The European Commission has cleared Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings, conditioned explicitly on the full divestment of Curve Royalty Systems to preserve market competition. While the EC determined that UMG’s post-acquisition market share in recorded music and label services remains moderate, the structural remedy requires selling Curve’s entire stack—including staff, source code, and data—to a third party.
This ruling signals a significant regulatory pivot toward scrutiny of infrastructure dominance rather than just catalog market share. The forced sale of Curve opens a strategic vacuum for rights-tech competitors or indie-focused consolidators like Exceleration or Create Music Group to acquire a key piece of independent royalty infrastructure.
Curated by MusicResearch.com from Music Ally. Read the full article at: EC approves UMG’s Downtown deal… so what happens next?
