Music Investment Platform JKBX Says Yields on Over Half of Its Available Songs Jumped in 2023

JKBX, the music investment platform backed by Spotify and Red Light Management, said Tuesday (June 25) that yields on more than half the songs up for investment on the platform experienced substantial increases in 2023. That’s evidence, the startup’s execs say, that if it makes dollars, it makes sense.

Pronounced “jukebox,” JKBX’s first U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-regulated offering went live in March, giving average Joe investors the chance to buy royalty shares that earn money when songs like Adele’s “Rumour Has It” or Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York” get played.

Ten of the 85 songs in JKBX’s initial offering generated yields of 5% to 9.6% percent in 2023, while total revenue for songs in the listing rose3 9% in 2023 compared with 2022, the company said. While investors get paid dividends based only on income that JKBX has received since April 1, which excludes most of the 2023 reported income, the jump in yields makes the case that investors stand to earn tangible returns, JKBX executives say.

The highest-earning song by 2023 revenue was OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars,” which generated $376,750 in combined revenue from the songwriter’s share of composition rights and producer’s share of sound recording rights. That works out to a 5.5% yield per royalty share for composition and a 6.98% yield per royalty share for sound recording rights.

Another OneRepublic song, “If I Lose Myself,” along with “Wings” by Birdy, were among the songs with the highest per-royalty-share yields in 2023, at 9.66% and 7.71%, respectively. When the company launched, executives estimated investor returns of around 3.5%.

The 10 most popular songs to buy royalty shares in include Beyoncé’s “Halo,” Ellie Goulding’s “Burn” and “Lean On” performed by Major Lazer, MØ and DJ Snake, among others. The company declined to say what percentage of the royalty shares in the initial offering have sold.

JKBX is quick to caution that future returns are not guaranteed. The estimated yields are based on the last 12 months of income, and “variations in income are expected over the copyright lifespan of the asset,” the company says.

Institutional investors like insurance companies and pension funds have led recent demand for investing in music assets because the yields on music rights are typically resilient during broader market downturns and the asset class offers low-risk returns compared with other alternative assets.

Institutional investors, private equity funds and high-net-worth individuals have poured billions into acquiring direct stakes in catalogs or backing companies that do, or into buying securities backed by catalogs held by music companies like Concord, Kobalt and Chord.

JKBX was founded in 2022 with the goal of bringing retail investors into the asset class by offering a cheaper, Securities and Exchange Commission-regulated way to invest in music. It officially launched in March.

“JKBX empowers people to invest in music as a regulated security, bringing together investment fundamentals with true passion,” JKBX CEO Scott Cohen said in a statement. “I believe that the fans that helped make these songs successful should also have the opportunity to share in the wealth.”