CMRRA Taps In-House Talent For Promotions
As the world emerges into a new phase of the global pandemic and as overall music consumption and engagement continue to grow globally, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Age
By FYI Staff
As the world emerges into a new phase of the global pandemic and as overall music consumption and engagement continue to grow globally, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) is taking steps to beef up its relationships with music publishers along with licensees while evolving its systems to support the growing needs of a rapidly changing global world where streaming has become both ubiquitous and key to future revenue growth for music publishers and self-published songwriters.
The Toronto agency, with a repertoire database of over 40 million musical works, representing 142K music catalogues, celebrates its 47th year of operation this month and is in its second year with former Nielsen executive Paul Shaver at the helm.
Taking stock of enormous opportunities ahead for growth, the CMRRA has announced numerous key promotions and hires across its client engagement and operational and business affairs portfolios. Since SoundExchange’s acquisition of CMRRA in 2017, the combined teams have been working on integration and system optimization to ensure that the agency is well equipped to handle the ongoing global growth of music consumption and to ensure the organization can effectively support new licensee opportunities that further propel consumption.
“CMRRA is the market leader in reproduction rights licensing and administration in Canada and has been for over 40 years, “CMRRA President Paul Shaver states. “Our people are our greatest asset. These promotions and hires are a demonstration of our commitment to our employees’ depth of knowledge and our passion for getting rights holders paid efficiently and consistently, without delay. I’m immensely proud of the team we have and believe that these enhancements to the team structure provide CMRRA with a solid foundation for future growth.”
Andrea England is promoted to Associate Director, Publisher Engagement and Strategy, a newly created role. England has a nuanced understanding of the music industry as both a tenured employee of CMRRA and a respected self-published songwriter who serves on the Songwriters Association of Canada’s Board of Directors. CMRRA Publisher Relations Manager Marianne Anderson joins England’s team.
Eric Cohen is hired as an Industry Relations Consultant–Quebec, reporting to Director of Industry Relations & Communications, Rebecca Webster. Located in Montreal, Cohen’s focus is on the ground support and engagement for CMRRA’s Quebec-based music publishers and self-published songwriter clients and label licensees. Webster now directly reports to President Paul Shaver.
Michael Mackie is promoted to Director, Repertoire and Client Services and Nigel Barylewicz is promoted to Assistant Manager, Repertoire and Client Services. Both Mackie and Barylewicz manage the day-to-day repertoire processes and related interactions with clients and international partners the data is accurate.
Lauren Ali is promoted to the newly created role of Associate Director, Licensee Management (Broadcast|Digital) and Operational Support to head up the new Licensee Management team. Ali will focus on fostering partnerships with digital and broadcast mechanical licensees and leverage her business process background to promote greater operational efficiencies across CMRRA’s
business.
Jennifer Bird now reports to Ali under a new title of Supervisor, Licensee Management overseeing the Tariff Administration team while continuing to be responsible for the coordination of major label royalty processing activity. Vicki Bonomo joins Ali’s team in a new role as Licensee Relations Liaison to support the day-to-day relationships with new and current DSPs as well as with Broadcast Mechanical licensees.
Laurie Gelbloom is promoted to General Counsel and Andrew Hunter is promoted to Manager, Legal and Business Affairs, while Sacha Isaacksz joins the team as licensing and legal consultant.
All report to Senior Business Affairs and Corporate Development VP Veronica Syrtash. Collectively they provide expert guidance on legal compliance and business practices, as well as improving value for our through the negotiation and implementation of licensing agreements, the steering of legal and Copyright Board proceedings, and enforcement of all active licensing agreements.
Sandra Nettleton is promoted to Senior Director, Licensing and Distribution Operations, focusing her vast knowledge and experience on system integrations and improvements to processes, data and quality assurance activities related to licensing and quarterly invoicing and distributions.
About CMRRA
The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA) represents the vast majority of music publishers doing business in Canada. CMRRA licenses, collects and distributes royalties for the majority of songs recorded, sold and broadcast in Canada. The market-leading royalty collective provides licences to dozens of digital services, including all the major online music services operating in Canada as well as YouTube, the Meta platforms, TikTok and more. CMRRA is a SoundExchange company. For more information, please visit cmrra.ca.
