Melba Culp is currently in the studio with Kevin '131' Gutierrez. 22% funded as of September 2023.

It's best to think of Melba Culp more like Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and other singer-songwriters who utilize touring and session musicians instead of a regular band. Touring musicians are extremely talented musicians who can fill a needed role in a moment's notice for live performances. Session musicians are the same but for the studio recording environment. In the rock and metal world, artist's such as Alice Cooper, Avantasia, Bon Jovi, Megadeth and Ozzy Osbourne also follow this structure. Touring musicians are generally compensated as crew with show, weekly or monthly rates. Session musicians are usually compensated a flat fee for their work.

Melba Culp is based out of Austin, TX - one of the most popular destinations for touring and session musicians in the world.

The same way the big bands do, it's just weighted differently! The biggest earners for musicians are recorded music, publishing, merchandising and touring. Newer and smaller artists can see all kinds of different income distribution weightings from these streams. For example, if a song has taken off from usage in a movie or commercial, the recorded music/publishing income could far exceed the touring and merchandising income for a newer artists. However, major artists earn astronomical figures from touring that are unlikely to be challenged by any other income stream.

It is highly recommended that you review the "Music Industry Income Overview" PDF found above to learn more about music industry cash flow at different levels of an artist's career.

Investors will be compensated as though they are in the band through quarterly distributions. As blockchain continues to innovate the music industry, it is an objective of Melba Culp to work towards artist/investor payments in real-time.

Quarterly distributions will begin the quarter that the first single of Album Cycle 1 is released, anticipated to be Q4 2023 or Q1 2024.

While Melba Culp cannot guarantee a definitive timeline of when investors will receive their initial investment amount back through income distributions, Melba Culp anticipates this milestone to be reached within 1-3 years of having secured the full investment amount during either Album Cycle 1 or Album Cycle 2.

Let's start with publishing rights. These are the rights to income generated from songs as they were written (arrangement, melody, lyrics). The market for publishing rights is a popular and lucrative market. 

Publishing rights can generally be sold after the maturation of a release (18 to 36 months after initial release) for 8 to 30 times the amount of annual income generated from those rights. Publishing rights can be sold back to an artist, to a IP fund or through a brokerage service. The major players (IP funds) are generally interested in catalogs from major artists, although there are some midlevel funds acquiring catalogs or portions of catalogs from lower level artists. At all levels, there are many outlets, such as Royalty Exchange, that enable rights holders to cash-in on their holdings for smaller scale through a simple online marketplace.

Not included above is the right to the master recording. This is the right to income generated from the actual recording of that song. Typically, master recordings are traded amongst IP funds and major players in the music industry. The value of the master recordings will generally be less than that of the publishing rights, however, they do not trail that far behind. Generally speaking, labels own the master recordings for signed artists, while independent artists own their own master recordings. It is not uncommon for artists have the opportunity to buy the master recording rights from their label. Mötley Crüe famously bought their master recordings from Elektra for $10M in the late 1990s and sold them for a reported $90M to BMG in 2021. Some sources report the sale price at $150M.

Now, we approach the new frontier; the Wild West. Investors can sell their entire interest in the band, including or not including their interest in the publishing and master recording income - which can be retained or sold separately. While, there is knowledge of early-stage investments in musical artists throughout history - the terms of those deals and their later exits are not publicly known. We have estimated a 3.5x multiple based upon an active year in our projections. Since initially writing this, 10% of the entire Led Zeppelin entity has been listed for sale, a first publicly-known deal of its kind.

Send us a message! We'd be happy to provide you with some helpful resources. At the bare minimum, it is highly recommended to read All You Need to Know About the Music Business: 10th Edition by renowned music lawyer Donald S. Passman.

Overall our team has collectively worked successfully with the following clients/companies:

Music - Paul McCartney, O.A.R., Shinedown, Johnny Cash, A Sound of Thunder, Bret Michaels, Madonna, Cinderella, Poison, Ratt, Warrant, Judas Priest, Dio, Tesla, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Asking Alexandria, Britny Fox, Children of Bodom, Cradle of Filth, Doro, Whitesnake, Death Angel, DragonForce, Taylor Swift, Firehouse, Fozzy, GWAR, Iced Earth, Journey, King Diamond, Lita Ford, Machine Head, Metal Church, Ministry, Opeth, Overkill, Rob Zombie, Slipknot, Stryper, Three Days Grace, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Trivium, Trixter, WASP, Ghost, Eagles, Exodus, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Joe Walsh, Chicago, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Styx, The B-52's, Pete Townshend, AC/DC, The Who, The Police, Kiss, Rick Derringer, Santana, Foreigner, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Talking Heads, Diana Ross, James Taylor, Huey Lewis and the News, Twisted Sister, Duran Duran, Eric Clapton, REO Speedwagon, Miles, Davis, Fear Factory, Frank Sinatra, Dream Theater, A-ha, Carly Simon, Bad Company, Pantera, Jimmy Buffett, Ginger Baker, Goo Goo Dolls, Dave Matthews Band, Deftones, Sublime, Creed, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Soulfly, R.E.M., Buckcherry, Godsmack, Good Charlotte, Patti Smith, Green Day, Kid Rock, Jimmy Eat World, P.O.D., 3 Doors Down, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Stone Temple Pilots, Ashlee Simpson, Lenny Kravitz, Papa Roach, Lindsay Lohan, Queen Latifah, Nickelback, Disturbed, Mudvayne, The All-American Rejects, Theory Of A Deadman, Switchfoot, Korn, Black Stone Cherry, Plane White T's, Breaking Benjamin, Evanescence, Rise Against, Fall Out Boy, Maroon 5, All Time Low, Sum 41, Staind, Lifehouse, Ringo Starr, Metallica, The Used, Alice In Chains, Train, Muse, Moby, Alter Bridge, Stone Sour, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Avenged Sevenfold, As I Lay Dying, Daughtry, Saxon, Simple Plan, Avril Lavigne, Florence and the Machine, Ricky Martin, Meat Loaf, Megadeth, Saliva, The Script, Soundgarden, Sevendust, Keith Urban, Parkway Drive, Mastodon, Bush, My Chemical Romance, The Pretty Reckless, Coldplay, Black Veil Brides, Tim McGraw, Panic! At The Disco, Michael Bublé, HIM, Bullet For My Valentine, Ugly Kid Joe, Lady Antebellum, The Cult, Rick Springfield, Skillet, Michael Bolton, Guns N' Roses, Lamb Of God, Morgan Wallen, Alan Jackson, Kings Of Leon, Take That, Cheap Trick, Jake Owen, Miranda Lambert, Badflower, Kat Von D, Zac Brown Band, Escape The Fate, Halestrom, I Prevail, Danny Elfman, Doyle, Wayne Static, Devin Townsend, Gojira, St. Vincent and more...

Film/TV - MTV, VH1, History Channel, The Twilight Saga, Everybody Wants Some, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Paramount Pictures, Amazon Studios, Atmosphere TV, Rooster Teeth Productions, WWE, Impact Wrestling, AEW, The Conway Curve, Unbroken, Transformers: The Movie, Over The Hedge, Freddy vs. Jason, Dumb and Dumber, Mrs. Doubtfire, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of Ooze, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Saturday Night Live, Green Ghost & The Masters Of The Stone, You People and more...