Ulftone

Ulftone (also known as Ulftone Music) was a German independent record label based in Berlin. It was founded in March 1998 by Ulf Zick, who was then in his early twenties and among the youngest label operators in the world. The label initially specialised in alternative country and singer-songwriter music, and later expanded its scope to include metal. Its roster included artists such as Cliff Barnes and the Fear of Winning, Dziuks Küche, Extrabreit, John Prine, Shilf, Skew Siskin and Mike Tramp. Ulf Zick, born on 12 March 1974 in Lingen, became a Kiss fan at the age of eight and soon turned to organising concerts in his home region. He moved to Berlin, began studies in social and business communication, but dropped out due to increasing freelance work. He organised a full German tour for Michael Landau and later for Kingdom Come, and completed a three-month internship at the promotion agency Sister Right, where he worked with Die Ärzte and Rammstein, among others. In his early twenties he founded his own tour planning and promotion company, Zwei x Zwei, which received commissions from Stoppok and The Inchtabokatables. In March 1998 he added the label Ulftone Music. His partner was initially Christoph Martius; from April 2001 Zick was the sole owner of the multi-purpose company, heading four employees. Zick's guiding principles were to take on only artists he fully stood behind, to keep the return rate low through serious distribution policies, and to send simple stage programmes on tour. Nevertheless, the company, which had meanwhile expanded into artist management, overextended itself in 2000, after which it decided to concentrate solely on its core business, Ulftone. With the release of the album Meet on Plateau by the Berlin band Elikan Dew on 10 March 2006, the label ceased operations for the time being. Ulftone was a small independent label that reflected the late-1990s Berlin music scene and the personal vision of its founder. It left a modest but documented legacy, with its catalogue listed in the German National Library and on Discogs.

Ulftone Music was founded in March 1998 in Berlin by Ulf Zick, who was then in his early twenties and among the youngest label operators in the world. Zick had previously organised concerts in his home region, moved to Berlin, and founded the tour planning and promotion company Zwei x Zwei. His partner in the label was initially Christoph Martius. From April 2001, Zick became the sole owner of the multi-purpose company, which by then employed four people. The label initially specialised in alternative country and singer-songwriter music, and later expanded its scope to include metal. Its roster included Cliff Barnes and the Fear of Winning, Dziuks Küche, Extrabreit, John Prine, Shilf, Skew Siskin and Mike Tramp. Zick's guiding principles were to take on only artists he fully stood behind, to keep the return rate low through serious distribution policies, and to send simple stage programmes on tour. However, the company, which had meanwhile expanded into artist management, overextended itself in 2000, after which it decided to concentrate solely on its core business, Ulftone. The label ceased operations for the time being with the release of the album Meet on Plateau by the Berlin band Elikan Dew on 10 March 2006. Its catalogue is documented in the German National Library and on Discogs.

• Label founded in Berlin by Ulf Zick

• Ulf Zick becomes sole owner of the company

• Company overextends and refocuses on core label business

• Final release: Meet on Plateau by Elikan Dew; label ceases operations

Independent label focused on alternative country, singer-songwriter and metal, run with a personal, artist-first ethos.

• Meet on Plateau by Elikan Dew

1. 1Ulftone on Wikidatawikidata.org
2. 2Ulftone on German Wikipediade.wikipedia.org