Pila Music

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Pila Music
Parent company Word in picture Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH
Active years since 1978
founder Angelika Rittinghaus
Volker Rittinghaus
Seat GermanyGermany Germany
Website www.wortimbild.de
Label code 08632
Genre (s) New Spiritual Song ; Gospel ; Christian pop music ; Worship music

Pila Music ( Pila Latin for: signpost ) is a Christian music label. After the sale of the formerly independent sound recording and music publisher Pila Music GmbH , located in Dettenhausen , Wort im Bild Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH in Altenstadt-Waldsiedlung took over all rights in 2003 .

history

Pila Music was founded in 1978 by Angelika and Volker Rittinghaus. Angelika Rittinghaus, née Hänssler and daughter of Friedrich Hänssler , the founder of the Christian Hänssler publishing house , studied German and music; Volker Rittinghaus studied business administration and theology. The publishing house specialized in the interest in international music such as soul , gospel and CCM that is currently awakened in the Christian target group and two years later acquired all rights to the record label Blue Rose in Hüttenberg, founded in 1977 by Nils Kjellström , which was established through personal contacts to the Janz team and The Evangeliums-Rundfunk had opened distribution channels for the sale of Christian music productions from the USA and had synergistically invested the profits generated in international business in its own music productions with artists such as Arno & Andreas , Jan Vering or Jürgen Werth . Mainly interested in the import business, Pila Music outsourced non-profile products to the family-owned Hänssler publishing house, which covered the area of ​​church music in the style of the Gospel Song and the New Spiritual Song as well as the youth choir movement. Pila Music , on the other hand, deliberately positioned itself with an international focus and at times served this market in the German-speaking area almost exclusively in a distribution partnership with the Hänssler publishing house.

The first CD in the 'Collection' series from 1994, at the time still a promotion CD that was not sold. On the CD itself, to the left of the publisher's information, the old logo, the stylized letters “PM” one above the other, can be seen.

In 1986, the publishing house moved into its new distribution center in Dettenhausen near Tübingen and invested in its distribution structure and customer loyalty programs, which included a magazine, the CDs "Listen Raussuchen", which appeared several times a year, and the PilaCard. The CDs “Listen Raussuchen” contained audio samples of current titles that were moderated on the radio. The CDs were available by subscription together with the PilaCard, which were sent free of charge 4–6 times a year. The CD Collection 1 appeared for the first time in 1994 and was distributed to radio and television broadcasters for promotional purposes, but not to end customers. The CDs Listen Raussuchen are documented until about 1996. The collection CDs were "fully played 'Listen Raussuchen' CDs, so to speak". In addition to the title and artist, the cardboard slipcase also contained the most important information about the sound carrier from which the title was taken.

Investments have now been made in building up German artists in the already established CCM market segment. Artists like Normal Generation? or Ararat owe their German success to marketing by Pila Music. Also some artists from the area of ​​the free church congregations, from whom one obviously hoped to gain public interest beyond the church area, such as Arne Kopfermann or Jürgen Werth (first Gerth Medien , then Pila, later Hänssler- and ERF-Verlag) were able to work for the Publishing house. Dieter Falk , as the publisher's in-house producer, produced his own productions through Pila and recorded almost all of Pila's own productions that he produced with the publisher's artists. For many years, the Rittinghaus couple took on all the work themselves, from office work to packing packages and trips to the publishing house. Between 1984 and 1997 the staff of the publishing house grew to around 20 employees. In terms of sales, Pila Music was one of the largest contemporary Christian music publishers in Europe.

The last phonograms of the publishing house appeared under their own responsibility in 2001. In September 2002, Hänssler finally stopped the exclusive distribution of Pila phonograms. First there was a rescue attempt: Asaph took over the entire logistics, delivery and distribution for Pila Music, Kir Music and Jona. Angelika Rittinghaus, meanwhile divorced, no longer had any influence on the company.

Pila Music today

The current logo of the brand as the publishing word in the image used

On September 1, 2003, the Wort im Bild publishing house in Altenstadt acquired Pila Music. Thus, all rights to music productions and the warehouse were transferred to the magazine publisher Wort im Bild. Its managing director, Christian Trebing, stated that "the possibilities in the print area ... have been almost completely exhausted" and that the publisher's offer was to be supplemented with a sound carrier division. The intention is to continue the brand in non-profit marketing with a missionary background. Wort im Bild mainly sells the artists taken over by Pila such as B. Normal Generation? or W4C . There were problems around 2003 with contract artists whose productions were not reported to GEMA and which were therefore illegally produced and distributed; at least based on the band BAFF , which canceled their contract with Pila.

In spring 2007 the last print edition of the publisher's own magazine eXact! The idea of ​​creating an online version was not pursued any further. Editor-in-chief Volker Gruch, who has been the eXact! as well as the A&R department of Pila was dismissed. In June 2007 he and the editorial team founded the Christian music magazine a5 Musik-Kultur-Christsein in their own publishing house. At the end of 2006, Wort im Bild had already ended the collaboration with Andreas Biermann, who had been working as a freelance producer for Pila since 2004. Many of the newly acquired artists then turned their backs on Pila Music.

Discography

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Daniel Scheufler: On the development of popular sacred music in Germany between 1980 and 2000. ( Memento from January 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Diploma thesis submitted and defended at the “Carl Maria von Weber” University of Music in Dresden , submitted on September 30, 2007, pp. 210 to 214 (PDF file, 10.8 MB)
  2. On November 13, 2011 the last one here  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesinfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. listed CD the title 2/96.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / xxlmusicworld.onsign.de  
  3. Sampler / Various "XXL Christmas" (1996 Pila Music) ( Memento from June 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), David Decker for CCM-Rezis, December 2001.
  4. Publishing details and recordings at rateyourmusic.com
  5. Christian Trebing from Words in Pictures. Interview at the Christian sound portal Sound September 17th, 2003 (offline)
  6. David Brunner: "Baff" and "Pila Music" go their separate ways ( Memento of February 23, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Bei Sound 7 , November 16, 2003.