WACT is a German record label founded in 1992 by Siegfried Loch. It is a division of ACT + Music Video founded by Loch and Annette Humpe in 1988. ACT started as a pop music label but folded soon after it started. Loch turned it into a jazz label, at first reissuing music he had recorded for Liberty, Philips, and WEA before turning to new recordings.
WAFM Records GmbH is a music label based in Schwalmstadt, Germany. They focus on the heavy metal musical genre, signing bands such as U.D.O., Doro, Lordi, Kotipelto, Masterplan, Nostradameus, and Annihilator.
WAmiga is a popular music record label in Germany. Once an organ of the East German state-owned music publisher VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, Amiga became a label of the Bertelsmann Music Group in 1994.
WAnother Century Records is an alternative rock record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. It is an imprint of Century Media Records, which was acquired in August 2015 by Sony Music Entertainment.
WArchiv Produktion is a classical music record label of German origin. It originated in 1949 as a classical label for the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG), and in 1958 Archiv was established as a subsidiary of DGG, specialising in recordings of Early and Baroque music. It has since developed a particular focus on "historically informed performance" and the work of artists of the Early music revival movement of the 20th and 21st centuries.
WAriola is a German record label. In the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of the Bertelsmann Music Group, which in turn has become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment.
WBasic Channel is a German music duo and record label, composed of Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, that originated in Berlin in 1993. The duo have also worked under other names, including Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio, and have founded offshoot label imprints such as Chain Reaction and Main Street. Their work in the 1990s is regarded as pioneering the minimal and dub techno subgenres.
WBeka Records was a record label based in Germany, active from about 1903 to 1925. Before World War I, Beka also made gramophone records for the United Kingdom market under the Beka-Grand Records label. The company became a subsidiary of the Carl Lindström Company which was sold to the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1926.
WBMG Rights Management GmbH is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label.
WBrain was a Hamburg-based record label prominent in the 1970s releasing several important Krautrock records by bands such as Neu!, Cluster and Guru Guru. Many of its more prominent records are currently being reissued on CD by Repertoire Records.
WCarl Lindström A.G. was a global record company founded in 1893 and based in Berlin, Germany. Founded by Carl Lindström (1869–1932), a Swedish inventor living in Berlin, it originally produced phonographs or gramophones with the brand names "Parlograph" and "Parlophon" and eventually began producing records as well. It became the holding company for Odeon Records, Parlophone Records, Beka Records, Okeh Records, Fonotipia Records, Lyrophon, Homophon, and other labels. Lindström sold the company to Max Straus, but Lindström remained with the company as an engineer and inventor.
WCocoon Recordings is a record label founded in 2000 and operated by DJ and electronic music producer Sven Väth. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, Cocoon is a division of the Cocoon Music Event GmbH.
WDeutsche Grammophon is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of labels in 1999. It is the oldest surviving established record company.
WDeutsche Harmonia Mundi is a German classical music record label. It was founded by Rudolf Ruby and based in Freiburg, Breisgau. The company was acquired by BMG Music in 1992 and is now part of Sony Music Entertainment. Ruby had Alfred Krings of WDR assemble their own house orchestra Collegium Aureum, founded 1964, to perform early music, selecting as leader Franzjosef Maier.
WDrakkar Entertainment GmbH, also called Drakkar Records or Drakkar Publishing, is a German record label with its headquarters in Witten. It is a joint venture with Bertelsmann Music Group.
WECM is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres. ECM's motto is "the most beautiful sound next to silence", taken from a 1971 review of ECM releases in Coda, a Canadian jazz magazine.
WEl Puerto Records is a German music label that was founded in 2014 in Gerstetten near Ulm by Bernd Stelzer and Torsten Ihlenfeld. The main focus of the label is on rock / hard rock / heavy metal. The distribution extends over Europe and North America (Soulfood-Amped).
WElectrola is a German record label and subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Based in Munich, its roster has included Chumbawamba, Matthias Reim, Helene Fischer, Brings, Höhner and Santiano.
WEnja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971.
WGENUIN is an independent classical music label and remote classical music recording studio based in Leipzig, Germany. The term “genuin” comes from Latin and stands for “innate, authentic, not counterfeit.”
WGruenrekorder is a German record label for field recording, soundscapes and sound art. It was founded in 2003 by the sound artists Lasse-Marc Riek and Roland Etzin in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The releases are mainly published on CD and Vinyl, but they are also distributed on Tape as well as in digital formats . Although the focus lies on field recordings and soundscapes, the spectrum of the label also includes compilations and crossover projects up to the genre of New Music.
WIbadan Records is an independent music label founded in 1995 by DJ and music producer, Jerome Sydenham in New York City and is now run out of Berlin, Germany. Ibadan Records is principal to other labels including: Apotek Records, Avocado Records, Bolshevic Records, Public Service Records and UK Promotions. The label recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary in 2010 while also reaching the mark of over 100 releases. The label's motto is: "A higher quality experience in music".
WKling Klang is the private music studio of the band Kraftwerk. The name is taken from the first song on the Kraftwerk 2 album. The studio was originally located at Mintropstraße 16 in Düsseldorf, Germany, adjacent to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, but in mid-2009 moved to Meerbusch-Osterath, around 10 kilometers west of Düsseldorf. The band also operate a record label named Kling Klang, which they use to release their music.
WKontor Records or Kontor New Media is a record label based in Hamburg, Germany. The label's artist roster includes ATB, Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Scooter. Jens Thele is the head manager of Kontor and is also the manager of Scooter.
WKuckuck Schallplatten is a German record label founded in August 1969 by Eckart Rahn, Mal Sondock and the advertising agency ConceptData in Munich, growing out of his music publishing company E.R.P. Musikverlag which was founded on April 1, 1968. It was distributed by Deutsche Grammophon (Polydor). It is the first German progressive rock-label. It is now the longest-surviving independent label in Germany. Most of its recordings have been reissued on CD, and all are now available as downloads.
WL’Age D’Or was a German independent music label based in Hamburg, which has played an important role in creating the Hamburger Schule and was the parent label of Ladomat 2000.
WLimb Music is an independent record label based in Hamburg, Germany and specialized in various subgenres of heavy metal music. It was also known as LMP, which stood for Limb Music Products, later changed to Limb Music GmbH. The music publishing firm Limb Music Publishing e.K. was established in 1989. Their mail order company Forever Rock (www.forever-rock.de) was founded in 2008.
WOdeon Records is a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. The label's name and logo come from the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris.
WOhr ("Ear") was an influential German electronic/experimental record label set up by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser in 1970.
WPAN is a Berlin-based record label founded in 2008 by Bill Kouligas. The label is known for its interdisciplinary approach to the fields of contemporary art and music, and has collaborated with institutions such as London's ICA. PAN has signed and distributed records by a number of acts including Yves Tumor, Amnesia Scanner, Anne Imhof, Arca and Eartheater.
WParlophone Records Limited is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
WPolydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. In turn, Polydor distributes Interscope releases in the United Kingdom. Polydor Records Ltd. was established in London in 1954 as a British subsidiary of German company Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. It was renamed Polydor Ltd. in 1972.
WPolyphon is a disc-playing music box, a mechanical device first manufactured by the Polyphon Musikwerke, located in Leipzig, Germany. Invented in 1870, full-scale production started around 1897 and continued into the early 1900s. Polyphons were exported all over world and music was supplied for the English, French and German markets, as well as further afield, with music cataloged for the Russian, Polish and Balkan regions. Polyphon is also a record label as registered by German Polyphon Musikwerke AG in 1908. Polyphon traded under the Polydor label since 1913 with their trademarks Polyphon Musik and Polyphon Record.
WSeveral Reasons Recordings is a record label / performance projects management based in Berlin, Germany, in collaboration with London, Italy and Cyprus. Founded in 2012, it is owned and managed by Alfeo Pier (Dubit), Christos Erotocritou and Max Vassiades (mynude).
WSheffield Tunes is a German record label, and a sublabel of Kontor Records, formed in 2000 by H.P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan and Jens Thele. The first album released by Sheffield Tunes was Sheffield, and the first single was "I'm Your Pusher", by Scooter. Sheffield Tunes also owns the Sheffield Jumpers.
WSmoke On Records is an independent record label from Germany which mainly publishes hip-hop music. The label specializes mostly in re-releasing 1990s records as well as new albums. Smoke On Records has released such artists as Nine, Killah Priest, Das EFX, Blahzay Blahzay, Artifacts and more.
WStrange Ways Records is an independent record label from Hamburg, Germany.
WTesco Organisation is a German record label, mail order company and distributor, specialising in industrial, noise, neofolk and ambient music. Tesco has also organised music festivals in the past such as "Heavy Electronics", "Tesco Disco" and "Festival Karlsruhe"
WTresor is an underground techno nightclub in Berlin and a record label.
WThe Trisol Music Group, GmbH, is a German business group and record label headquartered in Dieburg. Owning multiple sublabels, they specialize in producing musical works pertaining to darkwave, dark folk, gothic rock, deathrock, ethereal wave and other gothic genres of music. In general they are considered a major European label for works within the realm of Dark Alternative music.
WTunnel Records is a record label founded by DJ Dean, and based in Hamburg, Germany. Tunnel Records was home to artists and groups such as X-Dream, DJ Dean, Gollum + Hunter, DJ Yanny, Accuface, Wrong Plane, DJ Shane, DJ Shoko, Waveliner, DJ Krid-Kid, Dj C-Bass & DJ Merlin, Ziggy X, Patrick Bunton, and Gary D.
WVinyl On Demand is a record label that targets vinyl collectors of 1970's and 80's minimal synth, industrial, and avant-garde music. Along with sales to distributors, Vinyl On Demand provides a subscription service. Most releases are limited to 500 copies and between subscribers and distributors they often sell out.