It’s a weird concept, the fact that musicians don’t actually own the songs they write. For example, Michael Jackson once outbid Paul McCartney for the actual Beatles songs. How messed up is that? You’ve toiled for years crafting beautiful four part melodies and endured chronic tinnitus as a result of the screams these songs induced in thousands of weeping fans, and then someone comes along and outright swipes them, because, what, he owned a theme park? Rude.
That said, it’s also kind of handy if you want a piece of Eminem. Because you’ll soon be able to own stocks in his tunes, which essentially means owning a very, very little tiny part of them. Not much, but enough to stand up when someone asks where the real Slim Shady is.
As Pitchfork report, a company called Royalty Flow owns 25% of the master sound recording royalties from Eminem’s 1999-2013 catalogue — so, 25% of basically all of it. Apparently they’re going to raise between $11 and $25 million before putting themselves on the stock exchange, upon which you’ll all have free reign to Lose Your… money by buying shares in the company.
Ok, so it’s a bit of a stretch to say you’ll be able ‘own’ Eminem’s songs through this stock. If you really want to own a Slim Shady banger, maybe just log in to iTunes.