Private equity firms are having a royalties ball as streaming alters music’s clashflow, making it a lucrative and attractive asset class. Global revenues from the music industry had begun to wane after the CD era, as physical sales of music tracks dropped, but the surging popularity in streaming platforms has breathed new life into the industry and created more potential for the future of music consumption, one music buyer, who received a USD 1 bn commitment from private equity giant Apollo Global Management, told the Financial Times. With viral trends, advertising and movies renewing songs’ lifetime and streaming platforms providing strong revenue streams, the potential market for music copyrights is drawing some of the biggest names in private equity.

Digital distribution has played a huge role in reviving the music industry. Last year, the industry saw its sixth consecutive year of growth after “nearly two decades of gradual decline,” when the transition from CD to MP3 and file sharing hammered the industry. The widespread adoption of music streaming services, which accounted for 56% of the recorded music industry in the US, recorded an estimated USD 11.9 bn in global sales last year. The only other growing trend in the music industry is vinyl records, which recovered from USD 34 mn worldwide sales in 2006 to USD 416 mn in 2015, as the revival of the classic format draws more enthusiasts.

The latest from Dr Evi…sorry…Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin unveiled plans to develop a commercial space station “Orbital Reef” as a “mixed-use business park,” with Boeing and Sierra Space, Reuters reports. Orbital Reef announced that the 32k sq ft park would “provide customers with an ideal location for ‘film-making in microgravity’ or ‘conducting cutting-edge research,’” in addition to sporting a space hotel. A space tourism company, Blue Origin launched its first flight into space in July of this year.