-          Hanna Grzeszczyk to head administration team

-          Joins after 10 years at Rights Agency Ltd (RAL)

25th June, London:- Kobalt Neighbouring Rights (KNR) has appointed Hanna Grzeszczyk as Senior Director of Administration.

She will head up the company’s administration team, with an initial focus on claiming for KNR clients' repertoire in new territories, where she will set up good working practices with collection societies for both artists and labels. Operating out of KNR’s London offices, Grzeszczyk will also concentrate on maintaining close relationships with societies in territories where KNR is currently operational.

Grzeszczyk joins KNR after 10 years at Rights Agency Ltd (RAL), where she ran the company’s international department, working with national and overseas Neighbouring Rights collection societies, negotiating agreements and opening up new territories. She also helped manage relationships with artists and their representatives, and assisted in the creation and coordination of the label collection division.

Commented Ann Tausis, Managing Director of KNR: “We’re very happy to have Hanna join KNR. Her extensive knowledge of the Neighbouring Rights sector will be a great asset as we expand our activities into new territories, as well as in our existing relationships with collection societies. Her appointment will ensure that we continue to be very strong on the administration side.”

Hanna Grzeszczyk said: “I am very excited to be part of KNR, and welcome the opportunity to work closely with Ann, Hans and the rest of the team. Ann’s considerable experience and knowledge of the music business has helped KNR to grow rapidly in the past year, whilst Hans has always been seen by the Neighbouring Rights world as one of the key people who have helped to shape the sector.”

About Kobalt Neighbouring Rights 

Kobalt Neighbouring Rights (KNR) offers a global service for artists and independent labels to collect their Neighbouring Rights income from the various relevant collection societies around the world.

Launched at MIDEM 2012 by executive chairman Hans Van Berkel, KNR is run by Managing Director Ann Tausis, who was previously at Universal Publishing for 20 years, most recently as Director, European Regional Administration.

KNR prides itself on its bespoke, robust service to clients, drawing on secondary data to test reporting by collection societies and navigating the complex distribution policies and qualifying criteria in order to maximise revenues to artists. By making use of the infrastructure and back office of the critically-acclaimed Kobalt Music Group, KNR is able to build a more accurate picture of revenues owed.

The company represents, among others, Beck, Bob Dylan, Björk, Ellie Goulding, Jake Bugg, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Paul Epworth, and Gotye.

KNR continues to benefit from Van Berkel’s inside knowledge and international relationships built up over 20 years of record label experience at Polygram, and 18 years in the Neighbouring Rights field as Managing Director of Dutch Neighbouring Rights organisation SENA.

Based in London, Kobalt Neighbouring Rights is a separate limited company operating as part of the Kobalt Music Group, and embraces the wider group’s ethos of transparency and timeliness of payments to clients who are guaranteed payment within 31 days after the end of the month in which money is received.