Kobalt is now firmly established as one of the biggest music publishers on earth – so when it speaks, the industry listens. And today, it’s said something rather important: in the first quarter of 2014, income from European territories for its writers was 13% higher on Spotify than it was on iTunes.
Kobalt represents 6,000+ songwriters and artists, including pop writer supreme Max Martin – who’s co-write Shake It Off by Taylor Swift is currently topping charts worldwide.
The company’s European iTunes publishing income was 32% higher on iTunes than Spotify in Q3 2013, shrinking to 8% in Q4 2013. But after the first three months of 2014, Spotify had soared ahead.
Importantly, the dip in Tunes’ share of its revenue didn’t hurt overall income: during the nine-month period from Q3 2013 to Q1 2014, Kobalt saw 5% growth of combined iTunes and Spotify publishing revenues in Europe.
“Kobalt is changing the future of music. Our unique model and our technology allow us to embrace streaming because our clients know they will be paid – and with total transparency!” said Willard Ahdritz, founder and CEO of Kobalt.
“Spotify overtaking iTunes in Europe is an important new milestone in streaming. What Kobalt offers to artists, songwriters, and publishers has become more important than ever as the music industry’s infrastructure is failing them, unable to efficiently account for the enormous volumes of data from digital transactions. We are fixing those clogged pipes and, for Kobalt clients, the money is flowing. And happy music creators means the whole ecosystem will flourish.”Music Business Worldwide
