Ahead of its official rollout on Tuesday (September 12), song royalties trading platform JKBX, has announced the launch of its Creator Program.
According to JKBX, the program will give artists and songwriters the opportunity to receive ongoing payments for the music they helped make – even if they’ve already sold their rights or no longer own the rights in their catalog.
JKBX says it will pay a portion of revenue to artists and songwriters who sign up for the program.
The company says that its Creator Program “exemplifies JKBX’s commitment to the betterment of creatives and aims to help the music community find another way to monetize their work”.
JKBX also claims that it “goes the extra mile” to make sure that Creators are informed about their music being featured on the platform.
For Creators that join the program, JKBX builds a page showcasing them, their songs, career, and other creator-centric content (merchandising, charities, etc.).
The JKBX platform, co-founded by CEO Scott Cohen, (co-founder of The Orchard and formerly Chief Innovation Officer at Warner Music Group), will offer its users the ability to invest in Royalty Shares of hits.
JKBX says it is “bringing high-value songs to millions of retail investors and music fans alike”.
On launch day on Tuesday, JKBX will allow customers to reserve (via non-binding indications of interest) Royalty Shares related to music assets of hit songs. These customers will be the first to be notified when the assets will be ready for purchase.
In the fall, following SEC qualification, customers will then be able to purchase Royalty Shares of hit songs. Trading will officially begin on the platform later in the year, with final approval from FINRA.
“The JKBX Creator Program was designed to spread the wealth and treat artists and songwriters equitably. We firmly believe that the talent who create this indispensable artform that fuels us deserve that right.”
Scott Cohen, JKBX
“The JKBX Creator Program was designed to spread the wealth and treat artists and songwriters equitably. We firmly believe that the talent who create this indispensable artform that fuels us deserve that right,” said Scott Cohen, JKBX CEO.
“When a songwriter or producer sells the rights to their work, they do not need to get the consent from the original recording artists. We wanted to defy this industry norm and actively go out of our way to make the recording artists aware of the listings on our marketplace.”
The songs listed on JKBX – in which investors will potentially be able to buy slices of royalty income streams – will actually be offered by the company’s affiliate, Jukebox Hits Vol. 1 LLC.
This LLC (“Hits Vol. 1”) will work with music rightsholders, says JKBX, to “identify income-generating songs and determine which songs to offer on the [JKBX] platform”.
Willing rightsholders will then sell a percentage of their income interests from these songs to the Hits Vol. 1 LLC – before Hits Vol.1 subsequently sells separate portions of these income streams to fans and investors via JKBX.
The JKBX platform will feature Royalty Shares offered by Jukebox Hits Vol. 1 LLC (“Hits Vol.1”) related to chart-topping hits recorded by artists including Beyoncé, Adele, Taylor Swift, OneRepublic, Ed Sheeran, Kelly Clarkson, Major Lazer, Jonas Brothers and many more.Music Business Worldwide
