2020年经济学人 美国陷经济寒冬,春天还有多远?(2)（在线收听）

Music rights

音乐版权

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The market for song royalties is a hit for investors

歌曲版税市场对投资者来说是个大热门

Ben stennis is a country-music songwriter from Nashville who has written hits for performers such as Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean. Earlier this year, as the music industry was stopped in its tracks by the coronavirus, a company called Royalty Exchange offered him the chance to raise some cash. Since 2016 it has run an online marketplace that brings together musicians who want to sell their work and punters wanting to invest in royalties. Anthony Martini, a partner in Royalty Exchange, says it has 25,000 potential investors on its books, from pension funds to "dentists from Ohio". The rate of investors signing up has doubled this year, compared with 2019.

本·斯坦尼斯是一名来自纳什维尔的乡村音乐作曲家，他曾为蒂姆·麦格劳和杰森·阿尔丁等表演者创作过热门歌曲。今年早些时候，在音乐产业因新冠病毒而停滞不前之时，一家名为“版税交易”的公司向他提供了筹集资金的机会。自2016年以来，该公司运营了一个在线市场，将想要出售自己作品的音乐家和希望投资版税的客户聚集在一起。版税交易合伙人安东尼·马提尼表示，该公司账面上有2.5万名潜在投资者，从养老基金到"俄亥俄州的牙医"。与2019年相比，今年的投资者注册率翻了一番。

Music royalties are a complicated business. When a song is recorded, copyrights are created both for the composition of the song and the recording itself. Each of those rights is then split into mechanical rights (generated when a song is sold in a physical format or streamed), performance rights (when it is played on the radio or live at a concert) and synchronisation rights (when it appears in a film, television programme or a video game).

音乐版税是一个复杂的行业。当一首歌被录制时，歌曲的创作和录音本身就具有版权。这些版权再下分为机械权（当一首歌以实体形式或流媒体形式出售时产生）、表演权（当一首歌在收音机上播放或者在音乐会现场直播时产生）和同步权（当一首歌出现在电影、电视节目或电子游戏中产生）。

The idea of investing in royalties is not new. In 1985 Michael Jackson forked out $47.5m for the rights to the recordings of around 250 songs by The Beatles; Taylor Swift is trying to buy the rights to some of her master tapes after her previous record label was sold. But firms like Royalty Exchange are making rights affordable to a wider pool of investors; some auctions start with prices in the four figures. (Mr Stennis sold his rights, and paid off his mortgage with the proceeds.)

投资版税的想法并不新鲜。1985年，迈克尔·杰克逊花了4750万美元买下了甲壳虫乐队约250首歌曲的版权；泰勒·斯威夫特在之前的唱片公司被出售后试图购买一些母带的版权。而像“版税交易”这样的公司正在让更多的投资者能够负担得起版权；一些拍卖以四位数的价格开始。（斯坦尼斯卖掉了自己的权利，并用所得偿还了抵押贷款。）