Cooking Vinyl Group adds France and Germany

One of Europe’s prime independent labels, Cooking Vinyl has now launched two new operations in France and Germany.

The new divisions, known as Cooking Vinyl Group France and Cooking Vinyl Group Germany respectively, will aim to nurture the growth of Cooking Vinyl and Essential Music & Marketing’s European activities.

Led by Zineb Benomar and Hilke Dethleff, both divisions will work closely with exclusive distribution partners Indigo in Germany and [PIAS] France.

Benomar has worked as part of Marianne Faithfull’s management team for the last two years and has also spent eight years at French indie label Naïve Records, where her role as Product Manager enabled her to work with both local and international artists. Some of the projects she had worked on include Benjamin Biolay’s double-Platinum album La Superbe, Carla Bruni’s Comme si de rien n’était, and three albums from Marianne Faithfull, as well as with other acts including Santigold and Metric.

Dethleff, who has strong connections in marketing, media and promotion companies across Germany, has spent the last seven years working as a freelance label and product manager. Her clientele includes Universal, Sony Music, Columbia Records and Real World Records, and she spent ten years at Sony Music as Product Manager International Marketing.

Hilke Dethleff said of the new launch: “Cooking Vinyl has always been a highly respected name in Germany, so it’s fantastic to be working with the team. There are some wonderful releases coming up with Adam Cohen’s album looking particularly positive with strong support from radio and TV, and Carl Barât on the horizon. We’re also seeing some exciting opportunities for Embrace, so it’s very encouraging.”

Zineb Benomar added: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining the Cooking Vinyl team. It’s very exciting to be working across such a diverse range of projects in so many different musical genres, and with such a great family of artists.”

Both markets are set to deliver strong results for Cooking Vinyl signing Adam Cohen’s latest album ‘We Go Home’. In Germany, this is coupled with a major sync placement as part of Vodafone’s currently airing “Tokio Calling” campaign. Other priority releases include The Prodigy and Marilyn Manson.

The cross channel move comes after the strong first year performance of Cooking Vinyl Australia, which launched in September 2013 in Melbourne.

Headed by label veterans Leigh Gruppetta and Stu Harvey, the Australian sector has already made noteworthy moves, including the signing of new deals with US labels Razor & Tie and Thirty Tigers.

Martin Goldschmidt, MD of Cooking Vinyl, said: “With Cooking Vinyl Australia having had such an amazing first year, we’ve once again looked at expanding our business – this time a little closer to home. France and Germany are by no means strangers to us, but working with Zineb and Hilke, who possess a wealth of experience in their respective markets, will enable us to serve our artists even better.”