KOBALT COAXES HUBERT BACK INTO GAME

That didn’t take long. Just weeks after stepping down as BMG President Marketing & Creative and head of the German company’s U.S. operations, Laurent Hubert has resurfaced as President Platform and Investments for Kobalt’s newly announced B2B rights-management platform division. He'll be tasked with the job of rolling out Kobalt’s services and technology to other content owners.

“This is a new major step for Kobalt,” said Kobalt founder/CEO Willard Ahdritz. “Our unique centralized organization and powerful technology platform are delivering an enormous uplift in revenue for our clients. But I believe that every creator should be able to benefit from what we’ve built, whether they are signed directly to Kobalt or not. So I’m thrilled that our new white-label platform will be able to deliver that same uplift with total transparency to other publishers and content owners around the world. And Laurent is the perfect person to run it.”

Ahdritz went on to laud Hubert for “his integrity and extensive knowledge.”

For his part, Hubert could barely contain his excitement about “joining one of the great pioneers in our digital age… I share Willard’s vision of a robust global music economy that requires a global tech solution like Kobalt in order to maximize value for creators in our digital age. It’s the unique combination of Kobalt’s values, powerful tech platform and streamlined infrastructure that content owners and creators need to succeed today.”

Hubert will work out of Kobalt's L.A. offices, He’ll also chair the investment committee and join the board of Kobalt Capital, the advisory company for Kobalt’s fund business.