A Quick Jog With Runner's Amanda Hill

Amanda Hill is inarguably a rock star in the publishing world, and she’s presently on a killer run with Runner Music, the pubco founded by hitmaker Ryan Tedder, where she serves as president, A&R, and co-chief creative officer (she shares the latter title with Andrew Sparkler). As you’ll see below, Runner writers have a hand in current hits by Tate McRae, Ashe and Don Toliver, among many others, while the company has acquired some potent catalog and is crushing it on the syncs front. We pinged Amanda with a few questions; for some reason, she didn’t run off.

Runner writers are having some serious chart success right now. Ryan and Grant Boutin have a smash with Tate McRae—what can you say about it?

The explosive debut of “Housewife” speaks for itself. There’s something special about the way Ryan, Grant and Tate work together. They really bring out the best in each other, and you can hear that in the music. The kind of back-to-back success Ryan and Grant have had with Tate is rare, and it’s not something you can easily replicate.

Ashe’s “Stop the Wedding” is another big record with Runner’s fingerprints on it. Tell us about how the song came about.

Noah Conrad has had a long working relationship with Ashe. He first worked with her on “Moral of the Story” from her debut Ashlyn. They got back together for The Girl of Your Dreams, this time Noah writing and producing the entire album with Ashe. As a collaborator, Noah has a unique ability to create an open, comfortable creative environment where artists feel empowered to be vulnerable and write from a place of honesty. That authenticity is what’s resonating so deeply with audiences. It’s a testament to the power of great songwriting and a great song connecting on its own merit.

Our philosophy is simple: find the right opportunities, be creative in how we approach them, and go after them one by one.”

You’ve scored a lot of impressive syncs lately. Walk us through a few of those and share your thoughts about the present environment for song syncs.

We were thrilled to welcome Julia Betley as our head of sync in January. Since joining Runner, Julia has driven tremendous growth across our sync business, helping shape the vision we’ve always had for this side of the company.

Our approach to sync is intentional. We’re focused on creating bespoke opportunities for our roster, giving our writers and artists the attention and access they deserve, without having to compete against an overwhelming catalog.

Recent highlights include H.E.R.’s “BRB” in Forgotten Island, Jelly Roll’s “I’m Good” as the end-title track for GOAT, and Tate’s “Just Keep Watching” and Don Toliver and Doja Cat’s “Lose My Mind” from F1, with several more exciting placements on the way.

While the sync landscape continues to face its challenges, we see enormous opportunity. There’s more content being created and consumed than ever before, and our philosophy is simple: find the right opportunities, be creative in how we approach them, and go after them one by one.

Hill, Tedder and Sparkler have the keys to the kingdom.

Runner seems to be expanding its roster a lot. Who are some of your recent signings?

We are! At Runner, we recently welcomed John Hill, Rami Yacoub, Christina Perri and Kevin Garrett to our roster. What makes these signings especially meaningful is the history we share with each of them. We’re incredibly proud they’ve chosen to call Runner home. There’s something really special about coming back together with people you’ve known, respected and worked alongside for years. We’re excited to build on these relationships, and continue growing our roster thoughtfully, one exceptional talent at a time.

How do you guys split the workload? And what do each of you like to do when it’s quitting time, if it ever is?

Runner is a multi-faceted music company. I handle all things with the frontline business while Andrew Sparkler handles acquisitions and general corporate matters for Runner. We have a growing catalog of hits and a team working across multiple areas of the business. On that side, we have closed over $75MM in acquisitions and the catalog includes hits like Dua Lipa's "Levitating" and "Physical," Shaggy's "Bombastic" and "It Wasn't Me," Justin Bieber's "Ghost" and "Anyone,” BTS’s "Dynamite," Sean Paul's "Temperature" and way more than we have space to list here.

Our team comprises eight exceptional executives, with two working alongside Andrew on the corporate side and four reporting to me across creative. When it’s quitting time, I go to my other job, playing Ghost-Spider with my 3-year-old Spidey. And Andrew is outside somewhere doing hippie stuff.