Music catalogs are big business again.
The past year has seen nine-figure acquisitions of artist/songwriter assets and income streams involving superstars such as Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, Katy Perry, and Rod Stewart.
Elsewhere, the frontline music business (signing and developing new artists) continues to grow across both the major and independent sectors – and continues to rely on an advances model, paying artists money upfront for the value of their unreleased music.
Both of these sectors – music catalog M&A and frontline music signings – face a similar challenge: Accurately predicting the future revenues that a music catalog (whether old or new) will generate.
Opulous, from the team behind Ditto Music, has this week unveiled the first glimpse of an AI-powered solution to that challenge.
Opulous.AI enables users to search any artist’s song and, utilizing an AI algorithm, generates a future royalty prediction across all streaming platforms, leveraging its current performance on Spotify.
It then lets users calculate a royalty advance structure for each song based on different rates pre- and post-recoupment.
Users can choose a valuation period ranging from one to 10 years. The company says the information Opulous.AI provides is “crucial both for artists negotiating deals but also for labels, VC funds, and banks acquiring music catalogs”.
“Rather than teams of data analysts and financial experts poring over years of data, Opulous.AI will do the work for you in a few seconds.”
Lee Parsons, OPULOUS
Lee Parsons, co-founder of Ditto Music and founder of Opulous, said: “Using AI, Opulous removes months of labor-intensive work for labels and investors and gives artists a true valuation for their music, helping them sign more transparent deal terms.”
Added Parsons: “Rather than teams of data analysts and financial experts poring over years of data, Opulous.AI will do the work for you in a few seconds.
“This allows all parties to assess the value of the music effectively adds a new layer of transparency to a multi-billion dollar market and a fair landscape for all.”
Opulous was established in 2021 and quickly raised $6.5 million via funding rounds to expand operations.
The firm launched the OPUL cryptocurrency token in October 2021, with a maximum supply capped at 500,000,000.
The company (via OPUL) currently carries a market cap of USD $65.7 million, according to CoinGecko.
As Opulous explains in this Medium post, Opulous AI will launch via a freemium model for OPUL-holders and a paid model via subscriptions.
Last year Opulous launched what it calls the first liquid crypto ‘staking’ pool for music catalogs: OVAULT.
Since OVAULT’s launch, Opulous has been acquiring music catalogs before ‘tokenizing’ them via OVAULT so that OPUL holders can acquire shares in royalty streams.
In October, Opulous announced it had acquired a catalog by artist and songwriter Sheila E, including her contributions to music performed by the likes of Michael Jackson and Celine Dion.
In December, the company announced it had acquired a music catalog from songwriter Julia Ross. That catalog included Ross’s contributions to music from global K-Pop stars such as BTS, TWICE, and FIFTY FIFTY.
Last month, OVAULT attracted music catalog ‘staking’ transactions worth more than USD $200,000 across two rounds. Opulous says that the assets on offer sold out within minutes, while offering a 10% APY (expected Annual Percentage Yield).Music Business Worldwide