Wilson Owens, the 28-year-old co-founder of Raleigh-based Royalty Exchange, is among the top industry movers under 30 years of age, says Forbes magazine.
Royalty Exchange provides an online auction platform that enables artists, buyers and sellers to cash in on music rights.
The news from Forbes:
“Since its launch last year, Wilson’s Royalty Exchange has auctioned over $1 million worth of copyrights, including songs performed by Whitney Houston, Travis Tritt and Snoop Dogg. The idea seems to be catching on: Royalty Exchange raised a $2.1 million Series A in July.”
He’s listed alongside side such emerging stars as Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Drake, lady Gaga, Lorde, and One Direction.
Owens is Director of Marketing for The Royalty Exchange. His corporate bio:
“Involved in the music industry and the online community for many years, Wilson Owens has experienced almost every aspect of the entertainment business. Coming from a family of movie actors, film directors, musicians and entrepreneurs, he decided to follow suit by intertwining his knowledge of technology and music.
“Owens’ path began at Press Here Publicity in NYC, a PR firm that has dealt with The White Stripes, Stone Temple Pilots, Allison Krauss, Def Leppard, Mos Def and TV on the Radio. In 2009, he became involved at the prestigious independent record label: Merge Records. Boasting an all-star roster of bands including Arcade Fire, Spoon, Superchunk and She & Him, Owens surrounded himself with very successful members of the music industry.
“In 2011, Owens began work at Virante, a nationally recognized SEO Marketing firm, as a SEO Analyst. Before founding the Royalty Exchange with Peace and Calloway, he also served as the Digital Marketing Manager at Health Decisions, a leading clinical research organization renowned for innovative analytical and data driven strategies in managing clinical trials.”
Royalty Exchange made big headlines back in August. None other than Coolio bet on The Royalty Exchange. It auctionied the full song portfolio of rapper and five-time Grammy winner Coolio.
The catalog includes 123 songs from eight different albums and includes the former Billboard #1 hit song “Gangsta’s Paradise.”
The full list of Forbes honorees can be read online at Forbes’ website.
In all, Forbes picked 450 “under 30” stars across 15 different groups.
The Royalty Exchange, a two-year-old firm focused on the valuation and sale of music royalties, recently landed $2.1 million in venture capital funding from Grotech Ventures.
“With the worldwide explosion of entertainment properties and distribution platforms, demand for music content is growing exponentially, meaning more royalties paid to rights holders and rising valuations of song and catalog assets,” said Sean Peace, the chief executive officer and co-founder of The Royalty Exchange, at the time of the funding. “As an innovator in this space, we feel extremely confident about our ability to maximize value for songwriters and producers while also enabling buyers to make sound, long-term investments.”
The Exchange says it is “the world’s first online platform for the valuation and sale of music royalties and the income generated from songwriting, producing and publishing.”
In October, the firm opened an office in Nashville. The company also has offices in New York and Los Angeles.
Industry veteran Preston Sullivan will lead the new Nashville location as vice president of east coast sales and acquisitions. Sullivan’s 35 years in the music, entertainment and technology includes work as a musician and producer and starting and running entrepreneurial ventures in Nashville and Los Angeles. In 1997, Sullivan co-founded the online startup Tappedinto.com, which became Streamlogics, a company in webcasting and streaming video. Sullivan led global business development for Streamlogics, which was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2009.
