Many of you already know this, but a new site opened up recently called Royalty Exchange which allows professional investors to bid on – and win – percentages of creative and commodity-generating estates.

Think “Sinatra’s discography” for the former and “the mineral rights to Joplin” for the latter.

Royalty Exchange is great news for investors, great news for people looking to make a quick turnaround on their royalty estate, and potentially awful news for artists. Check out their video below:

I have little to say on the matter except to ask some questions:

• Does this commoditize artists? If so, are there any future problems you can foresee?
• Would you bid on royalties of another estate in Royalty Exchange if you could?
• If you were the daughter or son of a one of the greats – say Dickens or Tolkien or the dude who wrote Peter Pan  – and served on the board of his/her creative trust, would you feel right about selling off the estate in a lump sum?(The royalties from Peter Pan, for instance, still go to serve a children’s hospital in Britain via a special act of parliament).