SongVest vs Royalty Exchange 2026

They sell exposure to the same asset class — music and media royalty income — but through structurally opposite mechanics. Royalty Exchange is a secondary marketplace where existing royalty rights transfer between two private parties via binding public auctions; no securities are issued, no Form D or Reg A filings exist for the auctions, and the platform earns a commission. SongVest is a Regulation A+ Tier II primary issuer that creates fractional securities (SongShares) backed by royalty rights, qualifies each offering with the SEC, and sells them to retail investors with Dalmore Group LLC as broker of record. Royalty Exchange transfers an existing asset; SongVest issues a new security wrapped around one. Same underlying income type, completely different legal and economic structures.

SongVest, materially. Across AltStreet's data — 2,460 completed Royalty Exchange transactions and 70 distinct SongVest offerings disclosed in 30 SEC filings — Royalty Exchange's auctions clear at a median 6.7x trailing royalty income on perpetual 'life of rights' deals (full market range 2.9x-8.7x). SongVest's life-of-copyright SongShare offerings price at 25x-94x trailing royalty income, with Queen catalog offerings at the 50x-90x high end and contemporary hits at 25x-31x. SongShares typically cost three to ten times the multiple a buyer would pay for similar trailing royalty income on Royalty Exchange. Translated to yield: Royalty Exchange auctions priced at a median 16.6% trailing yield; SongShares typically price at 1%-4% trailing yields. The spread reflects real structural costs (Reg A qualification, sourcing fee, admin overhead) — but it is the central economic fact of this comparison.

No, on both — and this is unusual for a private-market asset class. Royalty Exchange auction purchases require only independent verification by the platform itself, not accredited status. Non-US citizens may also participate (subject to up to 30% US withholding under tax treaty), and royalties can be held in a self-directed IRA via partner custodian Alto IRA. SongVest offerings are qualified under Regulation A+ Tier II, which by design permits sales to non-accredited investors subject to per-investor purchase limits (the greater of 10% of annual income or 10% of net worth for non-accredited investors). The exception on Royalty Exchange is the Private Syndicates product — Reg D LLC interests sold to accredited investors only.

Royalty Exchange yes (with friction); SongVest no. Royalty Exchange operates a real resale path: owners can re-list assets on the marketplace 'to lock in gains at any time,' though the platform itself notes resale fees 'may require the investor to hold the asset longer to cover those fees.' There is no market-maker, no redemption right, no guaranteed bid — liquidity is buyer-driven and frictional, but it exists. SongVest has no secondary market and no resale mechanism. SongShares are illiquid hold-for-income securities; per the offering circulars, they are 'speculative, illiquid, and an investor could lose the entire investment.' The Reg A regulatory structure does not contemplate built-in secondary trading, and SongVest does not operate an ATS or facilitate peer-to-peer transfers. The asset's term is typically Life of Copyright — meaning decades — with no platform-supported exit before the asset's term resolves naturally.

Royalty Exchange charges a seller-side commission set before listing and collected after the auction, plus a buyer-side Marketplace fee due within two business days of winning — disclosed but set per transaction. Resale fees apply on re-listing. No management fee, no ongoing carry, no admin fee on royalty income received. SongVest layers three fee dimensions: (1) a sourcing fee of 17%-49% of each offering's gross proceeds captured at the point of sale, with 49% on Queen catalog at the high end and 17%-31% on most contemporary hits; (2) an ongoing 5% administrative fee deducted from royalty collections before distributions; (3) on many offerings, a substantial portion of remaining proceeds funds the issuer's balance sheet (repayment of prior promissory notes) rather than direct rights acquisition — disclosed in each Use of Proceeds table. On a SongShare offering at a 31% sourcing fee with a typical debt-repayment allocation, roughly 35¢ of each invested dollar directly funds royalty-rights exposure.

Different kinds of disclosure, each strong in different ways. Royalty Exchange publishes per-listing financial histories, verified by the platform, plus multi-year quarterly earnings series — and AltStreet's data layer captures 2,460 completed transactions with derived economics and a 55,786-row quarterly earnings series. But there is no SEC supervision of the marketplace auctions; the platform discloses what it chooses to. SongVest files extensive SEC documentation under Reg A+ Tier II for every offering: Form 1-A (offering circular with Use of Proceeds table, sourcing fee disclosure, risk factors), Form 1-A POS (post-qualification amendments), Form 253G2 (qualified circular supplements), and Form 1-K (audited annual reports with issuer financials). The Form 1-K discloses the issuing entity's going-concern qualifications, member deficit, employee count, and promissory note balances — material information not available in a direct marketplace transfer because the marketplace's balance sheet is not the buyer's issuer exposure. SongVest's SEC-supervised disclosure is broader but lives in the filings, not on the offering page. Royalty Exchange's per-listing data is right where the buyer needs it.

This is one of the sharpest differences. Royalty Exchange (founded 2011, Denver-based) is a marketplace business whose financial health is not directly material to the asset transfers it facilitates — the buyer's exposure is to the underlying royalty stream, not to Royalty Exchange's balance sheet. SongVest is structurally different: SongShares are securities of RoyaltyTraders LLC (dba SongVest, CIK 0001855626), an operating entity whose audited financial statements show members' equity moving from +$8,784 (end of 2021) to −$1,713,706 (end of 2024), going-concern qualifications in every audited period, zero full-time and zero part-time employees on the issuing entity (operations run through parent SAJA LLC and sister RT2 LLC after the October 2024 restructuring), and $1.33M of promissory notes outstanding against $1.12M of total assets. SongShare distributions depend on the issuer continuing to operate over the assets' lives — typically Life of Copyright (decades) — making issuer health directly relevant in a way it is not for Royalty Exchange.

Both list iconic names; the question is what you pay for the access. SongVest specifically markets iconic-name access: Queen catalogs (Bohemian Rhapsody Soundtrack, Under Pressure, I Want It All, A Kind of Magic, The Show Must Go On), Beyoncé Countdown offerings, TLC hits (No Scrubs, Creep, Diggin On You), Justin Bieber Christmas, and others. These are genuinely hard to access elsewhere at retail ticket sizes. The cost: Queen catalog offerings are at the 49% sourcing fee and 50x-90x multiple end of the SongShare spectrum. Royalty Exchange's marketplace runs across recognizable catalogs too — the listings have included a Listerine trademark royalty (~$1.8M / ~16x), Commodores recordings, music from the Shrek franchise, Glee profit participation, Tate McRae 'You Broke Me First' — at marketplace multiples (typically 6x-9x perpetual). For a buyer who specifically wants Queen at any price, SongVest may be the only path; for one buying iconic exposure on multiple, the marketplace price level is structurally cheaper.

For most investors comparing these two with a financial-return mandate, Royalty Exchange is the structurally cheaper way to access music royalty income — the 6.7x median multiple compares against SongVest's 25x-94x, and the real (if frictional) resale path matters over multi-year holds. Royalty Exchange is appropriate for: income-focused buyers who underwrite on forward (decay-adjusted) income, diversified-portfolio royalty builders, accredited and non-accredited investors comfortable with caveat-emptor terms, and anyone who values having an exit option. SongVest is appropriate for: retail investors who specifically value SEC-supervised disclosure over caveat-emptor marketplace purchases and are willing to pay the multiple-and-fee premium for that supervised wrapper; fan-investors investing small dollars in songs or artists they personally value, treating financial return as secondary; investors comfortable holding fully illiquid securities of an operating issuer with going-concern qualifications for the asset's full term (typically Life of Copyright). Both are legitimate; the choice depends on whether the regulatory wrapper is worth the multiple paid for it.