These firms amass capital to purchase copyrights, ranging from hit songs to entire catalogs. With massive war chests of capital, they pay musicians a large lump sum for their copyright, which they can then license or resell. Songwriters are the typical target, since publishing rights are not as contractually complicated as recording rights, which are dominated by the Big 3 labels. For musicians, these buyouts can be enticing: the new streaming regime pays little to any but the most popular musicians, a disordered global system of digital services makes tracking down payments difficult, and new tax proposals are advising higher tax rates on capital gains.

XREF: Relates to broader patterns of financialization and copyright-adjacent speculation discussed in music-rights literature and IP economics.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 224