Tokenising Music Rights: The Next Big Asset Class in Web3

How Tokenised Music Royalties Are Creating Stable, High-Yield Investment Opportunities

By Giulia Maresca | EVP Communication 

Executive Summary

As blockchain technology continues to evolve beyond speculative assets and toward tangible, real-world utility, a new investment category is beginning to take shape: tokenized music royalties. Record Nexus is positioning this emerging asset class at the intersection of finance, intellectual property, and technology—offering institutional and retail investors alike access to an uncorrelated, income-generating market traditionally reserved for insiders.

Royalties derived from music copyrights are contractual, recurring, and data-verifiable—attributes that align well with the structure of digital financial instruments. Through tokenization, these assets are being made investable, liquid, and transparent at scale, opening the door for a new chapter in music finance.

Web3’s Role in Redefining Music Finance

Historically, access to music royalties has been concentrated among labels, publishers, and private equity firms. The infrastructure was opaque, the investment terms complex, and the liquidity negligible. Web3 is transforming this framework by introducing programmable, transparent, and decentralized models that unlock access for a broader range of capital providers.

Record is at the forefront of this transformation. By leveraging smart contracts and regulated digital assets, the platform enables both institutional and retail capital to participate in music royalty markets—bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain innovation.

Making Royalties Liquid: The Financialization of Music IP

Tokenization involves the conversion of future royalty income into digital tokens backed by underlying IP rights. These tokens, often embedded with programmable payout structures, can be issued, traded, or held across regulated exchanges and DeFi protocols.

This process not only enhances liquidity, but also provides a path for asset diversification within a portfolio. Investors gain access to royalty flows from streaming, sync licensing, and performance rights—allowing for steady, forecastable yield generation in a market traditionally seen as illiquid and siloed.

Why Music Royalties Fit Institutional Mandates

Stable Yield Profiles

Royalties generate consistent revenue driven by streaming and licensing, often with multi-decade cash flow potential. These yield profiles provide an attractive alternative in an inflationary or low-yield environment.

Uncorrelated Market Exposure

Music IP revenue is largely uncorrelated with the global financial market, offering portfolio diversification and downside protection—particularly valuable in macro-volatile environments.

Real-World Asset with Digital Accessibility

Unlike purely speculative tokens, royalty-backed assets reflect real-world consumption, legal contracts, and data-verifiable performance, enabling greater trust and transparency. Beyond the underlying technology, they represent an alternative to traditional investments—not a high-volatility crypto-style bet.

Cultural Integration with Financial Utility

Ownership in music provides more than yield—it links financial capital to cultural assets. Investors gain exposure to global hits, legacy catalogs, and emerging artists alike.

Artists and IP Owners: Unlocking Capital Without Compromise

For creators and rights holders, tokenization offers flexible access to capital markets.

• Artists can raise non-dilutive capital by selling future royalty rights via token offerings.

• Labels and publishers can optimize catalogue management, monetize underutilized assets, and diversify revenue streams.

In general, rights holders retain ownership while unlocking liquidity—eliminating the tradeoff between control and cash.

By decentralizing access to funding, Record Nexus offers a compelling alternative to advances from labels, banks, or private equity—ushering in a more creator-aligned financial model.

Outlook: Music as a Foundational Real-World Asset in DeFi

As institutional and retail demand for real-world assets (RWAs) in DeFi grows, music royalties stand out for their unique blend of culture and cash flow. With tokenisation, music enters the next phase of capital market integration—transitioning from an intangible IP play to a standardised, yield-generating asset class.

Platforms like Record are setting the stage for music-backed assets to serve as collateral, yield instruments, and stablecoin anchors in the Web3 economy. As secondary markets and on-chain compliance infrastructure mature, the music industry is poised to become a central pillar in the evolution of decentralised finance.

Conclusion

The financialisation of music IP via blockchain is no longer theoretical—it is underway. With tokenized royalties offering stable, uncorrelated, and culturally rich investment opportunities, the music industry is emerging as one of the most compelling additions to the Web3 asset landscape.

Record is leading this transformation—building the infrastructure, tools, and capital rails to make music a foundational asset in the decentralised financial future.

The question for investors is not if music rights belong in portfolios, but how soon they’ll capitalise on this new frontier.

Learn more at record.nexus

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