KnowKnow, slchld, Atlus, + more - Publishing & Songwriting Royalties

Six years after "R&B All Night" broke out of the Chinese hip-hop scene and onto playlists across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the song is still pulling listeners worldwide. These late-2010s and early-2020s records never went quiet, and that is the heart of this catalog.

The income comes in two forms, and this listing includes both. Every play earns a performance royalty for the songwriter; BMI collects this from around the world. At the same time, every stream earns a mechanical royalty for the publisher, collected through BeatStars. So a single stream pays the catalog twice, once on each side, in dozens of countries at once.

There is real range behind the income. The anchor, "R&B All Night" by KnowKnow of the Chinese group Higher Brothers, broke far beyond China. It sparked a nationwide cover challenge, crossed hundreds of millions of streams, and is still the catalog's biggest earner. Sync licensing adds about one in eight dollars of recent earnings, nearly all of it from that same song, though the specific uses are not broken out. Behind the anchor sits a roster that spans genres and countries: the Korean R&B of "She Likes Spring, I Prefer Winter," the lo-fi cuts "Green Tea & Honey" and "Pomegranate," the dance track "Run Free" still earning eight years on, and "Te Marqué Pedo (Remix)," a TikTok hit that reached Billboard's Global Viral 50 and pulled in six-time Latin Grammy winner Christian Nodal. A few markets do most of the work: China is close to half of the last twelve months, then the United States, Japan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, with a long tail of smaller countries behind them.

The recent trend is steady, with one thing worth naming. The last twelve months earned about $63,000, just under the three-year average of $70,350. That dip is not a decline. The average is pulled up by a large one-time publisher payment back in 2022 and 2023. Measured against the year before, the latest twelve months were actually up about 10%. The real thing to weigh is concentration. "R&B All Night" is about 44% of recent earnings, and China is about 45%, and the two overlap, because the same song drives most of the overseas total. There is real depth below it, with close to 30% of earnings coming from outside the top five songs, but the anchor's weight is clear.

For an investor, the case is durability: a Life of Rights stake in songs that have earned across dozens of countries for six years, anchored by one lasting global hit, and paying on both the songwriter's and the publisher's side every time a song streams.

For a detailed analysis of earnings trends, cash flow projections, and investment criteria, review the full Investment Memorandum.

This catalog captures a slice of early-2020s global streaming culture, the moment when audiences in Asia, the Americas, and Europe began discovering the same songs at once. Its center of gravity is international hip hop and R&B.

The flagship, "R&B All Night" (2019), comes from KnowKnow of the Chengdu group Higher Brothers, one of the breakout acts of the 88rising label and a leading figure in Chinese hip hop. The track spawned a nationwide cover challenge and has drawn hundreds of millions of streams, and it remains the catalog's largest earner by a wide margin, carrying both the heaviest streaming load and nearly all of its synchronization income.

Around it sits a cluster of mood-driven vocal cuts, led by the Korean R&B single "She Likes Spring, I Prefer Winter" (2019) by slchld and "Oh No" (2021) by Atlus. A second layer comes from lo-fi, chill instrumental, and conscious hip hop, the low-key, repeat-listen material that lives on study and focus playlists and earns steadily rather than in spikes, including "Green Tea & Honey" (2020) by Dane Amar and "Pomegranate" (2021) by Brooklyn independent Kota the Friend. Widening the geographic base are genre outliers, from the dance-leaning "Run Free" (2017) by Deep Chills to "Te Marqué Pedo (Remix)," a regional Mexican song that broke on TikTok and reached Billboard's Global Viral 50 before drawing six-time Latin Grammy winner Christian Nodal onto the remix included here.

Together they form a catalog defined less by any single scene than by broad, durable, cross-border listening.

Earnings Note. The Earnings by Period chart below reflects royalty payments based on two distinct statement sets from different payors. The Last 12 Months include:

BMI Statements: 1Q-2025 through 4Q-2025 (Quarterly)
BeatStars Statements: 1H-2025 through 2H-2025 (Semester)