Audius strikes global licensing deal with Kobalt

San Francisco-based blockchain-powered music platform Audius, which says it has 6 million monthly users, has signed a global licensing deal with music publisher Kobalt.

The deal gives Kobalt-signed songwriters access to Audius’ decentralized marketplace, providing them with a potential new revenue stream, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday (September 10).

Audius’ blockchain-powered marketplace offers music fans a way to engage with their favorite artists and support them via US dollar payments and its own crypto token, $AUDIO.

“Audius has made important strides in their business that have the potential to increase the overall revenue available to songwriters by helping them connect meaningful ways directly with their most passionate fans,” said Derek Cournoyer, Vice President, Global Digital Business & Emerging Media at Kobalt.

“We’re excited to have our songwriters engage with the millions of users on the Audius platform.”

Audius has taken a number of steps recently to license music for its platform, including signing licensing agreements with the four major US performance rights organizations (PROs), and partnering with Music Reports to power the licensing of rights and payments to music publishers through the Songdex Marketplace opt-in licensing platform.

“As we continue to expand opportunities for songwriters and music publishers to access new revenue streams, this agreement with Kobalt is an important milestone for all of us at Audius.”

Shamal Ranasinghe, Audius

“As we continue to expand opportunities for songwriters and music publishers to access new revenue streams, this agreement with Kobalt is an important milestone for all of us at Audius,” said Shamal Ranasinghe, Chief Business Officer at Audius.

“Kobalt has always been a very progressive, tech forward company, and we’re excited to begin working with them and their incredible roster of songwriters.”

Indeed, Kobalt has been credited with having changed the nature of music publishing through its application of technology, as well as its business model of allowing creators to retain ownership of their works even after signing to the company.

Kobalt, founded in 2000 by Willard Ahdritz and now owned by private equity firm Francisco Partners, has continued its technology-driven approach to music publishing.

The company and its royalty collection arm, AMRA, partnered with music financing platform beatBread earlier this year, to offer artists financed via beatBread access to Kobalt/AMRA’s music publishing admin services.

Earlier this year, Kobalt launched an updated portal for its publishing clients that, in addition to real-time data on royalty payments, includes a tool called ‘Collection Gap,’ which highlights the delay between the usage of a song and the receipt of associated royalties.

The company last year got a USD $700-million injection from Morgan Stanley Tactical Value to acquire music copyrights. Months later, Kobalt announced a $450 million revolving credit facility from a Truist Securities-led syndicate, which according to Kobalt would be used to “fully refinance existing indebtedness.”

That, combined with its raise of $266.5 million via its first-ever asset-backed securitization (ABS) transaction and the Morgan Stanley transaction, gave Kobalt “more than $1 billion to continue to grow and execute on its strategic initiatives.”

Kobalt says it now serves over 700,000 songs, representing some of the biggest songwriters in the world, including Roddy Ricch, Max Martin, Karol G, Andrew Watt, Stevie Nicks, Phoebe Bridgers, The Lumineers, Gunna, Justin Quiles, The Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, and others.

“Audius has made important strides in their business that have the potential to increase the overall revenue available to songwriters.”

Derek Cournoyer, Kobalt

Audius, which rolled out its music marketplace last year, having signed deals with music distributor Distrokid, as well as Beatport’s label operations management platform Ampsuite, had raised nearly $10 million as of 2021.

Among the company’s early investors were such industry heavyweights as Maverick founder Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, SESAC‘s John Josephson, and former Sony Music Publishing (then Sony/ATV) boss Martin Bandier.

In a 2023 column for MBW, Audius co-founder Forrest Browning said the platform was “born out of musicians & their fans’ mutual desire to have deeper engagement with one another.”

Audius “empowers artists to invite fans to unlock content and access new experiences. Through remix competitions and other innovations, some artists even tap their fan communities to create new music which they can share on Audius.”Music Business Worldwide