At the end of 2019, Kobalt Music Group’s publishing division claimed a 15.09% share of the songs on the Billboard Hot 100, a percentage only by giants like Universal Music Publishing Group and Sony / ATV. That proportion rose even higher in Billboard Publishers ’quarterly reports throughout 2020, with the independent company reaching 17.94% and maintaining the top four levels for the year to date.
Kobalt – named ASCAP as publisher of the year in June – credits the global “one team, one roster” strategy by helping it attract the likes of The Weeknd, Max Martin, Roddy Ricch and FINNEAS, brother and co-worker of Billie Eilish; the latter took home six of the 20 awards for Kobalt songwriters at the 62nd Grammy Awards in January. With their release record scoring 12 Hot 100 No. 1s in 2020 (listed below by year-over-year total streams, with the top five earning more than 500 million each), for Kobalt, the taps keep coming.