Music royalties: A surprisingly tangible investment

Hipgnosis Songs fund held in Sanlam Real Assets fund

While there is nothing quite like hearing one of your favourite songs on the radio, imagine if you also got paid every time a classic hit received airtime, writes Mike Pinggera, head of multi-strategy at Sanlam Investments.

This is one of the reasons we invest in music royalties within the Sanlam Real Assets fund. Although music royalties may not be thought of as a real asset like a road or building, there is something strangely tangible about hearing a well-known song and realising you own the rights to it. We have exposure to this relatively young asset class via the Hipgnosis Songs fund, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in July 2018. It has so far acquired 1,230 songs, which have achieved 1,646 top ten chart positions across the world. These include the English language version of Despacit...