Zebralution

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Zebralution GmbH
legal form GmbH
founding January 2004
Seat Berlin , Germany
management
Number of employees 30-35
Branch Digital media sales
Website zebralution.com
As of January 5, 2019

The company Zebralution , founded in 2004 as the first digital distributor for indie labels , is a global digital distributor for independent labels, audio book publishers and podcasts . The German collecting society GEMA has had the majority stake since December 2019 .

history

Founded in January 2004 by Kurt Thielen (including 20 years at Rough Trade Germany and Zomba ) and Sascha Lazimbat (lawyer, author, formerly Head of Music at Vodafone ) as the first digital distributor for indie labels, the company operates from its headquarters in Berlin and offices in Cologne , Bochum , London , Paris , Barcelona , Amsterdam and Los Angeles . From 2004 to 2017 , the place of foundation and company headquarters was Duisburg , where Thielen, born in Duisburg in 1958, as an avowed fan and temporary member of the supervisory board of MSV Duisburg , set a monument to his favorite football club with the company name Zebralution . In 2017 the company headquarters was relocated to Berlin, where the largest office location had been located since 2005.

Zebralution acts as an interface between rights holders / labels and the operators of digital music offers ( download , streaming ) such as Spotify , iTunes , Amazon , Napster , Beatport , YouTube and Deezer .

Zebralution is one of the leading distributors for digital media content - from music & videos to audio books & radio plays and e-books to mobile entertainment products. Zebralution's partners include music labels and publishers, producers and artists as well as book publishers and other entertainment companies from around the world. Zebralution is a member of the Federal Music Industry Association (BVMI) , Association of Independent Music Companies eV (VUT) , the Association of Independent Music (AIM), American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), IMPALA (Independent Music Companies Association) , the German Book Trade Association and the Audio Publishers Association (APA).

Licensors can use Zebralution to place pieces of music in digital distribution channels worldwide or have them licensed for streaming services. Zebralution itself earns on the basis of a percentage sales commission on the agency service. The scope of services includes the technical preparation of the digital content, the delivery to the trade, trade marketing and the settlement of sales proceeds to the licensor. As a dashboard technology, Zebralution uses the MMP labels tool tailored by development partner d23, the program for data analysis is a modified version of the system from the English company Entertainment Intelligence.

In 2007 Warner Music acquired a majority stake in Zebralution GmbH. The company continued to function as an independently operating subsidiary under the leadership of the founders. In 2010, Zebralution developed evaluation models for audio books and radio plays and expanded the audio book business into a segment on an equal footing. This includes the establishment of own end customer platforms, brands and user software such as the Spooks app , with which the accounts of several audio book publishers can be linked in one tool.

With effect from April 1, 2017, Warner Music Central Europe sold the company to a consortium of independent music industry managers, consisting of City Slang boss Christof Ellinghaus , Embassy of Music owner Konrad von Löhneysen and the founders of Zebralution, Kurt Thielen and Sascha Lazimbat .

The company marketed over 1,000 labels and audio book publishers worldwide in 2019. On December 4, 2019, GEMA announced that it had acquired a majority stake of 75.1 percent in Zebralution. As a collecting society for music, GEMA represents the copyrights of around 74,000 members (composers, lyricists, music publishers) and over two million rights holders worldwide. Zebralution continues to operate as an independent company in Berlin under the umbrella of GEMA. The owners of Zebralution are still shareholders. Thielen and Lazimbat remained managing directors. Zebralution and GEMA state that they want to develop new business areas together, including new offers that - Business2Artist - are aimed directly at performing artists who want to bring their music to listeners via digital music providers without a label or record company. This is particularly interesting for the singer / songwriters among the GEMA members, who in future will be able to exercise their copyrights together with other relevant rights under the umbrella of GEMA.

Music labels and artists (selection)

Embassy of Music ( Robyn , Björk , Kay One , Leslie Clio , KEØMA ), City Slang ( Roosevelt , Noga Erez, Caribou , Calexico , Bayonne), Zooland Records ( Italobrothers ), Roof Music / tacheles! ( Helge Schneider , Jan Böhmermann ), Get Physical Music ( MANDY , WhoMadeWho , DJ Pierre ), SUOL ( Fritz Kalkbrenner ), Stil vor Talent ( Oliver Koletzki ), Pampa Records ( DJ Koze ), Little Idiot ( Moby ), Pavement Records ( Paveier , Kasalla , Cat Ballou ), ferryhouse , Ignition Records

Audiobook publishers and authors (selection)

Bastei Lübbe ( Dan Brown , Ken Follett , Kerstin Gier , John Sinclair , Jerry Cotton ), Argon ( Jojo Moyes , Tommi Jaud , Maxim Biller ), Der Audio Verlag ( Jussi Adler Olsen , Rita Falk , Otfried Preußler , Virginie Despentes ), Random House Audio ( Frank Schätzing , Charlotte Link , JRR Tolkien ), Canongate ( George Orwell , Graham Greene , PG Wodehouse ), highscore (Sherlock Holmes title)

The IG Hörbuchverlage of the Börsenverein has named Kurt Thielen as Audiobook Man of the Year 2018.

Podcasts (selection)

In addition to podcasts from individual producers such as Heiliger Bimbam (by Rebecca Randak), Ole Ole Namaste (Nadine Bader), 1000 Tage Techno ( Jürgen Laarmann ) or Der Finanzrocker (Daniel Korth) podcasts from companies such as Argon, Random House , Bitkom , Antenne Bayern , Jam FM , Axel Springer , Steinway & Sons

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Zebralution - How music distribution from Duisburg conquered the world market (Interview with Kurt Thielen) . Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b c GEMA gives details on the Zebralution deal. In: musikwoche.de. December 4, 2019, accessed December 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c GEMA: Zebralution. In: gema.de. Society for Musical Performance and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA), December 4, 2019, accessed on January 5, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Kurt Thielen - indiepedia.de. Retrieved January 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Rough Trade Distribution | About us. Retrieved January 1, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Change in management at Zebralution and Vodafone. In: Music Week. January 27, 2005, accessed January 1, 2019 .
  7. ^ Berlin Bar Association: Admissions and admissions in July 2017: Kammerton - Edition 09-2017. Retrieved January 1, 2019 .
  8. ↑ ZEBRALUTION Digital Media Distribution - Locations. Retrieved December 21, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Kurt Thielen is Audiobook Person of the Year / "You are crazy". Retrieved January 5, 2019 .
  10. ↑ ZEBRALUTION Digital Media Distribution. Retrieved January 3, 2019 .
  11. ↑ de_zwei_drei develops new software for Zebralution inventory management. October 24, 2005, accessed January 3, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Jonas Kiß: One year of independence: Zebralution wants to continue to exploit the strengths of the international network to the full. In: musikwoche.de. May 7, 2018, accessed December 27, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Warner Music joins Zebralution - Golem.de of January 22, 2007, citing the Financial Times Deutschland
  14. ↑ Andreas Wilkens: Report: Warner takes over German music marketer Zebralution. In: heise online. January 22, 2007, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  15. ↑ BuchMarkt: Zebralution cooperates with Random House Audio and the Hörverlag. In: BuchMarkt. June 3, 2014, accessed on January 7, 2019 (German).
  16. ↑ Canongate partners with audiobook streaming distributor | The Bookseller. Retrieved January 3, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Constantin Flemming: Spooks: This is how you stream the best audio books with the app. In: Featured - magazine for digital culture. Vodafone, June 7, 2018, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Katharina: Stream audio books for free and easily with Spooks. In: iPhone-Tricks.de. April 2, 2017, accessed on January 7, 2019 (German).
  19. ↑ Michelle Cobb: Zebralution, a Distributor for Spotify and Other Streaming Services - APA. Audio Publishers Association, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Boersenblatt.net: Zebralution independent again / Once Warner Music and back. April 4, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2018 .
  21. ^ Warner sells digital distributor Zebralution to independent industry consortium. April 3, 2017, accessed December 23, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Four shareholders pull together in Zebralution. In: musikwoche.de. April 26, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Jonas Kiß: Kurt Thielen is "Audiobook Man of the Year". In: musikwoche.de. October 16, 2018, accessed December 27, 2019 .

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