Privacy Policy

Effective date:  07/15/2022

This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) applies to your use of our websites, including kobaltmusic.com, the Kobalt desktop and mobile application portals (“Portal”), and all related websites, mobile apps, and web-based services (together, the “Websites”). Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and in conjunction with our Terms of Use and ensure that you understand them before you start to use the Websites. 

By accessing and using the Websites, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the content of this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

The Websites are owned and operated by, or on behalf of, Kobalt Music Group Limited (“we” or “us”). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 04018752 and our registered office is at 120 Moorgate, London, England EC2M 6UR. Our VAT registration number is GB774150334.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites, products or services, even if they may link to our Websites or our Websites may link to them through advertisements that we display on our Websites and on the Portal. We recommend you review the privacy practices of those third parties before connecting accessing third party websites and sharing any personal information.  

For most data collection on our Websites, we are the data controller responsible for the collection and use of your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy.  

This Privacy Policy is provided in a layered format. You can jump to a specific section by clicking on the section below:

1. Information we collect from you

   For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personal information” means any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. The personal information we collect through our Websites will be apparent by the context of the page, and may include but is not limited to the types of information described below.

   • Personal information you provide to us

   We may collect the following personal information about you to you choose to provide us through our Websites: 

   • Account information.  When you apply for an account on our Websites, including the Portal, you may be asked to provide basic contact information such as your title/role, name, email address, password and additional information that you may specify such as personal marketing preferences.  We may also collect certain additional information for authentication purposes, such as your phone number.
   • Correspondence information.  When you report a problem with the Websites to us or otherwise contact us, you may provide us with certain of  your contact information and other personal information.
   • Payment information.  If you purchase products or services from us, you may be required to provide your payment card or bank account information, or your account information for one of our third party payment platforms, as well as your shipping and billing addresses.
   • Information that we automatically collect

   Our Websites use cookies and other tracking technologies such as web beacons, embedded scripts, and tags (“Cookies”), which collect information from you automatically as your use our Websites, including: 

   • Browser and device data, such as IP address, device identifier, device type, operating system and Internet browser type, screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, plug-ins, add-ons, and the language version of the Websites you are visiting; and
   • Usage data, such as geolocation data, browsing history, time spent on the Websites, pages visited, links clicked, language preferences, patterns of use, and the pages that led or referred you to our Websites.

   We also collect information about your online activities on websites and connected devices over time and across third-party websites, devices, apps, and other online features and services. Please review our Cookie Policy below for more information about our use of these technologies.

2. How we use your information

   We may use any information about you:

   • to provide you with any products and services that we may offer, including through our Portal (our “Products and Services”)
   • to enable you to have full access to the Websites;
   • to contact you when you have requested us to do so, including where required to respond to any reported problems concerning the Websites or the Products and Services;
   • to produce anonymous reports, statistics and analysis of the types of users who access the Websites;
   • to create your Kobalt account and identify you when you sign-in to your account in accordance with your agreement with us;
   • for marketing purposes (see Marketing section below), consistent with your communication preferences;
   • to contact you for your opinions on the Websites;
   • to allow you to participate in interactive features of the Portal, when you choose to do so
   • to notify you about important changes to the Websites, including changes or updates to our Privacy Policy; 
   • to administer and, for our legitimate interests, to improve the Websites, our services, and your account with us; 
   • for our internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
   • to ensure that content on the Websites and Portal is presented in the most effective manner for you and your device;
   • to protect ourselves, you, and others; prevent fraud and other unlawful or unauthorized activity; and create and maintain a trusted, secure, and reliable online environment; and
   • to comply with our legal obligations; respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process; and to establish or exercise our legal rights or defense against legal claims.

3. Sharing of personal information

   We may share your personal information with the following categories of third parties:

   • Among our brands and affiliates.  We may share personal information among our various brands and affiliates to provide our Websites, provide the Products and Services, and for internal administrative purposes.
   • Our service providers.  We share personal information with our service providers to provide services on our behalf, such as payment processing, analytics, advertising, hosting, marketing, customer and technical support, and other services.  These third parties have access to your personal information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose.  
   • Other business partners.  We may share personal information with third-party business partners in connection with our Websites, Products and Services.  
   • Affiliate and business transfer.  If Kobalt, including any of its brands or affiliates, is involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, or other corporate combination, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring or surviving entity. If such transfer results in a material change to the use of your personal information, we will provide notice before your personal information is transferred and/or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
   • Compliance and harm prevention.  We may share personal information as we believe necessary (i) to comply with applicable law, rules and regulations; (ii) to enforce our contractual rights; (iii) to investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Sites, Products, and Services; (iv) to protect and defend the rights, privacy, safety and property of us, you, and others; and (v) to respond to requests from courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public and government authorities.

4. Children’s Privacy

   Our Websites are not directed toward children (as defined by local law) nor does Kobalt knowingly collect information from children (as defined by local law).

   If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, please contact us using the information in the Contact Us section. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from children without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.

5. Data security and retention

   We take reasonable steps, including physical, technical and organisational measures, to protect your personal information from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. Unfortunately, transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information submitted to us and any transmission is at your own risk.  

   This includes use of multi-factor authentication to use the Portal. This is designed to ensure that the person accessing your account is, in fact, you. You may choose to provide us with a telephone number so that we can text you a one-time use code. You may alternatively use a third party authentication app ("Authentication App"). When you download the Authentication App, the applicable third party's privacy notice and/or the relevant app store privacy notice will apply to the collection and use of your information by the Authentication App and relevant app store (as applicable). The Authentication App is not provided by Kobalt and Kobalt is not responsible for the processing of your information by the Authentication App. In particular, you may use the Google Authenticator app. Please see more information here.

   Your personal information will be retained by Kobalt for a period of time as necessary and relevant to our legitimate operations, our terms of agreement (if any) with you and in accordance with applicable legal obligations. This may include retention necessary to meet our tax reporting requirements as well as time required to enforce the relevant terms of agreement or to identify, issue or resolve legal proceedings.

   We may retain a record of you stated objection to the processing of your data, including in respect of an objection to receiving marketing communications, for the sole legitimate purpose of ensuring that we can continue to respect your wishes and not contact you further, during the term of your objection.

6. Your choices and rights

   You have options and choices over how we use your personal information. You may have the right under applicable laws to ask for details of the personal information we hold about you, or to amend, limit or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to object to further processing under certain circumstances. 

   We also respect the rights you may have under applicable laws to receive that information in a commonly used electronic format (or ask for this information to be provided in that format to a third party where feasible).

   If you wish to exercise any of the above rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you consistent with applicable law, wish to change your preferences at any time or have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us: 

   • By email at: privacy@kobaltmusic.com
   • By writing to us, for the attention of our Data Protection Officer at: Kobalt Music Group, 120 Moorgate, London, England EC2M 6UR.

   Please note that we may require you to verify your identity before allowing you to access your personal information.

   In addition to the above, we may offer the following additional ways to exercise your privacy rights and preferences: 

   • Opting out of receiving electronic communications from us.  If you no longer wish to receive promotional email communications from us, you may opt out via the unsubscribe link included in such emails or by submitting a request using the information in the Contact Us section. We will comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that if you opt out of receiving promotional emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages that are required in order to provide you with our Websites, Products and Services or for other reasons disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
   • Your California privacy rights.  California residents have certain rights with respect to our sharing of their personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. However, because California residents have the right to request information regarding such practices under California’s “Shine the Light” Law, please contact us using the information in the Contact Us section at the end of this Policy. You must include your full name, email address and postal address in your email or mail request so that we can verify your California residence and respond. “Personal information” under this California law means any information that identified, described, or was able to be associated with an individual at the time of disclosure.
   • Your Nevada privacy rights.  Nevada residents have the right to request to opt out of any “sale” of their personal information. Kobalt does not sell your personal information. However, you may nonetheless request to opt out of the future sale of your personal information. If you are a Nevada resident and would like to make such a request, please contact us using the information in the Contact Us section at the end of this Policy, and provide “Nevada Privacy Rights” in the subject line. You must include your full name, email address and postal address in your request so that we can verify your Nevada residence and respond. In the event we sell your personal information after the receipt of your request, we will make reasonable efforts to comply with such request.
   • Your European privacy rights.  Individuals located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland have certain rights with respect to our collection, use, and sharing of their personal information.  Please review our European Privacy Notice for more information about those rights.  

7. European Privacy Notice

   This European Privacy Notice applies to any individuals located within the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland from whom we may have collected personal data from any source, including through your use of our Websites, Products, and Services.  We provide this European Privacy Notice to comply with applicable privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Act (“GDPR”), the UK GDPR, and related laws, regulations, and guidance from the European Union and/or its member states.  Any capitalized term used and not otherwise defined below has the meaning assigned to it in our Privacy Policy.

   European law provides individuals located in Europe with rights to receive certain disclosures regarding the collection, use, and sharing of personal data, as well as rights to be informed, access, rectification, erasure, restrict processing, data portability and to object with respect to collected personal data.  For the purposes of this European Privacy Notice, “personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.  

   For most data collection on our Websites, we are the data controller responsible for the collection and use of your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy.  

   • Basis for processing your personal data

   Kobalt relies on one or more legal bases to process your personal data under applicable law.  We may process personal data (i) as necessary to perform our contractual obligations to you, including, but not limited to, those obligations in our terms of use; (ii) as necessary to pursue our legitimate interests as further detailed below; (iii) as necessary for our compliance with our legal obligations such as a request or order from courts, law enforcement or other government authorities; and/or (iv) with your consent, including to send you marketing email messages and other information that may be of interest to you, which you may withdraw at any time.  

   We will retain your personal data for as long as required for the purpose for which we originally processed your information, or as long as the law permits.

   Legitimate business interests.  We may collect, process, and maintain personal data to pursue the legitimate business interests outlined below.  To determine these legitimate interests, we balance our legitimate interests against the legitimate interests and rights of you and others and only process personal data in accordance with those interests where they are not overridden by your data-protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.

   While our legitimate interests are detailed in Section 2 of our Privacy Policy, they generally include:

   • Provide, improve, and develop our Websites, Products, and Services, including to deliver the Websites including our Portal, send you messages and provide user support, customize the Websites to better fit your needs as a user, develop new Products and Services, and perform internal analytics and research and development.  This also includes sharing personal data with our trusted service providers that provide services on our behalf.
   • Protect you and others and to create and maintain a trusted environment, such as to comply with our legal obligations, to ensure compliance our agreements with you and other third parties, to ensure safe, secure, and reliable Websites, Products, and Services, and to detect and prevent wrongdoing and crime, assure compliance with our policies, and protect and defend our rights, interests, and property.  In connection with the activities above, we may conduct internal research and profiling based on your interactions on various Websites, content you submit to the Websites, and information obtained from third parties.  
   • Provide, personalize, measure and improve our marketing, including to send you promotional messages and other information that may be of interest to you with your consent.  We may also use personal data to understand our user base and the effectiveness of our marketing.  This processing is done pursuant to our legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer products or services that may be of interest to you.  

   We may transfer your personal data to (i) to any third party to whom disclosure is necessary to enable us to provide you with any services which you have requested, including but not limited to data processors such as web hosting companies and email marketing service companies; (ii) where required to do so by law or court order; (iii) to any person to whom disclosure is necessary to enable us to enforce our rights under this Privacy Policy or under the Terms of Use; and (iv) to any group company or prospective buyer of all or substantially all of Kobalt Music Group Limited’s assets in connection with the sale or transfer of those assets to any prospective buyer. 

   • Data sharing and transfers to third countries

   Where we transfer personal information data we will seek to take account of any applicable statutory obligations relevant to personal information data transfers. In the case of transfers out of the EEA, we will, in the absence of an EC adequacy decision relevant to the destination country, seek to rely on appropriate safeguards such as a valid Privacy Shield certified US recipient or enter into appropriate EC approved standard contractual clauses (see http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/international-transfers/transfer/index_en.htm).

   This may include the transfer of your personal data to one or more countries outside the UK and the EEA, where we (or other companies within the Kobalt Group), or our service providers maintain operations. You understand and accept that if your personal data is disclosed to third parties outside the UK and EEA those parties may be based in territories that may not have data protection provisions in law. In the case of transfers out of the UK and EEA, we will, in the absence of an EC adequacy decision relevant to the destination country, seek to rely on appropriate safeguards provided under law.

   • Your privacy rights

   In certain circumstances, individuals located within the EEA, UK, and Switzerland are entitled to the following data protection rights regarding their personal data:

   • Right to access.  You have the right to request confirmation of whether Kobalt processes personal data relating to you, and if so, to request a copy of that personal data.
   • Right to rectification.  You have the right to request that Kobalt correct or update your personal data that is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated.
   • Right to erasure.  You have the right to request that Kobalt erase your personal data in certain circumstances provided by law.
   • Right to restrict processing.  You have the right to request that Kobalt restrict the use of your personal data in certain circumstances.
   • Right to object to processing.  You have the right to object to Kobalt’s processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
   • Right to data portability.  You have the right to request that Kobalt export the data that we have collected to you or another company, under certain conditions.

   Where the processing of your personal data is based on your previously provided consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.  If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please submit a written request using the information in the Contact Us section below.  We will respond to these requests in accordance with applicable data protection laws.  We may ask you to verify your identity in order to help us respond efficiently to your request.

   You may also have the right to lodge a complaint about our data collection and processing actions with the appropriate supervisory authority.  In the UK, the appropriate authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), accessible here.  In the EEA, you can view the contact information for your data protection authority here.

8. Australia Privacy Notice

   If you would like a copy of the privacy policy for the Australian subsidiaries please contact the Australian Kobalt office via privacy.policy.au@kobaltmusic.com.

9. Cookies

   “Cookies” are small pieces of information which are issued to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website and which store and sometimes track information about your use of the website. When you visit our website, our web server sends a cookie to your device which allows us to recognise your device.

   You can find out more about how we use cookies and other similar tracking technologies, including information on how you can manage your cookie preferences, in our Cookie Policy.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

    We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect new services or changes in our data practices or relevant laws. The “effective date” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when it was last revised. Any changes are effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Websites. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will take reasonable measures to notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our Websites prior to the change becoming effective, and will update the effective date at the top of this Privacy Policy.  You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

11. Contact Us

    If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise one of your privacy rights, please contact us using the following information:

    Email	privacy@kobaltmusic.com
    Address	Data Protection Officer Kobalt Music Group 120 Moorgate, London, England EC2M 6UR