Kobalt continues rapid growth

28 March 2019 - Press release

Company Gross Collections Grew 30% to $494M Last Year and Expects Over $600M This Year
Kobalt Accelerates Investment in Global Growth Across Publishing, AWAL and AMRA
World’s Best and Brightest Creators Continue to Join Kobalt Roster

 

Kobalt today reported that its gross collections grew by 30% to $494M in the fiscal year-ending June 30, 2018, and the company expects continued growth to over $600M in gross collections the fiscal year- ending June 30, 2019. The company’s global headcount grew from 376 to 515 employees during that same fiscal year and has since expanded in Canada, to further support its roster across the globe.

“We’re outpacing the industry in terms of growth,” said Willard Ahdritz, Founder & CEO of Kobalt. “We’ve been laser-focused on building out the global team to support the rapidly growing music industry and setting up creators for success. We’ve established ourselves as the technology leader in the industry, and we are deeply investing in building innovative new products and services across the music ecosystem to super-serve our roster, across publishing, recordings, collections, neighbouring rights and synch. We are very excited by the rapid growth of AWAL, our recordings business, which achieved growth of over 50% in the last fiscal year and is anticipated to continue a similar growth rate this year. Through its unique multi-tiered model, AWAL is designed to serve artists at all stages of their careers on a scalable platform.”

Creators Joining Kobalt
In the past year, Kobalt continued to stake its claim as one of the world’s leading music companies by adding acclaimed talents such as Childish Gambino, Marshmello, Ozuna, Enrique Iglesias, among others to its publishing roster, while supporting billions of streams for its global and break-through artists such as Lauv, Madison Beer, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Omar Apollo, Tom Misch, Rex Orange County, among others, on AWAL.

Ahdritz added, “Our growth over the past couple years is largely attributed to this focus on the creators. No one is making more investments in building services and products to help creators, and we don’t see any end in sight for our growth. The next year will be even better and we look forward to further building out the new music industry structure creators and rights holders deserve.”