The Bertelsmann music division continues to buy in Germany.

With Telamo, BMG is taking over what it says is “the indie and pop label with the highest sales”.

As BMG announced on Wednesday, founder and managing director Ken Otremba will remain on board, and the two co-founders Kathleen Herrmann and Marko Wünsch will continue to work for the label in an advisory capacity.

Benjamin Fisher

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

According to the announcement, the takeover still has to be approved by the Austrian Federal Competition Authority.

It is planned that BMG will take over 100 percent of the shares, as a spokeswoman told the FAZ.

According to BMG, it would be the largest label takeover in Germany to date.

The cross-genre market share with Telamo is 8.5 percent.

Most recently, the Bertelsmann subsidiary had taken over rights packages from the Simple Minds founding members and the French electronics pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.

"Universal, Telamo, Sony - that's the order in the hit segment today in terms of sales," Otremba recently described the hit market in the FAZ.

Telamo recently implemented a clearly seven-digit amount, and the trend is rising.

The label works with Eloy de Jong, Marianne Rosenberg, Ross Antony and Giovanni Zarrella, among others.

Thomas Anders and Florian Silbereisen also publish via Telamo.

The takeover opened up “additional opportunities for cooperation” for Telamo-Acts, for example through the cooperation with RTL.

TV presence plays a major role in the marketing of hits – on the one hand via television shows, on the other via advertising or teleshopping.

The target group for rap or pop can be reached primarily via Tiktok,

"Linear television is still the best way for Schlager," says Otremba.

Telamo also operates the “Schlager für Alle” platform on YouTube, Facebook and other social networks.

For Otremba, the sale has come full circle.

The now 50-year-old music manager began his career at the end of the 1990s in Munich at what was then the Bertelsmann music division.

It later became a joint venture with Sony, from which Bertelsmann withdrew in 2008 and founded BMG.

Financial investor KKR held 51 percent of the shares until spring 2013.

Today, BMG is a wholly owned Bertelsmann subsidiary.

Otremba founded Telamo in 2012 after the original plan to set up a joint venture with Sony failed.

Telamo has been working with Warner Music as a distribution partner for a number of years.

If Otremba is quoted in the message as saying that all previous partnerships will be continued, this should also affect this part.

Because Warner's division ADA is also responsible for the distribution of BMG publications.