Navigating Digital Royalty Collections

On the latest Music Business Worldwide Podcast, Tim Ingham, founder of MBW, is joined by the CEO of Amra, Tomas Ericsson (pictured).

Amra is a global digital collection society that happens to be owned by Kobalt Music Group. 

Since Kobalt acquired and relaunched Amra in 2015, the collection society has become a fast-growing business in its own right: in the 12 months to the end of June 2022 – the last year for which public financial information is available – Amra generated over USD $110 million in revenue. 

Amra's clients today include Kobalt's global publishing business, plus other significant independent music publishers, including Anthem Entertainment and Armada Music Publishing. 

Prior to joining Amra and Kobalt, Tomas Ericsson was Deputy CEO of Swedish collection society STIM, and he was the Managing Director of ICE until 2009. (At that time, ICE was a joint venture between STIM and the UK's PRS For Music; it would later welcome Germany's GEMA as a third stakeholder.)

On this podcast, Ingham asks Ericsson about the changing landscape for songwriter royalty collection, the opportunity ahead – and the fact that Amra has, to date, invested more than $50 million upgrading and expanding its core technology...