AMRA, with annual sales in excess of $100 million, promotes Robin Davies to COO and Honey Onile-Ere to general counsel

Digital rights organization AMRA will be a major global priority for owner Kobalt Music Group over the next 12 months.

We know this because Kobalt’s Founder/Chairman, Willard Ahdritz, said so in Kobalt’s most recent financial results, which were released last month.

In those findings, Ahdritz suggested that charging AMRA would be Kobalt’s “third act” in terms of “eliminating the friction and spills in the last mile of paying songwriters and rightsholders.” (This is the “third act” after Kobalt’s efforts to disrupt both publishing and recorded music over the past two decades.)

Ahdritz added, “With strong growth in multi-territorial music services like Spotify and Apple, as well as new segments in health and fitness, I believe AMRA is badly needed in the industry and will be our biggest innovation yet.”

To advance this “third act”, AMRA this week announced the promotion of two key London-based executives to senior positions within the company.

Robin Davies, who has worked at/for AMRA since 2015, is appointed as the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), reinforcing his previous role as Head of International & General Manager.

Meanwhile, Honey Onile-Ere has been promoted to General Counsel at AMRA. Onile-Ere was previously Head of Legal, International at AMRA, specifically leading AMRA’s global licensing negotiations with all major DSPs.

“As we lead AMRA into our next phase of growth and scaling to outperform the industry with even faster accounting, more accurate payments, greater value and increased transparency, Robin and Honey’s leadership will continue to take AMRA to new heights.”

Tomás Ericsson, AMRA

Tomas Ericsson, CEO of AMRA, said: “Both Honey and Robin have been with AMRA for some time and with their breadth and experience, they have both been a huge influence on AMRA’s success over the past few years.

“As we lead AMRA into our next phase of growth and scaling to outperform the industry with even faster accounting, more accurate payments, greater value and increased transparency, Robin and Honey’s leadership will continue to take AMRA to new heights.

“The time is right, we are now beginning our next phase of industry transition and I couldn’t be happier to have Robin and Honey on the team in these new roles.”

Said Davies, “Right now is an exciting time to be at AMRA – delivering industry-leading services with scalable global technology. I look forward to working with Tomas and Honey as we embark on our next phase of growth!”

Said Onile-Ere: “AMRA has experienced so much change and growth over the last few years and has become a driving force for change in our industry. I look forward to working with Tomas and Robin as AMRA moves into the next exciting phase of its development.”

AMRA generated over $100 million annually from Kobalt for the first time in fiscal 2021, representing the 12 months ended June 2021.

AMRA’s overall revenues are hitting the ground running $109.8 million this year up to 40.2% compared to the previous FY ($78.3 million).

Kobalt says AMRA set a record 29 billion Music royalties (up 40% year-over-year) in fiscal 2021, almost splitting 200 million dollars of digital royalties directly to songwriters and rights holders.

Kobalt noted in a statement to shareholders last month, “AMRA’s business model [has not been] affected by the pandemic as much as the rest of the industry as revenue is heavily focused on digital collections.

“Today, AMRA’s global launch has reached all corners of the world outside of the US, including direct digital collections for China, Brazil and Japan, and continues to grow.”

Robin Davies began his career in investment banking at Barclays Capital before moving into management consulting at PwC, advising Fortune 500 companies, private equity clients and start-ups on organizational design, post-M&A integration and corporate restructuring .

Davies was responsible for the founding work of PwC at AMRA and ensured an appropriate business separation between AMRA and the Kobalt group.

After this work, Davies moved to Kobalt Music and initially organized the group around the global technology platform KTech.

He then led the Strategy & Business Operations team and worked with the Executive Leadership Group to scale the business before joining AMRA two years ago to lead the international business.

Honey Onile-Ere began her music career at Polygram Records, then moved to Virgin Records before qualifying as an attorney with Warner Music Group.

Before joining AMRA in 2017, she spent ten years at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing (five of which as Head of Legal & Business Affairs).

She then became Director of Legal & Business Affairs at BMG Rights Management. She then worked as a freelance consultant for media business affairs, advising both labels and publishers and working on the development of emerging music markets in Africa, with a particular focus on West Africa.music business worldwide