Mario Koss

Mario Koss (born November 6, 1968 in Berlin-Spandau ) is a Berlin inventor, composer, author, producer and founder of the record company Pikosso Rekords.

He invented and developed the Shape CD and the Chip Disk together with Axel Wilhelm in 1994. The world's first Shape CD in the form of a saw blade was presented to the public for the first time on April 1, 1995. In 1995, at the age of 26, Koss was one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in Germany and made it onto the cover of the news magazine Der Spiegel with the cover story of Ludwig Erhard's grandchildren . To date, over 70 million Shape CDs have been sold. Numerous international artists such as Madonna , Michael Jackson , David Bowie , Backstreet Boys as well as large corporations such as IBM , Microsoft , Burger King and Deutsche Bank have had Shape CDs produced by Koss.

Life

Koss studied sinology, journalism and business administration at the Free University of Berlin . Starting out as a BAföG recipient, he broke off his studies in the sixth semester as a millionaire in order to have more time for marketing and developing the Shape CD. As a monopoly and holder of worldwide patent rights, he turned down a global joint venture offer with the media group Bertelsmann in 1996 . At the same time, Richard Branson became interested in Koss' invention. An invitation from Branson, however, was canceled by Koss, as he could not do anything with the name at the time. Only after clarification did Koss get in touch and negotiate the contract with him.

Career

Koss founded the record label Pikosso Records together with Marika Tasler in 1993. Since he did not have the necessary capital assets to market his records effectively, he was only able to post little success. During this time he developed the idea of ​​a misshapen CD, the so-called shape CD. This thought was based on his own attempt to cut normal CDs into other shapes with a fretsaw. After inventing the Shape CD, he also collaborated with well-known music artists. This was followed by major projects with global companies such as B. Microsoft , IBM , Burger King and Porsche . Later he expanded his idea to include the chip disk. This was promised a great future, as it offered more functions than the competition compared to other similar products produced by large corporations. In 1997 he sold the patent rights to the Shape CD and the Chip Disk for a sum of several million marks. In 1995 and 1996 he was the main sponsor of the largest music fair in the world ( Midem ) in Cannes with his label Pikosso Records . The advertising budget was more than 500,000 euros.

From 2001 to 2007 he volunteered for the White Ring as a victim helper. In 2006 he organized the “Chance Award” violence prevention prize. For this purpose, he also produced the audio book Window of Violence with 26 short stories with artists such as Ben Becker , Michaela Schaffrath , Ingo Naujoks , Charles Rettinghaus , Sven Martinek , Manfred Lehmann and many other artists.

In 2009 he was responsible for the planning, organization and implementation for the Berlin Press Ball . In 2014 he was responsible for the artistic direction for Aquanario.

Current

In sports marketing, Koss has worked for clubs such as FC Barcelona , FC Bayern Munich , Borussia Dortmund , Benfica Lisbon and other top teams in Europe.

He is currently working as creative director at the Media Lobby advertising agency, where he also runs "The world's smallest music studio" under 1 m². Here he and his partner Patricio Morales Contreras composed and produced the boxing hymn "Revenge" for Arthur Abraham .

Koss has a son (* 2009) and a daughter (* 2011).

With more than 80 million Shape CDs produced to date, the inventor Mario Koss and a consortium bought back the patent rights, trademark rights and utility models as well as the entire production from Best of .. GmbH.

Web links

• Mario Koss at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulrich Schäfer: The new founder time. In: Der Spiegel January 13, 1997, accessed February 14, 2014.