AMRA chief Tomas Ericsson to step down after 13 years, Robin Davies to take over
Tomas Ericsson will step down as chief executive of AMRA on 1 January 2027 after 13 years in charge.
Robin Davies, the company's chief operating officer for the past four years, will succeed him. Ericsson will become chairman of the board. Billboard reported the succession on 29 September 2026.
Davies has been with AMRA and the wider Kobalt organisation for a decade. Kobalt is AMRA's founding partner, and its chief executive is Laurent Hubert.
AMRA is a music licensing business. It collects royalties, the payments owed when songs are played, from digital music platforms and passes them to publishers and songwriters. It uses a direct licensing model, which means it deals with platforms directly rather than through a traditional collecting society.
Ericsson launched AMRA in partnership with Kobalt in 2013. The company now works with 45 music publishers globally. It says it collects from platforms in more than 200 territories and processes over 10 billion usage lines, individual records of streams and plays, each month. AMRA
It also offers clients 100% audit rights, the contractual right to check the books to confirm they have been paid correctly.
Davies has been part of that growth since 2015. AMRA hired him in 2019 as head of international and general manager, a newly created role based in London. MusicWeek He was promoted to chief operating officer in 2022, at a point when AMRA said annual revenues were over $100 million.
Ericsson brought more than 20 years of music industry experience to the role, including senior leadership posts at Swedish collecting society STIM and at Kobalt Music Group.
Technology has been a large part of the story. AMRA has invested more than $50 million in its technology to date, with most of that spending coming in the three years before June 2024. Music Business Worldwide
What makes this stand out is continuity. A founder handing to a long-serving deputy keeps the same team in place for publishers waiting on their money and platforms negotiating licences for 2027.
