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21.11.14 Music Week 13


cheques coming in every six months. My first quarterly statement to him was $30,000. “That’s a fundamental change. He told me:


‘Willard, I can now continue to be a jazz musician. I have a little girl, and we’re okay now.’ That kind of story really excites me.” Ahdritz found less time to play brass when


he became a publisher and a label boss as the co-founder of Stockholm-based Telegram during the height of the ‘90s Swedish dance wave. “No-one was travelling to Stockholm then - we


had to kick in doors,” he recalls. It was only after Sony’s creative honcho Clive


Davis visited the office that Telegram’s fortunes were turned around. “He signed up all our bands and suddenly we started having global hits.” But this early jubilation wasn’t to last. It’s a


bitter experience Ahdritz has never forgotten, and which still drives Kobalt’s principles to this day. “I saw a lot of problems,” he says. “We were


in principle with traditional label and publisher deals. “I’m very happy for people to invest in and own copyrights,” he says. “What I’m saying is that companies should be transparent in what they are asking for - and creators should know what they are signing up for.” He adds: “There needs to be people investing in


copyrights and artist development; someone has to be the one to say: ‘Stop your day job. You need to get on a bus and start touring’. But artists shouldn’t be [paying their advances off] for 20 years. That clearly has not arisen through an informed decision from the artist, and I don’t like it.” Ahdritz’s future hopes are dependent on


consumers making billions of teeny payments to rights-holders. Doesn’t he worry that - even if a massive scale is reached and his sums add up - he risks promoting a worldwide culture of ‘free’ music, and the ultimate devaluing of the artform? “What we call ‘free music’ on platforms like


Spotify today is not really free at all,” he says. “If someone is disturbing me with advertising or


collecting my data, that is not free. Perhaps there is currently too little advertising interrupting that [tier], and that might be a problem. But for me, a


30-second advert every 10 minutes or so feels like an inconvenience. Also, we know that the IP data is worth $2 or $3 per person, just an IP address. “If that’s being given to a [third-party] company,


is my [custom] free? Of course not.” He adds: “Spotify took down the real ‘free’ - the


illegal stuff. Piracy is down something like 75% in Sweden because there is now something better. It’s great we’re converting people back from a dark place for the music industry.” Ahdritz’s motivation for accelerating the


industry’s transition into a high volume business isn’t only driven by the fact he thinks Kobalt’s back- end system is uniquely prepared for the challenge. He is a passionate advocate of artists being


paid, because he knows what it feels like to be one: Ahdritz is an accomplished saxophone player, and a worshipper of jazz musicians from Herbie Hancock to Miles Davis. When he recently joined Twitter, his first profile picture was a proud snap of him alongside US saxophonist supremo Wayne Shorter and Erin Davis, son of Miles. “Jazz copyrights can be really complicated,”


says Ahdritz. ‘I’m very proud about one of the big jazz artists signed to Kobalt; he usually had $2,000


ABOVE


Ryan Tedder: The Kobalt client says the company “constantly raises the bar” for its writers


sitting waiting two to three years for the money to arrive. The royalty statements were so complicated we couldn’t see what was really going on - the normal bullshit. “I had artists saying to me: ‘Where’s my money Willard? I really need it!’ “I was sitting there day after day thinking,


‘There must be a better way.’” That ‘better way’ was a model anchored in transparency, efficiency and high quality of service. And it’s a model that’s working: according to Billboard’s Q3 numbers, Kobalt doubled its US share in the quarter to claim 17.6% of the market - ahead of every other publisher except Sony/ATV. Whether or not Ahdritz’s optimistic future


industry predictions ring true is in the lap of the gods. But his fierce belief in a fairer, more productive ecosystem - both for artists and writers from the industry built to protect them - is in no doubt whatsoever. “Music is a product people love,” he says. “It’s


more valuable than ever - you saw that in Apple buying Beats for $3 billion. But there’s no burying the fact that the global record industry has reduced from $40 billion to $15 billion [since the year 2000]. “What’s ironic is that the industry is still giving


out these ‘visionary of the year’ awards. I don’t like that vision. I don’t share that vision. Is $10 billion the next ‘visionary’ goal? “I have a different vision: that this industry is


nowhere near the size it could be. And it will get there, sooner than you think. Just wait and see.”


‘THEY SAID WE WERE IDIOTS’: AHDRITZ ON KOBALT’S GROWTH AND DETRACTORS “They said this would not work. Then, when it worked,


Kobalt’s growth in publishing since its formation 14 years ago has occurred at breakneck speed, disrupting the established pre-eminence of the majors while signing some of the biggest songwriters on the planet. In 2012, Kobalt launched two additional divisions for


clients: a label services team which has since worked albums from the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Nick Cave and Boy George, as well as a neighbouring rights company which now counts Red Hot Chili Peppers, Macklemore, Steve Angello and Art Garfunkel as clients. None of this, however, has stopped backbiting


amongst Kobalt’s industry rivals - something Ahdritz is very aware of. I ask him about a recent comment from a manager of a top global artist who suggested that although he liked Kobalt’s model, there were concerns about its ongoing financial muscle. Ahdritz sighs. “In the beginning, they said we were idiots,” he replies.


they said we were not creative. We put Ryan Tedder and Greg Wells on Adele’s album - pitched and procured as co-writes - and hired a great team [led by] Sas Metcalfe. “Now, 38% of our sync income is procured. We don’t


have unrecouped advances [with clients], so we don’t have to push music for sync we think is not good. Now everybody knows how creative we are. “So then they tried their final [criticism] of Kobalt:


‘They are going bankrupt.’ Unfortunately, I need to disappoint them again. This year we are close to a $300m turnover, our publishing company is profitable, and we never bet the farm - we always raise capital when we go and do new stuff.” Kobalt’s investors include Balderton Capital and


MSD Capital - the personal investment outlet of Dell computers founder Michael S Dell.


“These are some of the smartest business


people in the world,” adds Ahdritz. “They have looked at Kobalt inside and out and said, ‘This is a great business model.’ And we don’t sit on your money for two years like other people! We wash our accounts within 60 days.” So there’s no danger whatsoever of Kobalt running out


of funds in the coming years? “100% no. Look at the capital that is backing Kobalt.


It is a very valuable company. Okay we don’t have big profits, but we’re growing by 40% per annum. “Is anyone saying Amazon is going bankrupt? No, like


us they invest in growth. And one last thing: we have no debt on our balance sheet. Zero.”


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