Curve Royalty Systems Are Sold By Universal To Jamen Capital, Owned By Merlin And Matt Spetzler

Curve Royalty Systems will be sold to Jamen Capital and Merlin by Universal Music Group and its subsidiary Virgin Music Group.

In order to approve Universal Music Group's $775 million purchase of Downtown Music Holdings in February, the European Commission demanded this disposal.

It makes it possible for Curve, the royalty processing platform utilized by hundreds of publishers, distributors, and record labels, to resume operating as a stand-alone company.

The current management and day-to-day teams will stay in place, while Curve President Richard Leach will continue to serve as the company's independent CEO.

According to the companies, Jamen and Merlin will play complementary roles in Curve's development as strategic partners. They said that Jamen will offer "long-term financial backing."

The acquisition's financial parameters were not made public, and the buyer must receive final European Commission clearance before the deal closes.

Richard Leach, CEO of Curve Royalty Systems, declared, "This is an exciting moment for Curve."

"Our top goal during this process has been to make sure Curve continues to be an independent, agnostic platform with a client-first philosophy that has gained the confidence of rightsholders throughout the music business. We are thrilled to be starting this new chapter with Jamen and Merlin, whose goals for Curve coincide with our own.

“Their support helps Curve stay independent for a time. This means we can keep investing in skills, technology and service that our clients depend on. We are excited to build on our success ”

Matt Spetzler, Founding Partner of Jamen Capital said: "Curve is what the independent music sector needs. It is trusted can grow and is built around what modern music businesses need.

“We were impressed by the platform and the team behind it. The team at Curve knows what they are doing.

“Curve has gained a lot of trust in the industry. We want to help it grow, in payments and publishing. We also want to make sure it keeps giving value to its clients like labels, distributors and artists. Data and royalty systems are becoming more important, for the music business.”

Curve has earned a lot of trust from people in the music industry. We want to help it keep growing in the areas of payments and publishing. We also want to make sure it keeps providing more value to the labels, distributors and artists who have been with it for a long time.

Matt Spetzler, Jamen Capital

Charlie Lexton, the CEO of Merlin said: Curve is really important to music businesses all around the world. It has earned a lot of trust because of how it does its job and the relationships it has with people.

Merlin is here to help our members be independent and for our sector to be truly independent we need our infrastructure. Curve is a part of that.

That is why it was so important to us that Curve stays independent and neutral. That is why we decided to buy it. We are happy to support Curve as it keeps growing. We want to make sure it stays a part of the community it helps.

Pieter van Rijn, the CEO of Virgin Music Group and the CEO of Downtown Music said: We have relationships with people in the independent music community so we are glad that Jamen and Merlin are the ones who bought Curve. They will help Curve keep being a resource for independent labels and entrepreneurs.

Downtown and Virgin Music Group wish Richard and the people who work at Curve all the best, for the future. We are pleased that we will still get to use their services because we are a client of theirs.

The company Curve was part of Downtown Music Holdings and Universal Music Groups Virgin Music Group agreed to buy it for $775 million in December 2024.

The European Commission said yes to this purchase in February. Only if Universal Music Group sold Curve to another company that the European Commission liked.

Curve helps companies with royalties for music and publishing. Curve does this for a lot of names like Armada and Defected and Epitaph and Exceleration and Reservoir and Sony Pictures Entertainment and Virgin Music Group and Netflix and BBC/Demon.

When Universal Music Group made a deal with the European Commission in December they had to sell the Curve company and all of its staff. The only people who did not have to leave were two engineers who got to stay with Universal Music Group.

There is a company called Jamen that was started by Matt Spetzler. Jamen started a platform called Pipeline this year. Then Pipeline made a deal with Merlin in January. This deal lets Merlin members get money before they even get their royalties.

Before Matt Spetzler started Jamen he helped with a purchase. This purchase was when Francisco Partners bought Kobalt Music Group for $750 million in 2022.

Merlin says they represent a lot of the music market in countries. They have made deals with companies, like Apple and Meta and Spotify and YouTube and Udio.