One theme to my writing about ETFs has been that new products would empower do-it-yourselfers to better manage things like volatility and correlation or to seek out more absolute return ideas.I found this article at FT.com about a company called First State Investments that will make an institutional fund that will own the rights to every song ever written (obvious hyperbole) and receive royalties when these songs are played commercially.
Maybe this is like the David Bowie Bonds from a few years ago?
The rights last for 70 years past the death of the artist. The fund will be an income stream and as I read the article, a pretty healthy income stream.
This is not a retail product and I have no idea about the investment merits of the fund but the idea is intriguing. I can't imagine economic or stock market cycles having much impact on the demand for Cyndi Lauper music, obviously I have no idea if she is one of the artists in the fund's stable.
I have written a few times in the past about seeking out absolute or quasi-absolute return ideas and I think there is room for the concept in diversified portfolios. Along the idea of an endowment fund (but on a much simpler scale) 55% equities, 5% commodities, 5% REITs, 5% foreign currency, 20% fixed income and 10% absolute strategies seems manageable. Being able to diversify that within that 10% amongst things that although pursuing the same goal do in completely different realms makes the space potentially more compelling.
A music royalty fund certainly would be different.
I continue to believe that retail investors will have access to more innovation they can implement for themselves. This has happened already and will continue.
After the close on Wednesday we took a drive south to see what was there. We ended up in a town/area called Kapoho. There are several "tunnels" like the one above, some great views of the ocean and some very neat houses. The town seemed to be mostly between mile markers 15 and 20 on highway 137. Near mile marker 22 lava flowed over the road at some point. Yikes.
Did you catch Carl Yastrzemski announcing the lineup for game one, holy cow, Yaz!
7 comments:
Interesting idea.....
speaking of tunes http://tinyurl.com/29oqcx
nice pic ! And I was really enjoying your site.
http://idolcutepic.blogspot.com
Actually is semi exists already. Check out Mills Music Trust (mmtrs.ob).
"Mills Music Trust holds rights to receive payment of a deferred contingent purchase price contract obligation payable by Mills Music, Inc. (Mills). The composition of Mills catalogue comprises 25,000 titles. The contingent payments are determined quarterly and are based on a formula, which takes into account gross royalty income paid to composers, authors and others, and less amounts deducted by Mills. The company was founded in 1964 and is based in New York, New York."
nice find, i'll check it out.
thank you
Rog baby...
Wow, something useful....asset allocation for an endowment style etf portfolio...
Very basic, but useful...
And certainly better than trying to predict the short term direction of the market...
Congratulations Rog...its a start
Obviously Yaz's schnoz continued to grow long after the rest of his body had already stopped. He looked almost normal as a rookie...
Heckuva an all-around player though.
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