Primary Wave Closes Kobalt Acquisition, Creating a $7B Indie Powerhouse

On Tuesday (July 7), Primary Wave officially passed all relevant regulatory scrutiny and closed its acquisition of Kobalt, Billboard has confirmed. The deal is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 billion.

The possibility of the deal was first reported by Billboard in February. At the time, it was estimated that if Primary Wave and Kobalt were to go through with it, the combined companies would be worth $7 billion in assets. By March 23, a press release announced that Primary Wave’s acquisition was officially happening and would include Kobalt’s worldwide operations, its catalog of copyrights and digital collection society AMRA.

Under the new ownership of Primary Wave, the two companies will continue to operate as standalone firms. Kobalt will retain CEO Laurent Hubert as its leader.

Primary Wave and Kobalt are both indie music giants in their own right, but the two have different focuses. Primary Wave is focused on big-name catalog acquisitions, with a portfolio containing stakes in catalogs from Prince, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Stevie Nicks, Luther Vandross, Bob Marley, Britney Spears and Jackson Brown. Kobalt has a different approach, focusing on offering a large roster of current songwriting talent with publishing administration aid and help collecting royalties, among other services, for signees like Phoebe Bridgers, Panic! At the Disco, Childish Gambino, Bon Iver, Kali Uchis, Paul McCartney and more.

Kobalt often ranks on Billboard’s Publishers’ Quarterly list as the largest independent music publisher by market share. In 2022, it was acquired by a group of investors led by Francisco Partners (which held a controlling 90% interest) in a deal that valued the company at around $750 million. Since then, the company has continued to grow its roster and improve profits. In recent years, Kobalt launched KOSIGN, its solution for young songwriters looking for flexible deal terms, and launched a joint venture with Morgan Stanley’s Tactical Value group with $700 million to invest in music copyrights.

While Primary Wave has ownership in an enviable catalog of hit songs, it’s historically been dependent on other publishers — including but not limited to Kobalt — to handle publishing administration. Sometimes, when Primary Wave acquires a catalog, the songs will be tied up in other incomplete publishing deals. For those catalogs that are free to move publishers, Primary Wave often assigns their administration, with songwriter consent, to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), sources say.

Now, Primary Wave has administration services at the ready in-house. It now also owns Kobalt’s AMRA, the global music collection organization that collects mechanical and performance royalties directly from digital services providers, which could help Primary Wave cut down on fees paid to local societies and subpublishers.