Edel
Edel is one of Europe’s leading independent music companies, with a further focus on books and home entertainment. We offer artists, authors, labels, publishers and other rights holders a unique range of products and services. Together, we take all steps from marketing to digital and physical distribution to the production of vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays as well as books. With over 1,000 employees in the Edel Family, we take care of the works of our partners.
Music
We have been managing the releases of international artists, labels and brands since 1986, bringing together the best names and a diverse repertoire with a wide reach. We have publishing expertise in almost every genre. We offer comprehensive marketing, physical distribution in all trade channels and the production of records, CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays from a single source. At the same time, our digital distributor Kontor New Media ensures perfect marketing in streaming and other digital channels. In this way, we occupy broad areas in all market segments and regularly reach international chart-topping positions.
Kontor Records is an instituition in international club/dance and techno. The talent factory stands worldwide as a top brand for the development of long-lasting, commercial dance acts and compilation brands. With over five million subscribers, Kontor.TV is also one of the most successful online music formats.
earMUSIC is our internationally operating rock and pop label. It offers stars of the classic rock, hard and alternative rock genres as well as renowned pop acts the broad know-how of traditional label work – all from Hamburg headquarters. Bands like Deep Purple, Status Quo, Foreigner or solo artists like Alice Cooper with their international successes are the label’s trademark.
Neue Meister & MPS
Our labels Berlin Classics, Brillant Classics, Neue Meister and MPS Jazz offer listening pleasure from the classical and jazz genres. Whether it’s newly composed music by artists and composers for whom there are no boundaries between the classical orchestral world, experimental art, electro or pop music, or legendary recordings by German and international jazz and classical greats – all genres have a home with us.
Arising Empire gives young, dynamic and visionary bands from the fields of metalcore, punk and alternative a musical home within the Edel Family. This label is always open to new currents and trends.
Edel Distribution is one of the leading physical distributors in Germany. It provides labels, key accounts and retail partners with ideal preparation, effective marketing and cooperation at all sales levels, thus achieving the best product and special product placement and chart succes.
Kontor New Media is one of the most important digital distributors in Europe with 1,500 label partners. Its perfectly developed service tools offer labels dynamics, speed and transparency – far beyond content management. Kontor New Media manages, promotes and markets 1.5 million music titles, 1,600 feature films, 5,000 audio books and 600 YouTube channels on a global scale.
Books
With offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, our Edel Publishing Group is one of the largest independent book providers in Germany. The Edel publishing group includes the publishing houses ZS, Edel Books, Eden Books, Edel Sports, Dr. Oetker Verlag, Edel Kids Books, Edel Colors and Edel Elements. With the diversity of their programmes in the product groups guidebooks, popular non-fiction and children’s books, our publishing houses have earned themselves a loyal readership, a broad presence in the trade and top positions in the bestseller lists. Strong marketing and excellent PR work, closely coordinated with our trade partners, complement the strengths of the publishing group and ensure regular bestseller success. In addition to our own publishing houses, we give a home to a wide variety of customer publishers in the Edel publishing group and offer them not only physical and digital distribution, but also a direct link to our state-of-the-art book printing plant. The Prego Cookbookstore enriches the portfolio of the publishing group as Munich’s leading cookbook store.
As a full-service marketing organisation, Edel Book Sales is responsible for the sales business of the Edel publishing group in all trade channels. In addition to its own publishing houses, Edel Book Sales also offers its customer publishers Wort & Bild Verlag, falkemedia, Distanz Verlag, Olivia Verlag and Junior Medien customised sales concepts. As a strategic partner of major trade customers with a high level of analytics and a competent team, Edel Book Sales provides its publishers with the best placements in the book trade, in e-commerce and away from traditional sales channels.
With its books and digital offerings, ZS bundles over 30 years of advice expertise in the areas of culinary, fitness, health and life assistance. The publishing motto “live now!” stands for enjoyment, inspiration, support and motivation. With editorial expertise and a keen sense for topics that move people, ZS publishes books, e-books and audio books with its renowned authors, which are characterised by high-quality photography, graphics and feel.
Edel Books was founded back in 2007 as the nucleus of Edel’s book activities. Here, books about extraordinary people and exciting topics from the fields of entertainment, society and knowledge are produced. With numerous bestsellers by Michael Nast, Nova Meierhenrich and Guido Maria Kretschmer, among others, the publishing house has established itself as a successful address for biographies and popular non-fiction in the German-language book market. Edel Books publishes both original editions and licensed editions of internationally successful titles.
Eden Books is the publishing house for heroines and heroes with attitude and heart. Behind the books are strong personalities with special lives and moving themes. Emancipated, sensitive and human. At its location in Berlin-Mitte, Eden Books publishes autobiographies and memoirs of famous personalities, books about people who have found their way to their place of longing, as well as guidebooks and debate books on socially relevant topics.
Within just a few years of its founding in 2016, our children’s book publisher Edel Kids Books has succeeded in winning over numerous renowned authors and illustrators. Strong series and picture books with prominent authors are another trademark of the publishing house, which has firmly established itself in the German-language children’s book landscape with strong sales growth.
Since January 2016, the Edel publishing group has been responsible for the book business of Dr. Oetker Verlag within the framework of a long-term licence. With its baking, family cookery and basic cookery books, the publishing house consistently sets new standards in quality and sales success.
Edel Sports is one of the leading German-language publishers of narrative sports books. Here, the focus is on outstanding people, special stories, emotions and opinions from the fascinating world of sports. The portfolio includes numerous bestsellers with well-known athletes.
As a purely digital publishing house, Edel Elements is a strong player in the e-book market. With 1,000 titles, Edel Elements’ programme covers the entire spectrum from entertaining fiction to historical novels and thrillers. In addition to books by major authors and talented newcomers, Edel Elements also publishes a number of new editions of international successes.
The Edel Colors distribution label offers authors and content partners the opportunity to realise projects that are not limited to one genre. To this end, Edel Colors offers comprehensive programme and product advice as well as project management, metadata management and distribution via all sales channels.
Entertainment
Edel has been present in the home entertainment sector for more than 15 years and works with almost all important national and international licensors. We offer a diverse programme of series and films and comprehensive services for our partners, such as comprehensive marketing, physical distribution in all trade channels and the production of DVDs, Blu-rays and special editions from a single source. With our own authoring studio and encoding house, we provide the processing of audiovisual content and bring it to every physical format and market it on all digital VoD platforms worldwide – of course certified by iTunes, Netflix, Amazon and Google.
Our YouTube-certified digital distributor Kontor New Media grants perfect coordination possibilities for the release of film and series content of all kinds.
Edel Kids is one of the top players in Germany’s children’s rooms. With productions of audio plays in streaming and on DVDs, our children’s brand exploits international cinema and series successes. Pettersson and Findus, Yakari, Mia and Me and Barbie are among our top brands.
Edel Motion specialises in the TV series segment. The label focuses on the physical and digital marketing of well-known international productions from the crime genre and also on series with a historical background.
Our home entertainment label Pandastorm Pictures brings a broad programme of films and series to the market that tell of the vastness of outer space or of political conflicts.
optimal media
Our subsidiary optimal media, based in Röbel/Müritz, employs more than 750 people and operates on a production area of around 130,000 square meters.
The company is one of the most successful European media service providers with headquarters in Röbel an der Müritz and branches in Berlin and Hamburg.
Its customers include well-known music labels, software houses, film studios, advertising agencies, media and book publishers, industrial customers and public-sector clients in Germany and abroad.
Working closely together, Edel and optimal media offer their customers a unique service.
optimal media stands for the complete in-house production of first-class CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and records. The company’s own audio mastering studio sector5 also provides fine-tuning of the sound. Equipped with the best analog and digital equipment and many years of know-how, the studio masters CDs, vinyls (DMM and lacquer processes) and audio files.
The in-house print shop specializes in book and commercial printing. It creates excellent print products, such as image products, fine books and brochures, magazines, multimedia printed matter and packaging. optimal media is known for top quality and is also the largest full-service publishing print shop in northern Germany.
The logistics and fulfillment center ensures cost-effective warehousing and worldwide distribution. Order picking ranges from manual to fully automated. Over 60,000 pallet spaces, 20,000 spaces in the fully automated warehouse and over 75,000 picking trays bear witness to its efficiency.
The services also include returns and transport management, assortment compilations, display equipment and webshop solutions. optimal media handles individual services or controls the entire process chain – B2B or B2C.
