Aria Raises $15M to Bring Music Royalties On-chain

- Aria secures $15 million in funding at a $50 million valuation. - Platform to tokenize music royalties from globally recognized artists into tradable assets. On September 3, 2025, The Block reported that Aria, a story-driven intellectual property (IP) tokenization platform, successfully secured $15 million in seed and strategic funding, achieving a $50 million valuation. Polychain Capital and Neoclassic Capital co-led the funding rounds, with contributions from the Story Protocol Foundation and other investors. Aria specializes in converting traditionally illiquid assets, such as music royalties, into tradable tokens. The company backs its inaugural token, APL (Aria Premiere Launch), with partial royalty rights from songs by globally recognized artists, including Justin Bieber, BTS, and Miley Cyrus, which Aria acquired for $10.95 million. APL token holders can stake their tokens to gain exposure to real-world music royalties. The platform aims to innovate further by introducing features like on-chain licensing and programmable IP modules, which will expand the possibilities within its ecosystem. In addition, Aria plans to evolve beyond the music industry by tokenizing other forms of intellectual property, such as art and film/TV content. To foster its ecosystem's growth, Aria will implement a revenue model based on several fees, including origination fees for new IP tokenization, transaction fees on secondary trading and staking, and management fees. Despite these monetization strategies, the company prioritizes platform growth and ecosystem development over short-term revenue generation.