Publishing Royalties: Cage The Elephant

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What rights are included?

Description

We recently auctioned the songwriter portion of this catalog, you can view that here. If you missed out on that offering, you now have another chance at this established collection.

Up for bid now is the publisher’s share of mechanical and sync royalties from a catalog featuring songs from Cage The Elephant’s first three studio album releases. Like the songwriter asset, this collection includes hits like “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked,” “Come A Little Closer,” and “Cigarette Daydreams.”

What’s most compelling about this offering its top-earning income source — mechanical royalties, which brought in 77% of last year’s income — increased 32% year-over-year.

The catalog's top-five earning tracks date back as far as 2008 to 2013. This means the catalog has a Dollar Age of approximately 8 years. (Read more about Dollar Age and why it’s important here). Not only have these songs generated royalties for upwards of 10 years, but royalties are also growing in some cases, thanks to strong mechanical revenue.

The highest-earning title (and arguably the band’s most popular single) is 2008’s “Aint No Rest For The Wicked” with 33% of last year’s income. The multi-Platinum track is off the band’s self-titled Cage The Elephant album. The overall decrease in earnings for this track reflected in the "Financials" tab is due to a one-time sync placement in H2-2016. The track was used as the opening for the Canadian reality TV series Yukon Gold. However, you’ll notice the song’s mechanical earnings are on the rise, up over 40% year-over-year in the same timeframe.

Other top-performing songs include “Cigarette Daydreams” and “Come A Little Closer” from 2013’s Grammy-nominated Melophobia. Combined, these two titles account for 25% of last year’s income, and both songs also grew impressively in the last year. Rounding out the top-earning songs is “Shake Me Down,” which received critical acclaim and topped two Billboard charts at No. 1 in 2011.

Key Drivers

Dollar Age This collection of songs has a Dollar Age of approximately 8 years. This means the majority of royalties earned in the last 12 months comes from songs that have generated royalties for about eight years. A high Dollar Age like this suggests stability and longevity.

For example, the highest-earning track — “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” — was released in 2008. A catalog containing mature works with consistent earnings is something worth noting as an investor. This can help sustain a catalog's earnings moving forward.

Continued Relevance: All four of Cage The Elephant’s studio albums have received both commercial and critical success. They’ve also won a Grammy for Best Rock Album for 2015’s Tell Me I'm Pretty. The band toured with The Rolling Stones in 2017 and more recently headlined 2018’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage.

The band just released a single on March 8, 2019, and their fifth studio album, Social Cues, is set to drop on April 19, 2019. Accompanying that, the band is currently on a worldwide tour, highlighted by a co-headlining trek with Beck.

While the new songs are not included in this auction, new albums and tours can certainly boost an artist's back catalog. The release of new music can lead to discovery among first-time listeners, and re-engage existing fans.

Case and point, upon release of the band's second album —Thank You, Happy Birthday in 2011, — Cage the Elephant reappeared on the Billboard 200, this time reaching number 59. With a highly-anticipated album release and a worldwide tour, an investor should take note of this back catalog offering.

Income Mix. The winner of this auction can receive income from two different royalty streams:

• Mechanical: Royalties paid to songwriters and artists when music is sold (think CD or vinyl) but also when music is streamed (streaming mechanicals) “on-demand” (like Spotify).

  • This catalog’s mechanical royalties account for 77% of last year’s income and these earnings are on the rise — up 32% year-over-year.

• Synchronization: Royalties paid to songwriters and publishers for the licensing of a song in music for a movie, TV show, or commercial.

  • Sync brought in 21% of royalties last year (totaling $5,600). The catalog has received a variety of syncs over its lifetime in TV series such as:13 Reasons Why, Lucifer, Yukon Gold, Jersey Shore, Hawaii Five-0 and many more. As the winning bidder, you’ll be entitled to all upfront sync fees collected for the songs in the catalog.

About the Royalty Distributor

Sony/ATV Music Publishing is an American music publishing company owned by Sony through Sony Entertainment. It is the world’s largest music publishing company with a network of 37 offices in 29 cities and 22 countries across the globe. Since 2012 Sony/ATV has administered EMI Music Publishing, further extending the reach of the songs, songwriters, and artists it represents. Sony/ATV’s distribution schedule is biannual.

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