UBM stands for Uwe Buschkötter Music.

Uwe Buschkötter is a composer, publisher and holder of UBM Records GmbH and Largo Records.

The founder and entrepreneur was born into a musical family in Berlin: he is the son of alto singer and musical director, Dr. Wilhelm Buschkötter, who is a broadcast pioneer, chief conductor of the Berlin Broadcast’s symphonic orchestra and long-time director of the Cologne Broadcast’s symphonic orchestra.

Buschkötter launched his career in music as a jazz musician and drummer in Cologne in the early 1960’s. He performed with the greats of the German Jazz scene such as Manfred Schoof, Alex von Schlippenbach, Gunter Hampel, Olaf Kübler and Klaus Doldinger’s group “Feetwarmers”. Eventually, he formed his own band, the “Buschkötter Players”, who also did studio work for Schlager stars like Roy Black, Chris Roberts and soloists from the roaster of Hans Bertram.

After finishing an apprenticeship as a tradesman, he studied music and economics in Cologne, Heidelberg, Munich and Dallas, Texas. During that time, he also enrolled onto the jazz course of Kurt Edelhagen in Cologne. Even back then, it was evident to Buschkötter that is just as important for a successful career in the music business, to understand the basic principles of economics, as well the music itself.

Directly after finishing his studies, Buschkötter began working as a music producer and publisher. In 1968, he founded his own publishing company, the “UBM Musikverlag”. Furthermore, he became an assistant and representative for Johnny Johnston, one of the most successful British advertsing film composers. In 1969, he became the manager of his former teacher Kurt Edelhagen.

The fruitful cooperation with the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra eventually led to the production of the opening suite of the XX. Olympics in Munich 1972, an absolute highlight in his young career.

In 1973, Uwe Buschkötter founded UBM Musikproduktion and specialised in music for commercials. In the subsequent years, he produced about 1000 jingles and melodies for advertisements for all the big brands, by appointments of international advertising agencies.

In 1974, he was accepted into the Art Directors Club (ADC) for his achievements in the field of excellent and creative music for advertisements.

Since 1980, Buschkötter has also produced music for broadcast and tv programmes. In the same year, he launched a new company called UBM Music Production Library. While Production Music is nowadays, a very common phenomenon in film, tv, advertising, corporate and internet, the idea of “library music” or pre-produced “source music” was a novelty at that time, especially in Germany. Back then, music was composed by appointment for a certain purpose, rather than being selected from an all-embracing archive of brilliantly produced material for a comparably small budget. Uwe Buschkötter was ahead of his time, as things started taking off with the first international licences in 1981. In the following years, many of UBM’s library albums were produced in New York and Los Angeles to guarantee a high musical and technical standard. As library music was (and still is) often dubbed “muzak” or “elevator music”, Buschkötter’s aim was to match the the standard of state-of-the-art commercial releases of the era. Even early UBM albums have been recorded, mixed and mastered digitally, placing them among the first true “DDD” CDs ever.

Equally unique in those days, was the idea of “music consulting”: a 24/7 service where potential users could describe sequences of their TV and cinema films, adverts and corporate films to an in-house team of experts (musicologists, film producers, musicians and engineers) who then suggested appropriate music for their projects. This idea still serves as a role model for many publishing houses and Production Music companies who offer their clients musical expertise.

Besides his work in the Produciton Music field, Uwe Buschkötter is dedicated to another label, Largo Records, which concentrates on contemporary music, modern classics and avantgarde.

After more than twenty years as Germany’s most successful music library, Buschkötter sold his entire catalogue (consisting of more than 90 CDs) to BMG Music Publishing in 2003. His work continues under the name “Edition UBM” by the new holders.

His love for music still drives Uwe Buschkötter to new heights today. After moving to berlin in 2003, he founded a new Production Music label called “UBM.Media”, which is now represented worldwide by Universal Music Publishing. After more than 40 years in the music business, the name UBM still stands for high produciton quality, pictorial music, personal service and last but not least for a track record that is unique in the German musical landscape.

UBM stands for Uwe Buschkötter Music.