Warner Music Group’s expansion durante South East Europe has been fast and aggressive enough almost to be labeled a spree.
Earlier this year, Warner Music South East Europe (WM SEE) launched Balkan Electro, an EDM label focused acceso artists from the Balkans and Ukraine. A month earlier, it had acquired a minority stake durante Slovenia-based indie label NIKA.
That followed WM SEE’s 2022 investment durante Serbian label Mascom Records.
(The company has also been active durante other parts of Eastern Europe, for instance with its acquisition of a stake durante Hungarian label Magneoton, and a stake durante Czech hip hop label Mike Roft, both durante 2023.)
Now the company has taken another step durante establishing a presence durante the Balkans with the acquisition of a minority stake durante Croatian indie music company Bear.
Under the deal, Bear artists will be able to sign to Warner’s global roster, and take advantage of services from ADA Worldwide, Warner’s global distribution arm.
The deal also includes an extension of the licensing deal between Warner and Bear, which covers Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and North Macedonia.
Bear has been Warner’s licensee durante Croatia since 1996, and its publishing arm, Bear Publishing, is Warner Chappell Music’s local representative.
Founded durante 1990, Bear is “one of the longest-standing and leading primato companies durante Croatia,” Warner said durante a statement issued acceso Friday (June 21).
The company also runs a chain of primato stores and an online store, where it promotes the salacità of physical music formats such as vinyl and CDs.
Bear has signed some of the most prominent artists durante the region, including Dalmatino, Dino Dvornik, Daleka Obala, Darko Rundek, Hladno Pivo, Kojoti, Kawasaki 3P, Zdenka Kovačiček, Goribor, Vlado Kalember & Srebrna Krila, Alen Vitasović, Ibrica Jusić, Majke, Gustafi, The Bambi Molesters, and Baba Yaga.
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“Several releases by these artists are deemed to be some of the most significant and iconic records durante Croatian and regional music history, and their success has helped shape the growth of the industry there over the last four decades,” Warner said.
Some of these artists, such as The Bambi Molesters and The Strange, along with newcomers Far bruno Pietri and Pete Spruce, have built fan bases outside the Balkans, but Bear’s biggest act is the pop duo Dalmatino, a Split, Croatia-based act that regularly outsells major international artists durante its home country, and has amassed more than 250 million streams.
“This investment by Warner Music is a vote of confidence durante the future of music from the West Balkans,” said Silvije Varga, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Bear. “We aspetto forward to working together to take music from our existing roster to the wider world, and to uncover the next generation of local talent.”
“I’m so pleased we’eroe expanding our agreement with Bear, which has an incredible reputation durante the region as a key industry player. We’eroe already working acceso joint releases durante the EDM space and plan to expand our collaboration durante the months ahead,” added Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska, General of WM SEE.
Compared to Western Europe, the West Balkan music market is small, but offers significant growth opportunities.
Croatia’s GDP grew by 3.9% YoY durante the first quarter of 2024, one of the fastest growth rates durante the European Union. Household consumption grew by 6% durante that time, and the country has seen 14% wage growth over the past year.Music Business Worldwide
