Photo Credit: Matt Spetzler (Jamen Capital), Richard Leach (Curve Royalty Systems), Charlie Lexton (Merlin)
Virgin Music Group agrees to sell Curve Royalty Systems to Jamen Capital and Merlin in a deal designed to preserve the company’s independence.
Virgin Music Group has agreed to the sale of Curve Royalty Systems to Jamen Capital and Merlin, laying the groundwork for Curve Royalty Systems to operate as an independent company again. The sale was a condition for the European Commission’s clearance of Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings through Virgin Music Group in February.
The acquisition secures the future independence of Curve, the royalty processing platform used by thousands of record labels, distributors, and publishers, and distributed across the global music industry. It also ensures the company continues to operate independently with no changes to its brand, leadership team, services, or client relationships.
Curve President Richard Leach will continue to lead the business as its standalone CEO, with the existing management and day-to-day teams to remain in place. Under the new ownership structure, Jamen and Merlin will operate as strategic partners, bringing complementary roles to Curve’s future development. Merlin’s involvement provides deep expertise in the independent sector, while Jamen brings long-term financial backing and experience investing in music technology businesses.
The resources and expertise enabled by the partnership will provide Curve with the backing to accelerate its growth opportunities and build more products to serve its community. The companies said the structure was specifically designed to preserve Curve’s neutrality and independence at a time of change across the music technology sector.
“This is an exciting moment for Curve. Throughout this process, our priority has been ensuring Curve remains an independent and agnostic platform, with a client-first approach that has earned the trust of rightsholders across the music industry,” said Richard Leach, CEO of Curve Royalty Systems.
“We are delighted to be entering this new chapter with Jamen and Merlin, whose vision for Curve aligns with our own. Their support secures Curve’s long-term independence and enables us to continue investing in expertise, technology, and service that our clients rely upon. We look forward to building on our success together.”
“Curve is exactly the kind of critical infrastructure the independent music sector needs; trusted, scalable, and built around the real operational needs of modern music businesses,” added Matt Spetzler, Founding Partner of Jamen Capital. “What stood out to us throughout this process was not just the sophistication of the platform, but the expertise and culture of the team behind it.”
“Curve has earned enormous trust across the industry, and we’re committed to supporting its significant growth opportunities in payments and publishing while ensuring it provides ever-increasing value to its longstanding label, distributor, and artist clients. Data and royalty infrastructure is only becoming more important to the future of the music business.”
“Curve provides an essential service to independent music businesses around the world and has earned enormous trust through the quality of its service and relationships,” said Charlie Lexton, CEO of Merlin. “Merlin is here to enable our members’ independence, and to be truly independent our sector needs its own infrastructure. Curve is central to that. That’s why ensuring its future independence and neutrality was vital to us, and it’s why we stepped up to make this acquisition. We are delighted to support the next stage of Curve’s growth while ensuring it remains a part of the community it serves.”
“Given the strength of our relationships within the independent community, we are happy that Jamen and Merlin are buyers that will help Curve continue to thrive as an exceptional resource to independent labels and entrepreneurs,” Pieter van Rijn, COO, Virgin Music Group / CEO, Downtown Music added. “Downtown and Virgin Music Group wish Richard and the Curve team every success in the future, and we’re pleased we will continue to benefit from their services as a client.”
The acquisition also reflects the growing strategic importance of royalty infrastructure within the modern music business. Increasingly complex global rights flows, metadata requirements, and reporting demands place greater emphasis on transparent, scalable accounting systems.
Curve currently provides royalty processing services across the recorded music and publishing sectors, supporting a client roster that includes Armada, Defected, Epitaph, Exceleration, Reservoir, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Virgin Music Group, Netflix, and BBC/Demon, and more.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the acquisition remains subject to final European Commission approval before closing.
