A Share of Jerry Garcia’s Record Royalties

The Grateful Dead built one of the most durable catalogs in American music. Six decades on from the band's earliest studio work, the recordings — American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Terrapin Station, Blues for Allah, In the Dark — continue to generate income through streaming, sync, physical sales, and the compilation activity that defines a heritage catalog. The listener base has not aged out; a new generation has picked it up through streaming and archival re-issues.

This listing repackages a portion of that ongoing sound-recording income as a defined-payment stream. Rather than exposing the buyer to the year-to-year variability that normally comes with a traditional royalty share, the transaction is structured as a fixed payment schedule: $50,000 per year until the buyer has received a total of $250,000. 

The trade-off is symmetrical: if the underlying catalog's earnings grow, the buyer does not participate in that upside; but if the underlying catalog's earnings soften, the buyer's payments are unaffected up to the recoupment cap. The catalog itself is legendary and diversified across dozens of releases, which materially reduces the risk of a payment shortfall inside the five-year window, but the buyer is ultimately exposed to the ability and willingness of the payment stream to deliver the fixed cap on schedule.

For an investor, this is an opportunity to earn a defined, front-loaded return over a five-year horizon, drawn from one of the most recognizable catalogs in the American canon. The bid sets the yield; the recoupment cap sets the exit. It behaves less like a traditional royalty share and more like a fixed-term cash-flow instrument backed by a heritage asset.

The Grateful Dead recorded from 1965 through the mid-1990s, building a body of work that spans studio albums, authorized live releases, and an extensive archival library. The Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and the catalog has been sustained since by an unusually engaged listener community and a steady cadence of authorized re-issues — a combination that has kept the recordings culturally active in a way most catalogs of comparable age no longer are.

Jerry Garcia was the band's lead guitarist and one of its principal composers, working alongside Bob Weir and lyricist Robert Hunter across the group's catalog. The royalty stream underlying this listing is Jerry Garcia's share of the sound-recording income generated by that body of work.

The royalty stream underlying this listing is Jerry Garcia's share of that sound-recording income.

Dollar Age has been estimated for the full discography from 1968-1995. 

How This Investment Works. As the winning bidder, you will receive a total of $250,000 in payments, drawn from Jerry Garcia's share of sound-recording royalties on the Grateful Dead's studio and live catalog recorded between 1968 and 1995.

Payments follow the schedule below:

Payment Year – Annual Cap
Payment Year 1 – $50,000
Payment Year 2 – $50,000
Payment Year 3 – $50,000
Payment Year 4 – $50,000
Payment Year 5 - $50,000

If the buyer’s payments within a given Payment Year do not reach the Annual Cap, the subsequent Payment Year's Annual Cap shall be increased by the amount of the prior Payment Year's shortfall. If the total Recoupment Amount is not reached by the end of Payment Year 5, the buyer shall collect -- uncapped -- 100% of payments for the Assigned Royalties until the Recoupment Amount is reached.

Early Repayment. The seller of this asset can repay the remaining advance balance at any time. 

Special Note. A portion of the proceeds from this listing will support the production of the next music release project produced by Jerry Garcia Music Arts. Jerry Garcia Music Arts is an environmentally conscious, mission-based, music and arts entertainment services company.

This catalog will not be automatically added to the Secondary Market of The Exchange.