Client Spotlight: AmplifyX
A trend that’s been growing over the past couple of years is one of investing in music and art as alternative asset classes for diversification in one’s portfolio – alongside other established categories like fine wines, rare automobiles, exotic watches, precious metals, and real estate. It seems stressful economic times often underscore the appeal of alternative assets like these. There’s a reason for this influx of late: music royalties and intellectual property (IP) have become desirable investment targets given royalty payments often remain steady over time despite fluctuations in the stock market. For buyers, artists’ catalogs are commodities that can be traded like gold or oil. “If the investment is good, if you’re investing in proven back catalogs, they tend to perform really well independent of any stock movements,” music business writer Cherie Hu. “If you’re investing in a tech stock, a lot of the bigger tech stocks move in the same direction a lot of the time. Investing in music royalties escapes that co-dependence. It’s pure passive income. You’ll make money in your sleep from it. It doesn’t require any proactiveness.” While it may seem odd to think of songs as investment assets, Goldman Sachs has predicted music revenues will more than double to about $131B by 2030 so putting money in songs could prove a pretty wise strategy to diversify a stock portfolio.
There have certainly been many casualties during the pandemic — loss of life, loss of jobs, and so much more. But small business providers and communities have also been directly impacted by the loss of many vital stores, restaurants, and of service providers. In my own community, I had a favorite restaurant that I frequented several times a week over the past 25 years (kind of like my Cheers) called Hobees. It did not survive. …
I’ve decided that I’m going to write blogs periodically about some of the cool clients I’m fortunate enough to work with. One of them is a UK-based venture called 
There has been so much turbulence and upheaval of late, certainly catalyzed by the global pandemic and the resulting consequences with layoffs and unemployment, uncertainty around a timeframe when we can operate freely in the world again, and the lack of leadership and political climate (at least in the U.S.). However, things have really heated up in the past few months with racial issues and hate crimes, and the resulting protest marches, looting and overall anger, frustration and outrage. …
I don’t know about you, but with all that’s going on around us at the moment it feels like there’s so much we don’t control these days. There are a lot of things we aren’t in charge of, but one of the things we can do is to go inward, reflect, and take stock of our lives — all areas of our lives. It’s a powerful time to reinvent ourselves and our lives if we take the time to pause and consider whether the choices we’ve made in the past still hold up with where we’re at today in our lives — and where we’re going next.
During these ‘shelter in place’ times, save for daily walks, I’ve been limiting myself to going out to replenish groceries every 7-10 days on behalf of myself and my older neighbor. My sole destination is Trader Joe’s. I’m in awe and admiration in terms of how they’ve been handling the shopping experience since SIP began. …