WARNER MUSIC SOUTH EAST EUROPE ACQUIRES A MINORITY STAKE IN NIKA

Darjo Rot & Marko Stopar

Warner Music South East Europe (WM SEE) has acquired a minority stake in Slovenian independent label NIKA. NIKA’s repertoire of more than 11,000 songs – including tracks from Big Foot Mama, Koala Voice, Luka Basi, Nipke, Siddharta, and Žan Serčič – is currently distributed through ADA, Warner Music’s independent distribution and label services arm.

This new deal further enables Warner Music to upstream NIKA’s roster to its international network, opening up opportunities for fans around the world to discover its artists’ music.

NIKA has been Warner Music’s licensee in Slovenia since 1995. The company is well established in the local market, working closely with local industry bodies, such as collective management organisation IPF k.o., to ensure its artists and clients are being represented and paid correctly.

Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska, General Manager, WM SEE says: “It’s a proud moment for us at WM SEE today in announcing this deal with NIKA. We’ve worked with Darjo and Marko for almost 30 years, they have an impeccable reputation, and I can confidently say that there’s no-one better for us to partner with in Slovenia.”

Darjo Rot and Marko Stopar, Co-Founders of NIKA add: “We couldn’t be happier to complete this deal with WM SEE. We’ve worked with Warner Music for almost three decades, and that’s because it puts their trust in us and enables us to do what we do best in Slovenia, and now with this deal we’ll be working even closer to ensure we’re bringing our artists to the world stage.”

“The upstreaming potential of NIKA’s artists within Warner Music’s global network is an exciting thought for me. We’ve had great success when partnering with labels in the region, like Magneoton and Mascom, so I’m excited to see how the team can elevate NIKA to new levels”, finishes Bartosz Szwoch, CFO, Warner Music Eastern Europe.

NIKA was established in 1989 as the first private sector music label and distribution company in the former Yugoslavia. It began with a small shop in Ljubljana, where music from independent international labels was introduced to the Yugoslavian market for the first time.

In 1995, NIKA entered into a partnership with Warner Music, and in 2017, it commenced distributing its own catalogue through Warner Music to other markets. NIKA also operates the largest Slovenian online music shop, offering customers a selection of more than 300,000 different titles.

Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska