Horst Weidenmüller

Horst Weidenmüller (1964 – 10 February 2025) was a German music executive producer, entrepreneur, and the founder of !K7 Music. He joined the music industry in the early 1980s as a producer of concert video footage of musicians in the punk music genre. He founded !K7 in 1985 and became an influential part of the Berlin techno music industry in the early 1990s. He also served on the board of several trade associations, including the IMPALA where he was co-president until 2011. Since its founding in 2008, he also served on the board of the digital rights agency Merlin Network.

Background Weidenmüller was born in the Black Forest region of West Germany in 1964. He moved to Berlin in 1982.

Weidenmüller died after a serious illness on 10 February 2025, at the age of 60.

Career Weidenmüller founded Studio !K7 (now known as !K7 Music ) in 1985 in Berlin at the age of 21. It was located at Kaiserdamm 7, an address that became the inspiration for the company's name. Initially, Weidenmüller focused on creating concert videos for punk bands which were shown in cafes, such as in Berlin, before the advent of music videos on television.

Weidenmüller became an influential part of the Berlin techno music industry in the early 1990s. In 1993, he released his first video cassette. These remix videos combined DJ mixes with computer animation for at-home viewing. In the mid-1990s, X-Mix videos, including those of Laurent Garnier or Richie Hawtin, were aired at night on MTV. As Germany was reunified, techno had become popular in both East and West Germany and, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel, "X-Mix gave techno a face", bringing it out of the dark basement venues where it initiated.

In 2008, Weidenmüller acquired Strut Records and relaunched the label under the !K7. In the early 2010s, he started an artists management division and signed on to manage the rapper Tricky. Tricky wrote in his biography, Hell Is Around The Corner (2019), how Weidenmüller helped him rectify his finances and build a new catalogue of music for which he retained the rights. !K7 Management also began representing Mykki Blanco, DJ Tennis, Brandt Brauer Frick, Marquis Hawkes, and Portable. Weidenmueller was the Executive Producer on Endless, D'Alberto's 2017 album. He was also Creative Director on Paschburg's 2018 album, Oceanic. In 2019, Weidenmüller created Ever Records, a jazz label, and signed musicians such as the Kansas Smitty's House Band.

Over the years of !K7, Weidenmüller also worked with the artists Kruder & Dorfmeister, Matthew Herbert, Fat Freddy's Drop, Peggy Gou, The Whitest Boy Alive, Forest Swords, Moodymann, Henrik Schwarz, Carl Craig, Einstürzende Neubauten, Grandmaster Flash, Hercules & Love Affair and Madlib. His label group!K7 Music, includes !K7 Records, Strut Records, AUS, 7K! and Ever Records.

Associations Weidenmüller served on the board of several associations representing independent artists and record labels. He has served on the board of directors of the IMPALA since 2003. He joined the executive team at IMPALA in 2006 and served as co-president until 2011. Since its founding in 2008, Weidenmüller was also on the board of Merlin Network, the largest organization representing independent digital rights holders.

Discography 2017 – Luca D'Alberto – Endless 2018 – Niklas Paschburg – Oceanic 2018 – Henrik Schwarz – Scripted Orkestra 2018 – Luca D'Alberto – Exile 2019 – Henrik Schwarz & Alma Quartet – Plunderphonia