Zebralution is a German

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content (media), content such as Sound recording and reproductio ...

company for

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

s and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s operating worldwide from their

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

headquarters. In December 2019, GEMA, the German society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights, acquired a majority stake.

History

Founded in 2004 by Sascha Lazimbat (formerly with

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

, also lawyer and author) and Kurt Thielen (formerly with Vodafone, longtime CEO of Rough Trade Distribution Germany, audio book publisher with Finch & Zebra) as the first European digital distributor for indie labels the company operates from headquarters in Berlin and offices in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam as well as Bochum and Cologne offering distribution, marketing and administrative services. Incorporation and company headquarters from 2004 to 2017 was Ruhr city

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

where Thielen was born in 1958, and as a big fan and former board member of the local football club

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jers ...

whose players are nicknamed ''The Zebras'', commemorated his favorite football club with the company name ''Zebralution''. In 2017, the head office was located to Berlin, where the largest office location has been located since 2005. In 2007,

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

acquired a significant stake in Zebralution GmbH. Zebralution continued operating as a freestanding unit. On April 3, 2017, Warner Music Group agreed to sell Zebralution back to Lazimbat and Thielen, who joined a consortium with Christof Ellinghaus (founder of

City Slang City Slang is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany. History The label was founded in 1990 by former tour agent Christof Ellinghaus, exclusively to release The Flaming Lips' '' In A Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine S ...

) and Konrad von Löhneysen (owner of the Embassy of Music label). Zebralution distributes its catalogue of over 500,000 tracks, albums and videos to hundreds of digital service providers worldwide. In 2019, the company had a customer base of over 1,000 labels and audio book publishers worldwide. 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, and 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 remain shareholders. Thielen and Lazimbat will continue as managing directors. Zebralution and GEMA state that they plan to jointly develop new business areas and unlock new income sources including new Business2Artist offers that, for example, are aimed at performing artists who want to bring their music to the listeners via a wide range of digital music providers, even without a label or record company.

Products and services

Zebralution is one of the leading distributors of digital media content - from music & videos to audiobooks & radio plays and e-books to mobile entertainment products. Zebralution functions as an interface between rights owners, license holders and

labels A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

on the one side and digital retailers and services (

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

), e.g.

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

Napster Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn ...

Beatport Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used ...

eMusic eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York Ci ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Deezer Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline. Created in Paris, Deezer currently has 90 million licensed tracks in i ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on the other. 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 German Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI), Verband unabhängiger Musikunternehmen (VUT), an association of independent music companies in Germany, the

Association of Independent Music The Association of Independent Music (AIM) is a non-profit trade body established in 1998 by UK independent record labels to represent the independent record sector, which in 2016 constituted approximately 23% of the UK market. Its members incl ...

(AIM) and the

American Association of Independent Music The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is a trade association that represents independent record labels in the United States, founded in 2005. A2IM is headquartered in New York City, with chapters located in Nashville, Chicago, North ...

(A2IM),

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

(IMPALA), the booksellers association of Germany

Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (English: ''German Publishers and Booksellers Association'') is a trade association of the German publishing industry, based in Frankfurt. It was founded in Frankfurt in 1948, and merged in 1991 with a simil ...

and the

Audio Publishers Association The Audio Publishers Association (APA) is the first and only not-for-profit trade organization of the audiobook industry in the United States. Its mission is to "advocate the common, collective business interests of audio publishers." Membership is ...

(APA). Labels, publisher, musicians or podcasters use Zebralution to release their contents into digital distribution channels or on streaming services worldwide. Zebralution itself earns a commission for sales and their agency service. The scope of services includes the technical preparation of the digital content, the delivery to the trade,

retail marketing Once the strategic plan is in place, retail managers turn to the more managerial aspects of planning. A retail mix is devised for the purpose of coordinating day-to-day tactical decisions. The retail marketing mix typically consists of six broad de ...

and the settlement of sales proceeds to the licensors. For

dashboard For business applications, see Dashboard (business). A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel (IP), or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle or small aircraft. Usually located directly ahead of the driver ...

technology, Zebralution uses the Musicdata Management Program (MMP) tool by development partner d23. Their data analysis program is a modified version from the English company's Entertainment Intelligence. In 2010 Zebralution developed trade features for audiobooks and radio plays and expanded the audiobook business to an equal segment, partnering with new providers and publishers like

Random House Audio Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...

. This included the installation of own end customer platforms, brands and application software such as the app ''Spooks'' which combines accounts with several audiobook publishers into one. Audiobook Streaming Online
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Music labels and artists

(

Roosevelt Roosevelt may refer to: *Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president *Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president Businesses and organisations * Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation) * Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank * Roosevel ...

Noga Erez Noga Erez ( he, נגה ארז) is an Israeli singer, songwriter and producer. In 2017, her song "Dance While You Shoot" was used by Apple in an advertising campaign for its music streaming service. In the same year she released her debut album, ...

, Caribou,

Calexico Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Diego ...

), Zooland Records (I taloBrothers),

Get Physical Music Get Physical Music is a Berlin-based electronic music record label founded in 2002 by M.A.N.D.Y. (Patrick Bodmer & Philipp Jung), DJ T (Thomas Koch) and Booka Shade (Walter Merziger, Arno Kammermeier & Peter Hayo). They were DJ Magazine's "Label o ...

(M.A.N.D.Y.,

WhoMadeWho WhoMadeWho is a Copenhagen-based experimental pop trio, who formed in 2003. The band consists of jazz guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg, drummer Tomas Barfod and singer/bassist Tomas Høffding. Career The band released several 12-inches on German dis ...

, DJ Pierre), SUOL (

Fritz Kalkbrenner Fritz Kalkbrenner (born 1981) is a German disc jockey, DJ and music producer. He is a grandson of the East Germany, East German artist Fritz Eisel and younger brother of Paul Kalkbrenner. Discography Albums * ''Here Today Gone Tomorrow'' ...

), Stil vor Talent (

Oliver Koletzki Oliver Koletzki (born in Braunschweig on 5 October 1974) is a German dance and house music producer and DJ. He is currently based in Berlin, Germany. Koletzki rose to international fame with his track "Der Mückenschwarm" (meaning "the mosquito ...

), Pampa Records (

DJ Koze Stefan Kozalla (born 1972), better known as DJ Koze (), is a German DJ and music producer. Biography Born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Kozalla first became known in the Hamburg music scene. In the early 1990s, he started as a rapper and DJ ...

), Little Idiot (

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

), Embassy of Music (

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Bil ...

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

Monolink Monolink is the stage name of Steffen Linck, a German singer-songwriter and electronic dance music producer who specializes in Ambient music, ambient, Techno music, techno, Electronic music, electronica and House music, house genres. Music care ...

Leslie Clio Leslie Clio (born 16 August 1986) is a German Singing, singer, songwriter, music video director and Record producer, producer. Career In 2008, Clio moved to Berlin. In 2013, she released her first album ''Gladys'', a retro soul pop record whic ...

), Ignition (

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

)

Audiobook publishers and authors

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on cult science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'', the ...

(

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

The Avengers Avenger, Avengers, The Avenger, or The Avengers may refer to: Arts and entertainment In the Marvel Comics universe * Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes ** Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes o ...

, Sherlock Holmes),

Canongate Books Canongate Books (trading as Canongate) is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Canongate area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner ''Life of Pi''. Canongate was n ...

(

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

P.G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jee ...

), Diviniti Publishing (Glenn Harrold, Christiane Kerr),

Dreamscape Media Midwest Tape LLC is a full-service distributor serving the public library sector. The company specializes in shelf-ready DVDs, Blu-rays, physical audiobooks, and similar merchandise that libraries can purchase "pre-processed" with the needed bar c ...

(

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, L.M. Montgomery), Full Cast Audio (

Tamora Pierce Tamora Pierce (born December 13, 1954) is an American writer of fantasy fiction for teenagers, known best for stories featuring young heroines. She made a name for herself with her first book series, '' The Song of the Lioness'' (1983–1988), wh ...

Bruce Coville Bruce Farrington Coville (, born May 16, 1950) is an author of young adult fiction. Coville was first published in 1977 and has written over 100 books. Biography Coville was born on May 16, 1950, in Syracuse, New York, where he resided . Br ...

Jo Nesbø Jo Nesbø (; born Jon Nesbø; 29 March 1960) is a Norwegian writer, musician, economist, and former football player and reporter. More than 3 million copies of his novels had been sold in Norway as of March 2014; his work has been translated ...

), Saga Egmont (Napoleon Hill,

George MacDonald George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. I ...

Barbara Cartland Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) published as Barbara Cartland was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary romance, contemporary and historical romance novels, the lat ...

), Scholastic (

Suzanne Collins Suzanne Collins (born August 10, 1962) is an American author and television writer. She is known as the author of the book series ''The Underland Chronicles'' and ''The Hunger Games''. Early life Suzanne Collins was born on August 10, 1962, in ...

Dav Pilkey David "Dav" Murray Pilkey Jr. (; born March 4, 1966) is an American cartoonist, author, and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series, ''Captain Underpants'', and the ch ...

, Donna Cooler), as well as German audiobook publishers like

, Argon ( Holtzbrinck Macmillan group) or

Bastei Lübbe Bastei Lübbe is a major publisher of genre fiction, pulp fiction and non-fiction in the German language. It is based in Cologne, Germany. As of 2010, it was the largest independent book publisher in Germany, and it claims to be one of the three ...

Podcasts

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to ...

, SOUNDBOARD

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://zebralution.com/en/ Digital audio distributors Mass media companies established in 2003 Mass media in Berlin Companies based in Berlin Companies based in Duisburg