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Just as David Bowie left an indelible mark on music, he also played an important but lesser-known role in the world of finance.

In 1997, Bowie became the first musician to package his future royalties into a security that could be bought and sold by investors, an asset that came to be known as a "Bowie bond."

The sale of the bonds to Prudential Securities netted the musician $55 million. They were downgraded to junk by Moody's Securities in 2004, amid a wave of illegal downloading and weak overall music sales.


Rob Ford, a London-based money manager, told 

 that the Bowie bonds "were as groundbreaking as his music." He added, "Not only were they followed by a number of other artists, but they set the template for deals backed by a whole range of assets."
Investment banker David Pullman told 

 that Bowie came to him considering selling his catalog of songs. "But then he realized these were his babies and he didn't want to," Pullman said.


He then suggested Bowie securitize his music instead:

 reported, the revenue underlying the bonds included royalties from 25 Bowie albums released between 1969 and 1990:



Pullman later sold bonds based on the works of numerous other musicians, including Marvin Gaye, James Brown and the band Iron Maiden. As  


In the years that followed, securitization became much more common. Large numbers of bonds based on mortgages, credit cards and student loans have been sold over the years and played a role in the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in 2008.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Jim Zarroli

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He was the first musician to package his future royalties into a bond and sell them to investors.

David Bowie also left his mark on Wall Street

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