How should investors think about the risks and returns of music royalties, which have become transparent in the streaming era, as an asset class? In their September 2025 paper entitled "Music as an Asset Class", Sasha Stoikov, Aadityaa Singla, Umu Cetin and Luis Alonso Cendra Villalobos test three discounted cash flow (DCF) models on transactions from the Royalty Exchange platform. They consider transactions for either limited (10 years) or Life of Rights (LOR) ownership terms, the latter conveying ownership until lapse of copyright. They then use the best DCF model to backtest performance of music royalties net of transaction costs. Using prices and cash flows for 1,295 music ownership transactions debiting $500 buyer fees and 8% seller commissions since the beginning of 2017, they find that:
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