Photo Credit: Hunters Race
JKBX (pronounced “jukebox”) has announced a partnership with market maker GTS Securities and revealed that it “currently has over $1.7 billion in music rights exclusively secured” – a figure that’s expected to climb to $4 billion by 2023’s end.
The fractional song-rights platform, which is set to debut later in 2023, unveiled the GTS tie-up and the mentioned IP-valuation figures via a formal release. Founded by former Warner Music chief innovation officer Scott Cohen, JKBX made multiple executive appointments in December and says that it “will transform the music industry by” affording retail investors access to the catalog sphere.
GTS, for its part, bills itself “as a leading market participant in trading global equities, futures, fixed income and ETFs” and says that it’s among the New York Stock Exchange’s “largest designated market makers.”
Predictably, given the far-reaching financial-sector role of GTS and the aforesaid objectives of JKBX, the New York City-headquartered companies intend to coordinate on initiatives designed to “drive music royalties as an asset class to the next level and a broader market.”
And while the partnership’s precise details (as well as JKBX’s exact launch date) remain to be seen, the music-investment platform emphasized plans to expand its collection of song rights dramatically in the approaching months.
“JKBX currently has over $1.7 billion in music rights exclusively secured and anticipates launching by the end of 2023 with over $4 billion of rights,” indicated the business, which has gone ahead and created an official TikTok account ahead of its rollout.
Additionally, Cohen made clear his ambitious vision for JKBX’s role in the catalog space, specifically in terms of democratizing the ownership of ultra-valuable song rights.
“A handful of private equity firms, multinational corporations and major labels control the most valuable music rights in the world,” The Orchard founder Cohen said in part. “JKBX’s platform will allow these entities and other significant rights holders to unlock the true value of these assets by offering them to retail investors to buy and sell in a regulated marketplace.”
In remarks of his own, GTS co-founder and CEO Ari Rubenstein added: “GTS excels in making markets for every major financial asset class and providing enhanced liquidity through sophisticated, real-time pricing. This same expertise can be applied to music royalties, which represent the next exciting tradeable asset class. JKBX, with its music royalties platform and extensive catalog rights, is an ideal partner for us.”
Earlier in February, Hipgnosis Song Management acquired the catalog of songwriting and production trio TMS, following January music-IP plays from the likes of Seeker Music, Exceleration Music, and Reservoir Media.