Horst Weidenmüller Honored with IMPALA Outstanding Contribution Award

Horst Weidenmüller, the CEO and founding father of !K7 Music, has been acknowledged with the distinguished IMPALA Excellent Contribution Award for his impactful work within the European impartial music sector.

The accolade coincides with the upcoming fortieth anniversary of !K7 Music, which Weidenmüller established in 1985.

At IMPALA’s latest board assembly, the group highlighted Weidenmüller’s close to four-decade profession and pivotal function in advancing the impartial music trade. !K7 Music started as a music video manufacturing firm in Berlin earlier than evolving right into a multifaceted label recognized for its groundbreaking DJ-Kicks collection, launched in 1993, and its roster of sub-labels resembling Strut Data, 7K!, and Ever Data.

Past his label’s success, Weidenmüller has been a staunch advocate for sustainability and inclusion within the music trade. As a long-time IMPALA board member and the founding father of its Sustainability Activity Pressure, he spearheaded the event of a bespoke carbon calculator for labels, in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle, Merlin, and Murmur. He additionally helped set up IMPALA’s Enterprise Case for Sustainability, emphasizing the monetary advantages of environmentally acutely aware practices.

Underneath his management, !K7 Music has been licensed as a B Company, reflecting its dedication to excessive requirements of social and environmental duty. The corporate actively helps neighborhood initiatives, together with a collaboration with Ernst-Reuter-Schule in Berlin, the place college students be taught music manufacturing, advertising, and distribution.

“Horst is a pressure of nature, lifting all people who work with him,” mentioned Helen Smith, Govt Chair of IMPALA. “His work as vice-president of the IMPALA board already set down an early marker, which was cemented when he based our sustainability job pressure 4 years in the past.”

Peter Quicke, co-chair of IMPALA’s Sustainability Activity Pressure and managing director of Ninja Tune, added, “Horst doesn’t simply discuss sustainability; he takes motion. His pragmatic strategy has made !K7 a mannequin for a way impartial labels can lead by instance.”

Expressing gratitude for the award, Weidenmüller mentioned: “I’m touched to obtain IMPALA’s award. !K7’s tradition and values interprets into all of my work, whether or not it’s throughout music, sustainability, inclusion or digital and past. My mission with IMPALA is an extension of that, as is securing our standing as an authorized B-corps enterprise. It is a shared journey we’re on, the place the impartial sector underlines time and time once more that we’re leaders.”

“That’s one thing I’m tremendous pleased with. Because of all of the IMPALA board members!”