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Roots Picnic · May 30, 2026
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Enter your annual catalogue income and generate a prototype bond deal in seconds.
Working with investment banker David Pullman, Bowie transferred his royalty streams into a Special Purpose Vehicle that issued bonds to Prudential Insurance. He used the capital to buy back rights from his former manager — keeping the catalogue throughout. The bonds paid in full in 2007.
Today Blackstone and pension funds use the same structure. Streaming has made royalty income measurable enough that any artist with consistent catalogue earnings can access this instrument.
Labels deploy 30% of revenues into A&R annually with no standardised return methodology. IFPI 2025 data shows where the money goes and what it actually produces.
Recorded music catalogues trade at 13–14× Net Label Share. Here is how that number is calculated, what moves it, and how to structure a deal around it.
The original Bowie Bond paid in full in 2007 — through Napster, piracy, and a full decade of industry disruption. What that tells us about the durability of the instrument.
The full methodology — including the IFPI data analysis, Bowie Bond qualification scale, and catalogue valuation framework — is available as a research document. Request access below.
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