SongVest
February 26th, 2009 by Lior Shamir
Now here’s a novel idea: SongVest is a bidding platform for music copyrights. Bidders have the opportunity to own a stake in their favorite published songs and, in turn, collect the royalty cheques. The highest bidders also receive a personlised plaque to put up on their wall and show off their claim to music fame. The songwriter or copyright owner retains a majority stake in the song up for auction, therefore, retaining full control of its use. The songwriter also sets the minimum bidding price which, as you would expect, may be in the tens of thousands of dollars for a small piece of a commercially successful song.
SongVest positioned itself as a ‘memorabilia’ offering as opposed to a copyright market. This is a unique approach to tapping into music fans desperate to own a piece of something they love as opposed to a community seeking to capitalize on copyright transfers and administration. Both scenarios are viable, though.
The essence of owning a piece of copyright is to ensure that the copyright is associated with something broadly admired, reputed, and very well known. Indie’s hoping to gain coverage out of this venture are unlikely to succeed. For SongVest, getting A-list songs is paramount and they seem to be on their way having already featured songs made famous by Carrie Underwood, Ozzy Osborne, Cher, Ringo Star, and The Monkees.