Publishing Royalties: Christian Rock

Description

This listing features two songs from multi-cultural Christian band Unspoken. As the winning bidder, you will collect from three different sources of royalties from both songs: mechanical, public performance, and sync. Of the three, public performance royalties generate the most income — at 61% of earnings in the last year.

Both tracks are from Unspoken's 2014 self-titled debut album. Of the two, “Good Fight” is the top-earning song, generating 90% of income in the last 12 months. The track charted at No. 10 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart and to date, it has over four million spins on Spotify. Finally, “Good Fight” was used in the official trailer for the 2015 film War Room. Click to view the trailer and hear "Good Fight." You'll see a spike in earnings for this sync in the financials. As the winning bidder, if "Good Fight" (or the other song in this collection) is ever synced again, you'll collect the upfront sync fees. 

Worth noting is that both the top-earning source of royalties and top-earning song saw the best year-over-year stability. Also, the band remains active, releasing new music and touring. This typically helps maintain interest and activity around earlier music like this.

Key Drivers

Income Mix. The winner of this auction can receive income from three different royalty streams:

• Mechanical: Royalties paid to songwriters when music is reproduced, either sold ( CD,vinyl, or digital downloads) or streamed (either on-demand like Spotify or on Internet Radio like Pandora).

  • The US Copyright Royalty Board recently raised the rates digital music services must pay for mechanical royalties by nearly 44% over the next 5 years. Historically, this catalog has earned 25% of its royalties from mechanical royalties. As the winner of this auction, you will benefit from the mechanical rate increases as you collect mechanical royalties.

• Performance: Royalties paid to songwriters 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 songwriters and publishers for the licensing of a song in music for a movie, TV show, or commercial.

New Releases & Tours. Unspoken just recently released a new EP Just Give Me Jesus on November 23, 2018, and have tour dates scheduled through January 2019. The band is set to drop a new full-length album in Spring 2019.  While the new songs/albums are not included in this auction, new releases and active tours can help boost an artist's back catalog. Both give the artist the chance to solidify their current fan base and expand their reach to first-time listeners.