Royal

Royal.io is a US-based company, founded in May 2021 by musician and producer Justin "3LAU" Blau and serial entrepreneur JD Ross, that initially developed a marketplace for music rights. The platform was designed to address the imbalance in the music industry where intermediaries like record labels often capture the majority of profits from creative works. Royal's business model enabled artists to sell a portion of their song's streaming royalty rights to fans and collectors in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which they termed Limited Digital Assets (LDAs). This mechanism created a new revenue stream for artists while allowing them to maintain creative control and foster a deeper connection with their audience.

The founders' backgrounds are deeply rooted in their respective fields. Justin Blau, professionally known as 3LAU, is an electronic dance music DJ and producer who studied finance at Washington University in St. Louis before pursuing music full-time. His experience as an artist gave him firsthand insight into the financial structures of the music industry. Co-founder JD Ross is a seasoned entrepreneur, known for co-founding the real estate technology company Opendoor and serving as a general partner at the venture studio Atomic. His expertise lies in building disruptive, technology-driven platforms. Blau and Ross, who were friends in college, combined their expertise in music, finance, and technology to launch Royal.

Through the platform, when an artist initiated a "drop," fans could purchase these LDAs, representing a percentage of the song's future streaming royalties, using either cryptocurrency or traditional credit cards. Beyond the financial component, artists could bundle extra perks with the LDAs, such as exclusive merchandise, VIP concert tickets, or private fan experiences, adding another layer of value for supporters. The company has facilitated successful drops for prominent artists including Nas, Diplo, and The Chainsmokers, generating significant revenue for the artists and paying out royalties to the token holders. In a notable milestone, Nas became the first artist to sell song rights through Royal in January 2022 with his tracks "Ultra Black" and "Rare". The company has secured substantial financial backing, raising a total of $71 million over two funding rounds, including a $16 million seed round in August 2021 and a $55 million Series A in November 2021, with investors like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Founders Fund, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures.

In April 2024, Royal announced a strategic pivot. While continuing to support existing token trades and royalty payouts, the company is sunsetting its centralized marketplace to focus on building decentralized, open-source protocol infrastructure to address challenges related to proving the origin of AI-generated content. This new direction involves enabling creators to register their work on-chain to establish an immutable record of authorship, aiming to protect intellectual property in the evolving digital landscape. Keywords: music rights, music royalties, NFT marketplace, limited digital assets, LDA, onchain music, artist investment, fan investment, music finance, blockchain technology, Justin Blau, 3LAU, JD Ross, music ownership, streaming royalties, digital collectibles, web3 music, decentralized music, artist empowerment, royalty sharing, creative economy, music IP, AI-generated music, content provenance, digital authorship