Pieter Van Rijn

Pieter van Rijn is the President of Downtown Music, the business division of Downtown Music Holdings, With extensive experience across global strategy, van Rijn is responsible for overseeing and providing expanded leadership across Downtown Music’s global division of business and professional services; including its distribution, label services, publishing, neighbouring rights and sync licensing services offering.

Prior to becoming President of Downtown Music in July 2022, Pieter van Rijn was the CEO of global music distributor FUGA, joining in 2014 and leading the business through a period of unprecedented growth. Now firmly established as the world’s leading B2B distribution company, FUGA has more than 900 industry clients in more than 50 countries. Originally an Amsterdam-based organization, van Rijn expanded their global footprint, launching new hubs across EMEA, North America, LATAM and APAC and transformed FUGA into becoming a full label-services business, including marketing services, sync, royalty accounting, physical distribution, and audience engagement and insights, whilst ensuring it remains a music-tech leader.

A graduate of Erasmus University of Rotterdam, van Rijn began his career as a songwriter signed to Sony Music before moving into corporate strategy and M&A, consulting for some of Europe’s largest companies. A sought after public speaker and columnist, van Rijn has given keynotes and penned columns for a number of global conferences and outlets including SXSW, A2IM’s Indie Week, Amsterdam Dance Event, Music Biz and Music Ally. He was also recognised by Billboard in the 2022 Indie Power Players list and is an active member of the Merlin Board, supporting the continuing growth of the independent music industry.