Aria is where intellectual property (IP) becomes accessible, liquid, and programmable.
Whether you're a fan who wants to co-own the music you love, an investor seeking exposure to cultural IP, or simply curious about how intellectual property can move onchain and transform into a liquid asset — you're in the right place.
Let’s walk through how Aria works, what terms like IPRWA and $APL mean, dive into music rights and royalties and why it all matters.
What is Aria?
Aria is the first protocol to bring real-world intellectual property (IP) assets — starting with music catalogs — onchain as fungible tokens.
These IP real-world assets (IPRWAs) have historically been siloed, illiquid, and reserved for industry insiders. Aria changes that by enabling investors to co-own income-generating IP with new monetization opportunities through programmability.
Aria runs on Story, a Layer 1 blockchain built for intellectual property infrastructure. Story is designed for attribution, licensing, and compliant, scalable monetization — giving creators, rights holders, and builders the tools they need to bring IP onchain. It provides the decentralized foundation to register, manage, and trade IP assets natively, enabling a new era for IP.
Who is Aria built for?
For Investors
You can co-own copyright and/or income rights of real-world IP — like music rights — and be credited with revenue from streaming and licensing activities on and off chain. Token holders will also receive drops of derivative tokens created from a work’s programmable rights..
For Iconic Creators
Aria tokenizes iconic IP, allowing the rightsholder to control the means by which the assets are licensed and remixed — all managed through onchain smart contracts that automate attribution and payouts. This ensures access and quality control for iconic brands while ensuring legal clarity and transparent profit sharing for collaborating creators.
Programmable IP and Derivatives Defined
Not sure what we mean by ‘Programmable IP’ or a ‘derivative work’?
Programmable IP allows creators or original IP owners to predefine how their work can be used, licensed, and monetized. This enables registered IP to be licensed and used legally in new creations by other parties that are not the original rightsholder.
Derivatives are any new works created that use existing registered IP eg. remixes of songs. You can think of the original registered IP token as the ‘parent’ token and a derivative as a ‘child’.
Breaking Down the Basics: IPRWA tokens, $APL & More
What are IPRWA Tokens?
IPRWA stands for Intellectual Property Real-World Asset — and it’s the core asset class Aria brings onchain.
These are fungible tokens that represent fractionalized ownership in a real-world IP portfolio — starting with music rights from globally -recognized artists.
Each IPRWA token is backed by legal agreements with the original rightsholders and tied to the ownership and income associated with those assets. The ownership and income rights vary from asset to asset across portfolios, but investors can gain exposure to a range of:
Ongoing revenue from the original asset with royalties from channels like streaming, synchronization, and public performance being credited to each respective token.
Ongoing ownership of derivative tokens created from derivative works ie. remixes created from the ‘parent’ token. These will be airdropped to parent token holders.
You're not speculating on a token’s hype — you're co-owning a productive IP asset, with smart contracts enforcing how revenue and derivative tokens are distributed.
As the ecosystem grows, IPRWA tokens will expand beyond music into other categories of cultural IP — from scripts and art to characters and patents.
What is $APL?
$APL is Aria’s first IPRWA token representing the portfolio of IP and music rights brought onchain, also known as the Aria Premiere Launch portfolio.
The $APL, or Aria Premiere Launch, portfolio includes partial copyright ownership to songs by artists such as: Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, BLACKPINK, and Selena Gomez. Revenue is generated through royalties associated with the songs and recordings which come by way of streaming, synchronization, and public performance revenues. These royalties will be distributed to token holders and are projected to earn between 5-8 % annualized.
You can find the full list of assets within the $APL portfolio to date here
What to expect from the $APL claim on June 25th?
If you participated in the Aria Premiere Launch with StakeStone, you’ll be able to claim 1 $APL per 1 AriaDebutLP token on June 25, 2025.
Important details
The claim window closes on July 21st at 4:00:00 AM PT (60 days from the claim opening)
The eligibility snapshot for AriaDebutLP holders was taken on May 16 at 12:00 UTC
For those of you who may be new to Aria, you won’t be able to claim $APL directly — but you may have the opportunity to purchase tokens from existing holders once distribution to StakeStone depositors begins on June 25, depending on market availability and your jurisdiction.
What are Aria Points?
Aria Points are community points that track your contributions and make you eligible for future rewards.
If you deposited into the Aria Premiere Launch, you’ve earned 2 points per USDC that you deposited into the Stakestone.
Outside of this, you can also earn points by:
Completing Zealy quests via Discord (if you have the Discord OG role)
Staying active in the Aria Discord
What is the Aria Leaderboard?
The leaderboard now live on Aria allows our users to view their ranking, follow their points history, and see how they compare across the community all in one place.
Why did we create the leaderboard?
The leaderboard offers insight into our growing user base, while offering user feedback to help us evolve and deliver tools as well as experiences that truly resonate with our community.
The more you engage, the more points you earn. These points will be redeemable for future rewards, so stay active and involved!
What is $IP?
$IP is the native token of Story Protocol, the Layer 1 blockchain powering Aria.
You use $IP to:
Stake $IP to secure the network – Validators stake $IP to maintain blockchain security and integrity in Story’s Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
Transact on Story with $IP as gas – All transactions on Story require $IP as the gas token, ensuring sustained network operations.
Govern the $IP ecosystem – Token holders participate in governance decisions, steering the future of Story’s onchain intellectual property market.
If you deposited into the Aria Premiere Launch with StakeStone, you can claim your $IP token rewards now via app.ariaprotocol.xyz. The claim window closes on July 21 at 4:00 AM PT.
If you are looking to purchase $IP tokens these can be purchased on either a CEX (Centralized Exchange) or a DEX (Decentralized Exchange). A quick and easy way to buy $IP is through the Centralized Exchange, Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/price/ip.
How Do Music Rights Work?
To understand why music is such a powerful first asset class for Aria, you need to know what you're actually co-owning.
Music isn’t just cultural capital — it’s intellectual property. And like any valuable IP, it comes with rights and revenue.
In the music industry, rights are generally split into two main categories:
Master Rights
These are the rights to the actual sound recording — the version you hear on Spotify or Apple Music.
They're typically owned by record labels, unless the artist is independent. Master rights generate revenue from:
Streaming
Digital downloads
Physical sales (CDs, vinyl)
Sync licensing for use in film, TV, games, ads
Publishing Rights
These cover the songwriting itself — lyrics, melody, chords, structure.
They're owned by songwriters, composers, and music publishers. Publishing generates income through:
Performance royalties (radio, live performances, TV broadcasts)
Mechanical royalties (streaming and physical/digital sales)
Sync licensing, when the composition is used in visual media
So what's the difference between rights and royalties?
Rights are legal ownership claims over a piece of IP — like owning the master recording or songwriting of a song.
Royalties are the income earned when those rights are monetized — for example, every time the track is streamed or licensed.
How Aria Fits In
With Aria, these music rights and associated royalties are fractionalized and tokenized — creating a new way to participate in the music IP economy.
When you own an IPRWA token via Aria, you aren’t just co-owning a piece of music IP, you're gaining exposure to real revenue streams tied to actual usage, and a right to receive tokens that represent new 'derivative' works that use the IP you hold.
The Aria Premiere Launch portfolio specifically focused on purchasing partial rights to existing tracks, for the most part, from some of the writers and producers of the iconic tracks. The royalties associated with the songs will be distributed to $APL token holders and come from streaming, synchronization, and public performance revenues, with percentages of royalty rights varying from song to song.
The rights and revenue associated with those rights are now made accessible onchain.
And this is just the start.
As Aria expands, the goal is to support programmable rights — creating an environment where a remix economy can flourish and create future monetization opportunities for music IP assets, with attribution, licensing, and royalty flows are managed transparently and without legal bottlenecks.
Music has always been a business. Now, it's an onchain asset class.
Through IPRWA tokens, Aria connects the value of music IP with a broader base of investors — opening the door to real-world IP backed by real-world income.
Music is just the beginning.
So… What Can You Actually Do on Aria Right Now?
Depositors who participated in the Aria Premiere Launch can now claim their $IP tokens on the Aria webapp— available through July 21 here app.ariaprotocol.xyz
What’s Next?
Here’s what’s coming up:
$APL token launches June 25 — representing the Aria Premiere Launch portfolio.
Programmable rights coming soon — starting with permissioned licensed remixing, attribution, and new monetization streams.
Aria is building a new kind of market — one where IP is no longer locked behind closed doors, but becomes a productive, programmable asset class for creators and investors alike.
Own the iconic.
→ Join our Discord here
→ Follow @Aria_Protocol on X
→ Listen to the Aria playlist on Spotify
— The Aria Team
