Investors hope to make ANote after being offered the chance to buy a share of a 1970s disco classic
Music-loving investors will be given the chance to buy a share of the rights to 1970s number one I Love to Love by Tina Charles.
Song investment platform ANote Music today lets listeners take a stake in the disco track’s future earnings.
ANote allows investors to buy into a song or artist’s royalties, which will pay dividends based on how much they earn.
Catchy: Tina Charles performs her smash hit 70’s song I Love to Love which investors can now buy a stake in
Royalties are seen as a stable investment given people’s appetite for music is broadly unaffected by economic shifts.
Some songs that appear in films and TV shows or feature on social media get huge boosts, increasing the amount they pay out.
I Love to Love earned royalties worth £18,400 in the past year, and if it kept this up investors could earn a 7.7 per cent yield on what they put in.
It topped the charts in 1976, has been streamed tens of millions of times – and appeared in BBC drama River.
Those who buy in will have access to the rights for up to ten years before the song’s German owner Roba Music Publishing delists it.
ANote chief executive Marzio Schena said: ‘2021 has been a pivotal year for our platform, and I am delighted to close the year by partnering with Roba and bringing a UK No 1 to investors.
‘I Love to Love is a truly iconic 70s disco pop hit, a true testament to the quality of access our platform can now provide.’
Music as investment: Read an interview with Hipgnosis founder
Track record: Merck Mercuriadis runs a music inestment trust worth £1.5billion
Over the past year Merck Mercuriadis has gone into battle with the world’s three biggest record labels: Universal, Sony and Warner. But he is not being altruistic.
An increase in the share of streaming revenue for songwriters increases his revenue too.
Or as the 58-year-old puts it: ‘The higher a songwriter is paid, the better off we are too.’
He floated the investment trust Hipgnosis with the aim of making music investable, rather like oil and gold.
> Read the full interview with Hipgnosis’ Merck Mercuriadis