AMRA names Robin Davies as next CEO as Tomas Ericsson moves to chairman

Robin Davies will become the next chief executive of amra on January 1, 2027.

The company announced the transition on September 29. Current chief executive Tomas Ericsson will step down from the role on the same date and become Chairman of the Board, after leading the business for more than a decade, according to Music Business Worldwide.

Davies is amra's current chief operating officer. He will take over the top job at the start of the new year.

Amra is a global digital collection society owned by Kobalt. A collection society collects royalties for songwriters and music publishers when their songs are streamed, downloaded or otherwise used online, then pays that money through.

The company licenses digital rights directly in more than 200 territories outside the United States. It says more than 45 publishers around the world use its service.

Ericsson has been central to that story. He joined Kobalt Music Group in October 2013 as President, Society Relations, before leading amra as chief executive for more than ten years.

Davies has also been with the business for several years. Amra promoted him to chief operating officer in 2022, after he had worked with the company since 2015, according to AMRA.

Before that, he was hired as head of international and general manager in 2019. The post was a newly created role at the time and was based in London, according to Music Week.

On its own website, the company describes an operation built for very high volumes of streaming data. It states that it processes over 10 billion usage lines per month, a usage line being a single record of a song being played or used, according to AMRA.

The same site states that amra consistently represents over half of the Billboard Top 20. It also states that it offers 100% audit rights to all clients, which means publishers can inspect the books to check they have been paid correctly.

What makes this stand out is continuity. The incoming chief executive already runs day-to-day operations, and the outgoing chief executive stays on as chairman. For songwriters and publishers watching where their digital royalties are collected, the names change on January 1. The structure stays familiar.