DLA Piper advises music platform Duetti in US$80 million ABS Issuance

DLA Piper advised Duetti, a music platform that aims to democratize catalog monetization for independent artists, in securing new funding for the further acquisition of music catalogs through the implementation of an inaugural US$80 million asset-backed securitization (ABS) transaction.

Since being founded in 2023, Duetti has partnered with over 500 artists across genres, based in over 30 countries. Artists have immediate access to the funds needed to support their careers by selling master catalogs, individual tracks, or portions thereof, in deals ranging from US$10,000 to US$3 million per artist. The company’s optimization services have also helped artists maximize distribution and audience impact across all platforms, driving significant increases in streams and visibility

The DLA Piper team was led by Co-Chair of DLA Piper’s Entertainment Finance Practice Robert Sherman (Los Angeles) and Partner in DLA Piper’s Structured Finance team Claire Hall (Los Angeles).

“It was a pleasure to work with Duetti on structuring this major transaction and display our team’s extensive music ABS experience, further validating DLA Piper’s reputation as music finance industry leader,” said Sherman.

The DLA Piper team included partners Rachel Fertig (Washington, DC) and Gerald Rokoff (New York); of counsel Greg Young (Los Angeles); and associates John Wei (Boston) and Chaliz Taghdis and Payvavd Coyle (both in Los Angeles).

DLA Piper's market-leading international team of media, sport and entertainment lawyers, located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, advises on M&A, finance, investment and corporate issues, production and rights acquisitions, exploiting media rights, staging and exploiting live sports and other events, intellectual property protection and enforcement, regulatory and administrative issues, antitrust and competition law, stadium and arena development and on the resolution of disputes.

DLA Piper’s Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) lawyers have decades of experience advising on complex securitizations across multiple asset classes, both traditional and nontraditional. Our ABS team advises on domestic and cross-border structured finance transactions. We represent issuers, underwriters, placement agents and investors in 144A, 4a2 and other issuances. Our experience ranges from securitizations of “fintech” small business loans and consumer loans to “esoteric” securitizations, including data center warehouse leases, solar, art, renewable energy assets, music royalties, and other intellectual property rights. We have advised on some of the “first to market” deals in emerging esoteric asset classes.