Michael Bisping | A.S.S. Concerts & Promotions

Michael Bisping was born 1956 in Muenster (Westfalen). He studied law in his hometown and after his final university examination, now being a legal expert, Michael Bisping founded his own booking agency “H & B Musikpromotion”. In 1986 he merged with Dieter Schubert and since then he is, aside from the latter, managing director of a.s.s. concerts & promotion gmbh. Moreover, Michael Bisping is engaged in management work. Michael Bisping has always been concerned in the matters and developments of the German Music Industry. Since 20 years he is a board member of the federal association of the performance industry (BDV). He is in brisk contact with foreign partners as IMMF and he supports the IMUC, the association of German music managers and consultants.

Stephan Thanscheidt | FKP Scorpio

Stephan Thanscheidt, born in 1977, is the Head of Festivalbooking at FKP Scorpio in Hamburg, Germany. He is responsible for the programme of 16 major open air-festivals across Europe, such as Hurricane/Southside, Greenfield and Highfield just to name a few. Stephan also runs the Local Dept. of FKP Scorpio and promotes a few hundred concerts from club levels to arena and stadium shows in the northern part of Germany every year. He started in the early 90s with his own punkrock band and took it from there. After booking his own bands and friends, while studying political science, social science and German literature and language at the University of Muenster, he founded a label and everything became more and more professional. While living and studying in Muenster, Stephan also started to work at VISIONS in Dortmund in 2001 (one of the biggest and most influential music magazines at that time) with their own booking & event dept, where he became the Head of Booking & Events after two years in 2003. In 2009 he changed jobs and started to work in Hamburg at FKP Scorpio Konzertproduktionen GmbH, where he is still responsible for all these festivals & shows. I´m in charge for these festivals in Europe:

HURRICANE Festival, Germany SOUTHSIDE Festival, Germany GREENFIELD Festival, Switzerland DEICHBRAND Festival, Germany MERA LUNA Festival, Germany

HIGHFIELD Festival, Germany CHIEMSEE ROCKS Festival, Germany CHIEMSEE REGGAE SUMMER, Germany ROLLING STONE WEEKENDER, Germany METAL HAMMER PARADISE, Germany

…and in cooperation with our local offices abroad:

NORTHSIDE Festival, Denmark BRAVALLA Festival, Sweden HULTSFRED Festival, Sweden

GETAWAY Festival, Sweden INDIAN SUMMER Festival, The Netherlands BEST KEPT SECRET, The Netherlands

Jens-Markus Wegener | IMAGEM Music

Jens-Markus Wegener began his career in the late ’80s with publicity and marketing, including radio, print media and club promotion through his firm, Public Propaganda, with representation including MIDEM (France), Popkomm (Germany) and NewMusicSeminar and MusExpo in the USA.  In 1990 he launched DDC-clubcharts, Europe’s most influential tracking of the explosive dance scene.  That year he also created AMV/Alster Musikverlag, imprints for both USS and LME labels. By the turn of the millenium he had created the German Dance Awards, and became a board member of DMV (the German Music Publishers association).  By the late ’00s, Wegener had established a JV between AMV and Talpa Music BV to form AMV Talpa GmbH, which, by 2009, had cuts on the #1 albums in the USA and France, as well as Germany and Japan. [Germany: AC/DC: Iron Man 2 / USA: Drake “Thank me later” / France: La Fouine / Japan: Kat-Tun: Going!] By 2011, he was among the top 10 most successful music publishers in Germany, and the following year acquired Talpa’s share in AMV Talpa, while selling the AMV catalogue to Budde Musikverlage. Among the German chart hits which Wegener signed to AMV Talpa are: UNHEILIG;  Glasperlenspiel “Weit weg”; Popidol-winner Thomas Godoj; “Mein Ding” von Udo Lindenberg; ”Aus meiner Haut” von Oomph!; Michael Schulte (Voiceof Germany);Frank Popp „Hip teens“. In 2013, Wegener accepted an offer by André de Raaff (President and CEO IMAGEM GROUP) to become the German MD of IMAGEM Music GmbH for the GSA-territories.

Michael Borwitzky | Ferryhouse Productions

Michael Borwitzky is the A&R/ Marketing Director of ferryhouse productions. The company is located in Hamburg and exists since December 2005. ferryhouse is focused on developing new talents, mainly from Germany but since Michael Borwitzky started working for ferryhouse in October 2011 he started licencing bands and artists from other countries as well. Recently he signed Jill Barber from Toronto and Paper Beat Scissors from Halifax. Before working for ferryhouse productions, he worked for German independent distribution company Soulfood Music Distribution. There he worked with Canadian companies such as Dine Alone Records. Besides ferryhouse productions, Michael Borwitzky is one of the owners of the Hamburg based label The Organisation, which released albums from rock/indie bands like Arkells, Earl Greyhound, Eastern Conference Champions and Rose Hill Drive over the last two years.

Christof Ellinghaus | City Slang

Representing VUT the body that unites over 1,200 independent music companies in Germany, Ellinghaus is also owner of a label called City Slang. He started out as a booking agent in 1988, arranging tours for now iconic bands such as Flaming Lips, Soundgarden and Nirvana amongst others. His label has released music from bands such as Hole, Tortoise, Arcade Fire and Calexico and many more.

Ingo Beckman | Target Concerts

Ingo Beckmann was born in 1968 and music was always around him. When still being at school he already started working for a promoter in his neighbourhood as show representative, stagehand and one-man-streetteam. He took a break after his A-levels and studied Literature and History in Bielefeld instead. During his studies Ingo was working as freelance tour and production manager before he moved to Bremen based Blue Star Promotion as promoter and talent buyer. After some years there he joined Target Concerts as promoter / booking agent In 1999 and soon became shareholder. Nowadays Ingo works with mostly international talent in Germany, exceptional in Austria & Switzerland, too. Target Concerts also offers services as hired-in local promoter for Munich shows. His roster contains artists from many different musical genres, so does the venue circuit the company is working on: from rave to singer / songwriter, from viby clubs to arenas and festivals.

Benjamin Budde | Buddemusic

Over the last 60 years, Budde has become one of the most successful independent publishers in Europe. It is distinguished by brilliant administration, superb licensing combined with a young and active A&R team. Rolf Budde Musikverlage was founded in 1947 by Rolf Budde Sen. and quickly became one of the most important music publishing forces in Germany. In the 50s, Budde focused on German Schlager music, with some titles becoming international hits through cover versions, such as Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer and Summerwind. The focus in the 60s, 70s and 80s was on Mainstream Pop and R&B, particularly with the Barry White catalogue as well as the Sugar Hill catalogue and its wonderful repertoire of the Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash & The Furios Five, Tina Turner, Candi Staton and many more. During these years Budde also represented big catalogues like Warner Bros. (songs by George Gershwin, Bob Dylan, Eagles, Led Zeppelin), Dick James (The Beatles, Elton John) and artists like Meat Loaf, Leonard Cohen or Bob Marley. After the death of the founder in 1975, the older son Andreas took over, joined by his younger brother Rolf Jr. in 1984. From the end of 2003 until his untimely death in early 2007 Andreas Budde ran the two US companies BUDDE MUSIC INC. and BUDDE SONGS INC. while Rolf Budde was in charge of the European companies Rolf Budde Musikverlage, Flora Musikverlag GmbH (Switzerland) and Budde Music France. Rolf Budde will now keep up Budde’s tradition to combine accurate accounting and personal dedication with the support of its international network. Budde had tremendous international success with the production of the band Alphaville who are still very successful with worldwide hits like Big In Japan, Forever Young and others. The song Din Daa Daa, composed by George Kranz in 1986, was used in a worldwide Microsoft advertising campaign for the Xbox360 console in 2005/2006 and sold more than one million units in the United States with the cover version Shake by the Yin Yang Twins. In 1989, Budde purchased the well-known French publishing company Editions Musicales Claude Pascal (now Budde Music France) and built an outstanding reputation as an expert in the administration of big film score catalogues. Among others Budde Music France sub-publishes catalogues such as Bavaria Sonor (Munich) and I2I Musikverlag (Cologne). In the past few years, Budde has administrated an interesting number of national catalogues, such as Gigolo Records, Couch Music and Piranha and also published the catalogues of Heiko Laux (Edition Moonside Playground) and Johannes Heil (Edition Out Of Many One) as well as new titles by the worldwide metal legend Celtic Frost (Edition Diktatur des Kapitals). For some years now, Budde has been dealing the administration of international catalogues, such as Curci Germany GmbH, Strictly Confidential Germany GmbH, Strengholt Musikverlag GmbH and many others. Our international network of independent publishers gives us extensive access to some of the world’s most beautiful music and also allows us to market our catalogue on an international basis. Budde always focuses on new talented writers and producers, as well as on interesting new labels that are looking for a serious and experienced partner for their publishing.

Alexander Schulz | Inferno Events GmbH & Co. KGAlexander Schulz was born on 24th September 1966 in Hanover. Since 1970 he lives in Hamburg. From 1989 until 1993 he studies “Applied Cultural Studies” at the University of Lüneburg. Additionally from 1985 until 1997 Schulz is responsible for bookings for music clubs and music festivals in Hamburg. Also parallel to his studies from 1987 to 1992 he works amongs other things as an assistant director at the Thalia Theater. Towards the end of his studies in 1992 Schulz founds Inferno Music Publishing/Editions at BMG UFA of which he is managing director. At Jam Records, founded in 1993, Schulz is managing director as well. In 1998 Schulz eventually founds Inferno Events GmbH & Co. KG for corporate events (clients: Unilever, Lufthansa and others), as well as public events (Hamburger Theaternacht, Nacht des Wissens, Reeperbahn Festival Campus, After Work Club and others). Here Schulz is managing director. At the moment the company has 12  employees in a permanent position. The foundation for the Reeperbahn Festival GbR of which Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion GmbH and Inferno Events GmbH & CO. KG are shareholders has been laid in 2006. The company organises the annually held Reeperbahn Festival which was founded by Alexander Schulz and currently has ten employees. Schulz is managing director.

Markus Kühn | FluxFM

At the age of 10, after moving several times, Markus Kühn settled down in the Midwest of Germany. He went to school there and afterwards studied computer science, music, and law. In his schooldays he played in various bands until at the age of 18 he bought his first sampling machine. Shortly afterwards, he signed his first record contract. He was fascinated by the possibilities that the recording studio offered him und started to realize that he would finally be able to combine the two most important things in his life – music and computing. He has been playing music instruments since he was 5 years old, and at the age of 9 he wrote his first program in Assembler on a Commodore C-64. During his studies he worked as scientific assistant in the computer centre of the University of Mainz for 3 years. In this position he was in charge of the UNIX network and the first internet applications of the University. With this musical training and practical studio experience he joined the German TV station ZDF. As music consultant he was responsible for the music selection and advised directors and editors producing films and spots; the technical realization of adding the soundtrack and sounds was another of his responsibilities. Simultaneously, Markus Kühn worked as a freelance composer for film and TV (e.g. for ZDF, 3sat, arte, SAT1). He devoted himself to producing and remixing club music, primarily House Music. His productions were published by Urban Records and WEA . As he was interested in the economic background of the music business, in 1998 he changed from ZDF to Universal Records in Hamburg. He became manager for marketing and New Media. In 2001, still in Hamburg, he founded the company m2m medien.marken.musik together with Mona Rübsamen (previously Head of Production at MTV). m2m had a branch in Berlin, and eventually in the next year, moved to Berlin. Markus Kühn is m2m’s marketing and media consultant. He plans and implements cross-medial marketing and promotion campaigns for brands, artists and labels. M2m is also the major shareholder of FluxFM, an innovative radio station, which he founded in 2004 und heads as managing partner together with Mona Rübsamen. Now FluxFM is broadcasting terrestrially in Berlin, the state of Brandenburg, Bremen and Stuttgart.

Jörg Tresp | Devil Duck Records

Jörg Tresp founded DevilDuck Records in 2004. It’s home to artists from around the world, including Scams (UK), Kid Dakota (USA), Adam Arcuragi (USA), Miss Li (Sweden), Björn Kleinhenz (Sweden), Murder (Denmark), Who Knew (Iceland), as well as, of course, a few German acts, such as Talking To Turtles, The Dope, and Orph. Located in Hamburg, DevilDuck Records is no longer just a label like many other labels, our activities now include management and booking. We’re open to anything that is born of passion, but our focus is far from mainstream… singer/songwriter, indie, whatever…

Christian Mix-Linzer | Tracks & Fields

Christian Mix-Linzer has started his first record label at the age of 16 and has worked in the entertainment industry ever since. Today he is the CEO and founder of Tracks & Fields, a music licensing and supervision service in Europe that finds and licenses campaign music for clients such as Audi, Porsche, Hyundai, Ebay, Google, Orange or McDonalds. He holds an MBA from IE Business School as well as a BA in media studies.

Andrew Campbell | Gordeon Music

From 1987 to 1992, Andrew Campbell worked as a freelance journalist and photographer (Junge Presse Berlin, Berliner Morgenpost, BZ, Prinz Berlin etc.) in both East and West Berlin, covering cultural events like the famous Berlin “Jazz Fest”, “Berliner Filmfestspiele” or “Theatertreffen der Jugend” and many others in both sides of the city. After the fall of the Wall in 1990, Andrew Campbell hired on with Sony Music Germany in charge of radio promotion and artist development, remaining with them until 1992. Following this, Andrew Campbell, together with his partner Jan Jaedike, founded Gordeon Music Promotion in 1992 and later the label G-Records, the publishing company Edition JA and recently the management company G-Management. Since 1992 Andrew Campbell also worked as a radio promoter for companies such as SPV Schallplatten GmbH, V2 Records, Koch International and others. From 1993 to 1996 Andrew Campbell has also worked as an Assistant Supervisor for the company Aviation Defense International, based in Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL).Gordeon Music Promotion is more than 20 years in business, a company very active in radio, press and online publicity work, music publishing (Edition JA / Meisel Musikverlage), label and distribution work (G-Records / Rough Trade Germany) and market consulting, as well as artist management (G-Management). Although a relatively small company with highly motivated staff of six, Gordeon Music has successfully promoted artists such as Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Robin Bibb, Backstreet Boys, Brian Adams, Kiss, Rammstein, Depeche Mode, Emmylou Harris, David Garret, among many others which we represent in the past or present.

Stephanie Pierre | Scout Promotion

Stephanie Pierre is the owner of Scout Promotion – a PR Agency she founded in 1999. Stephanie is specialized in placing artists and bands on nationwide Television/Video/IPTV mainly in the German but also Austrian and Swiss market. Scout has represented well-known artists such as Patricia Kaas or Roger Hodgson/Supertramp, and also genre bands such as (Blues) Grammy Winners Tedeschi Trucks Band. Recently Scout successfully introduced Canadians Jill Barber and Quebec rock star Jonas & The Massive Attraction to German TV viewers.

Dirk Schade | IFA Berlin

– manages national and international music projects in Berlin/Germany – worked with “Berliner Rockmobile“ and produced young people’s music together with them in social problem areas of Berlin. – for several years worked for the broadcasters FAB and RTL City TV as a presenter and supervised a programme called Local Scene, introducing new musical talents, produced TV programmes and concerts, hosted appearances by over 220 solo artists and bands. – presented several large music festivals. Managed and produced various music and artist projects – discovered, among other bands, KNORKATOR from Berlin, introduced them to television and accompanied the band for many years with its film crew. – worked as Head of Festival at Popkomm in Berlin from 2004 – 2008 – In 2010 he started to work as German & European Consultant of Brazilian Music Exchange, based in Berlin – In 2003 he started to work as Manager Events/Concerts/Public Media at IFA Berlin (www.ifa-berlin.de)

Stefan Reichmann | Haldern Pop Festival

Stefan Reichmann is a founding member and musical director of the Haldern Pop Festival. Haldern Pop also encompasses a label, a bar and a “day off” hotel for artists stranded between Paris and Berlin or Amsterdam and Cologne. We organize things in a dimension which corresponds to the size of our village, not to the percentages of an investment banker. Haldern Pop represents hospitable transit between the mosaic of regionality and multifaceted internationality. Remarkable and strange, and therefore existential. “We will experience many more albums of silence in the name of tranquility and gentle auditory friction, as “polarity” is the transistor from art to movement.” Music has the capacity to enthrall, and that is what connects us. Listening. The quiet revolution.

Claudia Seeber | Embassy of Canada – Berlin

Claudia Seeber holds a degree in North American Studies and Business Administration. After working in trade development for the State of Massachusetts and the State of Mississippi, she joined the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service in 2000. In her role as Trade Commissioner, she is responsible for promoting German-Canadian trade relations in the field of TV and film production as well in the music industry. In this capacity, Ms. Seeber provides Canadian exporters with market intelligence, advises on business customs and helps to establish contact with key players in the market. Ms. Seeber maintains a close network of German music industry representatives and can match Canadian businesses with German counterparts.

Marco Noni | popTrip Entertainment

After working for one year a Cologne based music promtion agency and another two years for an Artist Management, which was mainly working with acts from the Metal genre, Marco Noni started an alternative, entry free music festival called „Heimspiel Open Air“ in 2004.  With up to 8.000 music fans attending, presenting national as well as international acts like Biffy Clyro (UK), Maximo Park (UK), Mia. (D), Donots (D) and many more, the festival was a huge success.In 2006 he started his career as a booking agent at Meistersinger Konzerte in Berlin, representing international artists like Robyn (SE), Matt&Kim (USA), Yelle (FR) and Hellsongs (SE) as well as established German acts like Erdmöbel, Fehlfarben, Alexander Veljanov and Das Bo.In  2011 he teamed up with a TV Production & Management company to found the booking & management agency Sector3 Live, booking acts like Mark Forster, Auletta, Buddy Ogün, Hellsongs and Mother Tongue.As Marco will be moving to Canada in 2014, he is redirecting his business, which includes founding the new company popTrip entertainment. While continuing to book acts he has worked with over the last couple of years, he will focus on getting Canadian artists over to Germany and starting to set up relationships and collaborations between the Canadian and German music industries.

Katja Hermes | Sound Diplomacy

Katja Hermes has been working in the music business for more than 8 years. She has worked in various fields in the industry including at Proton Booking & Management, Mutek Festival, Popkomm and Ableton. After she had finished her diploma in tourism, economics and anthropology she became the project manager at Initiative Musik, the German music funding organization. Responsible for export projects, she worked on the implementation of the German “Short Tour Support”, and created projects like a press trip to and through Germany for the Foreign Ministry. She also organized the German presentation at SXSW for 4 years for the German Ministry Of Economics And Technology and various showcases at international festivals, such as Reeperbahn Festival or MIDEM.  Katja lives in Neukölln, Berlin and designs and produces clothes and furniture in her spare time

Volker May | FZW Event GmbH

-since 82 managing partner of Energie Publishing  and Energie ConcertGmbH- in 91 he took over the exclusive booking for Die Fantastischen Vier, one of Germany´s first and most successful German Hip Hop act. He represented the band for more than eighthttp://www.caama.org/wp-admin/profile.php years and collected several Platinum and Gold awards
– furthermore he worked at the same time as a vice president for an international joint venture. The company was founded in Poland and started to run a commercial radio network in five major cities.- in 2002 he was appointed as a manager for MUNDSTUHL. A  trash comedy act signed to Sony Music Germany and MUNDSTUHL sold more than 600.000 units of their records.

– in 2004 he was one of the founding members of MMF (Music Managers Forum) Germany

-2005 he was appointed as a Vice Chairman Europe of the IMMF. The International Music Managers Forum is the umbrella organization of 18 independent national member organizations.

-2006 he started to work as a booker for the metal gothic act KRYPTERIA

-2007 KRYPTERIA performed on major festivals in seven countries

-2008 he was appointed as a management board member of the IMUC an association for music managers and consultants in Germany. On behalf of the city of Dortmund he worked as a consultant for the new building of the FZW, two venues under one roof with a capacity of 1.300 and 300 persons.

-2009 he was appointed as Head of Booking and Events of the FZW

-2011 he became a Managing Partner of the FZW Event GmbH. The company promotes and organizes round about 220 shows per year in the venue

-2012 he booked an Asia tour for KRYPTERIA including shows in South Korea and China, panelist at Moshito Music Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa and at Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg.

-2013 he stimulated managers in Spain, Estonia, Ghana , Zimbabwe  and Latin America to found independent manager associations  in their countries under the IMMF umbrella.He was appointed to be a member of the Reperbahn Festival Advisory Board. and was booked as a panelsist on conferences in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Columbia, South Africa and Germany

-2014 he was elected as the IMMF Vice Chair

Till today Volker  May was responsible to book and organize more than 3.000 live shows throughout Europe, Asia and America.

Niels Andersen | Oktober Promotion

Niels has been working in the music-industry since 1992. He started in trade, and then went to eastwest/Warner Music where he successfully worked as a promoter and product manager for more than ten years. In 2004 he co-founded Oktober Promotion together with Oliver Bergmann.In addition Niels was the manager of German Metal-Band Maroon for three years.

Oliver Bergmann | Oktober PromotionOliver gained his first experiences in the industry early on by working in the promotion- and the Artist-Coordination-departments for eastwest/Warner. After finishing his business studies (with focus on marketing) and a variety of internships (with companies such as Twentieth Century Fox or the Holsten Brewery), he launched Oktober Promotion in 2004 together with Niels Andersen. More recently, he co-founded a record label called The Organisation (releasing international acts like Arkells, Earl Greyhound etc in Germany) in 2010.

Bjorn Meyer | Odyssey Music

Björn runs the label services department at Odyssey Music Network. Odyssey Music is the management home to bands like Apocalyptica, Royal Republic, We Butter Heather Nova, Truckfighters and more. Odyssey Music Network’s label services division is an independent solution for music marketing, product management and distribution on a pan-European basis. Established end of 2012 the label services division has worked on releases by Apocalyptica, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Fratellis, We Butter The Bread With Butter and more.