Kobalt Acquires AMRA to Create First Global Digital Music Collection Society

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Jun 8, 2015) - Kobalt, the leading independent music publishing and global music rights management services company, announced today the creation of the first global, direct, digital mechanical and performing rights society following on from Kobalt's purchase of AMRA (American Music Rights Association) last year. Re-designed to maximize value for music rights owners and creators in the growing digital marketplace, the new society will be based on a global, direct collection structure and advanced technology, setting new industry standards for efficiency and transparency for clients in the process. 

Kobalt purchased AMRA in order to further enhance its services to rights owners. AMRA's innovative approach to music rights administration will leverage Kobalt's advanced royalty processing platform, KORE (on license to AMRA), to provide fast, efficient royalty distribution with total transparency. Through continued partnerships with major digital service providers (DSPs) around the world, AMRA will broaden the direct-collection capabilities across the globe for all AMRA members.

AMRA will offer two services: (i) licensing of AMRA publisher members' Anglo-American repertoire to DSPs operating in multiple territories and (ii) collection of writer's share of public performance monies on behalf of AMRA writer members. Single territory digital music services will continue to be licensed by the local collection societies. 

The music industry as a whole is undergoing a seismic shift in order to support the evolving landscape that comes with digital music consumption. Kobalt saw these changes coming when it was formed in 2001, and has spent the past decade working to solve these issues and structural inefficiencies -- first with publishing, and then label services, neighboring rights and digital distribution with AWAL. AMRA is the latest, most exciting step in Kobalt's industry leading quest for transparency, speed and accuracy. 

Willard Ahdritz, founder and CEO of Kobalt said, "With AMRA, we are now able to fully execute our original Kobalt vision of trust and technology for creators and rights owners on a global scale. AMRA allows us to offer service unlike anything ever seen before in royalty collections. The industry can no longer afford to spend $5 collecting $1 -- the efficiency and transparency of AMRA is the future."

James Fitzherbert-Brockholes, COO of Kobalt said, "AMRA's unique strategy to license directly to the global multi-territorial DSPs [e.g. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc.] is the most efficient way to handle the 'high volume/low transactional value' of music repertoire in a streaming world. The traditional model of individual licenses across 100 local territories for one major DSP does not promote transparency, efficiency or economies of scale in today's digital business."

Kobalt has devoted substantial resources and effort to enact strict and exacting business separation protocols in order to maintain data integrity and confidentiality for sensitive AMRA data and tools. Kobalt and all other AMRA publishers will only be provided access to their specific data and will have no access to any other publisher data, whether or not those publishers are members of AMRA. 

For more information on the new AMRA, please visit www.amra.com.

ABOUT KOBALT:
Kobalt is the leading independent music publishing and global music rights management services company. Kobalt's Music Publishing, Label Services and Neighbouring Rights divisions each offer an alternative to the traditional music business model, empowering artists, songwriters, publishers and labels with advanced technology, transparency, flexibility, ownership and control. Kobalt's innovative technology solutions are designed to maximize efficiency and accuracy across the billions of micro-payments collected in today's highly complex digital world.

Kobalt has experienced 40 percent growth year-over-year through the past decade and now serves over 8,000+ songwriters and over 500 publishing companies worldwide. Kobalt works with many of the world's greatest artists and songwriters, representing on average over 40% of the top 100 songs and albums in both the US and UK. Kobalt has built the most trusted brand in music among music creators including Alt J, Beck, Dr. Luke, Foo Fighters, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Max Martin, Paul McCartney, Pitbull, Ryan Tedder, Sam Smith, Skrillex, and others. Kobalt offers its clients a variety of services, including creative services, synch & brand partnerships, global licensing management, neighboring rights, works and rights distribution, royalty collection and processing, online data and royalty statements, record release management, and digital marketing and monetization.