Three years ago Natascha Augustin called the music business a boys club, a men’s shop in which women can play, but rarely make decisions. Now the Munich music manager has become Vice President at Warner Chappell Music Germany. A conversation about the buddy economy, gender equality and the art of discovering upcoming stars.
SZ: Warner Chappell Music has become the German music publisher with the largest market share in recent years, which is also your success. What exactly is your job?
Natascha Augustin: My job, together with my team, is to bring interesting and promising artists to Warner Chappell Music.
Many years ago, right at the start of your work, you signed the “Sportfreunde Stiller” contract. Today at Warner Chappell Music you are considered a key figure in German-speaking hip-hop. How did that start
German rap has been mainstream for five years. But before that nobody wanted to have anything to do with this music, with these artists. I didn’t come to German rap through music, but through people. I just listened to them, young people who came to a refugee home when they were 12, only learned the German language here and started rapping when they were 15. In terms of content, I am not always d’accord with what they rap, but I have great respect for their lifetime achievement. It’s definitely more blatant and exciting than someone who grew up in the suburbs and has guitar lessons paid by their parents. Talent is great too, no question about it. But I always look at the life story as well.
You brought “Capital Bra”, “187 Strassenbande” or “Apache 207” to Warner Chappell Music. How does that work?
My job is, to put it simply, talent scouting. Ideally, we discover a newcomer very early on and then our career explodes. from Apache 207 there weren’t many songs when we signed him four years ago. or Capital Bra, he was still very small back then.
And how do you discover someone like Capital Bra?
Drilon, then the manager of Capital Bra, told me about him. Then we met and made a deal. You need a good network for our job. I talk to music managers, concert organizers, producers, and also to young people like my son, and I go to concerts.
“People like Capital Bra want to hang out and chat with relaxed people after a concert,” says Natascha Augustin. Here the German rapper stands next to his wax figure in Madame Tussauds Berlin.
(Photo: dpa)
Sounds so easy. Guy Moot, the managing director of Warner Chappell Music in the US, recently praised her highly. He said that you “put their trust in some of the biggest stars in Germany before anyone else”. How do you build that trust?
In German-speaking hip-hop, you often have to deal with people from other cultures. That probably sounds very flat now, but you just have to meet the people, the artists openly and without reservations, with respect, with empathy. People like Capital Bra want to hang out and chat with relaxed people after a concert. And the most important thing is that the artists simply feel that they are in good hands with us.
Three years ago, in an interview with SZ, you called the music business a man’s domain at management level. You have now moved up there yourself and are now Vice President at Warner. Has the music business changed?
A real transformation has not yet taken place. Yes, it has changed, but not far enough. Many women work in the music business, in a wide variety of areas. But not enough has happened at the executive level. We are still a long way from equal opportunities here.
Why?
Let’s just take a look at the managing directors of the major German record companies and music publishers. Three women work here. In return, around 20 men or more.
What is the current situation?
Everything stands and falls with role models. But for the women in my generation there were no role models, no women in management positions. For a long time there has not been any real training, rather the record companies have long relied on the buddy economy. That is changing right now. You can study music business at the Popakademie, and very great and exciting women follow suit.
So it’s all a matter of time?
At the moment, of course, you often hear lip service. Some record companies show a responsible image to the outside world without actually acting on it. But of course the topic is on the table. Today nobody seriously can not think of hiring a woman. But it’s not just about gender equality, it’s about diversity in all areas.
You are currently building the team for the new record company Atlantic Records Germany at Warner. You can do it differently now.
Precisely because I’ve been here from the start, I want to do it differently. And I pay close attention to the quota, without it it doesn’t work. Half of us are women.
Is it still easier for men to get into management positions?
I think so. At the moment there are primarily older, white men in these positions. And they are probably easier to deal with young men than with young women.
What do you mean?
There are men in management positions who are reflected in younger men; they can identify with the male offspring. Such informal networks have emerged over decades. Women have to network better, exchange ideas and empower one another. I am deeply convinced that we need real structural change, especially in a supposedly progressive world like the music industry, because a diverse team makes every organization so much stronger.