Kobalt Revenue Up 25%, AWAL Grew 50% In Last Fiscal Year

Kobalt has reported strong growth for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. Revenues at the global indie publisher and label services firm rose 25.3% year-over-year to $402.1 million.

Gross collections were up 30% percent to $494 million. AWAL, the company's recorded music and label services division, grew 50% during the last fiscal year

But Kobalt's after-tax loss was $42.7 million, up 29% which the company said resulted from the "conscious decision to prioritize growth through making strategic investments over short-term profitability.”

“We’re outpacing the industry in terms of growth,” said Kobalt founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz in a statement. “We’ve been laser-focused on building out the global team to support the rapidly growing music industry and setting up creators for success. We’ve established ourselves as the technology leader in the industry, and we are deeply investing in building innovative new products and services across the music ecosystem to super-serve our roster, across publishing, recordings, collections, neighbouring rights and synch. We are very excited by the rapid growth of AWAL, our recordings business, which achieved growth of over 50% in the last fiscal year and is anticipated to continue a similar growth rate this year. Through its unique multi-tiered model, AWAL is designed to serve artists at all stages of their careers on a scalable platform.”