Kobalt launches updated Client Portal featuring new ‘Collection Gap’ tool, described as ‘an industry first across the royalty processing journey’

Kobalt has launched what it calls the ‘next-generation’ of its Client Portal for its publishing clients, which offers insights and payment details across desktop, mobile, and tablet.

In addition to real-time royalty payments, song-specific performance insights, and live sync updates, the new portal includes a tool the company claims is “an industry first across the royalty processing journey”.

Dubbed the Kobalt ‘Collection Gap’, this new tool highlights the delay between the usage of a song and the receipt of associated royalties.

Kobalt says that its new Collection Gap feature “empower[s] creators to analyze and respond to their own data” and claims that the new portal offers “unprecedented levels of accuracy, transparency and insight’.

“The royalty collection flow is a big blindspot for songwriters and rightsholders, and unlocking this data has the potential for material impact, from a rising songwriter to the biggest acts in the world,” said Kobalt CEO Laurent Hubert, commenting on the new Portal and Collection Gap tool.

“The royalty collection flow is a big blindspot for songwriters and rightsholders, and unlocking this data has the potential for material impact, from a rising songwriter to the biggest acts in the world.”

Laurent Hubert, Kobalt CEO 

He added: “We will continue to push new boundaries to ensure creators have unparalleled access to their data and continuously empower them.

“At the core of Kobalt, we believe that knowledge and transparency are true power in the music industry.

“No music company works harder than Kobalt to educate and empower clients so they can be armed with information to make the best decisions for their business.”

Kobalt says that its new Client Portal demonstrates the company’s “continued commitment to technological innovation and illustrates both the company’s deep understanding of its clients’ needs and their world-class administrative and creative capabilities”.

In addition to the new “Collection Gap” royalty tracking tool, the new features available in Kobalt’s updated Client Portal include:

• A daily payment feed, which provides a real-time breakdown of all payments collected and processed by source, and is fed into the portal daily.
• ‘Catalog home’ which Kobalt calls “a trusted home for client creation and a source of truth for their life’s work”.
• Song-specific insights, which offer what Kobalt says are “detailed performance snapshots across all sources, territories and timeframes”.

Kobalt says that more new features and benefits are scheduled to go live later in 2024.

“We are proud to have launched an entirely new experience, enhanced by feedback from creators throughout the build, which demonstrates how innovation is at Kobalt’s core and has created an even deeper level of transparency for our clients.”

Nuno Guerreiro, Kobalt

Commenting on the new Client Portal, Kobalt Chief Technology Officer Nuno Guerreiro, added: “This breakthrough achievement has not been triangulated and visualized before across the billions of transactions that happen in the music ecosystem.

“We are proud to have launched an entirely new experience, enhanced by feedback from creators throughout the build, which demonstrates how innovation is at Kobalt’s core and has created an even deeper level of transparency for our clients.

“The new Kobalt Portal also establishes the bedrock for several innovative features and services that we have planned for the months to come. Stay tuned!”

“The Portal is a hallmark of the Kobalt brand and is the gold standard in Music Publisher technology.”

Adam Foster, kobalt

Added Senior Product Manager Adam Foster: “The Portal is a hallmark of the Kobalt brand and is the gold standard in Music Publisher technology.

“This latest version showcases incredible technological innovations and pushes our commitment to transparency even further.”

Kobalt says that it serves over 700,000 songs, and represents prominent songwriters including Roddy Ricch, Max Martin, Karol G, Andrew Watt, Stevie Nicks, Phoebe Bridgers, The Lumineers, Gunna, Justin Quiles, The Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, and many more.

Kobalt claims that on average, it represents over 40% of the top 100 songs and albums in the US and the UK.Music Business Worldwide