TweelX - Music Stock Exchange Launches This Fall

Investors now have the ability to buy stock in music.  By pairing a veteran music publishing operation with an online trading platform, TweelX has established a viable securities market in music.

TweelX, a Nashville-based publishing company, acquires songs through digital publishing as well as through co-publishing arrangements with labels and other publishers. 

Then, through its patent-pending platform, TweelX issues stock in these songs to accredited investors.  Investors may receive royalty distributions through online accounts on a quarterly basis.  Investors may also sell their shares after one year.

“Our music stock platform offers publishers, labels and independent artists a powerful capital-raising solution that simultaneously promotes artist-content and increases exposure,” says Chase Tweel, founder and chief executive officer of TweelX. 

TweelX’s veteran publishing staff manages the song-investments.  This includes promoting and licensing investors’ songs, administering copyrights, and collecting and distributing royalties. 

Selling stock in music publicly has not been allowed in the past under federal securities laws, but a recent SEC regulation now makes it possible.  The regulation is part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act).  While the JOBS Act focuses primarily on easing restrictions for small companies seeking to raise capital and to go public, it also modifies certain rules with the effect of loosening marketing restrictions of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933.  TweelX will fully launch on September 23, 2013.  This is simultaneous with the effective date of the new rule that relaxes restrictions on advertising the sale of unregistered securities, and hence enabling the public sale of “music stock.”  

The TweelX music stock exchange will feature songs from a variety of artists and writers, including up-and-coming sensation, Ty Bates, who recently signed with music industry juggernaut, Red Light Management.  The launch will also feature legendary singer-songwriters such as Steve Dean, who has co-written six number one hits with artists such as Rodney Atkins, Alabama, George Strait, and Reba McEntire, as well as notable writers like Bill Kenner, who boasts three number one hits and recordings with artists such as Alan Jackson, Prince, LeeAnn Womack, Mark Chestnut, and Tracey Byrd.  

Grammy-nominated songwriter, Billy Montana, says that “TweelX is a great model and a great opportunity for serious artists to generate revenues in a business where it’s increasingly challenging to do so, whether for unrecorded songs or for songs that have experienced decreased royalty streams over the years . . . in either case, it is great way to gain exposure for the songs and the artists and writers behind the songs.”

TweelX is also excited to showcase its genre-diversity with bands like Mama’s Love, a southern jam-rock sensation out of Athens, Georgia.  Mama’s Love most recent album was produced by John Keane. Keane has produced notable acts such as R.E.M. and Widespread Panic. Mama’s Love will be joined on TweelX by other up-and-comers in the jam-rock, funk, Americana, jazz, alternative rock, hip-hop, jazz, Christian-rock, and EDM scenes.