Fixed-term catalogue licence
An upfront payment in exchange for defined rights and income for an agreed period, with the catalogue returning at the end of the term subject to the deal terms.
Services · Catalogue Funding
Unlock capital from your catalogue. Keep ownership.
Changing Tides sources and negotiates fixed-term catalogue licensing and royalty-backed funding for artists, estates and independent labels whose music already generates income.
Plain English
This is not the same as selling your masters.
A catalogue sale transfers ownership permanently. Funding and licensing can instead use the income generated by an existing catalogue to create an upfront payment for a defined term.
The exact structure varies: it can be a royalty-backed advance, a fixed-term licence, or a deal linked to the collection and exploitation of the catalogue. The important questions are what you receive upfront, what income is committed, how long the term lasts, and exactly what comes back to you at the end.
Structures
Three routes I can explore.
The best route depends on the catalogue and what you are actually trying to achieve.
Royalty-backed funding
Capital advanced against proven catalogue income, with repayment or recoupment coming from future royalties rather than a permanent transfer of ownership.
Distribution-linked structures
Sometimes a distributor can combine catalogue distribution with an advance or funding structure. If your main need is distribution rather than brokerage, that conversation lives at Wavy Music ↗.
Process
How I run it.
1. I understand what you actually want.
Cash now is not enough of a brief. We look at the amount you need, how long you are prepared to commit the catalogue, what rights you need to retain, and whether funding is genuinely better than a sale or simply waiting.
2. I get the catalogue into a form buyers can assess.
Usually that means recent detailed royalty statements, catalogue and ownership information, current label/distribution agreements, and anything else that materially affects the rights or income.
3. I approach the right market.
I take the opportunity to funders, rights companies and other buyers that fit the catalogue rather than treating every catalogue as the same product.
4. We compare the whole deal, not just the headline advance.
Term, recoupment, revenue share, control, approvals, reversion and any extension rights matter as much as the upfront number. I put competing structures next to each other in plain English.
5. You decide. I negotiate and help get it closed.
I stay on the artist/rightsholder side of the process through commercial negotiation and into documentation alongside your lawyer.
What I need
A clean first look is usually simple.
Recent statements
Ideally 12 months of detailed distributor, label or royalty statements so the income is evidenced rather than estimated.
Rights position
Who owns or controls the masters, and whether anyone else has approval, participation or security over them.
Current agreements
Any existing distribution, label, licensing or advance agreement that affects what can actually be offered.
Your objective
How much capital you are looking for and what you are — and are not — prepared to give up to get it.
Transparency
How I get paid.
My standard fee on a brokered funding or licensing deal is 10% of the closed advance, unless we agree a different structure in writing before I start outreach.
No surprise additions at the end. If the structure is wrong for you, I would rather tell you than force a deal to earn a fee.
"I had an excellent experience working with Pearse. Communication was clear and consistent throughout, and everything was handled in a friendly and professional manner. The deal was fair, straightforward, and moved swiftly from start to finish. I'd be more than happy to work together again in the future."Dean Elso — Reboot Events · Manager, DATSKO
Want to know what a fixed-term deal could look like?
Send the catalogue and recent statements. I’ll tell you whether there is a real funding conversation to have.
Talk to me