AMRA

What AMRA does

AMRA (American Music Rights Association, Inc.) is a global digital music collection society that licenses and collects royalties directly from digital streaming providers (DSPs) on behalf of music publishers and songwriters, bypassing the chain of local performing rights organizations (PROs) that historically take up to 20% per dollar collected. Founded by Kobalt in 2015 and headquartered in New York with European headquarters in London, the company operates as a subsidiary of Kobalt Music Group, which is majority-owned by Francisco Partners alongside MUSIC, Dundee Partners and founder Willard Ahdritz.

The core offering is a cloud-based platform that ingests usage data from 29+ DSPs across more than 200 territories, applies proprietary machine learning to match plays to copyrights, and distributes royalties within 3-4 months globally, supported by 100% audit rights for all clients. The platform processes more than 10 billion usage lines monthly and 5 trillion+ transactions per year, backed by cumulative technology investment of over $50 million. Recent product emphasis has been on improving long-tail matching (with collection value in the long tail doubling over three years) and extending coverage into new territories and DSP categories including short-form video.

AMRA generates revenue by retaining a service fee on digital royalties collected, with $109.8M reported for FY2021 (up 40.2%) and $117.3M for FY2022. Go-to-market is sales-led and B2B, targeting music publishers directly and through partnerships such as the IMPEL collective licensing agreement (covering 57 publishers in 14 territories across APAC and Brazil) and the beatBread publishing administration channel. Customer concentration is high because parent Kobalt is AMRA's largest client, though diversification is increasing across indie publishers, niche-genre catalogues (Latin, African, mood/functional), and individual songwriters.

Name

AMRA

Legal name

American Music Rights Association, Inc.

Website

https://amra.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

AMRA is a global digital music collection society that licenses and collects royalties directly from 29+ streaming platforms across 200+ territories on behalf of music publishers and songwriters, bypassing traditional local PRO intermediaries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Music Rights Management

NAICS

Music Publishers (51223), Music Publishers (512230)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Music Rights Administration & Royalty Processing (Admin, Accounting, Statements) (MPAIAKAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) & Public Performance Licensing (MPAIAKAA), Mechanical Rights Collection & Licensing (MROs/CMOs) (MPAIAKAB), Global Rights Representation & Sub-Publishing/Reciprocal Collection Services (MPAIAKAI)

Keywords

• Music royalty collection
• Digital music licensing
• Music rights administration
• Royalty collection society
• Music publishing services

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Digital Royalty Collection Services: AMRA collects digital royalties directly from DSPs (streaming platforms) on behalf of songwriters and publishers, charging a fee for this service. Revenue comes from the royalties collected minus AMRA's service fee, with $109.8 million in total revenues reported for FY2021

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

AMRA operates a global digital music licensing and royalty collection platform that licenses directly with digital streaming platforms (DSPs) such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, and Kuaishou in over 200 territories, bypassing local PROs. It collects digital royalties on behalf of music publishers and songwriters, processes billions of usage lines with machine-learning matching, and distributes payments minus a service fee, while providing 100% audit rights to clients.

Product overview

AMRA is a global digital collection society offering a single unified platform for direct music licensing and royalty collection. The core AMRA Platform enables songwriters and publishers to collect digital royalties directly from DSPs worldwide in over 200 territories, bypassing traditional PROs. The platform offers 100% audit rights, processes billions of music usage lines monthly, and provides transparent royalty distribution typically within 3-4 months. Key capabilities include direct licensing agreements with 29+ DSPs, advanced technology for music matching, and comprehensive global coverage excluding the US and China due to local laws.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• AMRA Platform Cloud-based global digital music licensing and royalty administration platform used by music publishers and songwriters to collect digital royalties directly from DSPs across 200+ territories, with 100% audit rights and machine-learning-driven usage matching.

Quantifiable outcome

• 34% increase in YouTube publishing payouts in EU
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• IMPELcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 August 2024IMPEL, a member-owned international collective licensing agency representing 57 independent music publishers across 14 territories (including Reservoir Media, Beggars Music, Bucks Music), signed a licensing and administration agreement with AMRA for Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asian territories, and Brazil. The deal extends IMPEL's licensing capabilities to cover every continent.
• beatBreadminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2024AI-driven music funding platform partnered with AMRA to offer publishing administration services from Kobalt and AMRA to beatBread's clients.
• Canada Licensing ExpansioncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2022AMRA expanded operations to license on behalf of songwriters and publishers in Canada. Working closely with all DSPs for mechanical rights licensing, collecting began April 1, 2022.
• KuaishoucoreTechnology or Integration · 25 February 2022China-based short-form video platform (ByteDance rival) signed global licensing agreement with AMRA. Kuaishou's overseas applications, Kwai and SnackVideo, gain access to AMRA's represented repertoire. Kuaishou has over 1 billion users and is among the fastest-growing social and short video platforms globally.
• DeloitteminorOthersAMRA hired Deloitte to run a full-scale business separation process between AMRA and Kobalt, ensuring strict governance, employee, and data access separation from a governance standpoint.

Scale indicators16 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• ASCAP: ASCAP is the largest US PRO, representing public performance rights for hundreds of thousands of songwriters and publishers. AMRA competes for the same songwriter/publisher mandate globally outside the US market.
• BMI: BMI is the second-largest US PRO with a significant international collection footprint via reciprocal agreements. Represents the same songwriter/publisher client base that AMRA targets with its direct digital model.
• BMG Rights Management: BMG is the world's fourth-largest music publisher and offers publishing administration services alongside its owned catalog. As a major publisher-admin peer, BMG both competes for publisher mandates and represents a potential partner/acquirer for AMRA's platform.
• PRS for Music: PRS is the UK's principal PRO handling music rights collection and songwriter/publisher royalty distribution. AMRA positions itself as the digital-era alternative to PRS's traditional reciprocal PRO model for cross-border collections.
• GEMA: GEMA is Germany's PRO and a co-owner of ICE, serving songwriters and publishers with rights administration and royalty collection. AMRA's CEO previously worked across the GEMA/ICE ecosystem, and GEMA is one of the major PROs AMRA's direct licensing bypasses.

Direct peers

• The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective): The MLC administers the US compulsory mechanical license for musical works under the Music Modernization Act. While US-only, it represents the structural alternative to AMRA's direct mechanical licensing model in the world's largest music market.
• ICE (International Copyright Enterprise): ICE is a digital music rights collection infrastructure jointly owned by PRS, GEMA, and ASCAP, providing pan-European royalty processing. AMRA's CEO Tomas Ericsson was previously MD of ICE, making it the most direct comparable on technology and collection function.
• Songtrust: Songtrust is a global music publishing administrator offering rights administration and royalty collection services to independent songwriters and publishers. Directly comparable to AMRA's publishing administration service offering.
• Harry Fox Agency (HFA): HFA is the largest US mechanical rights licensing administrator, providing services similar to AMRA's mechanical rights collection but US-focused. Both compete for the same publisher mandate on mechanical licensing administration.

Emerging players

• Audiam: Audiam focuses on mechanical rights and publishing administration for independent music creators, with a digital-first approach. Overlaps with AMRA's indie/small publisher and songwriter target segment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/amra-music

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about AMRA