Warner Music Buys Back Part of German Distributor Zebralution, Expanding Reach in Europe

The pioneering digital distributor of music and audiobooks was sold by WMG in 2017 but now returns with enhanced resources. L-R: Konrad von Löhneysen, Sascha Lazimbat Galya Feierman Warner Music Group (WMG) said Tuesday (Nov. 3) it had acquired indie record label distributor Zebralution Music GmbH from Bookwire, bringing back part of the Zebralution company it owned for a decade and expanding the major’s reach into the business of serving Germany and Europe. Zebralution Music is a spinoff of Zebralution Gmbh, which Bookwire acquired from the German performance rights organization GEMA in March 2026. In a press release announcing the Bookwire acquisition at the time, Bookwire described Zebralution as among the first big digital distributors of music, audiobooks, e-books and podcasts, with more than 1,500 label and publisher clients globally. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Related WMG acquired Zebralution in 2007 and sold it in 2017 to its founders Kurt Thielen, Sascha Lazimbat, Christof Ellinghaus and Konrad von Löhneysen. Founded in 2003, Zebralution distributed a catalog of 500,000-plus tracks, albums and videos to hundreds of digital services worldwide at the time WMG sold it. The reacquisition follows WMG’s April deal to buy B2B music distribution platform Revelator and
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