Digital distributor Vydia has chosen Royalty Exchange’s online marketplace to fund advances for independent labels and artists using its platform.
Under the partnership, labels and artists using Vydia to distribute their music can request an advance on their future royalties, which Royalty Exchange’s community of investors will fulfill. Artists have complete control over how much of an advance they can request, exactly how much they’ll repay in return, and unlike traditional advances… retain full rights to their music.
Here’s how it works:
- Vydia clients determine the minimum advance they’ll accept, and maximum amount they’ll repay in return.
- Royalty Exchange posts the request on its marketplace, where investors can review the earnings history of the catalog, and then bid for the chance to fund the advance in return for collecting a known, fixed-amount.
- Bidding is in an auction format, so the more bids received, the greater the advance the artist receives. But the investor funding the advance will only collect the amount listed upfront, no more.
- The better the catalog performs, the faster the advance is paid off. If the catalog struggles, artists are not required to pay a fixed monthly sum they don’t have. Once the repayment is complete, the artist resumes collecting royalties.
For example, in the first test of this program, an artist requested a $400,000 advance in return for a $571,000 repayment. The auction bid the advance up to $444,000. See the auction results here.
“This partnership allows us to offer independent labels and artists an alternative to signing a major label deal once they experience success with a viral hit,” says Roy LaManna, CEO of Vydia. “These artists have already proven they know how to break a song, so this money puts the power in their hands to take their career to the next level."
“We’re honored to provide this service to a forward-thinking distributor like Vydia,” said Royalty Exchange partner Anthony Martini. “This allows Vydia to provide its artists and labels a valuable financial service without going out of pocket or drawing on a line of credit. What’s more, the size of the advance that Royalty Exchange investors can provide is far higher than what artists can typically expect from other digital distributor loans.”
About Vydia
Vydia is an end-to-end music technology platform that provides labels and managers with the infrastructure and tools to power their business. With a full suite of services, Vydia offers supply chain, global distribution, analytics, rights management, payments, detailed revenue reporting, and marketing. Vydia is a premium partner of leading digital service providers such as Spotify, Apple, TikTok, Vevo, YouTube, and Facebook. Combining innovative technology with industry expertise, Vydia is distribution reimagined. To learn more, please visit vydia.com
About Royalty Exchange
Royalty Exchange uses the power of markets to unlock the value of ideas that enrich the human experience. We operate the world’s oldest and largest marketplace for buying and selling royalties, bringing together music creators and private investors with transparency and fairness.
Creators use us to raise money without going into debt or giving up their rights. Investors use us to access high-yield, uncorrelated royalty opportunities. The result is a solution for all creators and investors, not just the connected few.
