Following on its announcement earlier this month that it would allow rightsholders to sell off their royalty streams as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), online music royalties marketplace Royalty Exchange has partnered with A Tribe Called Quest to auction off a 1.5% share of the sound recording royalties from the hip-hop group’s first five studio albums.
The starting price for the NFT will be listed at $35,000 with a 10% royalty upon any resale, which will be split evenly between Royalty Exchange and the initial seller. The highest bidder will collect royalties derived from sales, streaming, sync, satellite radio, digital downloads, CD sales, TV/film/commercial placements, samples and more.
The 24-hour auction kicks off Wednesday at 8 a.m. ET/11 a.m. PT.
Royalty Exchange kicked off its income-producing NFT program, dubbed NFT plus, by auctioning off CEO Anthony Martini’s share of the publishing royalty stream for his client Lil Dicky’s 2015 song “Save Dat Money.”
Rightsholders looking to sell royalties as NFTs on Royalty Exchange are invited to request that option when contacting the marketplace. The company takes a cut of the sale price, which is typically 15%. Following the auction, royalties are paid every quarter in Ethereum, which can either be converted into a fiat currency or remain a cryptocurrency.
Royalty Exchange is only the most high-profile player to have entered the royalty streams-as-NFTs game over the past several months. In April, the singer VÉRITÉ auctioned off 100% of the artist share of master recording ownership for her single “By Now” on the marketplace Zora. The same month, rapper Taylor Bennett partnered with music rights management company Bluebox to sell 75% of the rights ownership of a forthcoming single release.
