Kobalt Music Group
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Music industry |
| Founded | 2000, London, United Kingdom |
| Founder | Willard Ahdritz |
| Headquarters | New York |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Willard Ahdritz (CEO) |
| Services | Publishing, neighbouring rights, label services |
| Subsidiaries | Kobalt Label Services (KLS), Kobalt Neighboring Rights (KNR), Kobalt Music Publishing (KMP) |
| Website | KobaltMusic.com |
Kobalt, also known as Kobalt Music Group, is an independent rights management and publishing company. Founded in 2000 by CEO Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt acts primarily as an administrative publishing company, not owning any copyrights. Also offering label services and neighboring rights, the company has developed an online portal to provide royalty income and activity to artists and allow them to manage their rights and royalties directly.Wired reported in 2015 that Kobalt was "the top independent music publisher in the UK and the second overall (to Sony/ATV) in the US," with around 600,000 songs and 8,000 artists in its catalogue, including Massive Attack, Trent Reznor,Gwen Stefani,Phoenix,Prince,Sonic Youth, Ellie Goulding,Paul McCartney,Bob Marley,John Denver,Tiesto,Bob Dylan, and Kelly Clarkson. Kobalt owned 17.3% of the total worldwide market share among worldwide music publishers as of 2015, ranking it second after Universal. With headquarters in New York, Kobalt also has offices in cities such as London, Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Berlin, , Miami, Hong Kong, and Sydney.
Kobalt Music Group was founded in 2000 in New York City, with founder Willard Ahdritz, a native of Sweden, taking on the role of CEO. Together with Klas Lunding Ahdritz had previously launched Telegram Publishing in in 1988. Kobalt's initial business model focused on collecting and distributing royalties for artists, with the stated goal of ensuring artists were paid appropriately and promptly. In 2005 the company debuted its Kobalt Label Services Portal, an online portal for artists to track and manage their own portfolios.
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Wikipedia