Ralf
Kollmann is the founder and Managing Director Mobilee Records from Berlin and which he have formed in partnership with
Anja Schneider. Under Kollmann’s guidance, Mobilee records have risen through
the ranks since 2005 to become one of the brightest stars in Berlin’s
glittering galaxy of electronic music labels. Since 2015 Ralf serves on the Executive Board of the AFEM (Association For Electronic Music) representing the Rights Holder Section.
Life: when was the moment you figured out that Dance Music was meant for you?
It was 1992 in the legendary OMEN club in Frankfurt where Sven Väth
introduced Techno to his crowd.
Within half a year he turned the whole music style in his sets upside
down. What started a year before as my clubbing introduction with the so called
Eurodance sound from the likes of Dr. Alban´s „Hello Africa" or Rozalla´s
„Everybody´s Free“ ended up in 1992 with a PLUS 8 label night of pure Detroit Techno
featuring Dan Bell, Richie Hawtin, John Aquaviva as Cybersonik and Speedy J
live performing “Pull Over“ and modulating this track over 20 minutes or maybe
longer. I had an enlightenment on the dancefloor and knew this is my music and
i embraced the whole lifestyle around it. Since then i consumed every magazine
covering electronic music from first to last page and started to spend lots of
money on Vinyl.
Laugh: when was the last time you had
real fun?
My girlfriend always makes me laugh. That's a lot of fun in my life all the
time. Some extreme fun I had at a Sake tasting in the Tulum DJungle during BPM
last year with a very special crowd coming together. And another highlight
with much laughter was the kick off of our Mobilee rooftop summer season in
Barcelona at the beautiful Hotel Silken Diagonal on May 1st. An endless day and
night. We created enough jokes to smile for a whole year. As with everything
it´s about the right people coming together at the right time creating
something special. The basic ingredients for a good party as well!
Love: name the one thing you love more
than anything – and why is that?
A pretty classic and general thing: Freedom. Freedom translates to a
liberal lifestyle and includes tolerance, being open for new ideas, experiences
and change.
Especially in our actual global environment with a clash of cultures and
religions, this very original achievement of enlightenment in our part of
the world becomes very important again and shouldn’t be taken for
granted. The Dance Music culture in its origin represents these values in a
great way.
Past: name a significant moment in
your career in Dance Music – and why is that?
There were obviously a lot, but one recent significant moment was when i
realized that i gathered enough experience in a specific field that i was able
to share this knowledge, insights and ideas with the next generation. My
engagement with the Association For Electronic Music (AFEM), a global platform
for all things related to the dance music movement, is one place where this is
happening. We need to develop and move things further in the right
directions and make sure our movement stays healthy, successful and
creative. Conferences and panels are an important way to discuss actual
matters, educate, expand your network and make business.
Present: what do you think that is
trending today in music, clubs and festivals?
So many things changed again in the past few years, especially in the festival
and booking segment. It all became bigger, mainstream, lots of money involved
with all its positive and negative effects. At the same time i see the
rise of boutique events, underground labels, new young producer talents
developing new styles and breaking up the classic genre definitions. I am
happy to see that the dance music culture re-inventing itself from time to
time. After the challenges we faced through the switch from vinyl to digital to
streaming and the need for music labels to diversify and find new revenue
streams by turning into booking agencies or event brands, taking care of
publishing or artist management to keep the business running it looks like
the 360° model is splitting into specialized businesses again. There is
definitely a little bubble out there that might burst at one point, but our
structures are well prepared for a cleansing process if it comes.
Future: where is industry heading in the
years to come?
The globalization of
dance music is marching on, the professionalism of our business structures is
improving. I feel a strong connection between rave culture and
social-/political change. The DJ-Culture is more diverse than ever, Live
artists developing bigger and more complex shows and play a bigger role again
in club and festival bookings. The media landscape covering electronic music is
stronger than ever in print, online and livestreaming. Curation becomes more
important again in all segments of our industry. After a decade of mediocracy
and a transformation from analog to digital production environments, it looks
like the new producer generation knows how to play their instruments and be
creative beyond preset sound banks. I see a lot of great club and festival
concepts popping up with the potential of becoming the next Berghain or
Tomorrowland in the next ten years.
On another note clubs and festivals worldwide pay considerable sums of money to
Performing Right Organizations for licenses to play music. We are challenged to
change the flow of revenue streams and establish better and accurate
systems. AFEM is working with global Performing and Neighbouring Rights
Organizations to move approximately $160M of royalty distributions resulting
from consumption of electronic music at festivals and in clubs to ‘pay per
play’ using Music Recognition Technology. The campaign is making huge
progress in establishing technology at music venues to secure a fair
compensation to the artists whose music actually gets played. Still a lot work
to do before getting a perfect system. Furthermore artists and rights holders
need to push the streaming industry towards subscribed services only. A better
royalty flow and distribution to artists and music labels will boost the whole
music culture eco system, creativity and innovation. Exciting times ahead!
