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The content of this Website (including microsites) has been prepared by Cape Capital AG, with its registered address at Utoquai 55, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland (“Cape Capital”), duly registered at the commercial register of the Canton of Zurich with number CHE-109.617.147. and contains the views and opinions of the particular individuals and is for general information and marketing purposes only. All copyrights and other rights, included but not limited to logos and registered trademarks relating to the entire content of the Website are reserved exclusively to Cape Capital or the specifically designated right holders. Any use, in particular the reproduction or publication in full or in part is permitted only with the prior written consent of Cape Capital. Cape Capital may from time to time suspend the operation of this Website for repair, maintenance or improvement work, or in order to update or upgrade its content or functionality. Cape Capital may also change the format, content and/or access of this Website at any time at its sole discretion without notice. Although Cape Capital believes that information provided on this Website is based on reliable sources, content on this Website is presented only as of the date published or indicated, and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. Therefore Cape Capital cannot assume responsibility for the quality, correctness, timeliness or completeness of the information contained herein. Unless otherwise stated, the numbers/figures on the Website are unaudited.


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Nothing contained on this Website constitutes a solicitation, an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any Cape Capital Funds or other financial instruments, nor does it constitute any form of personal investment advice which takes into account your personal circumstances. Cape Capital does not provide investment, legal, tax or other advice through this Website and nothing herein should be construed as such advice. Cape Capital does not represent that any Cape Capital collective assets or financial instruments mentioned on this Cape Capital website are suitable for any investor. Investment or other decisions should be made solely on the basis of the relevant product and/or service documents (prospectus/offering memorandum, fund contract/articles, key information documents, financial reports) of the respective collective investment. If not a Cape Capital client, it is strongly recommended to contact a professional financial advisor, tax consultant or other qualified expert in order to determine whether an investment in a Fund or other financial instrument corresponds to the specific requirements and preferred level of risk of the investor.


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Any collective investment schemes mentioned on this Website may, unless explicitly stated otherwise, not be offered, sold or delivered to United States (U.S.) citizens or persons resident or incorporated in the U.S. and/or other natural or legal persons whose income and/or returns, regardless of origin, are subject to U.S. income tax, as well as persons who are considered to be U.S. persons pursuant to Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and/or the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act, in each case as amended from time to time.


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The provision of financial services and investments in Funds and other financial instruments involve opportunities but also bear risks, including the risk that the value of investments and the income therefrom may fall or rise and investors may not get back the full amount invested or may even lose all of their investment. Investors should ensure to have fully understood such risks before taking any investment decisions. Cape Capital strongly advises to consult the brochure “Risks Involved in Trading Financial Instruments” of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) as well as  the relevant documents of the respective Fund or financial instrument and to seek professional investment advice before taking any decision to invest. Investors should note, that these Conditions do not represent a complete statement of risks associated to a Fund or a financial instrument. Past performance is no indication of current or future performance. Performance data do not include commissions and costs incurred by investors when subscribing or redeeming Fund shares.Investments, in particular collective investments in private equity, venture capital and other illiquid assets involve an above-average degree of risk, including the risk that losses may even exceed the original investment and should be seen as long-term in nature.


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The access and use of this Website, and these present Conditions are governed by substantive Swiss law with the exclusion of the conflict of law principles. The place of jurisdiction is Zurich, Switzerland.

Last Update: October 2024

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Willard Ahdritz:

'With digital, everyone thought the music industry was dead'

FOLIO Edition I
Business & Markets

The Founder and Chairman of Kobalt Music outlines a revolutionary business model that is reshaping the future of the creator economy

One of the world’s largest, most innovative music publishers, Kobalt has spent more than two decades shaking up the industry—for the better. With a portfolio of around 700,000 songs, it represents hit songwriters, from The Foo Fighters and Paul McCartney to Wolf Alice, Roddy Ricch, Max Martin, and Stevie Nicks. That translates to over 40 percent of the top 100 songs and albums in the US and UK alone, and, for the financial year ending in 2021, a profit of $5.8 million on revenues of $519.4 million.

'I wanted to take the music industry into the digital age'

'We had this revolutionary concept: we decided to pay artists,' says founder Willard Ahdritz, a Swedish saxophonist and coder during his military service, turned entrepreneur, who used the digital eruption in the 1990s as an opportunity to create a fair and transparent payment model for artists. ‘With streaming, it was clear to me that we would see an explosion in the volume of data and we needed big tech. I wanted to take the music industry into the digital age with a creator’s economy, based on the Agency Theory that aligned interest gives a higher return.’

Although to an outsider it might seem nonsensical, historically, songwriters have always been the last in the music chain to be paid, thanks to an overly complex system involving copyrights, royalty splits and collection societies – and that was before Napster and the birth of file-sharing. ‘As an artist, you give up your rights, it takes maybe two years to get paid and up to 75 percent of what you are owed disappears, so you have no understanding of how much money is coming in or when,’ says Ahdritz.

His solution was to build an accessible platform called KTech, collect as much global revenue data as possible (including from radio channels, physical album sales and companies such as Spotify and YouTube), and link it all together so that artists can see on their smartphone, in almost real time, what they are owed and therefore maximise their cash flow. ‘Introducing and scaling technology with structures so that musicians can see that a song has been played 500,000 times and how much money has been collected was completely new’ he continues.

As if this pioneering portal and unprecedented level of transparency wasn’t reason enough for songwriters to switch their catalogue to Kobalt, the company also branched out, taking an equally radical approach to other areas of the industry, such as contracts, recording and royalties. Artists are usually locked into contracts with publishers for the long-term, required to sign over the rights to their songs in return for recording advances, and agree to unfavourable royalty splits (typically, publishers take up to around 60 percent of royalties, another chunk ends up in a black hole because no-one knows the correct owner of a song, and collection societies take a cut, which slows the payment process significantly). Kobalt did the opposite: it allowed the artist to keep control of the copyright and took only 12.5 percent of royalties.

'The music industry has always had a very complicated web of administration behind the scenes, which is crazy, and it needed disruption,’ comments Cape Capital founder Alex Vukajlovic, who spearheaded the investment in Kobalt on behalf of Cape Capital and its clients, as well as seeding its ground-breaking fund which was set up in 2010 to buy or lend against royalties. ‘Having got to know Willard, I thought it was a great business which, at the same time, was trying to overthrow the three major record labels who had previously dominated the market. It was also a perfect example of a company which was doing well but also doing so much good for artists by helping them collect money faster and be more transparent. It was social impact at its best. It sounded ambitious but also realistic, so we decided to invest.’

'I was the guy who told the wife about all the mistresses the husband had'

A few years later, Kobalt expanded once again, buying AMRA, and transforming it into a global digital collection society. While other publishers might, for instance, spend months shifting money from a local office to a regional European hub and then onto the US before finally paying an American artist, Ahdritz simply cut out the middlemen and, in doing so, exposed the extent of the dysfunctional payment chain. ‘By having one global society I bypassed all those intermediary structures. I was the guy who told the wife about all the mistresses the husband had; I showed everyone how much money the other companies were sitting on,’ he jokes.

This year sees yet another new chapter for the company. In September, Kobalt sold a controlling interest to global technology and media-focused investment firm Francisco Partners. ‘The music industry is more valued again and it has become much more capital intensive; suddenly we needed more capital to continue so we had a review and a funding reset,’ explains Ahdritz, who remains as chairman. ‘The next big step for Kobalt is to continue the growth of our global collection society, and get more players involved.’

This then, is what the ethical future of the music industry looks like. Ahdritz estimates that since Kobalt was set up in 2000, it has moved $10 billion in value to creators through higher payouts and rights. He has also seen the model being mimicked in other spheres and forced heavyweight competitors to up their game (for example, Universal Music Group recently announced a new global services division). ‘Because of its bandwidth, music is usually quite an early adopter of change so we were at the front when it came to seeing what the digital economy could do,’ he says.

‘No-one likes to challenge the oligopoly'

Ultimately, it was this forward-facing vision and unwavering conviction in doing things differently that reshaped the entire system, and appealed to Cape Capital’s values. The only real question is why no-one thought to do it sooner.

‘No-one likes to challenge the oligopoly; sometimes you need to come from the outside. 'We were on a purpose-driven mission, determined to smash it up and do the right thing,’ he concludes. ‘With digital, everyone thought the music industry was dead; I was one of the few who believed in its transformation.’ Thankfully, for artists and musicians, he has proved to be right.

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