Warner Music Austria and ADA Central Europe have signed a distribution and studio partnership with Tonherd, an independent label, publisher, and recording studio based in Vienna.
Under the deal, announced on Thursday (August 27), the two Warner units will handle global distribution for Tonherd and provide strategic support for its roster in Austria and abroad.
The partnership also gives Warner Music Austria‘s local artist roster direct access to Tonherd‘s studio in Vienna‘s 9th district.
Franz Pleterski, General Manager of Warner Music Austria, said the partnership is intended to let the company work with acts earlier in their careers.
Tonherd is run by Constantin Kaiser, Florian Koch, and Valentin Bröderbauer.
The announcement describes the company as a “full-service, end-to-end music company offering everything from songwriting and production to release.”
Koch handles recording, mixing, and mastering; Kaiser covers releases, distribution, and promotion; and Bröderbauer covers songwriting, workshops, and organization.
According to Tonherd‘s website, its studio covers 350 square meters and houses two control rooms.
The announcement says the company’s production team has been “instrumental in crafting hits for top-tier Austrian artists,” among them Ina Regen, Josh., and Pizzera & Jaus.
Tonherd‘s website also credits the studio with co-recording work on Dropkick Murphys‘ album For the People.
The partnership’s first release comes from pop artist Michael Russ.
Releases from artists including ams and Fräulein Peter follow later this year, as does one from Now., the Vienna band formed by all three Tonherd founders.
Pleterski said: “With this partnership, we aim to support artists as partners from the very early stages of their development and demonstrate our commitment to local Austrian music, while simultaneously creating a new, forward-looking, and market-aligned model of cooperation between the indie and major label sectors.
“With this partnership, we aim to support artists as partners from the very early stages of their development and demonstrate our commitment to local Austrian music…”
Franz Pleterski, Warner Music Austria
“I am very much looking forward to this collaboration and to the talent that will be discovered through it in the coming years.”
Pleterski has led Warner Music Austria since 2020.
ADA Central Europe is the distribution and label services arm of Warner Music Central Europe.
It signed an exclusive distribution partnership with Berlin independent AIM Music in July, taking on global distribution, streaming strategy, and marketing for that label’s roster.
The AIM deal followed ADA Central Europe‘s signing of German artist Fayan in April.
Warner Music Austria and ADA Central Europe also extended their deal with Austrian duo Seiler und Speer in October 2024.
That agreement added the duo’s home market to a physical distribution arrangement covering Germany and Switzerland, and made Warner Music/ADA their worldwide digital distribution partner.
Austria sits within Warner Music Central Europe, which expanded to six countries in October 2025.
WMG merged its recorded music businesses in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria with those in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and named Niels Walboomers President of the expanded region.
WMG says those six markets together rank as the third-largest recorded music market in the world behind the US and Japan, on IFPI trade revenue figures.
Warner Music then hired Jean-Sebastien Permal as SVP of A&R, EMEA and Central Europe in June.
In that role, Permal leads domestic frontline activity across Warner Music Central Europe‘s labels in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.Music Business Worldwide
