Ulrich Kubak: How Klassik Radio Became a Digital Pioneer in the Industry

Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi – Klassik Radio wants to offer those who are enthusiastic about classical music a home on the radio. The station from Augsburg is a special player in the German radio market, because it does not play the usual songs from the charts, but classical hits, film music and newer classical pieces. And stars such as Rolando Villazón and Till Brönner have their own programs. "Klassik Radio is something like the mother of curated music streaming," emphasizes CEO and founder Ulrich Kubak. "When the whole world was still chasing the best hits of the 80s and 90s, we had long since focused on vertical classical music." Kubak now wants to use the same principle to grow the electro and house station Beats Radio, which was launched in 2021.

We can drive our business forward very quickly and easily thanks to the stock market listing and have direct access to the capital market, for example to make an interesting acquisition," Kubak is convinced.

As one of the few German radio broadcasters, the station has also ventured across the border and can be received in Switzerland and Austria via DAB+. Kubak sees "great potential for listeners and revenue" in the DACH region, but not only there: he also wants to make the classical music station an export hit beyond the German-speaking countries and benefit from the fact that Germany is the "number one country of origin for many of the greatest classical composers", as Kubak says. He also sees classical music as one of the few music genres that functions almost identically around the world.

The CEO also took a proactive approach to the digitalization of the company. As early as 2011, he decided to broadcast Klassik Radio throughout Germany via DAB+ and sold 15 FM frequencies in 2017 in order to use the money saved to make further investments in the digital business. Kubak describes the return of the analog transmission capacities as a "unique event in the history of German private radio to date", as it happened at a time when most radio broadcasters were still fighting over the allocation of FM frequencies.

As part of its digitalization strategy, Kubak even launched its own streaming service called Klassik Radio Select at the end of 2017. For 5.49 euros per month, subscribers can access 180 ad-free music stations, most of which are curated by experts. Klassik Radio, Beats Radio and Movie Radio are also available via the Select app without advertising. In order to provide a correspondingly large music repertoire, Klassik Radio has concluded its own licensing agreements with the major labels. Group CEO Kubak wants to make the Select offering known primarily to Klassik Radio listeners and not spend any money on additional advertising. Kubak leaves open how many paying subscribers the service now has. However, he admits that operating Select is not a sure-fire success. "Admittedly, it's been a tough road and I had imagined it would be easier." Nevertheless, Klassik Radio Select broke even in 2022. "That's sensational and spurs us on to expand the service further," says Kubak. "Spotify and the like are still losing huge sums of money, we are profitable."