PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
Pictured above: Dominican rapper El Alfa and Sound Royalties executives in their HQ Office
As it marks 10 years in business, the industry’s largest music finance company, Sound Royalties, is continuing its path of exceptional growth.
Founded in 2014, Sound Royalties has been widening its reach of music creatives, as well as expanding its business with a raft of major deals.
Currently working in 18 countries and with over 160 with PRO’s, publishers, labels, distributors, and administrators across the industry, Sound Royalties’ global presence is growing. Last year it hired full-time staff in Canada and Colombia, and it has recently appointed a senior consultant in the UK to join the growing number of referral partners there.
Music Creators Retain Copyright Ownership
The starting point that differentiates Sound Royalties from others in the space is that it never takes ownership of copyrights. At inception, the company created a new kind of access to funding, which empowered music creatives without ever taking ownership of copyrights or a percentage of futures, and allowed for ongoing cash flow instead of a common industry standard of 100% recoupment.
Furthermore, Sound Royalties complements existing relationships for artists and songwriters in the music ecosystem. It does not compete with PROs, publishers, labels, distributors, or administrators, but acts as a financial services company providing funding solutions without replacing them.
Sound Royalties CEO Alex Heiche and president Michael Bizenov
Sound Royalties started out working with only performance royalty streams but has since expanded from there with a comprehensive offering across mechanical, performance, digital, streaming, sync and more, offering artists a range of options for leveraging future income.
While the company has been a pioneer of music financing on all types of royalty streams, it also offers advances for artists and performers seeking tour and production support, a program that launched in 2022 with Latin Grammy-winning musician, Alejandra Guzmán.
“Thanks to our creative-friendly, financially sound approach, Sound Royalties has become the largest music financing service provider in the industry, with customers, representatives, and referral partners around the world,” said founder and CEO, Alex Heiche. “We’re proud of the thousands of creatives we’ve funded.”
A Valuable Alternative
Amid the boom in catalogue acquisitions, Sound Royalties has been a key alternative to creatives selling their music. Rather than taking ownership of works, the company provides royalty financing for music creators, independent labels, publishers and distributors – never putting copyright ownership at risk.
The advances range from thousands of dollars up to the tens of millions, leveraging royalty streams paid through music labels, distributors, publishers and PROs, including ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange and more. It secured its first international PRO deal in 2018 with PRS For Music.
The Sound Royalties team with El Alfa
In one of its most notable recent deals, Sound Royalties recently financed a multi-million-dollar, eight-figure deal with Dominican rapper El Alfa.
“The best advice I ever received was from Sound Royalties, telling me to register and organise my royalty streams and that whatever I do – don’t sell,” said El Alfa. “It was because I didn’t sell that I am now able to leverage my back catalogue to invest in my future.”
One-on-One Support for Clients
Another key differentiator for Sound Royalties is the live, one-on-one support available to clients.
“Sound Royalties prides itself on its adaptability and fast action to innovate. Every creative is unique and so are their opportunities to utilise financing,” said president, Michael Bizenov. “We custom tailor each funding request based on the desires and needs of the creative and what they are looking to achieve.”
As Sound Royalties has grown, so has its services.
“We may get a call from an artist who wants to build their own studio or wants to fund their own tour,” Bizenov continued. “We never had tour financing requests five years ago, but now we’re getting more and more of these.
Sound Royalties prides itself on its adaptability and fast action to innovate
Michael Bizenov
“Another example is years ago, we got a call from a producer that was selling his catalogue. The sale was taking longer than expected, so the producer asked us if we would consider funding a short-term bridge solution until the catalogue sale closed. As a result, we expanded our services to include catalogue bridge financing.”
“When I started to look at getting a royalty advance, I quickly realised it was a rapidly growing market,” said singer-songwriter Josh Gilligan. “That’s why I’m grateful that I found Sound Royalties early on in my search for a financial partner. After a couple of calls with my rep, it was apparent to me that I wasn’t just working with an algorithm or a bank, but that I had found friends and people I could trust in my career as an independent artist. They made the process easy, and I hope we get to work together again in the near future.”
Sound Royalties works with artists at all stages of their career, including those signed to labels and unsigned, recouped on advances and unrecouped. The talent that’s been drawn to their financing solutions ranges from self-releasing artists to global multi-platinum superstars.
With three customised funding options and flexible terms, music creatives can take control over what advance option they would like to take. The requirement is for a music creator to be earning a minimum of $5,000 a year from any individual royalty stream.
In addition to the company never taking a percentage of futures, Sound Royalties does not charge an interest rate, because it is not a loan; it is structured as an advance, so there is a fixed fee over a fixed term. No matter what option a creative chooses, the payment schedule is laid out and the amount owed is clearly outlined. It does not require personal guarantees, collateral or financial statements.
As well as music creators (songwriters, artists, producers, composers), labels, publishers and distributors, the company works closely with artist managers, lawyers and business managers to complete financing arrangements.
The list of music creators who have worked with Sound Royalties includes El Alfa, DJ Khaled, Rich Robinson, Steve Dorff, Pitbull, Lil Wayne, David Tickle, Sonia Leigh, Danny Myrick, Ronald “Ronkat” Spearman, Curtis Williams of Kool & The Gang, Makeba Riddick, Brenda K Starr, and many more.
“The crew at Sound Royalties are great people and real professionals; they make you feel like you’re a part of a family,” said David Tickle, UK-based music producer, engineer and mixer (U2, Blondie, Prince, Split Enz). “They keep you up to date with your royalty [advance] which gives peace of mind for you to keep your head where it needs to be… Creating the next royalty stream.”
Sound Royalties can also help music creators diversify into other areas with upfront financing.
“I wanted to have the financial freedom to explore new opportunities and invest in other areas that were close to my heart,” said singer-songwriter Blush (Demi Lovato, Mary J. Blige, Macy Gray, Meghan Trainor). “Thankfully, Sound Royalties was able to provide me with the resources I needed to achieve this. By converting my successful placements into upfront capital, I was able to make strategic investments in myself and my other passions, which has opened up a world of new possibilities for me.”
To find out more about Sound Royalties’ creative-friendly funding: www.soundroyalties.com
