After finishing her studies, Birgitt Schwanke started one of the first online Rock & Metal online magazines, “Metal & Hard Rock Area”, in 1998 in both German & English language. Being a pioneer in this field, the magazine opened a lot of doors in the music industry and quickly resulted in various other agitations, i.e. as writer for the mailorder company AOR Heaven and for German Rock printed magazine Hardline, as webmaster of German Heavy metal guitarist Axel Rudi Pell and as freelance reviews editor for the internet giant Freenet.

When Hardline magazine abandoned, Birgitt Schwanke in the year 2000 appeared to be one out of three founders of German printed Rock & Metal magazine Rock It! and stayed with the company until 2009 as chief editor, marketing director and publisher.

Parallel to the activities as journalist on a part time basis, more and more requests from both record labels and bands came and highlighted the “demand” for a bit more. On June 1st, 2002 the PR & Management company GerMusica was born, and this is also was the day when Birgitt Schwanke quit her ‘old’ job to work full-time in the music industry.

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Since then, GerMusica PR has successfully handled more than 1200 PR+ campaigns for physical and digital products (album, DVD & single releases), consulted several record labels as external label management or business developer, and handled the band management for ~ 15 Rock & Metal bands. Between 2011 and 2015, she was a co-founder and co-owner of the Munich based re-issue label Yesterrock which specialized on catalogue releases on CD from both Sony Music’s and Universal Music’s 80’s Rock music archives.  

Birgitt Schwanke also has been permanently working as an individual band coach and on corporate identity management for artists, and as well as a speaker at Frankfurt University at a symposium about “artist owned labels” in 2014.

In early 2015, she founded the successful Classic Hard Rock & Heavy Metal label Pride & Joy Music. Since the beginning of 2022, Birgitt Schwanke also joined the new music streaming service ROKK Head Of Music and Head Of Label Partnerships.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Bands:

Alice Cooper, Alien, Altaria, Rick Altzi,  Autumn's Child, Bachman & Turner, Bad Company, Bai Bang, Barclay James Harvest, Barnabas Sky, Jimmy Barnes, Black Label Society, Jeff Beck, The B-52's, Bonfire, Cactus, Candlemass, Chickenfoot, Phil Collins, Christopher Cross, Sheryl Crow, Czakan, Dare, Deep Purple, Dio, The Doors, Dream Theater, Dreamtide,  Fate, FM, Willy DeVille, Driver, Duran Duran, Mikael Erlandsson, Peter Frampton, Hartmann, Herman Frank, Frontline, Peter Gabriel, Rory Gallagher, Garbage, Gathering Of Kings, Ian Gillan, Godsmack, Grand Illusion, Herbert Grönemeyer, Jeff Healey Band, Heart, Heart Line, Heaven & Hell, Hellacopters, Glenn Hughes, Elton John, Impellitteri, INXS, Kasabian, Lady Antebellum, Last Autumn's Dream, Lazarus Dream, Legions Of The Night, Lionville, Duff McKagan's Loaded, Dan Lucas, Paul McCartney, Mentalist, Freddie Mercury, Pat Metheny, Mentalist, Midnite City, Moonlit Masquerade, Gary Moore, Alanis Morissette, Ted Nugent, Orion's Reign, Ozzy Osbourne, Osukaro, Pavlov's Dog, Pearls & Flames, Danny Peyronel, Phenomena, Pink Floyd, Placebo, Portnoy Sheehan MacAlpine Sherinian, Queen, Rainbow, Dan Reed, REO Speedwagon, Riot, Paul Rodgers, Rozario, Rush, Rydholm Säfsund, Primal Scream, Soul Doctor, The Rolling Stones, Santana, Simply Red, Slash, Tuk Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Stage Dolls, Staind, Status Quo, Stone Temple Pilots, Styx, Symphony, Terra Atlantica, Testament, The Doors, Thunder, Tommy Heart, Toto, Trouble, Twisted Sister, Joe Lynn Turner, Universe III, Velvet Revolver, Vengeance, Vivaldi Metal Project, Voices Of Rock, White Widdow, Ronnie Wood, Yes, ZZ Top and many more

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Labels & others:

7Hard, A2 Records, Anteo Records, AOR Heaven, Avenue Of Allies, Bad Reputation, CIC, DCA Recordings, Dead End Exit Records, Eagle Rock, Edel Records, Escape Music, Escapi Music, Fastlane Records, FC Metal, Generation Records, Limb Music, Lion Music, Melodic Passion Records, Metal Axe, Metal Heaven, NL Distribution, No Rules Music Group, Point Music, Pride & Joy Music, Prime Entertainment, Rivel Records, RMB, ROKK - Fair Music Streaming, Roastinghouse Music, Rockville Music, Sony Music, Soulfood Music, Sound Pollution, Swedmetal, Twilight, Ulterium Records, Verycords, Woodcut Records, Yesterrock, Zyx Music and more

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