“Where you have recurring revenue streams, you have a measure of predictability of the returns on rights. Essentially rights become something like a financial asset class in its own right.”
Interview with Paul Sweeting
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Where it comes to transactions in media, technology has possibly met its match. Fine-print contracts, entrenched business practices, time-worn statutes, even global treaties – these and other elements of law and commerce related to the international exchange of intellectual property have long thrown truckloads of sand into the digital gears when music, films, and books are for sale.
Signs are, though, that the winds of change may soon send away the sandstorm that obscures the world of rights and rights technologies. Cloud-based computing and enormous reservoirs for data storage are now capable of holding massive numbers of microtransactions. Venture capital, too, is prepared to invest in technology for rights management and payments.
A journalist and industry analyst specializing in the intersecting worlds of media, technology, and public policy, Paul Sweeting is founder and principal of Concurrent Media Strategies, a Washington-based consulting and editorial services firm. He is also co-organizer for the fifth annual New York Media Festival on October 5, including the RightsTech Summit, covering the latest innovations in the management and monetization of media rights. In a recent RightsTech blog post, Sweeting took note of the growing investor appetite for rights solutions and rightstech.
“Where you have recurring revenue streams, you have a measure of predictability of the returns on rights, because you can make projections with a reasonable degree of confidence as to what those revenue streams will be five years out, ten years out. Essentially rights become something like a financial asset class in its own right,” Sweetings told CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
“People are buying and selling catalogs of rights. It’s also attracting financial investors who are simply looking for predictable returns, just as they would when buying a stock or a bond.”
