The following blog post is not financial advice. The information in this article is used for entertainment purposes only.
Many violinists cannot afford the tools of their trade.
A lot the famous musical instruments made by Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, and Vuillaume, are too costly and out of reach for most musicians. In fact, there are very few violinists that own their Strads outright. This begs the question, "Will I or can I own a sliver of a rare instrument?".
Well the people at Strumenti believe you can. Think of it like a mutual fund for the string instrument world.
Strumenti's goal is to allow people to invest in shares of rare stringed instruments, and make an impact on the career of a musician.
Strumenti takes elements of purchasing a portion of a mutual fund, where you can have partial ownership of your favorite instrument like owning your own Bored Ape Yacht Club image, to owning a share of a valuable instrument in real life.
And Strumenti consider this as a long term investment. (Definitely do not think of this as a get rich quick quick opportunity.)
The company argues that investing in an instrument long term offers great returns than the stock market that historically average between 7% to 12%. When you invest, you become what's considered a patron investor and have to fall under the requirements of the SEC. (securities and exchange commission)
To me, this is a forward thinking idea would consider this a long term initiative like real estate.
Historically, real estate values have only gone up except for one time and that was the 2008 crash in the US. Musical instruments and buying musical instruments have been considered a part of the luxury item market. many of these instruments are sold in auction by the highest bidder. When these instruments continue to go to auction, the values continue to increase over time based on the value in which it was purchased at auction. However, when there is an instrument produced by a living maker, the value of the instrument is based on whatever the maker is selling it for.
The problem for a long time was that many institutions, banks, and foundations with lots of capital were able to pay for these instruments in cash outright and end up going into museums or private collections. Musicians never get a chance to perform on these rare instruments, and that is why Strumenti was created.
The only downside I see with Strumenti at the moment is that you need to be able to make a minimum investment of $10,000 and hold that investment for a minimum of 5 years. Which is still not AS approachable of an investment to the common person.
This is an intriguing idea and I want to get your take on this in the comment section below!
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