MBW’s Inspiring Women series is about rising female executivesgh the corporate hierarchy, highlighting their career journey – from their professional breakthrough to the high-level responsibilities they are currently fulfilling. Inspiring Women is powered by Ingrooves.
Last year, Doreen Schimk Appointed Co-Chairman of Warner Music Central Europe together with Fabian Drebes, with the duo claiming the first dual leadership role of a major label in Germany.
Schimk has progressed from her previous role as Director of Communications & Brand at the company, having previously spent eight years as Director of Promotion and Coordination.
Since taking on the title of Co-Chair, she tells us that she is focusing on building a culture of familiarity for both artists and employees, as well as strengthening her domestic business. the firm.
The fruits of that labor include the debut of Atlantic Records Germany, focusing on German hip-hop. “We wanted the label to be a place for artists who were culturally involved and had an independent, entrepreneurial mentality rather than the usual big label approach,” says Schimk.
Artists signed Atlantic Profile The Germany that Schimk is excited about includes German/Russian rapper Vero and Austrian talent, Yung Hurn. “There’s a lot more to come – we’re going to be negotiating with a lot of artists that I can’t talk about at the moment,” she added.
Schimk is also working to launch an all-female rap songwriting camp, SHE, taking place in Berlin in mid-April. The week offers networking and mentoring opportunities to help improve women’s representation in hip-hop.
Before Warner, Schimk worked at Music by Sony Germany for almost 5 years after starting her career as an intern at Edel Records in the promotion department in the late 90s.
She didn’t go to college and instead spent her post-secondary years working as a DJ before moving to New York to seek a career in the music industry. “Music was the only thing I was 100% passionate about,” she recalls. “It’s always been about the music.”
Despite speaking no English, Schimk got a job in the Brooklyn borough of New York in a bar, where she ended up serving drinks to the likes of Spike Lee, Mary J. Blige, and Queen Latifah.
She said: “This was a trendy bar at the time, I was the only German waitress there and I just kept saying, ‘My name is Doreen and I need a job.’ I realized that everyone wanted to get into the music industry and I didn’t know what I needed to study or train.”
Thankfully, a friend in Hamburg informed her of the opening of the Edel record company in Germany and within 48 hours of submitting her CV, she had returned home and started working.
Here, we chat with Schimk about her career to date, gender equality in music, bringing German hip-hop to the global stage and more.
Across the different roles you’ve played in your career, what’s your biggest takeaway?
It’s a good lesson to have some mentors or people there to support you. I’ve always focused on trying to surround myself with people who can support me or who I can learn from. In addition, it is very important to be passionate about what you do as well as being courageous and ambitious. Have an open mind and get out of your comfort zone, open to new things and keep it going.
“I’ve always focused on trying to surround myself with people who can support me or who I can learn from.”
You’re running the all-female rap songwriting camp, SHE – can you tell me about the inspiration behind launching it?
On a global and local scale, there is a huge shortage of female talent in the business sector; artists, musicians and producers. We believe that, with Atlantic, Warner Music and Warner Chappell, it’s about the network. We live in a time where we have a great opportunity to connect, not just through social media platforms, especially after two years of the pandemic.
So we’re building a program for female artists and musicians to get to know each other and learn from and support each other. As a brand, SHE can be the new home for female artists and creative scene across Europe and globally. I see it as a great opportunity.
Aside from mentoring and community, what else do you think will help balance the gender in the music industry in terms of talent?
Promote gender equality and inclusion. Inclusion is a very important thing that everyone should realize and that is openness, no matter what cultural background we have. Also, don’t just talk about it. I kept saying, ‘Actions speak louder than words’. It’s the small steps that make the difference – doing things every day.
“[When it comes to gender equality in music]”It’s the small steps that make the difference.”
In the UK and US, there is quite a bit of action on the part of business to attract more women into leadership positions in the music industry. Is that work reflected in Germany?
I think Warner specifically does a lot of work for gender equality. In our organization currently, we have almost 50% female and male [employees] at the leadership level. There are several initiatives that we will push further to make it clear that more action is needed.
This year, we created the SHE songwriting camp, but we’re also developing different formats for women to speak out about their issues, so I think we’re in a good place. But of course, we need a lot of opportunities regarding how we line up a woman when it comes to festival lineups and certain roles, for example.
German hip-hop in general doesn’t do a good job of translating outside of its home country – how can it overcome the language barrier and compete with strong markets like the US?
We find that every year the rap genre is the most successful all over Europe and especially in Germany. Of course, the language barrier is there but I think there will be new ways [for it to break through]. Especially since we are currently dealing with DSPs and social media platforms globally – on the one hand, they will focus on local rap but on the other hand, global music genres will have a lot of influence. more affected worldwide.
Do you have a strategy that has proven particularly effective for disrupting the German music scene abroad?
Well, of course, it’s about our signing strategy. But I can’t say too much about what’s for Warner Music. There are some personal things but I don’t really want to make it public, I think they should be more discreet.
What are the biggest challenges facing working in the music industry in Europe right now, and how do you navigate those challenges?
We’re really focusing on the domestic market and seeing how TikTok is influencing new artists and songs and looking at how listeners are interested in different genres. We are in a very chaotic market situation, so it is important to realize what our market has, what the theme is that has a cultural impact beyond major global trends.
How about you, how do you feel about the most exciting development happening in the music industry today?
I think it’s outside of our traditional recording business – we’re looking to discover new revenue streams through the whole digitization process, like creating NFTs or avatars. Living in today’s digital world, there are so many new ways to discover music and that’s fascinating.
What would you change about the music industry and why?
Promote gender equality and inclusion. The more integrated we become, the more successful we will be.
What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps? Is there anything you wish you knew before starting your career?
Be patient with what you do and be ambitious too. I think it’s important, whatever you do, but especially if you have the power to change things – speak up. That’s something I had to learn, it didn’t come naturally.
MBW’s Inspiring Women series is about female executives who have risen to the topgh the corporate hierarchy, highlighting their career journey – from their professional breakthrough to the high-level responsibilities they are currently fulfilling. Inspiring Women is powered by Ingrooves.Worldwide music business
