Publishing
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Iranian-Dutch singer, songwriter and producer Sevdaliza has signed her first-ever publishing agreement with Sony Music Publishing. Known for releasing boundary-pushing music for the last decade, beginning with her EP The Suspended Kid in 2015, Sevdaliza reached new heights last year with her viral single “Alibi” featuring Pabllo Vittar and Yseult, which became her first Billboard […]
Word Collections is enhancing its capabilities by offering a new service that will provide global royalty music publishing collections from digital service providers (DSPs) via direct deals.
As part of this new service, called Songwriter Collections, Word Collections is expanding its potential client roster by offering collection capabilities to DIY indie songwriters. It’s an apparent attempt by the firm’s founder/CEO, Jeff Price, to duplicate his earlier successes with TuneCore and Audiam, two digital platforms he co-founded and subsequently sold.
Word Collections currently administers the publishing catalogs for Metallica, Eight Mile style (Eminem), Greta Van Fleet, Jason Mraz, Grace Potter, Silversun Pickups, John Oates, Songwriters Guild Of America, The Offspring’s Bryan “Dexter” Holland, Shriekback, George Carlin, Margaret Cho and Jerry Seinfeld, among others.
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Word Collections says it has direct licensing, data exchange, auditing and royalty collections from digital platforms like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer and Qobuz, which generate over 90% of digital royalties.
The DSP licensing deals facilitate the payment of digital mechanical and performance royalties directly to Word Collections, thus bypassing all the intermediary administration fees deducted by collection societies around the world as the royalties flow through the system back to songwriters and publishers, according to Price.
While Word Collections will charge an administrative fee for this service, Price claims it will provide “faster and higher payouts” than if the songwriters’ digital royalty payout had remained in the traditional global collection system of waiting for payouts from local societies. That’s because freeing digital royalties from the traditional system “untangles it from what’s cumbersome and inefficient” and the retained administration fees that system has. “Besides, the traditional societies are very good at non-digital collections,” Price says.
What’s more, Price says that Songwriter Collections’ proprietary systems reduce “inefficiencies, fraud, inaccurate data, and the possibility of losing royalties” through the black box mechanisms employed by some societies of making distribution payouts by market share when a recording is not matched to the song’s publishers.
Price says that songwriter collections from around the globe go through a number of intermediaries, each taking a fee, before the royalties reach the songwriters and publishers. “In the end, those fees could collectively amount to songwriters losing out on about 30% in Europe; and as much as 50% from royalties flowing from territories outside Europe,” he says. While Word Collections will charge a 20% administration fee, he points out that’s lower than what normally happens when collections are made by other entities, pointing to the cited percentages for Europe and territories outside Europe.
“The existing system is so incredibly complicated and complex and it just doesn’t have to be that way, and that’s what Songwriter Collections does, it eliminates those issues,” Price says. “You get paid all the money; and you can see everything,” due to the removal of all the middlemen in collecting performance and mechanical royalties for digital plays.
While Price says his new service bypasses collection societies around the globe, for the U.S., Word Collections will still need to collect royalties from the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) due to the blanket compulsory license. And while the MLC doesn’t charge a fee for its administration in collecting royalties from U.S. digital services, Songwriter Collections will charge a fee on royalties from the MLC.
But he says songwriters and publishers who sign up with Word Collections will benefit from its “bespoke technology stem called Concello, which is a real-time tracking and audit system built specifically for the MLC.” He adds that this system recovers and extracts all the money the MLC collects for songwriter’s songs.
Other differences that Songwriter Collections offers:
A six-month term, with a 30-day notice after the six months that allows the songwriter to terminate if they are unhappy with the service;
Songwriters/publishers can pick and close the countries they would like to use the service for.
Songwriters/publishers can also choose what songs they want the service to cover. In other words, they don’t have to assign their entire song catalog to the service.
“This project began at TuneCore as I figured out how things worked and how to get this done,” Price says. “This has been my Moby Dick. It took me 14 years to get this done.”
Venezuelan singer-songwriter Joaquina has signed a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music, the company tells Billboard. This marks her first worldwide administration agreement since her best new artist win at the Latin Grammys in 2023, which made her the youngest act to win that category at age 19. “I believe a huge part of […]
Warner Chappell continued to dominate the Country Airplay chart for a fifth consecutive quarter in Q4 of 2024 with a strong 33.67% market share and 71 songs on the chart. This includes the quarter’s No. 1 song “I Am Not Okay” by Jelly Roll, which was co-written by WCM Nashville/Tape Room Music’s Casey Brown and Taylor Phillips.
Sony Music Publishing comes in second with 19.57% market share, thanks to its 53 songs on the chart, also including “I Am Not Okay,” which was co-written by SMP talent, Ashley Gorley. Gorley, a longtime hitmaker in Nashville, is this quarter’s top songwriter too.
Universal Music Publishing Group holds the third spot, just as it did in the last quarter, with a 9.81% share of the chart and 26 ranked songs. Among its many Country Airplay hits is “Pour Me A Drink” by genre-bending star Post Malone which ranked as the second biggest song on the chart this quarter.
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Kobalt came in fourth place with a 6.83% market share and 19 songs on the chart. BMG arrives in fifth, up one spot from Q3 thanks to its share of songs like “I Am Not Okay.” In total, the Berlin-based company has shares of 14 songs on the Q4’s Country Airplay chart.
Concord, the fifth largest publisher on the Country Airplay chart, significantly grew its market share this quarter, from 2.51% in Q3 to 4.17% in Q4. Among its 13 songs on the chart is “Lies Lies Lies” by Morgan Wallen, the fourth biggest song of the quarter.
“Lies Lies Lies” was also a major contributor to Big Machine Music’s 3.53% market share this quarter, ranking them at No. 7. Reservoir Media came in eighth for Q4 with “Gonna Love You” by Parmalee bolstering its 1.85% share of the chart.
Pulse is a newcomer to the Country Airplay ranking this quarter at No. 9. Its top song was “High Road” by East Texas favorite Koe Wetzel, marking its official entrance to the upper echelon of Nashville publishers.
Finally, Hipgnosis rounds out the list at No. 10 with a 1.53% market share and 3 songs on the chart, including “4x4xu” by Lainey Wilson.
For the first time in the history of Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly rankings, Warner Chappell swept the Hot 100 Songs, Top Radio Airplay and Country Airplay charts in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Although the music publisher’s Nashville division typically places first or second on the Country Airplay chart, this is the first time it has topped the Hot 100 publishers ranking and the first time since the third quarter of 2019 that it ranked No. 1 on the Top Radio Airplay list.
Warner Chappell had a stake in 64 songs and a 25.29% market share on the Radio Airplay list, and 49 songs and a 23.62% market share on the Hot 100 Songs list, including the No. 1 song of the quarter for both charts: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. The publisher is also home to the No. 1 Top Radio Airplay songwriter for Q4 of 2024, Amy Allen, who wrote Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” and six other charting tracks.
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Sony Music Publishing, which was the No. 1 radio and Hot 100 publisher for the third quarter of 2024, ranked second on both charts, with 63 songs on the radio list (a 24.10% market share), and 58 on the Hot 100 (22.68%). Its top song for both charts was also “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Universal Music Publishing Group finished third for both the Hot 100 (19.92% market share, 44 songs) and Top Radio Airplay (16.79% market share, 42 songs) charts in the fourth quarter and also held a piece of the Shaboozey smash. With nine songs on the Hot 100 — but none in the top 10 — Kendrick Lamar was the No. 1 songwriter on that chart, thanks to the ongoing success of “Not Like Us.”
Kobalt comfortably finished fourth — the best performance by an independent publisher — on both fourth-quarter charts, twin rankings it frequently holds on these lists. The publisher’s radio airplay market share was 12.81%, and it has 10.89% on the Hot 100. Its biggest songs of the quarter were “Too Sweet” by Hozier (No. 2 on Top Radio Airplay) and “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars (No. 2 on the Hot 100).
BMG ranked fifth on both charts, rising two spots from its radio airplay ranking in third quarter 2024 and up one from its Hot 100 ranking in the same quarter.
From there, the rankings on the radio airplay and Hot 100 charts diverge. This is, in part, due to the rise of Christmas music on the Hot 100 while pop radio continued to play perennial hits during the holiday season. Holiday publisher St. Nicholas ranked sixth on the Hot 100 and peermusic ranked ninth, both thanks to their share of top Christmas songs — “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (St. Nicholas) and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams (peermusic).
The bottom of the Hot 100 top 10 also held a surprise: OuttaHere is the name under which singer-songwriter Gigi Perez publishes her work. The viral success of her “Sailor Song” makes her the first self-published artist to land on the chart since Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” put her Purple Rabbit Music on the ranking in 2023 and 2024.
A version of this story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Welcome to a snug-fitting Publishing Briefs, our semimonthly bulletin of recent signings, deals and doings in the wide world of music publishing. Since the last edition, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder signed himself, Deadmau5 sold his catalog, Kobalt launched a new platform targeting the creator middle class, a deal for the $uicideBoy$’ publishing catalog is being shopped, and Primary Wave signed a marketing and admin deal with “Wichita Lineman” songwriter Jimmy Webb.
Caught up? Here’s what else is going on:
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Reservoir Media paired with PopArabia to acquire the publishing and master rights to Egyptian star Omar Kamal‘s catalog. Kamal is a key figure in popularizing mahraganat, a genre blending Egyptian rhythms, electronic music and rap. His 2020 hit “Mahragan Bent El Geran” with Hassan Shakosh became a cultural phenomenon, earning over 700 million YouTube views, and subsequent hits, “Oud Al Batal” and “LGHBTITA,” have attracted over 500 million and 300 million YouTube views, respectively. PopArabia vp of A&R Wissam Khodur highlighted Kamal’s ability to “pivot into mahraganat with his own unique twist,” while Reservoir CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi called the acquisition “another key growth moment” for both companies’ efforts in the booming Egyptian market. “This deal builds upon our other recent strategic acquisitions and further supports our efforts to become a major tastemaker in the region,” she said.
A Lau inked a global publishing deal with Position Music, joining artists like Tinashe and Cannons. Known for his work with Ice Spice, Lil Tjay and French Montana, Lau is a rising executive producer in NYC’s hip-hop scene. His credits include Ice Spice’s “Butterfly Ku” and Lil Tjay’s “Bla Bla.” Lau owns Off Record Studio in Manhattan and leads the Off Record producer collective, focusing on artist development, and this year plans to executive produce records for Ice Spice, Megan Thee Stallion and Babytron. Position Music’s vp of A&R Delmar Powell and partner Mark Chipello praised Lau’s record-crafting skills and talent for building connections, with Powell calling him a “dynamic producer with a sharp ear and a relentless work ethic.” He’s managed by Peter Robinson of Olympus Projects.
Kobalt signed South Arcade to a global publishing deal, representing the band’s entire catalog. The Oxford-based group, formed in 2021, has quickly gained prominence with over 20 million streams on their debut EP and nearly 800,000 monthly Spotify listeners, leading to multiple sold-out headline shows and support slots for bands like Dead Pony and Yours Truly. South Arcade has received significant radio support, including BBC Radio 1 features. Kobalt executives praised the band’s talent and potential, with head of creative (UK and GSA) Kenny McGoff highlighting their music as brimming with “energy and life,” and svp of creative Melissa Emert-Hutner saying the group “embodies everything that draws me to an artist – immense talent, unwavering drive, and incredibly catchy songs.” Manager Ben Karter offered props to Team Kobalt, which “truly understood the band’s vision and music, rather than just buying into their data.”
Concord Music Publishing signed Wyoming rapper Ryan Charles to a global publishing deal, covering his full catalog and future works. Charles, whose style blends cowboy culture with 2000s rap, is known for standout tracks including “Gettin’ Western,” “Old Dirt Fancy” and “New Boot Goofin’,” which he performed on American Song Contest as representative of his home state. He also collaborated with Ian Munsick on “Cowboy Killer,” amassing over 37 million Spotify streams. In 2023, he released tracks like “Turquoise Stones,” “Cold Beer Diet” and “Heartbreak Rodeo,” surpassing 65 million global streams. Melissa Spillman, VP A&R at Concord, praised Charles for his crossover appeal to country and rap fans, adding, “I can confidently say Ryan is unlike anyone I’ve ever worked with.”
Concord Music Publishing ANZ, established after Concord acquired Native Tongue in 2022, signed a worldwide publishing deal with Melbourne artist Glass Beams. Led by a masked Rajan Silva, Glass Beams blends Indian and South Asian heritage with psychedelic soundscapes, leaning heavily on live instrumentation and DIY electronica sounds. Their debut EP Mirage and breakout EP Mahal have propelled them to international success, with the group set to perform at Coachella and Primavera Sound this year. Jaime Gough, Managing Director of Concord ANZ, praised Rajan as a “supremely gifted artist and songwriter, who through Glass Beams has created a unique brand of serpentine, psychedelic-tinged music, capturing a spirit that drifts between worlds; mystical, elusive, and endlessly mesmerizing.”
Downtown Music Publishing signed writer-producer Cameron Montgomery, who has contributed to hit songs for Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, 24kGoldn, HARDY and more. Based in both Nashville and Los Angeles, Montgomery is also working on music for film, brands and collaborations in the visual arts space. Downtown Music Publishing also represents Jason Isbell, Sadler Vaden, Tommy Prine and is aligned with the John Prine Estate, which it represents along with Oh Boy Records. –Jessica Nicholson
Regalias Digitales, an independent music publisher specializing in both Latin and non-Latin music, has signed several notable talents to global publishing administration deals. Among them are Peysoh and Wallie The Sensei, both collaborators on Kendrick Lamar’s latest album GNX. The roster also includes Mexican hip-hop icon Dharius, hip-hop artist 03 Greedo, rising roots/bluegrass artist Lindsay Lou, popular EDM duo Bonnie X Clyde, Cypress Hill member Eric “Bobo” Correa, New Age act Beautiful Chorus, and Uncle Murda, a protégé of 50 Cent.
Arden Records is expanding its artist-first lo-fi music label with a new publishing division. Founded in 2021 in partnership with Platoon, the label connects lo-fi artists, producers and songwriters. Co-founded by Nepalese artist sagun and executives Jordan Smith and Andrew Kwan, its roster includes sagun, clay house, DAVI JUNO and French WiFi. The publishing arm aims to create opportunities for lo-fi creators. Arden’s ethos, inspired by nature and tranquility, is reflected in projects like its Earth Day compilation. Smith stresses their commitment to community, while Kwan underscores their dedication to authentic musicianship amid the rise of AI-generated music. “We remain steadfast in championing our artists, ensuring their authentic musicianship receives the recognition it deserves,” said Kwan. “Now, through the launch of our publishing venture, we are excited to continue this mission from a fresh and dynamic perspective.”
Pixel Grip, a darkwave/club pop band, signed a co-publishing deal with Brill Building Music Publishing. Known for underground staples like “ALPHAPUSSY” and “Stamina,” the band’s next single, “Split,” drops on March 14, followed by their album Percepticide: The Death of Reality in May. Recently, they opened for HEALTH on a sold-out tour, further solidifying their presence in the scene.
MUSIC CITY MINUTES: Spirit Music Group renewed its co-publishing agreement with songwriter David Garcia and acquired rights to some of his catalog … The Warner Chappell Music Live Song Pitch Round is scheduled for March 13 at The Listening Room. Among the writers performing are Lydia Vaughan, Josh Kerr and Summer Overstreet … Finalists were revealed for the AIMP Nashville Awards, presented by the Association for Independent Music Publishers on April 8 at Marathon Music Works. Jordan Davis, Shaboozey and Carly Pearce are on the ballot, along with double nominees Tucker Wetmore, ERNEST, Laci Kaye Booth, Vincent Mason, Daniel Ross and Jessi Jo Dillon.
Last Publishing Briefs: ‘Cowgirls’ Co-Writer Finds Home at Range
Ryan Tedder has signed a global publishing agreement with Runner Music, a new music publishing company he co-founded with Ron Laffitte and Andrew Sparkler in 2023. While plenty of hitmakers have launched their own publishing joint ventures or companies over the years, it’s still relatively rare for a hitmaker to sign to their own outfit.
Under this new agreement Tedder’s catalog from 2021 onwards, including songs like “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic, “II MOST WANTED” by Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus, “greedy” by Tate McRae and “Rockstar” by LISA. (Runner’s publishing administration for frontline talent runs through Downtown).
“My first gig in the music industry at 19 was working for a publishing company in Nashville, I never dreamed one day I’d be signing to my own,” says Tedder of the deal.
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Runner Music is a fast-growing publisher, interested in both acquiring top catalogs and signing frontline publishing deals. With Melody Holdings, an affiliate of Blackstone Group, as an equity partner, the company has already signed a number of top writers, including Alexander 23 (Renee Rapp, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo) and Tyler Spry (Bad Bunny, Tate McRae, OneRepublic). Now, Tedder himself joins Runner’s ranks.
Since he started his career as frontman for OneRepublic and a songwriter, Tedder has partnered with a number of publishers and conducted multiple of catalog deals. In 2016, he sold some of his publishing rights for 170 songs to Downtown, and in 2021, he sold a majority stake in the publishing of all songs he wrote for other artists released after Jan. 1, 2016 to global investment giant KKR. This KKR deal also included a majority stake in all songs he wrote which were released by OneRepublic, regardless of the date of release. Most recently, he was published Sony Music Publishing.
News of the deal comes just days after it was announced that Tedder was teaming up with HYBE’s Bang Si-Hyuk and Scooter Braun to launch a global search for the next boy band, and the release of Tate McRae’s So Close To What, featuring Tedder cuts like “Sports car” and “It’s ok I’m ok.”
“Signing to Runner feels like the culmination of a dream I’ve had for years — not just about music, but about finding the right people to make it all come to life. With Amanda Hill, Andrew Sparkler and the team they’ve assembled by my side, I’ve got a community of music-obsessed operators that share the same vision, passion, and relentless drive. I’m blown away with what Runner has accomplished in such a short period of time and I’m ecstatic about what’s to come,” adds Tedder.
“I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of each of the Runner writers in such a short period of time. Welcoming Ryan to the Runner roster further shares our story as the greatest new destination for songwriters, and personally, it is a true joy to get to continue working with one of my favorite songwriters in the world,” says Amanda Hill, co-chief creative officer of Runner.
Runner CEO Andrew Sparkler says, “The momentum at Runner is truly exceptional right now. We’re not only collaborating closely with Ryan to nurture emerging songwriters, but we’re also thrilled to partner with established hit-makers. Ryan joining our roster is a powerful testament to our growth and success.”
The recorded music assets of the $uicideBoy$, the rap duo from New Orleans that has evolved into an indie powerhouse with its own label, a touring brand and a mega-merch business, are up for sale, sources tell Billboard. The properties on the block consist of the group’s recorded music masters and its music publishing catalog, those people say.
The deal is being shopped by Tim Mandelbaum, a partner with the law firm Fox Rothschild, who reached out to potential key strategic buyers including the majors and some financial music asset buyers. While some sources indicate the masters and publishing assets are being shopped together, others indicate that some potential suitors have bid solely on the publishing.
Sources say the asking price for the duo’s masters — including a go-forward deal covering an unknown number of future releases — is above $300 million alone, while it’s unclear what the asking price is on the publishing; the duo’s blockbuster merch business is not part of the proposed transaction. In addition, some sources say the duo’s G*59 label, which has a roster that includes releases by Night Lovell, Ramirez, Germ, Shakewell and Chetta — who combined for 450,000 album consumption units in the U.S. in 2024 — is not up for sale, though others disagree.
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The cult hip-hop act has averaged an impressive 2.4 million album consumption units in the U.S. and 4.6 billion global streams annually over the last three years, even though their songs have rarely charted. Nevertheless, they’ve landed four songs on the Hot 100 — “Us Vs. Them” (No. 96), “Thorns” (No. 91), “Burgundy” (No. 86) and “The Thing Grey Line” (No. 71), all of which hit the chart in 2024 — and four of their seven albums have reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The group’s most-streamed songs include “Kill Yourself Pt. III” with nearly 708 million streams; “And to Those I Love, Thanks for Sticking Around,” with nearly 675 million streams; and “Paris,” with about 526 million streams.
According to Luminate, since the rap duo began their career, their masters have accumulated 11.21 million album consumption units, including 15.7 billion on-demand streams — and that’s just in the U.S. What’s more, the duo’s U.S. popularity has been picking up steam: the catalog generated 842,000 album consumption units in 2020, growing to 1.22 million in 2021, then to 1.93 million in 2022, 2.46 million in 2023 and 2.71 million last year, according to Luminate. So far this year, $uicideBoy$ has already garnered 325,000 album consumption units, including 439 million on-demand streams.
However, unlike many other huge recording acts, $uicideBoy$’s popularity mainly is in the United States. Over the last three years, the U.S. market annually accounts for about 70% of the catalog’s streams and almost 83% of its song downloads. On the other hand, that could translate into more upside for potential sales and streaming activity going forward, if a concentrated effort is made on establishing the brand globally.
But even with the group’s already impressive numbers and further potential for increased sales and streaming activity abroad, the price tag that sources say the catalog fetched also comes with some peril. That’s because streaming activity is still spiking and decay hasn’t yet set in, meaning there’s no telling where the group’s catalog activity will level out in the future. But the going-forward component of the deal provides financial safety rails for the acquirers, especially if that is structured as a joint venture.
Billboard estimates that the $uicideBoy$ catalog averaged almost $24 million in revenue annually over the last three years. After paying out for cost of goods including distribution and publishing, Billboard estimates that net label share is about $20 million.
On the publishing side, Billboard estimates the duo’s masters generated about $6.5 million in royalties annually over the past three years, with the two members serving as the sole co-writers on the vast majority of their songs. It’s unclear if all the publishing is up for sale, or the amount of publishing advances already paid out, but not recouped; either could impact the valuation.
Between the master recordings and the publishing, the combined net label/net publisher share (or gross profit) could be in the $24 million to $26 million range, Billboard estimates, depending on how much unrecouped publishing advances play into the deal. Applied against a potential blended 16 times multiple, the combined assets could be worth as much as $400 million. But that might be an over-valuation considering the catalog’s activity is still on the rise; most sources say the combined assets are likely to wind up bringing in upwards of $300 million if a deal is finally completed.
Currently, the catalog resides at The Orchard, the Sony Music company that signed the band and its label G*59 to a distribution deal in 2021. Prior to that, the band and the label had been with Virgin Music, a distributor in the UMG portfolio. It’s expected that the $uicideBoy$ catalog will move in the event of an acquisition.
As of press time, reps for UMG, a lawyer for $uicideBoy$ and The Orchard either declined to comment or had not responded to requests for comment.
“The middle class is growing, and it’s only going to accelerate with AI,” says Laurent Hubert, CEO of Kobalt. It’s a sentiment that’s widely held in the music industry today and one that’s backed by hard data. According to Luminate’s Midyear Music Report for 2024, the number of mid-tier artists — those earning between 1 million and 10 million on-demand audio streams — grew to 29,253, a 5.1% increase from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024. That number is set to grow even more in the coming year.
Though the recorded music sector has already moved fast to capture the value amassed by these middle-classers by creating or acquiring distribution and artist services companies, the publishing industry has yet to do the same. Currently, there are DIY songwriter administration services, like Songtrust and Sentric, that automate practically all services and are open for anyone to sign up for a one-year minimum term; and traditional music publishers — like the majors, Kobalt and other indies — that selectively offer advances and sometimes take a piece of copyright ownership in exchange.
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But as Jacob Paul, director of creative strategy at Kobalt, stresses, “there’s a lot of people in-between. The middle class is growing year on year, and yet this community is still locked out of publishing earnings because publishing is so complicated.” Enter: KOSIGN, Kobalt’s new platform targeting the creator middle class. Whether it’s an anti-establishment-minded songwriter who wants to be independent forever, a fast-rising singer-songwriter who wants to hold for another year before signing a traditional deal, or a seasoned vet who needs a place to collect their royalties in between publishers, KOSIGN promises to be a high-tech, transparent solution for those with about $5,000 or more to collect. It’s not for the “long, long tail” says Paul, but it’s not just for bankable stars either.
There’s no advance, but there are also no strings attached. A KOSIGN agreement operates on a rolling quarterly basis, can be used on a partial or full catalog, and features an 80% writer/20% publisher royalty split. And some KOSIGN writers will have the ability to upstream to Kobalt if desired.
For the Kobalt team, it feels like a win-win. With KOSIGN, “underserved artists,” as Jeanette Perez, president/CCO, puts it, have the ability to collect royalties that are nearly impossible to collect without a publishing partner, while Kobalt captures value from middle-class talent and forges bonds with tomorrow’s stars before its competitors are even looking. “We’ve found the market is chomping at the bit for this type of solution,” says Paul. “The inbound interest for KOSIGN is already incredible.”
What sparked the idea for KOSIGN?
HUBERT: We looked at the market and what we’ve seen in recorded music is that there was a large market [of up-and-coming artists] that was being serviced by distribution companies but there was no equivalent on the publishing side. We saw an opportunity to target an underserved market, and it is one that is also growing. We believe that AI will also flex that. We said that we have to be in this space. We have the capabilities from what we’ve built over the last 20 years. We have a best-in-class platform, and the idea was to… provide that service to a market that deserves [more help.]
Kobalt was the original home of AWAL, one of the biggest success stories in the artist services/distribution market today and now home to talent like Laufey, Jungle, Djo and more. In 2021, Kobalt sold AWAL to Sony Music. What did you learn from building AWAL that could apply to KOSIGN, which also targets a similar demographic of music creators?
HUBERT: What was interesting with AWAL is we really designed this not as a label service business but as an artist service business, so really focusing on the need of the creator. In that particular case, it was the artist. With KOSIGN, it’s the writer. We learned from AWAL that we had to find a path to minimize friction, and also, we needed to learn how to speak to that audience. It’s a different audience than your traditional one.
PEREZ: One of the theses behind AWAL, even back then, was this growing middle class of artists. That has just held through year after year. That is something else that we ported into the thesis for KOSIGN. The other important thing then and now is the idea that you can give artists flexibility.
It seems that the recorded music side of the industry has gone all-in on companies like AWAL — the artist service companies — since that flexibility is what many middle-class or rising artists want. To date, there has not been a good equivalent on the publishing side. Why do you think that is?
PAUL: The advantage Kobalt has had is that we’ve always been a service company. We’ve always been oriented that way. Because when we first launched, even 25 years ago, we weren’t launching on a model of copyright acquisition. I think traditionally, the publishing industry was predicated on the idea of acquiring copyrights and not necessarily the idea of servicing, but for Kobalt, even at its first founding, we started with the idea that we’d have admin deals, and we’re gonna have three-year terms.
At Kobalt, every three years, we have to re-earn [our writers’] trust so that they stay here. We’re not 50% owners of their copyrights. So I think Kobalt already had the service orientation, and I think that’s what helped us to view this middle market as a group to be serviced and not a group to merely be acquired.
PEREZ: Scaling a publishing platform is much more challenging than scaling a recorded music distribution platform. The number of sources you have to collect from on the publishing side is tenfold what you have to collect from on the recorded music side. You have to have an infrastructure and a foundation to then unlock that.
HUBERT: The challenge is that we have to manage the complexity [of publishing collections] in a way that still works on a pure unit economics as you go down the deal curve. We’ve been able to do that. It requires enormous amounts of resources.
There are some options on the market for DIY songwriters today, including Songtrust and Sentric, but unlike KOSIGN, these companies are open to all and really target the smallest creators. What did you learn from watching those companies develop?
PAUL: One thing that we’ve learned is that being open to everyone and prioritizing openness and volume doesn’t work from a scalable service perspective. That’s never been our interest. That’s a key difference between KOSIGN and others who are in this space. We very much want to be accessible in the sense that it’s extremely easy to apply and to join, you can get going very quickly, but we’re not really interested in touching the long tail where, frankly, there isn’t enough out there to collect to justify a Kobalt level of service. That’s the critical difference. It’s what allows us to not compromise on the level of core admin service that we’re providing.
There’s some other critical differences. One is our infrastructure, which we believe remains best in class. We think that client experience, the actual going-onto-the-portal, and the beauty and simplicity of the [app], is peerless. And then the last thing I would say is that when you look at the publishing terms of service for KOSIGN, we truly think that they’re the most flexible in the industry. Our goal here is to have something that’s not only simple to use and simple to understand but is truly simple from a deal perspective.
How does KOSIGN provide a competitive advantage for Kobalt?
PAUL: We really look forward to seeing KOSIGN as a pipeline for Kobalt in cases where it is right for the artist… KOSIGN allows us to open a door much earlier and much more often. We’re in a landscape creatively where access to the tools to create the next hit are more available than ever, and we see important artist stories and song stories accelerating really quickly these days, and it’s hard to predict where they’re going to come from. KOSIGN allows us to open the funnel.
HUBERT: It also reinforces our core value of empowerment. We created the business over 25 years ago to empower songwriters, and that’s what we’re doing here, in a way that is going down the deal curve but still aligned with our mission.
PAUL: We’re covering really the full life cycle of the songwriter in one ecosystem now. We don’t think other platforms in the space are able to do that the way that Kobalt and KOSIGN can.
Why do you think that none of the majors ever tried to build their own KOSIGN before you?
HUBERT: First, I don’t see that as being core to their strategy. At least there’s no real sign that this is something that they are focusing on. Number two, as we said earlier, you need to have built the proper infrastructure. If you look at many of the measures, they’re still relying on legacy tech stacks. So I think both strategically and operationally, this would present a challenge. It doesn’t mean that they could never get into that space. It would be naive to think that, but also, we have always built a business based on service, not on ownership. This only works when you really do it on a pure service level.
PEREZ: We are, in comparison to other players in the market, a fairly young company. We can still behave as a start-up, which enables us to move very quickly and be nimble. We don’t have 100 years of catalog to bring along.
It sounds like the app is quite transparent, but still, publishing is confusing and a lot of artists and writers don’t understand it. When you’re trying to run a lean, mostly automated service platform, I imagine this will be a point of friction. How do you plan to manage customer service and education for KOSIGN signees?
PAUL: There’s three layers to this. One is to build the platform, which we think we’ve done, and we’ll continue to invest in it. It is so beautiful and simple to use [that] in a way, it explains how publishing works by virtue of its design. Two is our messaging to the marketplace. So not only are we investing in the platform, we’re going to invest in educational materials, and we’re going to invest in content to reach up-and-coming artists and songwriters. Three is that we are really investing in the service aspect [of the] platform. So if you have a question, if you need help on the platform, you can go to a very specific place where you can really quickly get resources that we’re constantly going to be buildingto answer questions. And then if that doesn’t go all the way, you still have access to an admin team.
PEREZ: Again, we get to rely heavily on what we already paid to build out for Kobalt. That’s an advantage. There’s something called Kobalt Knowledge which is hundreds of articles about music publishing and navigating the publishing business. All of that will be immediately available to a KOSIGN client. We aren’t starting at zero.
Primary Wave Music has signed a marketing and administration agreement with legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb to represent a major portion of his music publishing catalog, including such classic songs as “Wichita Lineman,” “The Worst That Could Happen,” “Galveston,” “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” the Grammy-winning “MacArthur Park” and “Up, Up and Away.” Moreover, […]