Warner Music South East Europe has launched WM Balkans.
The joint venture is a collaboration between WM SEE, Croatian label Dancing Bear, Serbian label Mascom and Slovenian label Nika.
WM Balkans will sign and develop artists mainly from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, but also from other West Balkan countries, such as Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia, connecting them to Warner Music’s wider network.
Warner Music SEE has made a series of investments, mergers and acquisitions in recent years. In 2022, the WM SEE team acquired a stake in Mascom and this year it secured a minority stake in Slovenian label Nika. In June 2024, the major took a minority stake in Dancing Bear.
As part of their recent extended deal, Dancing Bear is able to tap into the services of ADA, Warner Music’s independent distribution and label services arm, on behalf of its artists and potentially upstream them to the Warner Music global roster.
Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska, general manager, WM SEE, will oversee the new label in addition to her other responsibilities across the wider region. The launch enables WM SEE to house all of its activities in the Western Balkans under one label, while it also continues to operate in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, and Romania.
Music currently out on the WM Balkans label includes Rio Rio from Sergej Pajic and Edita. Bosnian singer Sergej Paijic has more than 1.1 million followers on TikTok and 500,000 on Instagram. Edita Aradinovic is a Serbian pop vocalist and songwriter with over 200,000 followers on TikTok and 600,000 on Instagram. Rio Rio is their first collaboration and has already generated more than a million views on YouTube in its first week of release.
The label will also release music this month from Ukic, a rising rap star from a small town in Serbia, who last year broke through with his song Tenzija, which has more than 6.3m plays.
Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska (pictured) said: “Warner Music Balkans is the culmination of the team’s relentless pursuit of collaborating with the very best partners in the region over the last couple of years. Bringing our JVs and investments under one label will benefit everyone involved and enable our artists to get the very best from Warner Music’s global network. With talent such as Edita, Sergej Pajic and Ukic releasing music on the label, we’ve got a great summer festival season ahead of us!”
Warner Music Balkans is the culmination of the team’s relentless pursuit of collaborating with the very best partners in the region
Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska
Slobodan Nesovic, CEO of Mascom, said: “Iza and the Warner Music team have hit the ground running with WM Balkans. They’ve worked with us to promote and place Sergej Pajic and Edita’s next collab track through the label and we’re already seeing great results. This is just the beginning!”
Silvije Varga, co-founder and MD of Dancing Bear, said: “It brings me great pleasure to announce the launch of WM Balkans. A hit can come from anywhere and this new venture will enable us to look at some exciting cross-collaborations. I’m excited to see what we’ll achieve together.”
Darjo Rot, Co-Founder of Nika, added: “We’ve worked with Warner Music for almost 30 years now, and the launch of WM Balkans is the next chapter in our partnership. Alongside the other JV partners and their artists, we’ll truly be able to propel each other into new genres and regions.”
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