Royal’s music rights marketplace is here—and more than a dozen artists are sharing ownership

Bingo Players, Madison Ryann Ward, Matt Cooper, Yemi Alade & more artists will release music in the coming weeks

Today, we are introducing the music rights marketplace we set out to build from day one. Now you can discover, invest in, and trade music on Royal any time.

We started with drops as a proof of concept earlier this year, kicking off with two from Nas in January (Ultra Black and Rare). Since then, we’ve been building core components, like royalty payouts. The second round of payouts went out earlier this month, and collectors have already earned more than $100,000 in royalties—and we’re just getting started.

With today’s release, you can now access a bunch of new features, including:

Buy and sell music rights easily

Music rights are a growing asset class, and we believe everyone should be able to participate in ownership. The first version of Royal introduced the concept of investing in music by buying tokens during a drop. Now, you can buy and sell on Royal at any time.

When you discover an artist you’d like to partner with, you can buy a song or album instantly at the listed price or place a bid at a price of your choosing. Every listing now shows streaming data and payout estimates in case you want to learn more about the music.

Selling is easy too—either list a token at the market price for an instant match, or set your own price and we’ll match you with a buyer.

A note on fees: Through the end of the year, we’re waiving a platform fee, so listing and selling tokens is free. For every secondary trade, artists will collect a 2.5% fee, which Royal will cover.

Explore a new portfolio view

From your portfolio, you can claim royalties and connect your bank account to transfer cash onto the platform. When you sell a token or earn royalties, funds are immediately available in your balance. You can use them to buy more music or transfer them to your wallet. (Bank transfers are coming soon!)

Your portfolio is also where you’ll track your collection’s performance based on secondary sales and streams. Portfolio value is a combination of the average value of all your tokens and your cash balance. Streams are updated often, and we’re showing data from more platforms than ever—including Spotify, Apple Music, Prime Music, Tidal, and Soundcloud Premium.

Partner with independent artists

Over the coming weeks, more than a dozen independent artists will share ownership for the first time: Yemi Alade, 27Delly, Bingo Players & Zookëper, Matt Cooper, Disco Fries, Madison Ryann Ward, Skye Holland & Steve Kroeger, Allem Iversom, Angelo Mota, Elle Vee, Jake Zimma, and Anderton. We’ve heard your feedback that you want to invest in rising artists in addition to established ones.

Bingo Players & Zookëper are kicking things off today with their single ‘Bathroom Line’. Tomorrow, you can own a piece of ‘I’ll Wait’ by Madison Ryann Ward, a sultry-voiced singer who was featured on David Letterman’s ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.’

You can also explore and own a piece of music already dropped on Royal — including hit songs like ‘Don’t Forget My Love’ by Diplo and ‘Caterpillar’ by Royce da 5’9”, or rising EPs like ‘Underrated’ by Ollie.

Stay tuned for announcements of the above artists’ drops. Create an account to get notified about upcoming releases and join our Discord to talk to other collectors.

Looking ahead

We’re excited to continue to build tools that make it easier for fans to participate in the success of their favorite artists and discover new ones they want to support.

We believe that the future of music is shared ownership. We believe artists should not have to make a tradeoff between making money and maintaining control over their work. We believe fans should be able to invest in their favorite musicians and win alongside them.

If there is one thing that the last year has shown us, it’s that many of you share these beliefs with us. Your energy has been palpable. We’re grateful for it and for you. And we’re stoked to keep building. There’s a lot more to come.