Music fans to earn royalties from songs including MJ’s first ever record with the Jackson 5 after British company secures rights to 100,000 tracks in £38million deal – giving users the chance to part-own classic hits

Music fans will be able to earn royalties from songs after a British music company secured the rights to 100,000 tracks in a £38million deal.

Media giant AYOZAT has bought the copyright to a string of hits and its users will be given the opportunity to part-own the songs.

The back catalogue includes Michael Jackson’s first-ever song with the Jackson 5 called ‘Big Boy’, which he recorded before the Mowtown legends hit the big time and will feature in a new 2023 film about the band.

Other tracks included in the deal AYOZAT struck with entertainment copyright specialist Lumi AG include the Bee Gees, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Luciano Pavorotti and Sex Pistols.

A music source said: ‘This is a huge deal for music fans. It’s very rare to get the chance to invest in tracks by the world’s leading musicians.

‘And given the early Jackson 5 songs are set to be exposed to a whole new audience next year, the chance to earn big money via royalties is a genuine possibility.’

Users of AYOZAT can purchase the rights to songs from the media company’s NFT-ownership platform.

NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) are a digital asset, representing a real-world object, which are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and encoded with the same software as many cryptocurrencies.

Lumi AG had purchased early Jackson 5 material from South Chicago music studio Steeltown, who were hired by the band’s manager and father Joe Jackson in 1968 for their first ever recording sessions – a year before the family were discovered by Motown and transformed into global superstars.

Users can buy and own a stake in the creative rights to the songs via a platform powered by QUID, a new cryptocurrency token from AYOZAT-subsidiary Linkquid.

Explaining the revolutionary concept, Umesh Perera, chairman of AYOZAT said: ‘This new platform gives fans the chance to invest in music and cryptocurrency with the added security of prime assets.

‘NFTs are set to revolutionise the music world, to be the first to make an offering of this specific kind is a proud moment for AYOZAT’.

‘Users can make money from pieces of history – the Jackson 5’s first ever album, a treasure trove of golden undiscovered recordings from the world’s most famous acts, from the Sex Pistols to the Bee Gees to Pavarotti’.

‘We cannot wait to share the benefits of trustless ownership with users around the world’.

‘As the copyrighted content continues to earn money – via sync, television, radio, advertising, and other means – those royalties will be distributed between our NFT platform and the NFT owners.’