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Utopia Music closes R&D units in UK and Finland
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 24 July 2023
Utopia Music last week told staff that it is closing research and development units in the UK and Finland, which Billboard reckons will affect about 25 employees.
The latest downsizing at the company followed the news that Absolute Label Services – one of the businesses it bought during a flurry of acquisitions in late 2021 and early 2022 – had been reacquired by its original shareholders.
Confirming the changes, co-founder and CEO Mattias Hjelmstedt said in a memo: “Moving forward, Utopia R&D Stockholm will continue to be our main R&D hub. Through this concentration we will be able to build on the successes delivered through this entity with a leaner and more efficient setup. As part of this consolidation, we will close down two R&D entities, Utopia UK (R&D) Ltd and Utopia R&D Tech Finland Oy”.
“Our Finnish and UK R&D offices represent a relatively small footprint in Utopia’s overall R&D teams”, he added, “and we have a very strong R&D office in Stockholm that will continue developing, maintaining, and improving our core products”.
After a period of rapid growth, mainly through acquisition, Utopia started downsizing its core operation, which had been developing music monitoring and royalty management technologies, late last year. It then started selling off some of those earlier acquisitions, selling ROSTR back to its founders and Sentric Music to Believe. Management at Absolute confirmed they had reacquired that business last week.
“2023 has been a year of transformation, optimisation and delivery”, Hjelmstedt observed in last week’s memo. “We have been shifting focus from hyper-growth to sustainable growth and profitability. We have taken the necessary, and sometimes difficult, decisions to get there”.
Noting the latest job losses, he added: “We sadly have to say farewell to some very appreciated colleagues, who have greatly contributed to our mission through their hard work. I want to express my sincere apologies to those affected and would like to thank every one of you for your hard work – you have greatly contributed to our mission”.
Looking to the future, and listing Utopia’s current range of products, Hjelmstedt continued: “I’m convinced that we are fully equipped to continue delivering superior services to the music industry through our current customer offerings; Distribution, Radio Monitoring, TrackNClaim, Enhance & Discover, HeartBeat, and Accelerate”.
“While not taken lightly, consolidating our R&D entities is a necessary step to realise our long-term vision of fair pay for every play”, he concluded, “as it will enable us to more efficiently deliver new products and improve our existing services”.
