Are the assets written off for 10 years too? Thought they are a shorter time and he was only talking about expensive music licences? This would definitly change my perspective. But as of now he can write off ~10% off all music liscences he bought so far which should reduce his tax this year with the expenses of the last years accordingly. But whatever, ocean will find a solution.The problem with writing off assets is you have to depreciate them over time, while you still need to acquire new assets. As it's depreciated over ten years, he's not able to claim the full cost in one year, but he's actually paid out the full cost in one year. the following year, he needs more assets, so he's further out of pocket and still can't claim the full expense, so he ends up getting taxed on more money than he has each year. Sure it helps in other years, but if you need to buy something on a yearly basis it hurts really quickly.
That's probably why he went for cheaper licenses that were yearly, because subs get taxed as a different expense, because they're a lease instead of a purchase.