The Luxembourg platform ANote Music wants to make future income from music catalogs tradable. Its challenge is not only to give individuals access to a new class of assets, but to create the liquidity and transparency which this market in Europe still lacks.
A song does not stop producing value once its first commercial life has passed. Streaming, radio, broadcast in stores, synchronization in an advertisement, a film or a series, videos on social platforms: each use can generate income for rights holders. These streams have long been an asset coveted by labels, publishers and specialized funds. On the other hand, they remained largely out of reach of individual investors.
This is where ANote Music is positioned, founded in Luxembourg by Marzio F. Schena, Matteo Cernuschi and Grégoire Mathonet, the company operates a marketplace intended to allow holders of musical rights to transfer a fraction of their future income, and for investors to acquire these rights to receive royalties.
The platform indicates that it has more than 52,000 user accounts, has listed 36 catalogs bringing together more than 100,000 songs and has processed more than 28 million euros in cumulative transactions. Among the artists for whom certain royalties are present on the platform include Beyoncé, Avicii, Justin Bieber, Drake and Martin Garrix.
A rights market, not a song market
Although the idea may seem intuitive (buying a share of the revenues of a well-known stock), the mechanism is however more complex. An investor does not gain ownership of the song, artist or their brand, but acquires a contractual right to a portion of future revenue associated with a catalog.
However, this income can come from rights of a different nature: rights related to recording, publishing rights, copyright, neighboring rights, public broadcasting or synchronization. They may also vary depending on the territories, distribution contracts and the duration of the rights transferred.
This complexity explains why the market has long remained dominated by over-the-counter negotiations. An artist, an author, a label or a publisher who wishes to monetize a catalog generally turns to a specialized acquirer capable of analyzing historical revenues, estimating future flows and supporting a ticket of several million euros.
ANote wants to introduce another logic by putting buyers in competition during primary auctions, allowing the resale of positions on a secondary market and automating the redistribution of royalties collected.
Streaming has changed the economic equation for catalogs
Music catalogs have taken an increasing place in alternative asset portfolios since streaming made their income more regular, more global and more easily observable. Sales of catalogs by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber and Queen have illustrated the appetite of major buyers for these long-term income streams.
The global market for music rights reached $47.2 billion in 2024, according to data collected by ANote Music, when the recorded music market alone represented $29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming subscriptions now occupy a preponderant place. This growth does not transform each song into an attractive financial asset: revenues remain concentrated on a minority of titles and the value of a catalog depends on its real history, its ability to remain listened to and the quality of its rights.
Between catalog collections and splitting platforms
ANote does not start from scratch. On the institutional market, groups like Concord, Primary Wave or structures backed by Blackstone and Hipgnosis have much greater financial capacity to acquire complete catalogs. They are direct competitors for access to the best assets and for a rights holder, a firm offer of a fund can be simpler than an auction or the split transfer of a catalog.
In the United States, JKBX has chosen a more directly financial path, by offering individuals securities backed by royalty streams within a framework approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The model shows the existence of a potential demand, but also the difficulty of making these assets accessible while maintaining a protection and negotiation framework adapted to the general public.
Other players, such as Royal, AnotherBlock or SongVest, have attempted to combine royalties, blockchain and fan ownership logic. Some of these projects encountered a structural limit, namely that affinity with an artist does not in itself create a liquid market. An investor may want to own a fraction of a famous stock, but resale requires other buyers to be present, at the same time and at the desired price.
Liquidity, the main test of the model
The existence of an order book is not enough to create a stock market. To function, a marketplace must bring together a sufficiently wide range of catalogs, regular buyers, homogeneous information and prices that reflect real transactions.
With 36 catalogs listed since its launch in 2020, ANote still has a limited offering given its European ambition. Its development will depend on its ability to convince more labels, publishers, artists and authors to cede part of their rights, including on catalogs that are less media-intensive but generate regular income.
The platform will also have to demonstrate that its users are not just registrants. The most important indicators will be the volume actually traded on the secondary market, the time required to resell a position, the spread between bid and ask prices, the frequency of distributions and the share of professional investors in the volumes.
The challenge is classic for marketplaces, but more demanding here: a seller of rights needs confidence in the price obtained; a buyer needs visibility into performance and an exit option. One will only come lastingly if the other is already present.
A democratization that requires pedagogy
The promise of passive income can attract individuals, but it must be accompanied by precise information on the nature of the assets. A royalty is neither a bond, nor a listed share, nor a guaranteed savings product. Its value can be affected by changes in listening, changes in platform remuneration, the appearance of new uses, fees or even dependence on a few very successful titles.
The rise of generative AI adds a new variable; in the short term, it can increase the need for traceability, rights management and control of the use of works. In the longer term, it can also modify the abundance of musical offerings, listening behaviors and the balance of power between creators, platforms and rights holders. On platforms, the influx of titles generated by AI is already beginning to raise the question of the visibility of works and the distribution of income, as illustrated by the explosion of musical offerings produced by AI.
This issue extends older debates on the use of voices, works and musical data by models. The regulation of AI in music thus becomes a direct issue for the future value of catalogs and for rights holders.
The regulatory question will also be decisive, ANote Music indicates that it is not subject to the supervision of the Luxembourg financial regulator, considering that its activity concerns contractual and intellectual property rights rather than financial instruments. This distinction, however, requires investors to understand what they are acquiring, the conditions of holding the rights and the protections applicable to each transaction.
The challenge is therefore not only to open a new asset class to a wider audience, but to make this asset class sufficiently transparent, comparable and liquid so as not to remain reserved for a minority of insiders.
ANote Music has just raised 2 million euros from Seventure Partners, which is leading the operation, ScaleFund and existing investors. The company plans to use this funding to expand the number of catalogs available, accelerate its user acquisition in Europe and continue the development of its platform and application.
