Publishing Platform Launched by Kobalt: Founded in 2000, by Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt Publishing created an administrative model that allows artists to retain copyright ownership while the company collected and distributed royalties through an online portal. Its star-studded roster includes the likes of Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Childish Gambino, Max Martin, Foo Fighters, and Nick Cave. In February 2025, Kobalt—which represents, on average, over 35 percent of the 100 songs and albums in the U.S. and U.K.—launched KOSIGN to provide mid-tier independent artists, songwriters and producers with tools to collect publishing royalties globally. Built on Kobalt’s global infrastructure to offer a streamlined experience that makes publishing simple, efficient and transparent, the new platform addresses the over $1 billion in publishing royalties that Kobalt says go uncollected every year. One of the key drivers of KOSIGN is Kobalt’s global collection society AMRA, which collects performance royalties directly from digital service providers (DSPs) like Spotify and Apple Music across more than 200 territories. This bypasses local PROs, avoiding their fees and delays. In its first nine months, KOSIGN has registered 33,000 works.
Quote from Senior VP and Head of KOSIGN Jason Feinberg: “Many artists assume that if they’ve signed up to a digital distributor, that service will collect all their streaming money for them. They don’t always realize that they’re only collecting from the recording itself. They still need to align with a publisher and performing rights organization to collect their songwriting royalties. KOSIGN is simply an opening for them to get access to the tools Kobalt has in place for the artists it has traditional publishing deals with.”
How It Works: KOSIGN’s branding line is “You’ve Earned It, We Make It Count.” The home page offers an invitation: “Join our platform to see every cent of your songwriting income, in real time. It’s simple—apply for membership, submit your songs, and collect your money, faster.” Feinberg elaborates: “Artists, producers and songwriters, provide their basic info and we run some quick modeling. If they meet certain revenue criteria, we accept the application and ask them to return to the portal to prove they are who they say they are. It’s mission critical to prove that. Once they do that, they register their song information on the portal and it’s handed off to our Kobalt administrative team—the same folks who register all Kobalt clients. Everything is driven by a combination of tech and a highly skilled team to ensure quality control and accuracy and to make sure everything is comprehensively registered.”
Contact kosignmusic.com
