Rights administration specialist Kobalt Music Group has announced some updates to its top leadership. First, Richard Sanders has stepped down as the company’s president and chief revenue officer. Laurent Hubert, who heads the company’s platform and investments team, will be replacing Sanders. Continue Reading
Kobalt announced that it will administer and provide publishing services for a majority of the legendary Elvis Presley’s catalog. The deal covers some of the “most desired tracks for film and TV trailers, soundtracks, and commercials,” Kobalt said in a statement. Continue Reading
Kobalt debuted a new app for its publishing clients that offers a real-time view at revenue. For now, the app from the publisher and royalty collection service is only on iOS, with a planned launch for Android in the future. Continue Reading
The American Music Rights Association (AMRA), owned by music publisher Kobalt, which claims to be the largest independent music publisher in the world, reported increased earnings from both YouTube and Spotify in Q3 2015. During its first three months of administering Kobalt’s catalog in Europe, AMRA saw a 26% increase in Spotify earnings and a 34% increase in YouTube earnings for the publishing client. Continue Reading
YouTube has entered an international deal with AMRA, the U.S.-based collecting society, to collect music royalties in more than 100 markets. The deal could streamline the process of collecting royalties for writers represented by AMRA and its parent company, Kobalt. Continue Reading
Apple Music has entered into a deal with an Australian telecom company to offer a 12-month free trial of the streaming service as part of a mobile bundle. Apple Music has also signed with AMRA, the digital collections society owned by Kobalt. There are also rumors of Beats 1 producing more video content. Continue Reading
Kobalt, a London-based music company offering label, publishing, and rights services, has launched a new digital rights collection society. The new society is called the American Music Rights Association, and is based on a U.S. collection agency that Kobalt purchased last year. It will offer both mechanical and performing rights services at a global scale. Continue Reading
Publisher Kobalt announced that for the first time, its writers received greater royalties from Spotify than from iTunes. During the first quarter of 2014, Spotify royalties in Europe were 13% higher than those earned from iTunes downloads in the region. We’re still a long way from declaring victory for the streaming financial model, since this change has only been observed in Europe for Kobalt’s stable of about 6,000 songwriters and artists. However, Spotify’s first success over the long-dominant Apple-owned store is still a notable milestone. Continue Reading