LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Vezt, a cryptocurrency music company is the latest entrant seeking to securitize music ownership and has announced its Initial Song Offering program that will allow investors to take a stake in a song and its future royalties.
“We’re very excited to welcome music fans to take part in this fun and innovative new form of music ownership,” says Vezt CEO Steve Stewart. “This isn’t like streaming or downloading a single track. These fans will actually own a piece of the song and be entitled to royalties that the song generates over the next 3 years.”
The first song to be treated to such an ISO will be Drake’s “Jodeci (Freestyle).” On November 16th, prospective investors will be able to use Vezt’s cryptocurrency (you apparently can’t use cash) to buy a portion of 10% of the rights to Drake’s hit. Song royalties are then collected from Performing Rights Organizations, as well as STEM.is, which aggregates digital performance royalties from services such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Pandora with the investor collecting a pro-rated share of the proceeds based on their initial investment.
The rights do not include licensing, nor can investors prevent anyone else from licensing the song as they do not own majority rights. The rights agreement is also subject to reversion terms, which are determined by the artist and can be as short as 3 years, according to Vezt.
As well, the offerings are limited to non-US residents only and the first ISO of Drake’s Jodeci will be limited to 100 investors, the company says.
