Downtown Music Holdings (Downtown) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Found.ee (pronounced FOUN-dee), the comprehensive advertising and digital marketing platform that provides artists, managers and labels with a range of tools to build, target and optimize promotional campaigns. With this transaction, Downtown will acquire the intellectual property and technology that underpins the Found.ee platform.
“Artists across the spectrum are increasingly opting for independence and taking a more active role in all aspects of their careers, especially when it comes to marketing and promotion. The technology, tools, and access Found.ee offers creators and their teams is yet another example of how the music industry continues to evolve. Our acquisition of Found.ee, its technology, and unique expertise in both the digital advertising and music industry ecosystems, is an ideal complement to Downtown’s existing portfolio of artist and label services,” said Downtown CEO Justin Kalifowitz.
The Found.ee platform was developed specifically to provide powerful ad tech tools that deliver more effective digital advertising campaigns across online, mobile, social and audio channels. Found.ee enables users to develop custom interactive ads, related promotional tools and analytics that can improve the effectiveness of digital campaigns while empowering creators to more directly identify and engage with fans. Downtown subsidiary CD Baby, which is a minority investor in Found.ee, already uses the platform to power its existing promotional and marketing capabilities available to CD Baby artists.
Hobbs will join Downtown following the transaction closing, which is expected to be completed by the end of Q1 2021.
The acquisition of Found.ee comes following unprecedented worldwide growth for Downtown. In 2020 alone, the company made several key acquisitions, including the global music distribution and analytics firm FUGA, the France-based audio fingerprinting technology company Simbals, and Africa’s largest independent music publisher Sheer Publishing Africa. Additionally, Downtown acquired the catalogs of both Motown icon Mickey Stevenson and Sia’s longtime co-writer Chris Braide, as well as independent London-based music publisher Good Soldier Songs, including an ongoing deal (that has since been renewed) with The 1975. Also in 2020, the Company’s music publishing division announced it had reached a deal to represent the catalog of iconic hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, as well as a record number of client contributions to works nominated at the upcoming 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.
Visit Found.ee to learn more.
