Photo Credit: Florencia ViadanaSwiss company Utopia Music has announced it has acquired the UK-based distributor Prosper Music Group.
Utopia believes the acquisition will help “supercharge their song economics and accelerate royalty payouts for creators.” Thanks to this acquisition, the firm is expanding into physical and digital music distribution.
Utopia says the Proper Music Group acquisition will form the backbone of its new Distribution Services unit. It will service both independent and major labels and will offer physical distribution and sales, manufacturing, and digital distribution services. Proper will continue its service for its existing customer base as part of the Utopia family.
Proper handles over one million titles at a time and provides distribution services for over 1,000 independent labels and service companies. Some of those include ADA, AWAL, Believe, Cherry Red, Hospital, Kartel, and many more. The company’s clientele represents about 10% of the UK’s physical recorded music market.
Utopia Music has made a number of acquisitions in the last six months to set up new divisions.
In September 2021, Utopia snapped up the Quincy Jones-backed data company, Musimap. In October 2021, the company acquired the financial services company Lyric Financial. Later in December 2021, the company acquired ROSTR and ForTunes to help flesh out its Creator Services unit.
“We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Proper, which will serve the whole industry and digitize operations and processes when it comes to distribution,” says Roberto Neri, Chief Operating Officer at Utopia Music.
“This acquisition serves as a building block towards achieving a real Utopia. It will allow us to ensure ‘fair play for every play’ and be more efficient by offering better and faster financial services to creators and services both major and independent labels. We are excited to welcome them into our family.”
Drew Hill, Managing Director at Proper Music Group, says he’s proud to be part of the Utopia family. “We believe that together we can help the whole value chain reach new heights, and as such we could not be more excited about this new venture.”
