Kobalt Music Group Agrees Unique Publishing Template With US Division Of Music Managers Forum

May 19, 2004

The London based Kobalt Music Group, the fastest growing independent music publishing company in the world, has reached a unique agreement with the US division of the Music Managers Forum (MMF) to offer a music publishing administration service to its members.

This follows the recent deal between Kobalt and the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF), the international umbrella organization for the MMF worldwide, to offer a similar agreement to ex: US members of the organization.

MMF-US, which represents the interests of music managers and their artists in the United States, has agreed to an exclusive music publishing administration template agreement which will allow any MMF-US member-manager to use the services of Kobalt Music Group to administer copyrights and collect royalties for their management clients.

The deal reached between the two parties means that all MMF-US member-managers are, for the first time, able to offer their clients publishing administration services on terms which previously would only have been available to the world's most commercially-successful artists. The result therefore is a landmark opportunity for member-managers and their artists.

The template put forward by Kobalt Music Group is intended to form the basis for any MMF-US member-managers to negotiate their own individual agreement, and although the key deal points are already covered and agreed flexibility is left to fine-tune the agreement to the specific needs of each artist. The agreement is designed to cover both grass roots and established artists and writers.

The Kobalt Music Group has revolutionized the music publishing industry in recent years by building a business based on providing a fast, accurate and transparent administration service rather than on the ownership of copyrights. Thanks to their state-of-the-art systems Kobalt Music Group can electronically register copyrights globally, can efficiently track and monitor copyright activity, can provide a highly accurate, self-auditing collection service and can provide transparent, coherent royalty statements with frequent accounting and payments.

As part of the deal, MMF-US members will also have access to the Kobalt Music Group international creative team who work with record labels, film companies and advertising agencies in the US, Europe and Australasia.

Barry Bergman, President of the US MMF, said, "Once again the MMF-US leads the way in our new strategic relationship with Kobalt Music. We will now be able to compete with every major publisher in offering our membership sub-publishing administration deals on extremely favorable terms. "

Willard Ahdritz, the Co-founder and C.E.O of Kobalt Music Group said, "We are delighted to have been able to have reached this agreement with the US MMF which will provide their members with an effective, efficient and transparent music publishing administration service. This level of service has never been available on such an inclusive basis before and we believe that our administration template will offer real direct opportunities to maximize value for the songwriters and copyright owners valuable publishing rights globally."

Bruce Lampcov, Managing Director of Kobalt said, "We are looking forward to a long and productive relationship with the US MMF in providing the best possible publishing services to their members.