Downtown taps Mike Smith to run its global music publishing division

By Emmanuel Legrand

US independent music company Downtown Music Holdings has rejigged the leadership of its music publishing division, with the appointment of former Warner Chappell UK MD Mike Smith to the newly created position of Global President of Downtown Music Publishing, effective September 1, 2020.

Mike Smith

  As a result, Downtown Music Holdings CEO Justin Kalifowitz , who had led the music publishing unit from the outset, will relinquish day-to-day operations at Downtown Music Publishing to focus on the overall strategy of the company that has grown over the past years to incorporate rights management company Songtrust, indie distributors CD Baby and FUGA, as well as services units Soundrop, DashGoSM and AdRev. In recent weeks, Downtown acquired South Africa's Sheer Publishing Africa and set up in London Downtown Neighbouring Rights. Smith will be based in London and will report directly to Kalifowitz.

The craft of songwriting

  “Since its founding in 2007, we’ve carefully built Downtown Music Publishing, writer by writer, guided by an appreciation for the craft of songwriting, a focus on creative partnership, and a belief that a global music company for the modern era should be rooted in an understanding that the song is a foundational element to everything else in the music business. The addition of Mike Smith as Global President of Downtown Music Publishing is in complete alignment with these principles and I know under Mike’s stewardship our publishing business is in the best of hands,” said Kalifowitz.

  Added Smith: "Downtown’s ability to build a formidable, twenty-first century music publishing company unencumbered by the baggage of the past has made them an impressive and compelling proposition for songwriters and composers, and I am delighted to become part of their vision."