About the Author 

Joshua Gilliland is an author, entrepreneur, investor, and a leading voice in the alternative investment space of music royalties, holding an MBA with a focus on Entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado, Denver.

After nearly three decades in the corporate tech sector, Joshua embarked on a long-planned sabbatical to focus on his personal quest for financial independence—a journey he is still enjoying and plans to extend for as long as possible. Driven by the unique retirement challenges facing Generation X, his path led him through a wide range of investments—from stocks and real estate to angel investments and passion projects in the music business. He ultimately found his niche in the data-driven, cash-flowing world of music royalties, a discovery that transformed his portfolio and his career.

As a student of the entire royalty ecosystem, his efforts to document his journey evolved from a blog and a now-defunct podcast, Music Royalty Invest, into a thriving online community. He is the founder and moderator of the popular r/MusicRoyaltyInvest subreddit, a space dedicated to the subject. He has consulted for companies in the space, interviewed the founders and CEOs of the industry's leading platforms, and his unique perspective has been recognized by major financial publications, including The Wall Street Journal. He is the founder of JG BeatsLab LLC, a venture focused on exploring the very 'Human Premium' discussed in this book, particularly the partnership between human creativity and artificial intelligence in music.

A lifelong music fan and an active drummer, Joshua’s diverse background also includes a run for the U.S. Congress in Colorado's 4th District in 2012. He wrote this book to be the playbook he wishes he’d had when he started, aiming to demystify the asset class and empower other individual investors to build their own path to financial freedom. He lives in the Bay Area of California with his loving wife, Jenny, and their children, Allie and Dane, while their oldest, Josh, resides in Arizona.