2020年经济学人 歌曲版税投资热(2)

There are several reasons why music royalties¹ seem attractive at the moment. Mr Martini believes investors² are drawn³ in by a rate of return that is insulated from macroeconomic trends. Music rights offer a predictable stream of income—people tend to tune⁴ in no matter what the economy is doing. Owning a song is more fun than buying a slice of a company. And once they have been bought, songs need not require much attention.

有几个原因可以解释为什么现在的音乐版税看起来极具吸引力。马蒂尼认为，投资者是被与宏观经济趋势绝缘的回报率所吸引。音乐版权提供了一个可预测的收入来源——无论经济状况如何，人们都会听歌。拥有一首歌曲比购买一家公司的股份更为有趣。歌曲一旦被购买，就不需要太多关注。

Not everyone agrees that buying royalties should be a passive business, though. In 2018 a former manager of Iron Maiden⁵ and Guns N' Roses, Merck Mercuriadis, founded an investment company called Hipgnosis. More than 90% of the firm's shares are held by institutional investors, including axa, an insurer, and the Church of England. The aim is to improve the lot of songwriters, who do not have the same opportunities as performers to make money through tours and merchandise.

购买版税应该是一项被动的业务，然而并非所有人都这么认为。2018年，曾担任“铁娘子乐队”和“枪炮与玫瑰乐队”经理的默克·摩科瑞迪斯创建了一家名为“希普诺西斯”的投资公司。该公司90%以上的股份由包括保险公司安盛和英国国教在内的机构投资者持有。这样做的目的是为了改善许多词曲作者的处境，他们没有像表演者那样通过巡回演出和商品销售来赚钱的机会。

Hipgnosis has spent more than ￡650m ($870m) buying the rights to over 13,000 songs. It now owns a share of eight of the 25 most-played songs of all time on Spotify, a streaming platform, including tunes⁶ co-written with Ed Sheeran ("Shape of You") and Justin Bieber("LoveYourself"). In addition to the hits, Mr Mercuriadis also wants to boost returns from songs that have "been leftto languish⁷" by big labels.

希普诺西斯公司已经花费了6.5亿多英镑(8.7亿美元)购买了超过1.3万首歌曲的版权。目前，在流媒体平台“声破天”上播放次数最多的25首歌曲中，有3首来自该公司，其中包括与艾德·希兰合作的《你的样子》以及与贾斯汀·比伯合作的《爱自己》。除了热门歌曲，摩科瑞迪斯先生还想提高那些被大唱片公司“抛弃”的歌曲的收益。

Hipgnosis seeks to promote its catalogue by trying to place them in films, TV programmes and streaming playlists. Since it went public in July 2018, the cumulative⁸ return on its net asset value is just shy of 40%. Music to investors' ears.

希普诺西斯公司试图通过把这些歌放在电影、电视节目和流媒体播放列表中来推广自己的目录。自2018年7月上市以来，其资产净值的累计回报率略低于40%，这对投资者来说是个好消息。

1 royalties   

特许权使用费

参考例句：

• I lived on about £3,000 a year from the royalties on my book. 我靠着写书得来的每年约3，000英镑的版税生活。 来自辞典例句
• Payments shall generally be made in the form of royalties. 一般应采取提成方式支付。 来自经济法规部分

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

4 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

5 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

6 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 languish   

vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎

参考例句：

• Without the founder's drive and direction,the company gradually languished.没有了创始人的斗志与指引，公司逐渐走向没落。
• New products languish on the drawing board.新产品在计划阶段即告失败。

8 cumulative   

adj.累积的，渐增的

参考例句：

• This drug has a cumulative effect.这种药有渐增的效力。
• The benefits from eating fish are cumulative.吃鱼的好处要长期才能显现。