Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Bonds myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.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.Big investors have been packaging songs into securities backed by the revenues of hits from stars such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and The Beatles.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.The rise of “Bowie Bonds” — long seen as too exotic for serious money — as an investable asset class marks the latest twist in a US economy where the search for yield has redrawn the boundaries of finance.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.The current surge of music financings comes as a broad market rally has lifted valuations across traditional stocks and bonds, as well as more complex corners including commercial real estate and esoteric structured debt. That has boded well for the owners of music catalogues, who have seized on the rally and borrowed aggressively.“There is so much capital in the world, an enormous amount, and that capital is asset-seeking,” said one large investor in music royalty debt.The bonds have only recently begun being regularly rated by the major credit rating agencies S&P Global, Fitch and Moody’s, according to participants in the market.Bob Valentine, chief executive of Nashville-based music company Concord, said: “When we did our first deal in 2022, we had one rating from on