New artists benefit from ‘Kobalt’ treatment
When her debut album is released in June, pop singer Vérité will be able to learn in hours how much she’s making just by looking at her mobile phone.
Vérité, whose real name is Kelsey Byrne, can use a new app from New York-based music publisher, Kobalt Music Group to see how many people are listening to her music on Spotify or Apple Music, how old her fans are and what playlists are promoting her the most.
“I can walk down the street and see how many royalties are in my account for this quarter,” Byrne said in a phone interview from London, where she’s promoting a new song and playing a show.
The app, which debuts Tuesday, is available to musicians and smaller labels that, like Byrne, have signed with the company for the tools and services it provides independent artists. Kobalt has attracted some of the biggest songwriters, including Paul McCartney, Beck and Max Martin, by offering transparency, higher royalties and greater ownership of their music.
Together, streaming and social media have given musicians the ability to distribute and market music on their own, emboldening art- ists to work outside the traditional system. Kobalt has tried to exploit that opening, pitching itself as an artists’ guide to the messy economics of streaming. The company’s music publishing business and labels represent more than 1 million songs.
Kobalt’s approach has drawn investors including Google and Michael Dell, who participated in a $60 million investment round in 2015. The company is again looking to raise funds, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing private negotiations.