Christian Rock Hits

Description

Up for bid is a catalog that features six pop hits from the multi-cultural Christian band Unspoken. As the winning bidder, you will collect the songwriter's share of public performance royalties as well as the publishing share of sync, mechanical and public performance royalties. The majority of this asset’s income is produced by public performance royalties — at 63% of earnings in the last year.

Acting as the foundation of the catalog are five tracks from Unspoken's self-titled debut album from 2014. Unspoken was commercially and critically well-received, reaching No. 185 on the Billboard Hot 200. That's notable because the Hot 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week, compared across all music genres.

The song “Start A Fire”— arguably the band's most successful hit — generates 31% of the catalog’s earnings to date. "Start A Fire" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Christian Airplay and No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Other notable titles included are “Good Fight,” “Call It Grace,” and “Who You Are,” all charting at No. 10, at No. 18 and No. 8 on Christian Airplay, respectively.

Finally, there is the title “Higher,” a newer release (2016), accounting for 38% of last year’s income. The track charted at No. 13 on Billboard Christian Airplay chart and the album Follow Through peaked at No. 7 on the Top Christian Albums chart.

Key Drivers

Income Type. This catalog earns money from five different royalty streams. This means the winner of this auction can receive income in multiple ways:

• Mechanical: Royalties paid to publishers when music is sold (like digital downloads), and also when music is streamed on-demand, like on Spotify (streaming mechanicals).

• Performance: Royalties paid when music is performed publicly. Music played over the radio, in a restaurant or bar, or over a service like Spotify or Pandora is considered a public performance.

• Synchronization: Royalties paid to publishers for use of music in a movie, TV show, or commercial.

• Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI): sells direct licenses to churches to streamline copyright issues for various religious works.

• Print: Royalties paid when music is transcribed into print, like sheet music, and then distributed.

The catalog primarily earns from performance royalties, at 63% of last year’s income. But you’ll notice a shift in mechanical royalties — which have grown from 16% of historical earnings to 29% in the last year.

Mechanical Rates. The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board recently raised the rates digital music services must pay for mechanical royalties… by nearly 44% over the next five years. This catalog has earned 29% of income from mechanical royalties in the last year, which is up over the historic mechanical earnings. As the winner of this auction, you will benefit from the mechanical rate increase as you collect mechanical royalties from the publishing side.