Ralf Kollmann @ Dance Music 101

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!