Eminem: Potentially your savings or love yourseltLose yourself

It’s the classic hip-hop success story: Up-from-the-streets rapper proves himself through hard-fought struggle for recognition, gets his big break, becomes wildly famous, struggles with addiction, gets clean, then has his back catalog of music become part of an IPO. The American dream!

The truth is that digital music streaming, as beloved as it is amongst listeners for its accessibility and cheapness, just doesn’t make all that much money for artists. But there is good news yet. Streaming is so popular these days that it’s actually growing the once-dying music business—giving the industry a lift for the first time in decades, and offering a glimmer of hope to the producers and musicians who had been watching profits crash down year after year.

And although fans and potential investors shouldn’t expect their favorite hip-hop artist to be sitting at shareholders meetings next to them (“Eminem is not involved in any deals for the sale of recording royalties and has no connection to this company,” his rep says), it’s nonetheless an unusual and possibly appealing situation. After all, “Royalty Flow (feat. the Bass Brothers)” has a nice ring to it.