Downtown acquires South Africa's Sheer Music Publishing

By Emmanuel Legrand

A few weeks after Warner Music Group announced a strategic investment in South-Africa-based Africori, another South African company attracted major investors: New York-based independent music company Downtown Music Holdings has acquired Sheer Music Publishing, the largest independent music publisher in Africa. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

  Founded in 1996 by David Alexander, Managing Director of Sheer (pictured, below), Sheer represents important international catalogues in the region (Kobalt Music, Budde Music, Mushroom Music, Mute Songs, among others) and has also developed a strong roster of African talent, through a network of partners throughout the continent.

  Sheer will continue to be led by Alexander and will function as a standalone business within Downtown’s portfolio of music publishing, distribution, monetisation, artist and label services businesses, including distribution company CD Baby, rights management platform Songtrust and specialist distribution service FUGA. Additionally, Sheer and Downtown plan to develop new services specifically designed for the needs of African creators.

  "I will stay on as the Managing Director of Sheer Music Publishing and I am tasked with overseeing the roll out of all of the Downtown Music Holdings services on the African Continent – so we will be expanding into Artist and Label Services over the next few years," Alexander told me.

  Alexander said the discussion between the two companies started a while ago. "I was looking for a publishing platform that would allow Sheer to contract with African Songwriters at a distance and reduce the cost of copyright acquisition that required in-person meetings and lengthy travel trips," explained Alexander. "Songtrust seemed the best fit for purpose offering and I was trying to secure the rights to roll out this platform in Africa under our Sheer brand."

  He added, "When I walked into [Downtown Founder and CEO] Justin Kalifowitz’s office in Downtown NYC, the only piece of art on his walls was a floor to ceiling relief map of the African Continent – and I knew at that moment we would be aligned and that gut feeling from over three and a half years ago has proved accurate as we continued discussing the problems of the modern music industry and how we could place the tools that would solve them into the hands of the creators."

Africa's vibrant music scene

  Downtown said the acquisition "formally expands the company’s geographic footprint to the African continent, while also providing the African music industry greater access to artist and label services available through Downtown."

  “For Downtown, as we've expanded across six continents and more than 20 cities looking to markets that have a rich tradition of music is a key driver in our global strategy,” said Kalifowitz. “The vibrant music industry across Africa reflects the diversity of the continent itself. We are excited to collaborate with Sheer Music Publishing to expand the artist and label services available to African creators, and further support Downtown’s vision to create a more equitable and innovative global music ecosystem.

  Alexander serves as a non-executive director of South Africa's rights society SAMRO, is a director of the Music Publishers Association of South Africa (MPRA-SA), and is vice-chair of the Composers and Publishers Association of South Africa (CAPASSO), among other affiliations.

  Said Alexander: "I have long been the advocate of the value of Africa both as a source of musical creativity and a market for music products and services and I have found a team of like-minded leaders in the music business where I can learn and grow and make a difference to our clients."