What happens when future song royalties for hit songs are auctioned off to investors? We'll find out soon.
A Denver-based company called Royalty Exchange will auction royalties from GRAMMY-winning rapper Eminem's songs released from 1999 to 2013 as part of a deal set up by the production duo the Funky Bass Team, aka FBT Productions.
Em was signed to FBT before he became a superstar, and now the duo will put portions of future earnings up for bid in October as part of a new company called Royalty Flow. Just as on Wall Street, Royalty Flow will file for its initial public offering on Monday, leaving it up to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to determine its fate. If it's accepted, anyone with the cash could buy 150 shares or more of Eminem's catalog at the minimum price of $2,250, according to Rolling Stone.
This isn't the first instance of royalties being sold in this fashion, and auctions like this could lead to a new trend in monetizing musical catalogs. Royalty Exchange has already sold shares of Wiz Khalifa, Chris Brown and Ariana Grande songs. But considering Eminem's proven hits like "My Name Is" and "Lose Yourself" are involved, this auction moves the model into new territory.
With this potentially exciting new opportunity for fans and fortune-seekers alike to own a piece of the pie comes a bigger moral question of how intellectual property rights should be dealt with.
Inevitably, some will feel there should be a deeper sensitivity considering the expressive nature of the commodity involved, while others see this as the latest iteration of the industry's ever-changing monetization models. Time will tell.
