Want to be a player in the music industry? Here’s a way to get your start.
A startup called JKBX (pronounced “jukebox”) is selling securities backed by the royalty streams of songs by the likes of Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Adele.
This is possible because those who own the rights to dozens of songs — most notably rights sold in 2021 by pop producer Ryan Tedder — are being commodified as financial products.
“It is both a financial product and a fan product,” JKBX CEO Scott Cohen told the Wall Street Journal.
The way it works is you can go to the JKBX website, search available tunes and then buy a small piece of the action for nearly $7 a share.
When royalties are issued for the song, you get a modest payoff.
Among songs available are Beyonce’s “Halo” and “Rumour Has It” by Adele.
Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York” is among the offerings because it was co-written by Tedder, who sold his rights to the royalties. Tay-Tay is hanging on to hers.
What makes this fun is that if you buy into any given tune and then hear it played on Spotify, say, you can add a personal cha-ching to the beats.
JKBX says its shares can provide 3% or 4% returns to investors, which isn’t particularly attractive at a time when you can pull down closer to 5% with a money market fund.
But it’s still cool to hold a stake in something you enjoy. You can’t yet sell your shares to others, but JKBX says that capability could come down the road.
Perhaps the biggest opportunity lies in JKBX expanding its catalog of oldies. If one gets used by a movie or TV show, and suddenly gets a surge of air play, the royalties can start rolling in.
That’s what happened when “Stranger Things” incorporated Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” Instantly the 1985 song was hot again.