About David Alexander

David Alexander is the founder of the largest independent music publisher in Africa, Sheer Publishing, which is now subsidiary of Downtown Music Holdings, one of the largest independent music publishers and music distributors in the United States. David has held a number of high-profile, leading, and critical positions for distinguished organizations in the South African music industry and pioneered a number of key initiatives in business and in the music publishing field. David’s work and impact, particularly as an expert in music royalties and copyright protection, has helped composers worldwide, facilitating and ensuring that they get fair remuneration for their music, preserving the copyright in their artistic work in order to reap the benefits of their creativity.

David founded & built Sheer Publishing from a small boutique South African music publisher into a pan-African powerhouse with a market share that was comparable with the multinationals that had African businesses. In February of 2020 Sheer Publishing was sold to Downtown Music Holdings and David began to work across the group of Downtown operating companies. David was promoted to Senior Vice-President of New Markets where he strategized and oversaw the rollout of Downtown’s Operating Companies in 6 key fast-developing markets across the world. David’s role was to develop the global geographic growth strategy and then to oversee roll-out of the strategy. Thereafter David managed, coached & led the Business Development and Geographic Leaders in developing & refining their respective geographic clusters’ strategy, enabling interaction with the senior leadership of the operating companies.

More recently David added Global CMO Relations to his portfolio, and in that capacity, he worked with the Chief Revenue Officer to create a global CMO strategy, to enable the holding company to prioritise CMOs according to their current and future growth potential. He also worked with companies’ priority CMOs around the world & assisted the holding company with reviewing their representation at the Board level on the CMOs. Where necessary, David worked with existing sub-publishers to ensure high levels of compliance and execution and assisted the CRO and the copyright teams in unlocking blockages and in prioritisation for maximising revenue. David had participated in the strategy to review priority markets and assess whether new local entities and or staff would accelerate growth beyond the reach of the existing US/European Operations

A serial entrepreneur, David has started or invested in many companies in the music industry over the last 30 years and continues to do so with strategic investments into live eventing and music education.  As the business of the music industry continues to be disrupted by technological advancements, David has aligned himself with the changes in technology affecting the industry and has kept his business interests relevant in the digital marketplace.

A bit more about David’s Journey

CMO Experience

David’s experience in the CMO environment is extensive. Most recently, he served as a non-executive Director of SAMRO (The South African Music Rights Organisation) from 2018 till the end of 2022. David was the youngest member of the National Organisation for Reproduction Rights in Music (NORM) Board when he was invited to join in 2004. From 2010 to 2014 David served as the Vice-Chair and subsequently the Chairman of NORM. During that period, NORM led the charge into Pan-African licensing and was the first African Licensor for iTunes which covered 14 African countries at its launch in 2012. As the Chairman of NORM David oversaw the organisation split into its 2 separate functions in early 2014; The Music Publishers’ Association of South Africa (MPASA), and the Composers and Publishers Association of South Africa, (CAPASSO) on whose Board David served as the Vice-Chair for 4 years. CAPASSO has led the African entry into digital licensing, and now licenses music users across the continent and collects and distributes over R250 million ($12.5 million) annually for Composers, Authors and Publishers each year. His work with African CMOs has been in a consultative role, in which he encouraged their adoption of global best practices. While running the New Markets division at Downtown Music Holdings, David had the opportunity to engage with many CMOs in South America and Asia, which served to further enrich his understanding of the global CMO environment.

MPA Experience

Having overseen the formation of the MPASA (the Music Publishers Association of South Africa) in 2014, David was a Director and the Chairman of the organisation and in 2021 stood down from his second term as the Chair of MPA-SA a position he held for 4 years over the duration of his Directorship.

At the Annual General Assembly (GA) of the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) held during Midem 2016 David was appointed to the Popular Music Bureaux which is a sub-Board of the ICMP. There David represented the African Music Publishers’ Associations and was responsible for keeping the global industry appraised of various threats to Intellectual Property rights on the African Continent.

African Expansion

As the Managing Director of Sheer Publishing, David proactively drove its growth across the African Continent, with a particular focus on unlocking growth in the rich diversity of the sub-Saharan countries. In 2013 David was a speaker at the Creators’ Summit in Washington and announced the formation of the African Licensing Hub. Although it took a few years to implement, the hub now represents Collective Management Organisations from Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusaphone Africa and is licensing Global Digital Service Providers such as Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play and YouTube and Facebook for all African Music served to their subscriber base. As the chair of the African Hub, David was an outspoken advocate for African-based Collective Rights Management. In 2019 the African Licensing Hub announced its first distributions to partner CMOs across the African Continent.

Global Exposure through Conference Participation

In his drive to grow Sheer’s global footprint, David has also given papers and served on panels at music industry conferences around the world, including Midem (France) Canadian Music Week (Canada), African IP Forum (Tanzania), Salaam Music Expo (Senegal), Womex, Kenya Music Week and ONGEA (Kenya), NIMEX- the Nigerian International Music Expo (Nigeria), Porto Musicale (The Brazilian Music Exhibition) and the Wami Conference (Western Australian Music Industry) as well as at Moshito, Music Exchange, Music Imbizo in South Africa.

David served on the Board of the IMPF (Independent Music Publishers Forum) which is a global organisation representing Independent Music Publishers from 2019-2022. Distinct from the ICMP that represents trade Associations, the IMPF represents companies that are aligned by virtue of their independence from global multi-national publishers and from their partners in the recording industry.

In light of his achievements over his 30 years in the music industry, David has also been featured in the Billboard 100 International Players list in 2021 & 2022.

In Q3 of 2024, David will make the USA and Atlanta the new home for his family and is excited to use this new adventure to enable him to continue to share & expand on his international music publishing expertise..

If you want more info: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidalexandermusicindustry