As usual, some artists are way ahead of their time. One of the greatest of all time was David Bowie. He was as avant-garde as it gets. We all know that he completely changed persona every few years producing legendary figures like Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. Even if that name doesn’t ring a bell. You definitely know what he looks like.

One thing I didn’t know about Bowie, which, admittedly, is quite a bit, was that towards the end of the nineties, he issued so-called Bowie bonds[1]. I don’t know anything about bonds but as I understand it, he issued them to fans and anyone who wanted to invest in him with the future royalties of 25 of his albums as collateral. He forfeited 10 years of royalties in doing so.

With this, in one go, he raised $55 million which he used to buy back the rights to his music from his former manager with whom he had fallen out of favour. After 10 years, all the bonds liquified and the royalty incomes were once again returned to Bowie.

I think this is genius. This shows to what lengths artist had to go to to gain control over their intellectual property. He had help, obviously, from a financial genius who later repeated the trick with James Brown, Ashford & Simpson, and the Isley Brothers.

Fast forward to today and you can do this now too! It’s amazing but you can sell a part (or all) of the royalties your album might generate to your fans. You might not get $55 million but if you don’t have to wait for music to start making money, that’s a huge win.

Platforms like SmartLabel and NEWM are just two examples of companies that are already there. Sounds too good to be true? Send me a message and I’ll put you in contact with them.

As usual, some artists are way ahead of their time. One of the greatest of all time was David Bowie. He was as avant-garde as it gets. We all know that he completely changed persona every few years producing legendary figures like Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. Even if that name doesn’t ring a bell. You definitely know what he looks like.

One thing I didn’t know about Bowie, which, admittedly, is quite a bit, was that towards the end of the nineties, he issued so-called Bowie bonds[1]. I don’t know anything about bonds but as I understand it, he issued them to fans and anyone who wanted to invest in him with the future royalties of 25 of his albums as collateral. He forfeited 10 years of royalties in doing so.

With this, in one go, he raised $55 million which he used to buy back the rights to his music from his former manager with whom he had fallen out of favour. After 10 years, all the bonds liquified and the royalty incomes were once again returned to Bowie.

I think this is genius. This shows to what lengths artist had to go to to gain control over their intellectual property. He had help, obviously, from a financial genius who later repeated the trick with James Brown, Ashford & Simpson, and the Isley Brothers.

Fast forward to today and you can do this now too! It’s amazing but you can sell a part (or all) of the royalties your album might generate to your fans. You might not get $55 million but if you don’t have to wait for music to start making money, that’s a huge win.

Platforms like SmartLabel and NEWM are just two examples of companies that are already there. Sounds too good to be true? Send me a message and I’ll put you in contact with them.