September 18th 2023 – Leading full-service B2B distributor, FUGA – a division of Downtown Music – today announces the hire of Desiree Vach as its General Manager of GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria). The company also announces an in-platform integration with award-nominated marketing platform and downtown-owned company, found.ee.
Reporting directly to SVP of EMEA, Liz Northeast, Berlin-based Vach joins FUGA following a 9-year tenure as Country Manager of GSA for Ingrooves Music Group, where she oversaw all of the distributor’s activities and partnerships in the region. Vach is the former chair of VUT (Association of Independent Music Companies Germany), co-founder of the VUT Diversity network, which supports women and non-binary persons working in the German music industry, and an advisory board member of the Society for Music Economics and Music Culture Research in Germany. She brings invaluable expertise and knowledge of the GSA market to FUGA’s expanding client base in the region.
Desiree J.Vach, FUGA’s General Manager of GSA said, ‘I am delighted to be joining FUGA and working closely once again with independent labels, the creative drivers of the music industry. With FUGA’s advanced technology and wide-range of services, plus the deep knowledge it has to offer, I look forward to working together with Liz and the team to further develop FUGA’s presence in GSA and support independent labels to reach and maximize their full potential.
In her new role, Vach will lead FUGA’s business development, service offering and brand presence in the region, as well as oversee the Berlin office and its team. The company’s continued expansion across GSA in recent years has seen it strike notable deals with market-leading independent labels, including Wavory, Odyssey, !K7 Music, COLORS and AESTHETE with the distributor recently renewing its partnership with prolific German platform and label, CloudKid.
FUGA’s physical distribution department, launched in 2022, is also seeing significant success in Germany with the recent album campaign for Swedish band, The Hives taking a number 8 spot in the official German charts, as well as frontline campaigns for Viagra Boys (YEAR0001), Run The Jewels (Seeker) and BLOND (Odyssey), which all saw notable chart success in the region.
Liz Northeast, SVP of EMEA said this, ‘The GSA region is an increasingly strong market for FUGA and we are excited to be welcoming Desiree in her new role to lead our team and business development on the ground. Her vast experience, knowledge and understanding of both the independent distribution space and the GSA market is unparalleled. I look forward to working alongside Desiree to continue expanding FUGA’s presence in the region and connecting more clients to global audiences’
FUGA has also announced the arrival of its in-platform integration with award-nominated, Downtown-owned marketing platform, found.ee. The integration will allow FUGA’s 1000+ global label clients and their artists to connect directly to found.ee within the FUGA platform, providing access to powerful features such as pre-save and automation tools, shareable analytics, and data collection. FUGA clients will also now have the ability to set up programmatic display ads which target the audiences created from those who click on their pre-save link.
Found.ee works with over 25,000 music companies and 300,00 users to help artists, creators, and music companies collect, understand and utilize owned audience data. Recently nominated for a prestigious 2023 Webby Award in the Apps, dApps and Software – Marketing & Content Management category, found.ee’s integration into FUGA’s proprietary platform will help clients automate their marketing and provide a centralized portal of essential tools to aid their release campaigns.
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