Stéphane Schweitzer tells us how the company dedicated to electronic music that he founded is harnessing its knowledge of the sector and its know-how via a capital-raising transaction.
Could you give us a quick run-down on the history of your company?
We have two companies. The first was created in 2000, called DJ Center. This company is based in the recording industry. It has several labels, a publishing arm that works with some of our artists, a booking and management company and recording studios.
In 2009 we created, in parallel, a themed television channel called Clubbing TV. As with DJ Center we focused on Electronic Dance Music (EDM). We decided to have our own media, in order to be less reliant on conventional media for the development of our artists and to have several outlets for promoting them.
You met Capital & Dirigeants Partenaires in 2014. What are the transactions you have carried out together?
During its first five years Clubbing TV developed its channel, its distribution network and its content. After meeting with Capital & Dirigeants Partenaires we organized these companies into a holding company with equity financing, an operation we carried out with Capital & Dirigeants Partenaires.
Most of the investment involved Clubbing TV. Starting with the content, the image, the branding, the staff and the equipment, with a view to enhancing the quality of the channel and expanding its distribution network.
Do you work with partners to create your content?
We have a few partners that furnish content, but for the most part we produce our content ourselves. The content that we need is not necessarily available from other entities. We have developed our in-house production capacity. We have our own photo and video studio in the center of Paris, near La Motte-Picquet, and we go to festivals and clubs to record with our equipment.
We have also founded a third company, Turn Around TV, within the holding company, which owns 51% of the new company. This is a joint venture to meet our need for distribution of our channels, and follows the same idea of having readily available in-house teams for our work.
What are your projects for the next few months?
The launch of a generational 4K linear channel (ultra HD) under the name C4K360, aimed at the same target as Clubbing TV, Generation Y and Millennials. But unlike Clubbing TV, which is a music and lifestyle channel, we will bring this audience different topics that they are enthusiastic about, i.e. extreme sports, e-sport, gaming, drone races, concerts, etc. We will be more generalist in content.
One new feature: viewers will be able to scan a QR code for all the 4K content on the channel and access virtual reality content.
Apart from the financial injection, what was the contribution of Capital & Dirigeants Partenaires?
When we structured our businesses and our companies in the holding company, after raising capital funding, we took advantage of the occasion to reorganize our accounting and administrative operations, on the basis of advice from Capital & Dirigeants Partenaires: we moved to analytic accounting and monthly cash flow tracking that matched our time availability and our needs.
We also constituted a board, which gives us the opportunity to discuss strategy, to draw up road maps… this is new to me in my life as the head of a company. It is very pleasant to have professional investors at your side, with experience and distance, to exchange ideas, discuss problems, look for solutions, and make choices in a more informed way.