AWAL

Services

AWAL's services include global marketing and creative services, A&R, playlist and radio promotion, publicity, sync licensing, brand partnerships, and access to comprehensive real-time music data and insights. In March 2017, AWAL introduced its music analytics app, designed to collect and display data from an artist's Spotify and Apple Music presence. In November 2018, Billboard published an article titled "Can Kobalt Disrupt the Label Game With AWAL", outlining the company's approach and noting that it pays out as much as 80 percent of streaming revenue to its artists.

History

AWAL US was originally founded in 1997 by Denzyl Feigelson in Ojai, California, with mentorship help from founding member Andrew Ungerleider, and then joined forces in 2004 with record producers Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby. In December 2012, AWAL UK was acquired by the Kobalt Music Group and operated as the company's digital music distribution arm.

In January 2018, Lonny Olinick was named CEO of Kobalt's recording division. By March 2018, Kobalt announced it was investing $150 million into AWAL and that all of Kobalt's recording business would be combined under the AWAL brand. AWAL acquired In2une Music in June 2018, which provides multi-format radio promotion to independent labels and artists. AWAL announced a strategic partnership with independent label Glassnote Records in November 2018. Other notable announcements from the company include signing artists such as Steve Lacy, Finneas, Little Simz, Girl in Red, deadmau5, JVKE, Jungle, Disclosure, Rex Orange County, Tom Misch, and Laufey.

In November 2018, AWAL was named on Billboard's 2018 Digital Power Players - Music Groups list. In April 2023, AWAL was named on Billboard's 2023 International Power Players list. Later that year, Billboard named AWAL's Lonny Olinick, Pete Giberga, and Paul Hitchman to their 2023 Indie Power Players list.

AWAL has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City, Madrid, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Paris and Toronto.

On September 7, 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the United Kingdom's antitrust regulator raised concerns that Sony's purchase of AWAL would reduce competition from other distributors. The CMA gave Sony and AWAL five days to address the CMA's concerns and offer legally binding remedies, or else the CMA would enter a Phase 2 investigation. The phase two investigation was launched on September 16, 2021. Following a consultation that ended on March 4, 2022, the CMA officially cleared the deal on March 16, 2022.

Notable artists

• Aly & AJ
• A$AP TyY
• Banks
• The Beaches
• Ber
• BoyWithUke
• Bruno Major
• Claudia Alende
• CMAT
• Dashboard Confessional
• Dayglow
• Daði Freyr
• De La Soul
• Die Antwoord
• DijahSB
• Disclosure
• Djo
• Esprit D'Air
• Ethel Cain
• Everything Everything
• Elita Harkov (physical released only)
• The Aubreys
• Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes
• Gabrielle Aplin
• Girl in Red
• Greyson Chance
• Gus Dapperton
• Jae Jin
• Jesse McCartney
• James Marriott
• JPEGMAFIA
• Jungle
• JVKE
• iamamiwhoami
• INJI
• ionnalee
• Katelyn Tarver
• The Kooks
• Tomer Aaron
• Kim Petras
• Kira Kosarin
• Laufey
• Laura Marling
• Lauren Jauregui
• Lauv
• Lil Peep
• Lisa Heller
• Little Simz
• Lizzy McAlpine
• Luvcat
• Madison Beer
• Maximum Love
• Moby
• mxmtoon
• Naked Eyes
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• The Night Café
• Now United
• Pouya
• Quadeca
• R3HAB
• Rex Orange County
• RMR
• Rickie Lee Jones
• SBTRKT
• Simi
• Spacey Jane
• Steve Lacy
• Sub Urban
• Tamera Foster
• Thom Yorke
• Todd Terje
• Tom Misch
• Vérité
• Wasia Project
• The Wombats
• Wretch 32
• You Me at Six
• Young the Giant
• Yung Bans
• Zolita

Record labels

• Glassnote Records
• mau5trap
• Good Soldier Songs
• Nickelodeon Records
• B-Unique Records
• SideOneDummy Records
• World in Red (personal label for Girl in Red)
• Chess Club Records
• Bright Antenna Records

Albums released

• Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1 (2017) — Lil Peep
• Fuzzybrain (2018) — Dayglow
• Friends (2019) — Omar Apollo
• Grey Area (2019) — Little Simz
• Portraits (2019) — Greyson Chance
• Twenty Twenty (2019) — Djo
• Bonito Recycling (2020) — Kero Kero Bonito
• Idiot Prayer (2020) — Nick Cave
• Orca (2020) — Gus Dapperton
• Sunlight (2020) — Spacey Jane
• Inbred (2021) — Ethel Cain
• A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun (2021) — Aly & AJ
• Back in Love City (2021) — The Vaccines
• Harmony House (2021) — Dayglow
• If I Could Make It Go Quiet (2021) — Girl in Red
• From Me to You (2021) — Quadeca
• In Search Of Darkness (2021) — Chvrches
• Loving in Stereo (2021) — Jungle
• Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (2021) — Little Simz
• 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark (2022) — The Kooks
• All the Truth That I Can Tell (2022) — Dashboard Confessional
• Decide (2022) — Djo
• Five Seconds Flat (2022) — Lizzy McAlpine
• Fix Yourself, Not the World (2022) — The Wombats
• Forever (2022) — Phife Dawg
• Here Comes Everybody (2022) — Spacey Jane
• No Thank You (2022) — Little Simz
• People in Motion (2022) — Dayglow
• Preacher's Daughter (2022) — Ethel Cain
• Rising (2022) — Mxmtoon
• Serpentina (2022) — Banks
• Under the Shade of Green (2022) — The Happy Fits
• I Didn't Mean to Haunt You (2022) — Quadeca
• Living Somple (2023) - DijahSB
• With Love From (2023) — Aly & AJ
• Scaring the Hoes (2023) — JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown
• The Musical: Welcome to the Night of Your Life (2023) — Now United and Lilith Freund
• Sundial(2023) - Noname
• Scrapyard (2024) — Quadeca
• I Lay Down My Life for You (2024) — JPEGMAFIA
• Burnout (2024) — BoyWithUke
• If Nevermore (2025) — Sub Urban
• A Matter of Time (2025) — Laufey
• SUPERLAME (2025) — INJI

References

References

1. (2 September 2010). "Behind the music: Awal keeps digital royalties from going awol".
2. (31 March 2020). "Denzyl Feigelson: Once you help an artist build a robust business, a lot starts to happen for them".
3. (5 June 2019). "AWAL Signs Global Physical Distribution Agreement with Proper Music Group". Digital Music News.
4. "Can Kobalt Disrupt the Label Game With AWAL?".
5. (February 1, 2021). "Sony Music Acquires Kobalt's Label and Neighboring Rights for $430 Million".
6. (May 20, 2021). "Sony Music Completes Acquisition of AWAL and Kobalt Neighboring Rights; U.K. Initiates Post-Mortem Probe".
7. "How it works - AWAL".
8. "Kobalt's AWAL Releases New App That Simplifies Streaming Data for Artists".
9. (23 January 2012). "Kobalt Expands Into Label Services With Major Acquisition".
10. "Kobalt Appoints Lonny Olinick to Recording Division CEO".
11. "Kobalt Boosts Its AWAL Brand With $150M Investment, Seeks 100 New Hires".
12. (2018-06-07). "Kobalt's AWAL acquires radio promo company in2une".
13. "Glassnote Music Announces Partnership With Kobalt Music's AWAL".
14. "The Internet's Steve Lacy signs to Kobalt's AWAL".
15. ""There's huge opportunity for her globally": AWAL announces worldwide partnership deal with Little Simz".
16. (2019-12-03). "AWAL signs worldwide recordings deal with girl in red".
17. Mercuri, Monica. (2018-07-26). "deadmau5 Signs New Worldwide Deal With AWAL: Exclusive".
18. (2021-03-24). "AWAL signs British electronic duo Jungle to global recordings deal".
19. Bain, Katie. (2023-07-12). "Disclosure to Release New Album This Week".
20. (2019-09-19). "Rex Orange County's new album, Pony, to arrive next month via Sony Music".
21. (2021-04-26). "AWAL extends deal with Tom Misch for forthcoming album".
22. "Revealed: Billboard's 2018 Digital Power Players".
23. Duffy, Thom. (2023-04-25). "Billboard's 2023 International Power Players Revealed".
24. Rys, Dan. (2023-06-12). "Billboard's 2023 Indie Power Players Revealed".
25. "AWAL launches in India and South Asia".
26. "AWAL - Company".
27. (2018-12-11). "AWAL expands into Canada with new Toronto office".
28. Smirke, Richard. (September 7, 2021). "U.K. Watchdog Finds Sony's AWAL Deal Raises 'Significant Competition Concerns'".
29. "CMA launches in-depth phase two investigation of Sony Music's AWAL acquisition".
30. (16 March 2022). "SONY MUSIC'S $430M ACQUISITION OF AWAL OFFICIALLY CLEARED BY UK COMPETITION WATCHDOG".
31. Moore, Sam. (March 13, 2020). "Finn Wolfhard on new band The Aubreys: "We wanted to mix the craziness of Flaming Lips with the earnestness of Wilco"".
32. (8 October 2021). "Lauren Jauregi broke up with Sony and became completely independent". Pennsylvania News Today.
33. Major, Michael. "VIDEO: Lizzy McAlpine Releases 'All My Ghosts' Music Video".
34. (2019-09-24). "Simon Fuller's Global Pop Group Now United Signs Worldwide Deal With AWAL".
35. "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away". AWAL.
36. (August 27, 2021). "US Open Champ Sloane Stephens Shares the Music That Keeps Her Energized".
37. (November 16, 2018). "Glassnote Music Announces Partnership With Kobalt Music's AWAL".
38. (April 2, 2019). "AWAL signs worldwide deal with UK-based independent label B-Unique".
39. (April 29, 2019). "SideOneDummy Records Signs Worldwide Distribution Deal With AWAL".
40. (2019-12-03). "AWAL signs worldwide recordings deal with girl in red".
41. (March 14, 2019). "Chess Club Records Gets Investment From Coran Capshaw, International Distribution From AWAL".