Berlin/Los Angeles, March 9^th, 2023 – ZEBRALUTION, the all-audio company from Berlin, Germany, is strengthening its presence in the United States with immediate effect in launching its new L.A.-based subsidiary, ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc. At the subsidiary’s helm is CEO Natalie Carlson, who has been with the digital audio distributor for more than fifteen years. To kick off the company’s launch in the U.S., the company is organizing a range of events at SXSW in Austin, notably a high-profile talk on “Neighboring Rights”, as well as an exclusive showcase concert.

From Berlin to Los Angeles: New foundation of ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc.

ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc. is the new American subsidiary founded in January 2023 by ZEBRALUTION, a digital audio group from Berlin, Germany. ZEBRALUTION was founded in 2004 as the first digital distributor for independent music labels in Europe and has been active in the U.S. market from Europe for over fifteen years. Since its foundation, ZEBRALUTION has developed into an all-audio group that now also offers marketing and distribution services for the audiobook and podcast industries as well as technology and supply-chain services via its tech subsidiary EMS. The company is officially entering the U.S. market with the new foundation, sending a clear signal for the further internationalization activities the company has planned for 2023.

ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc.’s tasks include the local provision of marketing, sales and customer support services for all business divisions of ZEBRALUTION Group. The Music Division will be the first division to benefit from these localized services, with the Audiobook and Podcast divisions following successively. In addition, the company is focusing on the development of new business areas, such as synch licensing of music for film, TV and advertising. By establishing new structures in the world’s largest music, audiobook and podcast market, ZEBRALUTION intends to offer its world-class products and services to more clients, strengthen the promotion of its European catalogues and be at the forefront of innovations being developed in the dynamic U.S. media-tech eco-systems.

Management of the company 

Natalie Carlson, CEO of ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc, has been with the company for seventeen years as Senior VP, North America & Asia-Pacific. Previously, she served in roles at the Beastie Boys-owned music label Grand Royal as General Manager; and at Warner Music Group`s indie distributor ADA as Label Manager. Prior to that, Carlson was the Indie Buyer at legendary record store Aron´s Records. Now she is building her own team of experts in Los Angeles. A Sales & Marketing Manager position has been posted to start with, with more staff to follow by the end of the year. The company opened its office in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District in February 2023.

“After being active in the US market for a long time, I am pleased that we can now offer our customers and partners our services in an even more focused and service-oriented manner locally“, says Natalie Carlson, CEO of ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc. “We have an exciting year ahead of us! We are looking forward to fostering and growing our US partnerships and our local ZEBRALUTION team.“

“Our goal for 2023 is to profitably exploit the enormous potential of the US music market for us and our clients, and at the same time to consistently drive forward the internationalization of ZEBRALUTION“, says Sascha Lazimbat, President and General Counsel of ZEBRALUTION. „After many years of working together, we are now pleased to take a step further in this direction with Natalie Carlson.“

ZEBRALUTION at South by Southwest (SXSW)

To kick off the company’s launch, ZEBRALUTION will have a presence at this year’s SXSW in Austin, organizing exciting events as part of the festival.

1)  Talk about Neighboring Rights @SXSW Conference

Neighboring Rights are a complex and highly exciting topic, with which ZEBRALUTION will participate in the official SXSW supplementary events program in the form of a prominent talk titled “The Neighbors Have Money for You: Neighboring Rights Now”

• Time & Location:        

March 14th, 2023, at 1pm at German House (Parkside, 301 E 6th St, Austin/TX)

• Host:

Robert Levine, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Billboard

• Participants:              

• Ama Walton (DE), SVP for Business and Legal Affairs at Music Licensing and Partnerships at Soundcloud
• Luis Bonilla (US) CTO of the world’s largest Neighboring Rights collecting society, SoundExchange
• Erik Veermann (NL), Managing Director of peermusic Neighboring Rights
• Jürgen Söder (DE), General Manager of ZEBRALUTION subsidiary, rightz audio

2)O Showcase concert powered by GEMA and ZEBRALUTION @SXSW Festival

German music copyright collecting society and ZEBRALUTION shareholder GEMA will host an exclusive showcase concert featuring acts from ZEBRALUTION Music partner labels at the SXSW festival.

• Time & Location:        

March 16th, 2023, starting at 8pm at Parish (501 Brushy St, Austin/TX)

• Artists (among others):

• • Tangerine Dream
  • Brandt Brauer Frick
  • Roosevelt (DJ Set) / (City Slang/ZEBRALUTION)

3) Additional showcase performances by ZEBRALUTION artists and labels

Many more artists distributed and marketed by ZEBRALUTION will perform showcases during the SXSW festival. These include:

• • Softee (City Slang)
  • McKinley Dixon (City Slang)
  • Moritz Fasbender (edition edition)

ZEBRALUTION Team on-site

Natalie Carlson, CEO of ZEBRALUTION U.S. Inc and the General Manager of ZEBRALUTION neighboring rights subsidiary rightz audio, Jürgen Söder, will be attending SXSW. Söder will be available for an in-depth exchange on the topic of Neighboring Rights. In addition, ZEBRALUTION Music’s Lisa Riepe, Head of Sales & Marketing, and Michael Schick, Director Strategy & New Business, will also be present. Both will be available for conversations on the topic of digital marketing of music.

About ZEBRALUTION

ZEBRALUTION was founded in 2004 as the first digital distributor for independent labels in Europe. The company operates with dedicated development, operations, marketing, and business teams from ten offices in eight countries and distributes and markets over 3,500 labels, publishers and producers from around the world. Alongside its music distribution services, since 2010 ZEBRALUTION has developed new commercial models for publishers and their audiobook productions. In 2018, ZEBRALUTION launched its podcast network ZEBRALUTION Podcast (formerly zebra-audio.net). The development and operation of digital supply-chain technologies is now also part of ZEBRALUTION’s scope of services following the acquisition of platform company Encoding Management Service (EMS) in 2019. German music copyright collecting society GEMA has been a majority shareholder of the company since the end of 2019.