Investors including Blackstone, Carlyle and Michigan’s state pension fund have raised at least $4.4bn of debt backed by songs this year, a record amount that brings once-niche “Bowie bonds” into the mainstream as Wall Street hunts for yield.

The amount of debt backed by music raised in 2025 compares with more than $3.3bn in 2024, according to a Financial Times analysis. Just $300mn of these deals were completed in 2021, and there were no recorded deals in 2020.

David Bowie pioneered the model in 1997, raising $55mn against future royalties on his catalogue at a 7.9 per cent yield. James Brown and others followed, but for two decades such deals were curiosities. Today they have become a multibillion-dollar market drawing in the world’s biggest investors.