Tag: kobalt

Kobalt is already one of the most well-funded companies in the music-rights space, having raised £205m so far including $60m in 2015 and $89m in 2017. And that doesn’t include the separate Kobalt Capital managed fund,...

The company whose brand is literally ‘artists without a label’ has revealed that its latest partnership is with… a label! And it’s a deal to send some cats scampering among the pigeons, since AWAL’s new partner...

Lead: In an age of constant digital distractions, sometimes it is better to play the short game. We trace the rise of the micro ad and how it is being tailored to stand out when users are rapidly hopping and grazing across...

Music firm Kobalt’s latest financial results show that its revenues grew by 23.5% to $321m in its last fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2017. However, the group’s operating loss grew by 45.6% to $24.3m, while its...

More than 26m smart speakers were shipped globally in 2017 according to research firm Futuresource, with the Amazon Echo and Google Home ranges proving popular devices. That was the spur for an event hosted by British...

Kobalt is making AWAL the brand for its entire recordings division, while promising to invest $150m and hire 100 more staff to build up that side of the business. Kobalt acquired digital distributor AWAL in 2012, as it...

Laura Marling’s last album, ‘Semper Femina’, is a wonderful piece of work: something I’ve returned to again and again since its release, discovering new details every time. Hats off to that, then. But also to the...

Kobalt CEO Willard Ahdritz delights in ruffling feathers within the music industry, so his appearance as a keynote speaker at Music Biz and Music Ally's NY:LON Connect conference in New York promised to deliver a fair few...

Facebook's latest music-licensing deal, following its agreements with Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV, is something a corker: it's with Irving Azoff's Global Music Rights. That would be the Irving Azoff who's regularly...

Last year, former Kobalt Music Group president Richard Sanders joined Tidal as its new CEO. Now Kobalt has moved to replace him at the summit of its recorded-music division. Lonny Olinick is the new CEO of Kobalt Recordings,...

Kobalt has announced its second managed fund to invest in music copyrights, with a capacity of $600m thanks to $345m of equity commitments plus debt. It follows the company’s first music-royalties fund, which invested...

In May, music company Kobalt announced a $75m Series D funding round, led by media firm Hearst Entertainment. Now that round has increased to $89m. The $14m ‘second installment’ was led by former Google Ventures partner...