Elon alum Wilson Owens (’10) is bursting from the Elon bubble and into the world of entertainment, who has recently been listed at No. 19 in Forbes’ “30 Under 30: Music’s Brightest Stars” list. Between the names of stars like Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars and Rihanna, Owens was listed for his work in co-founding Royalty Exchange, an online platform for buying and selling music royalties.

“I had a feeling I might get it a little while ago, but looking at the past lists I just wasn’t sure,” Owens says. “It was definitely an honor to be on there and it’s great for the company too.”

Owens hopes that the recognition will provide good press for the company by giving them a level of credibility. Currently, he is the Director of Marketing and deals with everything from business development to anything that gets the word out.

“So far we have gotten some great press and there’s been a lot more traction on the website in the past couple of months,” says Owens.

The idea for the company came about from a company that he and the other founders, Sean Peace and Reggie Calloway, worked at called Songvest. It sold song royalties as memorabilia to fans; however, they decided to move more towards the investment of music.

“We still have the fan aspect, we’ll always have those people who buy because they like the song, but we found that people we’re really interested in buying these as long term investments,” Owens says. “A lot of the time, rather than a mutual fund or a bond, it is a lot cooler to be part of a music catalog. It is a great/only platform that we know of where you can sell a piece of your royalty to raise funds.”

Owens, a Strategic Communications major, never initially imagined himself working at such a company during his time at Elon.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I guess there’s a lot of people that are like that,” Owens says. “I knew I wanted to do something with starting up a company and being involved in that. I was also always thinking big picture.”

He believes that it was his motivation that really led to his success and away from his typical nine to five job in digital market where he felt stability but not fulfillment.

“It was about finding that thing that I was really passionate about. I stuck with this from the beginning, it was something that I did at night and on the weekends,” says Owens.  “All of the pieces fell together and then it was a lot of hard work and a lot of long nights.”

His advice for Elon students? To make your own path and having your own effect rather than focusing solely on a specific job.

“It really doesn’t matter what you do in college, people take that way too seriously. Do yourself and do everything yourself. More or less it is about doing everything on your own and trying something out that totally crazy and see if it works,” says Owens. “We failed like a billion times, but it is not being afraid to fail. Stick with it, throw yourself out there, I think it tends to work out.”