Royal

Royal (royal.io) is a US-based platform founded in 2021 that sold music rights as limited digital assets, letting buyers own a portion of a song's streaming royalty rights and earn royalties alongside the artist. The company describes itself as a marketplace enabling anyone to invest in music, with artists retaining independence and creative control and setting the percentage of song ownership made available for sale. Purchases were structured as tokens (NFTs, referred to as Limited Digital Assets or LDAs) issued during artist drops, representing a percentage of a song's streaming rights across major platforms such as Spotify. Rights were divided into tiers with different ownership percentages and rewards, and artists could attach additional benefits such as exclusive tracks, merchandise or fan experiences that holders could redeem. Tokens, together with unclaimed extras and future royalties, could be resold.

Royal is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and operated globally. Artists who sold or distributed song rights through the platform include Justin Blau (3LAU), Nas, Diplo, Tritonal, The Chainsmokers, Vérité and Ollie. In July 2022 the company began its first round of royalty payouts to token holders, and in June 2023 it released a Song Valuation Calculator that estimates the fair market value of a song's future master streaming royalties.

In April 2024 Royal announced a platform revamp shifting away from centralized data storage toward on-chain backend infrastructure and public smart contract deployment, sunsetting its marketplace while continuing to allow token trading through OpenSea and royalty distribution through royal.io, and stating it would focus on challenges related to AI-generated music. As of the current site, the company says it is finishing new products that "unlock economics for both musicians and listeners at the intersection of music and crypto."

Founding story

Royal was founded in 2021 by Justin "3LAU" Blau, a DJ and electronic music producer, together with JD Ross, a co-founder of home-buying company Opendoor. One source dates the founding to May 2021. In 2021, before broad launch, Blau gave away the first tokenized music offering through a contest granting 50% of royalties for his song "Worst Case," which was described as the world's first fan-owned song.

Business model

Artists sold tokens representing portions of their songs' streaming royalty percentages to fans; both the artist and token holders subsequently earned from the artist-set total royalty percentage allocated to each song. Tokens were tradable on a secondary market, and token holders could also redeem artist-selected benefits and rewards.

Sources describe artist and collector earnings from royalty-share token sales and secondary trading of tokens; they do not specify Royal's own fee or revenue mechanics.

Traction

As of January 2023, Royal reported that partnered artists had paid out more than $156,000 in royalties to collectors, that $2.5 million had been raised for artists, and that $7.5 million in music rights had been traded across 111 countries; a separate profile repeats these figures as of July 2023. The January 2022 Nas drop comprised 1,870 NFTs across two sales that sold out quickly and generated more than $560,000 in revenue. Secondary sales of the 3LAU "Worst Case" tokens approached $600,000 shortly after the giveaway, implying a $6 million valuation for the single.

Latest developments

In April 2024 Royal announced it was revamping its platform to store data on-chain and open smart contract deployments to the public, sunsetting its marketplace while continuing token trading via OpenSea and royalty payments via royal.io, and shifting focus to challenges related to AI-generated music. The company's website states it is preparing new products at the intersection of music and crypto.