The rights to a share of royalties of Slipknot’s 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone, have gone up for auction along with rights for the 2008 self-titled album from pop-punk band Simple Plan. At the time of this piece, the current bidding price was over $750k for a 30-year investment term.
Producer Dave Fortman is apparently selling his cut of the royalties for each LP. Though not explicitly mentioned, the auction states that the producer of each album is selling their rights, and Fortman produced both.
The auction itself, listed on Royalty Exchange, offers an interesting look into the world of royalty distribution and publishing rights. To entice bidders, the listing gives some strong numbers and evidence of the apparent financial success of All Hope Is Gone, which is distributed by Warner Music Group.
The producer rights, which are part of the sound recording royalties, netted $105,180 in earnings over the past 12 months. The earnings were accumulated from a variety of sources: streaming, satellite radio such as SiriusXM, digital downloads, CD sales, commercial TV and film placements, samples, etc. The auction states:
“The winning bidder will collect royalties generated from any sales, streaming, and sync fees for either album, as well as the individual singles contained on both. Sales and streaming, in particular, pay a greater share of revenue to sound recording royalties over composition royalties. So this is an opportunity not to be missed.”
Last year, annual earnings from All Hope Is Gone increased by 21-percent “year-over-year”, with 73-percent of 2019’s earnings coming from streaming, up from 33-percent in 2018 — a testament to the growing dominance of mediums such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon.
Regarding streaming, the listing breaks down royalty rights as follows: “If Spotify pays 70-cents of every dollar on music rights, 60-cents of that goes to the sound recording copyright (which the label splits with the artist based on their contract agreement), while the remaining 10-cents goes to the composition copyright.”
The single “Psychosocial”, a modern classic of sorts, brought home 41-percent of 2019’s total earnings by itself, up from 20-percent the prior year.
Topped off with Simple Plan’s 2008 album, which was certified platinum by the RIAA, it’s certainly a notable auction in the realm of royalty trading.
Meanwhille, Slipknot show no signs of stopping, with 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind marking another high point in the band’s career.
Check out the auction and learn more details at Royalty Exchange.