New platform JKBX allows you to invest in money-making music

JKBX (pronounced “jukebox”) was launched on Tuesday, September 12. The platform —founded by Sam Hendel and John Chapman of venture capital firm Dundee Partners — allows investors to buy royalty shares in songs

Scott Cohen, CEO of JKBX, co-founded The Orchard (a distribution and services company that partners with independent labels and artists) and is the former Chief Innovation Officer at Warner Music Group.

According to Scott, JKBX is not just about benefiting artists, songwriters, and investors. It's about changing how the financial world sees new, unique investments.

JKBX has some impressive numbers floating around, raising US$16 million in January from investors, including Galaxy Digital, Valor Equity Partners, and the Winklevoss twins.

Spotify, Live Nation, YouTube, Red Light Management, and Bertelsmann Digital Media have also jumped on the JKBX bandwagon.

Bloomberg has reported that JKBX secured about US$1.7 billion in music rights and (at the time) planned to launch with over US$4 billion of rights in its arsenal.

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JKBX offers the option of purchasing “Royalty Shares” that entitle investors to a portion of the song's earnings, similar to how stocks pay dividends. The more a song is played and streamed, the more royalty money it earns.

The songs you see on JKBX, where you can potentially buy a slice of the royalty income, will be offered by a company affiliate called Jukebox Hits Vol. 1 LLC. This Hits Vol. 1 team will collaborate with music rights holders to pick money-making songs for the JKBX platform.

Willing rights holders will then sell a chunk of their income shares from these songs to Hits Vol. 1 LLC, which will later sell parts of these income streams to fans and investors through JKBX.

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Back in February, Scott the platform announced its partnership with electronic market maker GTS Securities LLC, to which Scott commented: “A handful of private equity firms, multinational corporations and major labels control the most valuable music rights in the world. JKBX’s platform will allow these entities and other significant rights holders to unlock the true value of these assets by offering them to retail investors to buy and sell in a regulated marketplace.”

Learn more about JKBX via its official website here.

Via: Music Business Worldwide

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.