Downtown Music Holdings LLC
New York publishing and distribution group, parent of FUGA, CD Baby and Songtrust, wholly owned by Virgin Music Group (UMG) since February 2026; its Johannesburg unit, formerly Sheer Publishing, is one of South Africa's oldest independent music publishers.
- Based in
- New York, NY, United States
- Founded
- 2007
- Founder
- Justin Kalifowitz
- Website
- downtownmusic.com
Downtown Music Holdings LLC is a New York-based music publishing, distribution and rights-administration group founded in 2007 by Justin Kalifowitz. Its portfolio brings together the publishing administration service Songtrust, the digital distributor FUGA, artist and label services arm Downtown Artist & Label Services, the direct-to-fan distributor CD Baby, and Downtown Music Publishing itself, serving clients across 145 countries.
The company was independent until Virgin Music Group, a Universal Music Group unit, completed its acquisition on 20 February 2026 in a deal reported at $775 million. Founder Justin Kalifowitz stepped away from the company at closing; outgoing Downtown CEO Pieter van Rijn became Virgin Music Group’s Chief Operating Officer, and former chairman Andrew Bergman moved into a senior advisory role.
Downtown’s African footprint dates to 2020, when it acquired Sheer Publishing, founded in 1996 as one of South Africa’s first independent music publishers. The Johannesburg operation was rebranded Downtown Music Publishing Africa in 2025 under managing director Thando Makhunga, and sub-publishes catalogue for Warner Chappell, Kobalt, Concorde, Bucks Music and Budde Music across the continent. That business is now part of Universal Music Group’s African publishing footprint through the Virgin Music Group acquisition.
