FUGA halts new music delivery to Russian-owned DSPs and content platforms

10 March 2022 - Press release

 

FUGA's CEO Pieter van Rijn has informed clients that the company is suspending delivery of new music it aggregates to Russian-owned DSPs and content platforms, Yandex, VKontakte and Sberzvuk (formerly Zvooq) in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The suspension has just now taken place.

Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, I wanted to reach out to our partners and inform you of the actions that FUGA is currently taking and those that we plan to make in the future.

Our first priority is to ensure the safety of our colleagues and their families in Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the conflict, we have been in constant communication with them and are providing support wherever we can. Furthermore, our team around the world has been donating to the Red Cross and Unicef, with FUGA matching their kind donations. We would, of course, encourage all our partners to support the campaigns of these much-needed institutions.

We are also reaching out to our Ukrainian partners to ensure that we are supporting them and alleviating any financial burden, wherever possible, during this time.

FUGA is a company headquartered in the heart of Europe and these events are very upsetting to us all. We as an organization aim to embody and take seriously the ideals of tolerance, cooperation, and collective spirit. Therefore we feel it’s our responsibility to ensure that we are not actively supporting state-run media or other individuals with close ties to the Russian leadership.

As of 12pm CET on Thursday, March 10th, FUGA will suspend delivering any new music from our FUGA Aggregation License to the following digital service providers and content platforms: Yandex, VKontakte (delivered via UMA), and Zvooq/Sberzvuk. For the time being, we have not taken any measures to remove content already live on these services delivered via the FUGA Aggregation license.

Finally, FUGA is actively lobbying the global independent music industry to act as a single united front, speaking and acting as one powerful community to support Ukraine.

Best Wishes,

Pieter