Merlin and Jamen Capital have completed their acquisition of Curve Royalty Systems from Virgin Music Group, placing one of the music industry’s best-known royalty accounting platforms back into standalone independent ownership.
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Deal formally closes after European Commission approval
Curve confirmed on August 18 that Jamen Capital and Merlin had completed the acquisition following final approval from the European Commission. The company is now operating as an independent, standalone business, while its leadership, team, brand, products, services and client relationships remain unchanged.
Richard Leach continues as Curve’s CEO. The company says the new ownership structure will support faster product development, broader services and new tools for labels, distributors, publishers and other rightsholders.
Why Curve matters to the royalty economy
Curve is not a consumer-facing streaming brand, but it sits inside the machinery that determines how money moves through the music business. Its software is used to ingest statements, calculate contractual splits, manage complex catalog data and produce royalty accounting for thousands of labels, distributors, publishers and rightsholders.
Its client roster has included names such as Armada Music, Defected, Epitaph, Exceleration, Reservoir, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Virgin Music Group, Netflix and BBC/Demon. That makes Curve part of the less visible but increasingly strategic technology layer beneath digital music revenues.
Merlin brings an independent-sector perspective
Merlin’s participation is especially notable because the organization represents the digital licensing interests of independent music companies around the world. Its involvement gives Curve a direct connection to a large network of labels and distributors whose businesses depend on accurate, scalable royalty administration.
For independent companies, the attraction is straightforward: a major royalty platform will remain outside the direct ownership of a major label group while gaining strategic backing from an organization built around the independent sector.
Jamen Capital adds long-term music-tech investment
Jamen Capital is positioned as the financial and strategic investment partner in the transaction. Curve says the combination of Jamen’s long-term investment approach and Merlin’s connection to the independent music community will support the company’s next phase of growth.
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What changes for Curve’s clients?
In the immediate term, very little. Curve says its leadership, staff, products, services and existing client relationships remain in place. That continuity is important for a platform handling sensitive financial data and recurring royalty cycles, where operational disruption can have direct consequences for labels and artists.
The bigger changes are expected to come through investment in product development, service expansion and new tools rather than through a wholesale reorganization of the platform.
What happens next?
Curve now begins its next phase as an independent company with a mandate to accelerate innovation and expand its services. The industry will be watching whether that translates into faster product releases, deeper integrations and new accounting tools for increasingly complex digital and global royalty flows.
For Merlin, the transaction also extends its influence beyond licensing negotiations and into the infrastructure that independent music businesses use to calculate and distribute revenue.
