US-based Downtown Music Publishing opens Australian/NZ office, under former Alberts, BMG executive Rachel Kelly

New York City-headquartered Downtown Music Publishing has set up an office in Sydney to focus on songwriters and artists in Australia and New Zealand.

It will be overseen by Rachel Kelly, who holds the title of creative director and head of sync.

Kelly has been consulting for Downtown since June 2017 she left BMG Rights Management (Australia) where she served as creative director for a year.

She joined BMG in July 2016 after it acquired Alberts, where she had been head of licensing for 8½ years for both its publishing and record label arms.

She had previously worked for a year at ANZ publisher Mana Music.

Downtown Music simultaneously launched an office in Paris, where it made three hires.

These were Laura Bedikian as A&R manager, Charles Braud as dreative licensing director and Armel Bernard as copyright coordinator.

The Sydney and Paris offices join operations in New York, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Nashville and Tokyo.

Downtown Music CEO Justin Kalifowitz said that both the Australian and French music markets were similar.

"They have extraordinary track records of nurturing homegrown songwriting talent who’ve changed the shape of popular culture; they share strong copyright laws upheld by forward-thinking collective rights management organizations; they are dynamic advertising, media, and technology centers; we’ve had some fantastic sushi in both."

In June 2017, Downtown signed with APRA AMCOS’ for Pan-Asian administration, digital and online rights licensing for the region and copyright management (via its custom platform Songtrust) for its works throughout Asia.

Set up in 2007, Downtown became quickly successful after it seized new digital opportunities, and scooped up  some of the hundreds of writers looking for homes after the larger publishers began to consolidate.

Its roster includes Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon. Yoko Ono, One Direction, Hans Zimmer, Ryan Tedder, Benny Blanco Little Mix, James Blood Ulmer, Motley Crue, Natalie Merchant, A-Trak, Femi Kuti, Cold War Kids, Garland, Jewel, Maxi Priest, Mos Def and Hiatus Kayote.