If Kobalt isn't the indie option anymore, who is?

Primary Wave just bought the publisher that defined "I don't want a major" for two decades. Twelve months on from a string of indie sales, the indie-admin tier looks thinner than it has in years, and a real question is on the board.

On 23 March 2026, Primary Wave Music signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kobalt Music Group from Francisco Partners. The deal values Kobalt at roughly $1.5 billion, with the combined company sitting around $7 billion, and Brookfield investing alongside Primary Wave. Kobalt stays standalone post-close under CEO Laurent Hubert. Closing is targeted for Q3 2026.

The headline isn't really the price. It's the company. Kobalt was the explicit alternative for songwriters who didn't want a major: transparency dashboard, AMRA collecting digital royalties direct, KOSIGN (launched February 2025, already over 12,000 songs across 88 countries, 80/20 split, rolling-term contracts, writers keep their copyrights). All of that now lives inside a $7-billion, Brookfield-backed operator.

Look at what else moved in the last twelve months. Downtown Music Holdings, sold to Virgin Music Group, which is to say Universal, in February. Hipgnosis Songs Group, sold to Sony Music Publishing in June 2025 and rebranded Recognition Music Group, with further talks to fold deeper into Sony reportedly underway. Concord, in talks to buy BMG. The "indie publisher" tier as it existed in 2024 has effectively been depopulated by 2026.

Kobalt was the explicit "I don't want a major" option. Now that option lives inside a $7-billion, Brookfield-backed group.

So here's the real question, the one we actually want you arguing about in the comments.

If you're a songwriter today who specifically wanted what Kobalt offered, where do you go? Reservoir, who've positioned themselves as the last real indie? A KOSIGN that's about to operationally sit inside Primary Wave? Songtrust, which is now UMG-owned through Downtown? Sentric? Exceleration? Wixen? A tech-forward startup nobody's heard of yet? A co-op nobody's built?

Or, and we'll put our hand up here: is it our sister company, The Modern Score? Artist-centric sync representation. Label services rather than old-school publishing deals and record contracts. Building teams instead of signing them away. It feels that way to us. But you tell us.

Tell us where the next "indie" gets built. Because somebody's going to build it.

Disclosure: The Modern Score is the parent company of The Brief, is named in this piece as one possible answer to the question it asks, and has a commercial relationship with Kobalt's sync department. We're laying that on the table on purpose.