Kobalt x Madverse: What Global Publishing Partnerships Mean for Indie Songwriters

Stop losing royalties to bad metadata — what the Kobalt x Madverse deal means for you

Indie songwriters in South Asia and beyond face a familiar set of headaches: fragmented royalty collection, inconsistent metadata across platforms, tangled co-writer splits, and slow or missed payouts. The January 2026 partnership between Kobalt and India-based Madverse is a practical opportunity to fix many of those problems — but only if you prepare your catalog correctly.

Quick overview: What the Kobalt–Madverse partnership delivers (and what it doesn’t)

On Jan 15, 2026, global publishing administrator Kobalt announced a worldwide partnership with Madverse Music Group. In plain terms:

• Madverse brings local reach into the South Asian indie community — language skills, market relationships, and artist development.
• Kobalt contributes a global publishing administration and royalty collection network that can claim and collect performance, mechanical and digital royalties across territories.
• For indie writers, that means potential access to global royalty streams, sync pitching, neighboring-rights coverage and administrative services that many local publishers cannot provide alone.

Important caveat: this is a publishing administration partnership, not an automatic copyright transfer. You still control the rights you grant; read admin terms carefully before signing.

Why this matters now (2026 trends)

By late 2025 and into 2026 the industry increasingly focused on two things that favor good metadata and global admin partners:

• AI-powered matching and automated royalty attribution — which depend on clean metadata to work efficiently.
• More cross-border sub-publishing deals and platform pilots for faster settlements, so local writers can finally see revenue from distant territories.

Working with a combined local/global partner like Madverse + Kobalt lets you leverage local market know-how while tapping Kobalt’s collection reach and technical systems — but only if your catalog is admin-ready.

Practical benefits for indie songwriters

• Global royalty collection: Kobalt’s network can chase mechanicals, public performance, and digital royalties in markets where local CMOs and DSP reporting are fragmented.
• Faster discovery and sync opportunities: Kobalt’s catalog servicing and Madverse’s local A&R increase chances for sync placements in film, TV and ads.
• Consolidated reporting: Centralised statements reduce reconciliation overhead if you’re submitting to multiple PROs or DSP aggregators.
• Admin support: Help with claims, back-claims and retrospective collection — especially important for legacy tracks that were never properly registered.
• Local market know-how: Language metadata, transliteration, and local CMO navigation handled by Madverse reduces friction for South Asian repertoire.

What Kobalt/Madverse will expect from you — the real requirements

Don’t assume they’ll fix messy metadata or prove ownership for you. These are the practical things they’ll need before they can collect globally:

1. Clear ownership and signed splits: Written agreements showing each writer’s split and who owns publisher shares. PDFs or scanned contracts are standard evidence.
2. Accurate contributor identifiers: IPI/CAE numbers for writers and publishers, legal names and commonly used professional names (PUIs and IPI/CAE must match PRO registrations).
3. Unique work identifiers: ISWCs for compositions and ISRCs for recordings. If you don’t have ISWCs, Kobalt/Madverse will likely request the metadata to generate them during ingestion.
4. Release metadata: UPC/EAN for releases, release dates, territory info, and version notes (radio edit, instrumental, remix).
5. Split details in a machine-readable format: A clear percentage split per writer and publisher for each work — ideally in CSV or DDEX ERN-compatible XML.
6. PRO registrations: Register each writer with their local performing-rights organisation and submit works to the relevant CMOs before or simultaneously with Kobalt ingestion.
7. Bank and tax info: Know your payout currency, bank formats (IBAN/IFSC), and local tax-withholding rules; provide the required documents for cross-border payout — see guidance on privacy-first document capture for international invoicing and tax forms.

Checklist: Minimum metadata fields to prepare

• Track title (exact match across platforms)
• Primary artist and featured artists
• Songwriter(s) with IPI/CAE
• Publisher(s) with IPI/CAE
• Work splits (%) for every contributor
• ISWC (or provision to assign one)
• ISRC for each recording
• UPC/EAN for release
• Release date, territory, language, and genre
• Explicit sample or interpolation notes, with clear credit and licensed source — attach any sample-clearance notes and licenses.
• Lyrics and time-synced lyrics if available

Metadata best practices (do this before you upload)

Poor metadata is the single biggest reason royalties go uncollected. Follow these practical rules:

• Standardize names: Use consistent spelling and diacritics across all platforms. Choose one canonical name per songwriter and publisher and stick to it.
• Use IDs, not free text: Where possible, supply IPI, ISWC and ISRC values. These are far more reliable than names.
• Provide machine-readable splits: A CSV with columns for work_id, writer_name, writer_ipi, publisher_name, publisher_ipi, split_percent is essential. Kobalt and Madverse will ingest this directly.
• Include language and script variants: For South Asian markets this matters — provide transliterations and original-script titles to improve discoverability across local DSPs and search engines. If you want examples of how language-specific metadata affects matching in regional catalogs, see work on regional music & AI in Marathi music workflows.
• Time-synced lyrics: If you want lyric monetization and accurate YouTube/Spotify matching, provide timestamps in the accepted format (LRC or DDEX lyric timing where requested).

Admin rights vs co-publishing — what to negotiate

Understand the difference before you sign:

• Publishing administration: You keep ownership; the publisher administers rights and collects royalties for an agreed fee. This is ideal if you want global collection without giving away ownership.
• Co-publishing: You transfer a share of the publisher ownership in exchange for advance, promotion or other services — including promotional support or merch and creator-commerce programs that look like this creator-commerce playbook.

Key contract points to check in admin deals:

• Fee structure: Administration percentage, deductions, and whether collection fees apply on top of the split.
• Territory & scope: Is the deal worldwide or limited to certain rights (e.g., excludes sync or neighboring rights)?
• Audit rights: Can you audit accounts and how often?
• Term and termination: Duration, notice period and what happens to uncollected or pending royalties on termination.
• Exclusivity: Are you free to license certain rights independently?
• Advance and recoupment: If there’s an advance, how is it recouped and against which revenue streams?

South Asia specifics — localization, CMOs and legal realities

South Asia is diverse. Markets use different CMOs, payment rails and legal frameworks. Practical points:

• Local CMOs and registration: Register works with your local performing rights organisation first — this is often required for local collection and to establish prima facie ownership.
• Language and script handling: Provide both romanized and native-script metadata for titles and writer names to ensure correct matches across local DSPs and global services. Regional case studies, like the Marathi music & AI work linked above, show how native-script metadata improves discovery.
• Neighboring rights: Many South Asian markets have limited collection infrastructures for neighboring rights. Understand whether Madverse/Kobalt will pursue these rights and in which territories.
• Tax & payout complexity: Expect different withholding rules and slower cross-border transfers in some markets. Provide accurate tax forms early to avoid delays.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Duplicate works: Multiple recordings or versions without clear metadata cause split errors. Always tag version type (e.g., live, radio edit).
• Mismatched writer names: Different name variants across platforms prevent matchbacks. Consolidate your pro files and legal IDs.
• Missing agreements: Unclear co-writer agreements block claims. Have signed split sheets before release.
• Late registration: Waiting months to register works means lost or delayed collections. Aim to register at or before release.

Mini case study: How an indie writer in Mumbai prepped for global collection

Nisha, a Mumbai-based songwriter, had twenty tracks across two EPs and a handful of singles. She wanted Madverse/Kobalt to administer her publishing.

Action steps she took — and you can too:

1. Collected signed split sheets for every track and scanned them into a single PDF portfolio.
2. Registered herself and her co-writers with their local PROs and confirmed IPI numbers.
3. Generated a CSV with canonical names, IPIs, ISWCs/ISRCs, UPCs, release dates and split percentages.
4. Provided transliterated titles and original-script titles where relevant, plus LRC files for time-synced lyrics.
5. Added sample-clearance notes for two tracks and attached license PDFs.
6. Uploaded everything to Madverse’s ingestion portal and agreed a timeline with Kobalt for back-claim searches.

Result: within six months she began seeing collections from multiple EU markets that previously had not tracked her plays. The clarity of her metadata reduced claim disputations and sped payment.

Advanced strategies to maximize royalties and sync opportunities

Beyond basic catalog prep, here are higher-impact actions:

• Register alternate versions and translations: Many rights are version-specific. Translate title metadata when you release a vernacular version to tap local catalogs.
• Time-synced lyrics and annotations: Provide lyrics with timestamps and consider short annotations for DSP editorial teams — these increase playlist and lyric-feature opportunities.
• Proactive pitch materials: Build one-pagers per song with mood, tempo, key, and sync-ready snippets so Madverse/Kobalt can pitch quickly for sync placements.
• Maintain a rights log: Keep a single source of truth for all agreements, sample clearances, and licenses. This cuts weeks off claim resolutions.
• Use standard exchange formats: Where possible submit DDEX ERN or CSV templates requested by Kobalt — it reduces manual ingestion errors. Also consider touring- and backstage-oriented playbooks for small acts when planning regional outreach (see hybrid touring strategies here).

How to approach the Madverse/Kobalt onboarding conversation

When you’re ready to present your catalog, make the conversation efficient:

1. Lead with a one-page catalog summary (number of works, number of recordings, languages, and whether splits are confirmed).
2. Attach a single ZIP with: split-sheets, a CSV of metadata, release artwork, ISRC lists and license PDFs for any samples.
3. Ask for an ingestion checklist and timeline — know when Kobalt will begin claims and how retrospective claims are handled.
4. Negotiate audit windows and termination terms up-front if you need flexibility.

Tip: Treat metadata as intellectual property infrastructure — it’s the difference between seeing global royalties and leaving money on the table.

Checklist summary — immediate actions you can take today

• Gather signed split sheets for every song and digitise them.
• Confirm IPI/CAE and PRO registration for all contributors.
• Generate ISRCs for recordings and request ISWCs for compositions.
• Create a canonical metadata CSV with splits, IDs, release info and language variants.
• Provide time-synced lyrics (LRC or formatted file) if you have them.
• Prepare bank/tax documents for international payouts (see privacy-first document capture guidance).
• Ask about audit rights, term length and whether the admin deal is exclusive.

Final considerations: Risks, costs and long-term thinking

Partnerships like Kobalt x Madverse are powerful, but not a silver bullet. Expect:

• Administrative fees and possible sub-publisher deductions — read the fee schedule carefully.
• Time to start collecting in new territories — retrospective claims can take months to resolve.
• Ongoing maintenance — metadata must be updated with each new release or re-version to keep future income flowing.

Long-term, treat this as an infrastructure decision. A good admin partner plus rigorous metadata practices will convert plays into payments — especially as 2026 brings more automated matching systems and faster settlement pilots.

Actionable takeaways

• Prepare your catalog: Signed splits, IPIs, ISWCs/ISRCs and a canonical CSV are non-negotiable.
• Negotiate admin terms: Protect audit rights, termination windows and exclusivity before you sign.
• Localize metadata: Provide native-script titles and transliterations for South Asian markets.
• Use time-synced lyrics: This increases matches on global platforms and unlocks lyric monetization features.
• Keep a single source of truth: One rights log will save you weeks during disputes and claims.

Ready to make Kobalt x Madverse work for your catalog? Start with the checklist above and package your catalog into a single, machine-readable submission. The better your metadata, the faster you’ll see global royalties — and in 2026 that clarity is paying off more than ever.

Call to action

If you’re an indie songwriter or publisher ready to onboard with a global admin partner, download the free catalog CSV template and split-sheet sample from our resources page, or contact Madverse to request their ingestion checklist. Treat metadata as the asset it is — do the work now and unlock global royalty collection.

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