Warner Music South East Europe Acquires a Minority Stake in NIKA

Photo Credit: Warner Music Group

Warner Music South East Europe acquires a minority stake in Slovenian independent label NIKA.NIKA’s repertoire of over 11,000 songs, including tracks from Big Foot Mama, Koala Voice, Luka Basi, Nipke, Siddharta, and Žan Serčič, is currently distributed through Warner Music’s independent distribution and label services arm, ADA. The new deal further enables Warner Music to upstream NIKA’s roster to its international network to broaden opportunities for fans worldwide to discover its artists.

Warner Music has licensed NIKA’s music in Slovenia since 1995. The company is well established in the local market, working closely with local industry bodies like collective management organization IPF k.o. to ensure its artists and clients are properly paid and represented.

“It’s a proud moment for us at WMSEE today in announcing this deal with NIKA,” says Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska, General Manager at WMSEE. “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.”

“We couldn’t be happier to complete this deal with WMSEE. 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,” add NIKA co-founders Darjo Rot and Marko Stopar (pictured).“The upstreaming potential of NIKA’s artists within Warner Music’s global network is an exciting thought for me,” concludes Bartosz Szwoch, CFO of Warner Music Eastern Europe. “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.”

Established in 1989, NIKA was the first private sector music label and distribution company in the former Yugoslavia. From its humble beginnings as a small shop in Ljubljana, music from independent international labels was introduced in the Yugoslavian market.

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