Recorded three solo albums as guitarist:
Since 1984 I have worked as a guitarist and composer in Germany. The compositions include several film-scores for TV-documentaries as well as an orchestral piece for chamber orchestra, choir and piano.
Since the late 80s I am also a freelance writer for several musicians magazines ("Keyboards" , "Gitarre & Bass"), computer-magazines (Mac-Up and c't ) and a magazine for sound engineers and producers called "Production Partner". My fields of writing include music business, audio mixing consoles, digital recording equipment and techniques as well as software tests and professional audio in multimedia applications. Other jobs included consulting about computer equipment for studios, teaching at Duisburg University (1985-1986) and guest speaker at several conferences including Photokina, JazzTimes Convention and Musica Tradefair about my usual themes - business aspects of music, technology and marketing. I have written three books, which are available in German only:
Magazine articles were published in a.o.
In 1992 I founded a record company to save the label
"Lipstick" which had some difficulties at that time.
From my international expansion of its market (several asian
countries, USA, additional european countries) and involvment in
economic issues of the music business there followed speaches at
several conventions in New York and Germany about issues involving
the music business and technology. We were one of the first labels to
use short soundbytes on Online services (in 92/93) and later on the
web and used CD-ROM catalogues as the first label worldwide. Since
then I have become involved with music business discussions within
IFPI Germany and been hired as a speaker for managment training
workshops and conventions regarding economic effects of new
technology, DRM and business models not only for music, but for other
content markets.
Within the german media community, I was among the first people
warning about the possible effects of CD-R burning in 1997, which at
that time was not understood by most managers of record companies. In
1999 and 2000 I worked with Ernst&Young consultants on a music
financing vehicle structured similar to film funds, which already
incorporated concepts regarding music downloads and DRM within the
conceptual thinking.
Re musical taste:
Even though I like jazz, my roots are in latin, blues, funk and soul
- the music I heard when I grew up. Personally I listen to all kinds
of music including rock and pop - as long as the lyrics are not too
stupid, the ideas are original and it is well played.
Musical taste: very varied - favourite albums include:
Otherwise I am a just your normal humble heterosexual chain smoker, coffee-drinker and movie fan. Click here to go back to:Lipstick & Jazzline homepage My e-mail adress is alex@mebis.com
Last updated: May 2003
Photos by: Antje van Hasz (all, except noted), Detlef Moritz (picture from Ethiopia 97/98)