It's been often said that music never dies. Now investors are taking notice of one other fact: Music revenues also last a darn long time.

Although still a niche market, investments in music royalties are growing, helped along by online marketplace Royalty Exchange of Denver. The company, which acts as the middleman for buyers and sellers of royalties, has raised close to $50 million in investment capital through mostly music royalties since 2016, including a $3.4 million sale of private syndicate shares last month that gave investors royalty rights to the catalog of British rock group Dire Straits.

Most bidders are individual investors who bid anywhere from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars for rights to the royalty streams attached to the works of various artists, including big names such as Justin Bieber, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Winning bidders typically get royalty payments on a quarterly basis, with a rate of return Royalty Exchange says is often in the double digits. The longevity of the royalty rights varies. Some royalty rights are limited to 10 years, while some offers include copyright ownership, which means the payments can last for decades.

"One of the investors I talked to once told me, 'It's the only asset I can think of that has zero chance of completely going away,'" said Antony Bruno, Royalty Exchange's director of communications. "If you invest in a company, it can go bankrupt and the assets will disappear."

The buying and selling of music royalty rights isn't new. But up until recently, it was strictly a closed market, with a few dominant players. Royalty Exchange, founded in 2011 and sold to its present owners in 2015, says its mission is to open up the market to all investors.

"Royalty Exchange offers a stark alternative to the shady, bullying and predatory practices that have defined the royalty business to date," the company says on its website. "Most companies offering to buy royalties are trying to get the best deal possible by paying as little as they can."

Royalty Exchange launches about three to five new auctions every week. It has more than 23,000 investors registered on its platform, with about 500 added each month, Bruno said, adding that many times the sellers of royalties are the artists themselves.

Songwriters have a tax incentive for selling. Under the Songwriter's Capital Gains Equity Act of 2006, the money songwriters make from selling all or parts of their catalogs is treated as capital gains. Royalty revenues, meanwhile, are treated as ordinary income.

"There are people whose only real assets are their royalties," he said. "Their financial security is based around how they leverage those things."

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