# Executive Summary

> Part of the *Music ABS and Institutional Readiness* knowledge base. This is the LLM-readable mirror of the standalone `exec-summary.pdf`. Read this file first to load the thesis before navigating to the supporting parts. See `INDEX.md` for the full map.

"Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity," David Bowie told the New York Times in 2002, five years after becoming the first artist to securitize his catalog. Per IFPI's Global Music Report 2026, streaming now reaches 837 million paid subscribers and accounts for 69.6% of global recorded music revenue. Twenty-nine years after the Bowie Bonds, rated asset-backed securitization (ABS) has become the benchmark capital destination for music catalog platforms. Those capable of accessing the rated market can access deep institutional demand at a meaningfully lower cost of capital than bilateral private credit alternatives. KBRA's May 2026 Playback reports having assigned 81 ratings across approximately $12.9 billion in cumulative issuance since 2020, up from 64 ratings across $8 billion in issuance noted in their May 2025 report, making it one of the most rapidly emerging sectors in esoteric structured credit over the past four years.

Behind those headline figures, the asset class has been institutionalizing across many of the dimensions that matter to a long-duration buyer. The market has matured over the four years since Concord's December 2022 inaugural master trust transaction, broadening rating-agency coverage from KBRA alone to multi-agency execution at scale, extending tenor to a ten-year tranche on Concord 2025, and tightening pricing on each successive vintage. The issuer base has broadened as well, with KBRA's total number of issuers doubling from 9 reported in 2023 to 18 in 2026 as more platforms clear the threshold. The distinguishing structural feature for the issuer is match-funding, with long-tenor, fixed-rate notes priced to long-duration royalty cash flows held by insurance general accounts whose asset-liability management runs on the same duration. As issuance structures mature, that financing advantage is beginning to reshape competitive dynamics across music investing, allowing scaled platforms with repeat market access to compete more aggressively for catalogs, and under repeat-issuance structures, such as master trusts, those advantages compound across successive vintages.

Yet despite growing institutional demand, only a relatively small number of music platforms have successfully accessed the rated market to date. While scale and diversification compound through acquisition strategy over multiple vintages, institutional readiness must also be built deliberately over time. This paper examines the conditions increasingly determining access to institutional financing markets, framing ABS readiness through five drivers:

1. **Financial readiness** → `03a - Financial Readiness.md`
2. **Operational maturity** → `03b - Operational Maturity.md`
3. **Legal architecture** → `03c - Legal Architecture.md`
4. **Data infrastructure** → `03d - Data Infrastructure.md`
5. **Governance** → `03e - Governance.md`

These five drivers map onto Standard Innovation's Catalog Maturity Curve, which tracks institutional readiness along a four-stage progression from Manual to Proactive. Across interviews with issuers, investors, advisors, and legal participants conducted for this paper, one theme emerged repeatedly: the preparatory work starts years before issuance itself becomes immediately relevant, and it runs through other financing structures on the way to rated ABS.

Rated ABS sits within a broader set of financing options platforms can sequence and combine, including bilateral private credit, warehouse facilities, syndicated bank facilities, and private unrated securitizations. The right combination depends on catalog size, data, operational and governance readiness, and capital strategy. Many rated issuers built bilateral or warehouse track records before moving to a securitization structure.

At the same time, the market remains relatively young and should be interpreted carefully. Some recent transactions have relied on valuation assumptions more aggressive than those observed in comparable catalog M&A markets, potentially overstating the headline loan-to-value (LTV) protection investors rely on. The sector has also not yet been tested through a prolonged streaming slowdown or broader cyclical downturn.

Even with those caveats, the paper's central finding concerns what platforms themselves can control. **Platform readiness, rather than investor appetite or structural feasibility, is now the primary constraint on rated market participation and repeat institutional execution.** The five drivers that frame this paper now shape financing outcomes directly, rather than functioning simply as support layers around the asset pool. As the market matures, many of the capabilities behind ABS readiness are becoming prerequisites for competing effectively in institutional music investing more broadly. Platforms that engage the work during the bilateral phase rather than during the run-up to a debut experience structural benefits and a head start on broader pools of capital that open up in the future. With a documented playbook now in place and the institutional buyer base broadening on every successive vintage, the rated market now offers committed platforms a defined path and a cost advantage that compounds with every issuance.

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## Reading order

For a linear read of the full analysis, navigate in this order:

1. `01 - Market History.md` — Part I. How the market got here.
2. `02 - Structure of Music ABS.md` — Part II. How a rated music ABS is built.
3. `03 - The Five Drivers (overview).md` then the five driver files — Part III. The institutional readiness framework.
4. `04 - Outlook.md` — Part IV. Performance to date, trajectories, and risk vectors.
5. `05 - Path Forward.md` — Part V. The actionable checklist.

For a deal-specific read, jump to `Appendix - Transaction Record.md`. For terminology, `Glossary.md`. For sources, `Bibliography.md`.
