 30th anniversary, we recently spoke with writer/director Andrew Bergman, producer Michael Lobell, and st...