Primary Wave and Kobalt CEOs Discuss Their Billion-Dollar Partnership — And Why ‘You’ll See a Lot More’ Consolidation in Music
Categoria: Musica
In the latest episode of Billboard On the Record, Larry Mestel and Laurent Hubert talk about Primary Wave's acquisition of Kobalt publicly for the first time.
Por Billboard | 11/11/2026
In February, Billboard broke the news that Primary Wave was nearing a historic deal to acquire Kobalt, arguably the world’s largest independent frontline publisher. Together, it was estimated that the newly combined company would be worth a staggering $7 billion in assets . By July, the deal finally closed . But given that no one from the two companies had yet spoken to the press, major questions remained about how this new arrangement would operate in practice. All that was disclosed at the time was that Kobalt would operate independently of Primary Wave, one of the largest owners of iconic music catalogs in the industry, with a roster spanning from Whitney Houston to Stevie Nicks to Bob Marley to Prince . Related Primary Wave Raises Additional $2.2 Billion For Song Catalog Investments Severe Weather, Radius Clauses and Finding the Next Generation of Festival Headliners: 'It's a Year-by-Year Fight to Stay Alive' Agents Look Ahead as AI Keeps Advancing: 'We Have the Privilege of Being in a Human Industry' But would Primary Wave move all of its catalogs to Kobalt? Did the deal include assets from Kobalt’s $700m catalog fund with Morgan Stanley? And how do Kobalt’s other verticals fit into the picture? The independent publisher is also home to AMRA, a global digital rights collection service that aims to speed up royalty collection and cut out middlemen outside of the U.S., and Kosign, its digital-first publishing service for middle-class songwriters who are not ready to sign a traditional deal. News of the acquisition also came at a time of seismic change in the music industry. Universal Music Group’s Virgin division was finalizing its acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings and BMG was moving toward its purchase of Concord , reshaping the state of independent music in a matter of months. To explain Primary Wave and Kobalt’s new deal for the first time and why all of this consolidation is happening now, Primary Wave founder/CEO Larry Mestel and Kobalt CEO Laurent Hubert joined Billboard’s music business podcast , On the Record . To watch this episode of Billboard On the Record , check out the YouTube video below or click here for more viewing and listening options. An edited and condensed excerpt of the conversation can also be found below. When did you guys start discussing this deal? Hubert: I think the beginning of the conversation was some time in the summer of 2025. I think the first conversation was not a direct conversation with me but with another party at a particular dinner. Mestel: I remember that dinner, and Primary Wave has historically been administration-agnostic. We’re into the value creation business, not the administration business. So we’ve always used Kobalt or Universal or some other administrators instead of creating our own internal administration platform. The dinner Laurent was speaking about was a dinner that I believe Goldman Sachs h