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Monetization Map: How Music Publishers and Platforms Like Kobalt & Madverse Change Royalties for South Asian Creators

tthesound

2026-01-31

9 min read

How the 2026 Kobalt–Madverse tie-up changes royalty collection for South Asian indie artists — and the exact metadata and stem workflow to capture earnings.

Feeling shortchanged by opaque royalty splits? The Kobalt–Madverse deal changes the game for South Asian indie creators.

Independent musicians in South Asia face familiar frustrations: scattered royalty streams, unclear publishing administration, and metadata mistakes that cost thousands in uncollected income. The January 2026 partnership between Kobalt and India’s Madverse promises better global publishing administration for the region — but the benefit isn’t automatic. This piece explains what the deal means for South Asian creators, how publishing and royalties will flow differently, and the exact metadata and stems workflow you must adopt to capture every rupee, dollar, and stream.

Why this partnership matters now (2026 context)

Two trends accelerated in late 2024–2025 and set the stage for this agreement:

Streaming and short-form monetization continued expanding across South Asia, moving millions of users from ad-supported to paid tiers and increasing global plays for regional catalogs.
Rightsholder administration tech matured — faster reporting, expanded direct deals with DSPs, and pilots for near-real-time micro-payments. Publishers with global networks and robust data pipelines increasingly claim more of the fragmented royalty pie.

Against that backdrop, Kobalt’s publishing administration scale plus Madverse’s South Asian community creates a funnel: local creators get access to global collection channels and more proactive mechanicals and sync collection — if they prepare correctly.

What Kobalt brings to Madverse creators (and what it doesn’t)

What it brings:

Global publishing administration: centralized registration with collection societies, DSP mechanical portals, and databases for ISWC/ISRC linkage.
Improved royalty collection across territories: direct claims with major DSPs and platforms, plus sync and neighboring-rights support through Kobalt’s networks.
Data and reporting: more frequent statements, standardized DDEX flows, and analytics to spot underpaid territories.

What it won’t magically fix:

Bad metadata — incorrect splits, misspelled songwriter names, or missing IPI numbers still block collection.
Ownership choices: administration deals vary. Read terms on advances, rates, term length, and audit rights.
Stems and masters quality: better admin won’t improve a poor master for sync or degrade a badly exported stem that prevents licensing.

How royalties flow differently with global publishing administration

Understanding the visible changes helps you act. Here’s the simplified flow before and after:

Before: Fragmented

Local distributor reports mechanicals to local societies inconsistently.
Writers rely on regional PRO registration that may not be recognized internationally, so foreign plays go unpaid.
Sync opportunities often lost because catalogs aren’t presented in publisher-grade format.

After: Centralized administration

Kobalt connects registered works to global ISWC/ISRC infrastructure, files claims with DSPs and collection societies, and chases unpaid mechanicals and performance royalties across territories.
Madverse creators get access to sync pitching and global neighboring-rights collection that previously required separate sign-ups in each territory.
Better data reduces lost royalties from misattributed or orphan works.

Actionable checklist: Metadata every South Asian indie must get right

Metadata errors are the single biggest reason royalties go uncollected. Treat this checklist like your royalty insurance policy:

Song Title — exact characters, diacritics, and alternate-language titles. Use the release title consistently across all portals.
Writer(s) full legal names — as registered with their PRO or IPI database. Include common transliterations if names are in non-Latin scripts.
IPI/CAE numbers — every writer and publisher. If a collaborator doesn’t have one yet, register them with the local PRO immediately.
Publisher name and publisher IPI — list Madverse (or your own publishing entity) exactly as it will appear in Kobalt/Madverse filings.
Writer splits (percentages) — written split sheet signed by all collaborators. Convert to decimals when entering into admin portals.
ISRC (recording) and UPC (release) — ISRCs for each recording, UPC for the release bundle. Don’t reuse ISRCs across different masters.
Release date and territory — be precise: early releases in one territory can create conflicts for global licensing.
Language and original language — crucial for royalties on DSPs and YouTube Content ID match rules.
Alternate versions — demos, radio edits, and remix ISRCs must be linked to the original composition via ISWC or internal notes.
Split confirmations — keep PDFs of split sheets and email confirmations; upload them to your publisher’s portal.

Tip: Standardize your metadata in a single master spreadsheet and use it to populate distributor, PRO, and publisher forms. It saves time and prevents manual errors.

Preparing stems: a practical guide for faster sync and higher payments

Good stems make your song licensable, remixable, and easier to claim via content ID. Here’s the studio-to-delivery workflow that sync supervisors and publishers love.

Stem exports: technical specs

Format: 24-bit WAV (or 32-bit float if session requires), uncompressed.
Sample rate: Export at the session rate (commonly 44.1kHz or 48kHz). Keep tertiary exports at the same rate to avoid resampling artifacts.
Headroom: Leave -3 dBFS to -6 dBFS peak headroom on each stem and the full mix to avoid clipping during mastering or editing.
Length and alignment: Include at least 2 seconds of silence at start and 1–2 seconds at end; exports must be phase-locked to bar 1 and include timecode if available.
Naming convention: use a clear pattern — Artist_Song_StemName_24bit_44k.wav (e.g., Rhea_Sunrise_VocLead_24bit_44k.wav). See best practices for naming and tagging to avoid privacy/ingestion issues.

Which stems to provide

Lead vocal (main performance) — with and without pitch correction if used.
Backing vocals/harmonies — grouped or separate where possible.
Drums — export full kit and subgroups (kick, snare, overheads) if practical and phase-coherent.
Bass — DI and processed buss if you used both.
Keyboards/synths — separate melodic elements if they’re major hooks.
Guitars — rhythm and lead exported separately where they’re key to the composition.
FX and atmospheres — labeled clearly as SFX/Atmos so they can be reused for sync beds.
Instrumental and acapella full stems — these are essential for remixes and placements.

For sync-ready delivery, provide stems in both mixed-grouped form (drums buss, vocal buss) and isolated tracks if you can. Metadata inside the WAV (BWF chunks, iXML) is increasingly read by major publishers — include session notes there. If you need hardware or kit guidance, see hands-on field reviews for compact setups that pros use (tiny at-home studio review and field kit reviews).

Registration sequence: the order matters

Agree and document splits — signed split sheet.
Register the composition with your local PRO and obtain or confirm IPI/CAE numbers.
Assign ISRCs for recordings (use one ISRC per master).
Upload release to distributor and notify Kobalt/Madverse publishing team with full metadata and split sheet.
Ensure Kobalt registers the work for ISWC assignment and global mechanicals collection.
Register the master with YouTube Content ID via your distributor or Kobalt’s service for automated monetization.

Negotiation and contract points to watch (real-world tips)

Signing with a publisher or entering an administration deal requires attention. Here are practical clauses and numbers to track:

Administration rate — 10–20% is common for administration only; full publishing deals take larger shares. Know which you’re signing.
Term length — try to keep administration terms around 3–5 years for new artists; avoid perpetual assignments unless the economics strongly favor you.
Advances vs recoupment — get clarity if advances are recoupable against future publishing income and under what categories (mechanical vs performance).
Audit and transparency — insist on quarterly reporting and the right to audit with clear sample sizes and notice periods; red-teaming and security-aware audit practices are gaining prominence (see red team playbooks).
Sync approvals — ensure you retain a right to approve sync deals beyond predefined thresholds or receive higher splits for certain media uses.

Use case: How Rhea (Mumbai indie) captured missed royalties

Rhea, a fictional but typical South Asian indie producer, released a track in 2024 with poor metadata: collaborators used nicknames, no split sheet existed, and ISRCs were inconsistent. By mid-2025 she’d cleaned up her metadata, registered with her PRO, and — in 2026 — signed an administration agreement via Madverse connecting to Kobalt.

Step 1: She reconstructed a split sheet and obtained IPI numbers from collaborators.
Step 2: Madverse uploaded full stems and registered the composition with Kobalt’s admin team, who secured an ISWC and filed claims with DSPs.
Step 3: Kobalt’s reporting surfaced previously uncollected streams from Eastern Europe and Latin America; those mechanicals were recovered and paid out in later statements.

Outcome: after clean metadata and central admin, Rhea’s quarterly publishing income doubled within 12 months — a realistic result when systemic leaks are fixed.

New 2026 considerations for South Asian creators

Short-form platforms improved creator payment schemas in late 2025, and publishers are working directly with those platforms to monetize catalogs. Properly registered works now generate more consistent micro-payments.
AI-generated music raised metadata and ownership complexities; note authorship clearly when AI tools are used and follow your publisher’s guidelines for credits.
There’s more attention on neighboring rights in South Asia; Kobalt’s global reach helps route those collections where local CMOs lack bilateral agreements.
Pilots for faster cross-border payments (including blockchain trials) are increasing — but standard bank wires and reporting remain the baseline for most creators in 2026.

Practical next steps for independent South Asian artists

Follow this immediate action plan to benefit from the Kobalt–Madverse partnership:

Audit your catalog metadata now — create a single master CSV with writer names, IPIs, splits, ISRCs, and upload it to Madverse for Kobalt ingestion.
Prepare stems per the spec above and upload both master and stems to Madverse for sync opportunities.
Register all collaborators with your local PRO and confirm their IPI numbers.
Ask Madverse for the exact administration terms being relayed to Kobalt: rate, term, audit rights, and reporting cadence.
Keep copies of split sheets, correspondence, and delivery receipts — you’ll need them for claims and audits.

Final takeaways

The Kobalt–Madverse partnership is an important structural upgrade for South Asian independent creators — but it won’t raise your royalties automatically. The lift comes from proper registration, clean metadata, smart stem delivery, and savvy contract negotiation. For many artists, the difference between paid and unpaid plays still comes down to a few characters in a metadata field or a missing IPI number.

Actionable takeaway: Start with a single master metadata file and a standardized stems folder. Fix that first — the administrative scale Kobalt brings will do the rest.

Call to action

Ready to capture every play? Start by auditing your top 10 streamed tracks today: compile writer names, IPI numbers, ISRCs and split sheets into a master CSV and share it with Madverse. If you don’t have split sheets, create them and get signatures. If you want a template or a step-by-step walkthrough for stem exports and metadata formatting, reach out to your publisher rep at Madverse — and ask them to connect you to Kobalt’s admin onboarding specialist. The tech and the networks are here in 2026; the rest is in your metadata.

thesound

Contributor

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.