AWAL, the recorded-music division of Kobalt, is claiming that “hundreds” of artists working with the company earned more than $100,000 in annual streaming revenue, a 40% increase over last year. According to Variety, Music Business Worldwide estimated that somewhere between 90 and 286 AWAL-signed artists earned more than $100,000 in the surveyed year. Kobalt Music Group founder Willard Ahdritz told Variety, “We believe we can have 100,000 artists on this level by 2025.”
He continues to say that “Lucrative streaming royalty payouts and catalog values no longer favor a select few as this pie is rapidly growing for artists, provided the artist has an AWAL-like deal in place. This is further validation the recorded music industry is in full transformation.”
CEO Lonny Olinick added “Our community of AWAL artists have been emboldened by our approach and chose to bet on themselves. And they are being rewarded handsomely for taking charge of their creativity and putting out the art that they believe in versus censoring themselves based on anything other than their artistic sensibilities and audience reaction.”
Artists included on the roster for Kobalt are Jenny Lewis, Lorde, Diplo, Kalu Uchis and Moses Sumey to name a few. Kobalt Music Group was founded in 2000 and has since expanded to l label services division Kobalt Label Services that started in 2012. in 2012. In July 2012, Kobalt Music Group signed a deal with MPL Communications to exclusively provide administrative services to MPL in most countries. The catalog included 1,200 songwriters such as Hugh Masekela and Paul McCartney, with classic songs such as “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Luck Be A Lady.”
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