The Rated Music ABS Market 2021–2026

What the rated music ABS record shows

The rated market has grown from a single transaction in 2021 to roughly $10.6 billion of cumulative issuance by 2026. As the asset class matured, senior spreads compressed from about 340 basis points on Concord's 2022 debut to roughly 160 by 2026, ratings clustered in the single-A range, and S&P, Fitch, and Moody's joined KBRA on the marquee deals. Structures evolved too, moving from single-deal SPVs to master trusts and, in 2025, the first multi-tranche music ABS.

The principal risks are refinancing pressure on peak-vintage debt, credit dispersion in unseasoned collateral, binary AI litigation, and synthetic content dilution of royalty pools. The principal opportunities are the now-live monetization of AI licensing (Suno–BMG/Warner, Spotify–UMG/Merlin), the persistent private market premium to listed equities, and the structural cost-of-capital edge available to scaled platforms. For CIOs, the asset class now merits a permanent, modest alternatives allocation, but security selection, platform quality, seasoning discipline, and rational entry multiples matter more than ever, because the era of indiscriminate catalog buying has come to a close. For the full argument behind this tracker, read the whitepaper.