Berlin/Gütersloh July 03, 2025 - Another chapter in the long history of the long-playing record was opened at the Bertelsmann Representative Office Unter den Linden 1 in Berlin at the beginning of July: Sonopress, leading manufacturer of digital storage media and inventor of the EcoRecord, hosted its first Listening Session - a new, interactive format for industry insiders that combines networking with knowledge transfer and sound enjoyment. Around 50 invited guests - including representatives of renowned customers such as Sony Music, as well as numerous experts and thought leaders from the music industry - accepted the invitation to Berlin. The afternoon was all about the record, its history, its future - and the sustainable innovations that accompany the current LP boom.
“The Listening Session is a new format that aims to network industry representatives and convey information in an entertaining way,” said Sonopress Managing Director Sven Deutschmann at the opening. The event is an expression of Sonopress' ambition to actively shape the future discourse of the music industry - especially with regard to sustainable forms of production such as EcoRecord.
Looking back with vision: Berliner Schallplatten Innovationen
Frank Wonneberg, renowned specialist journalist and non-fiction author, provided a little historical depth with his keynote speech “Berliner Schallplatten Innovationen”. In a lively and informative presentation, Wonneberg took the audience on a journey through 140 years of Berlin record history - from the world's first double-sided long-playing record to pioneering advances in electronic recording technology and patented innovations such as the DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) process. His conclusion: Berlin was and is a hotspot of technical creativity - also and especially in the world of analog sound carriers.
Panel talk: Sustainability as the sound of the future
This was followed by a high-caliber panel discussion on the topic of “Sustainability in the music industry”. Under the moderation of Sven Deutschmann, Frank Wonneberg, hi-fi entrepreneur Norbert Lehmann, mastering icon Helmut Erler and Tom Nieuweboer, Managing Director of the Berlin-based indie label !K7 Music, exchanged views on ecological challenges and opportunities in the LP business. The 140 gram EcoRecord developed by Sonopress, which was praised for its high sound quality, smooth running and precise production, was particularly highlighted.
Erler and Nieuweboer emphasized in unison that sustainable production processes such as EcoRecord make a significant contribution to reducing the environmental impact of the music industry. Looking to the future, all panel participants agreed that vinyl records will continue to enjoy resilient and constant demand in the coming years.
Thorens CEO Gunter Kürten: The LP is the perfect complement to streaming
Gunter Kürten, CEO of Thorens GmbH, discussed what this future could look like in his presentation “With heart & needle - the magic of vinyl”. He used impressive figures to demonstrate the ongoing comeback of the analog medium: between 2015 and 2024, global sales of LPs rose from 50 to 150 million units per year. This comes as no surprise to Kürten, as he sees the record as “not a relic, but a contemporary cultural asset - sensual, long-lasting and the perfect complement to streaming.”
Finale with a variety of sounds
To round off the afternoon, the motto was: “To your ears!” In an exclusive listening session, Sonopress presented a musical best-of of the EcoRecord played on high-quality Thorens music systems - including tracks by Coldplay, Ella Burkhardt & Band and a selection from the legendary DJ Kicks series.
Caption:
Met for the Sonopress listening session in Berlin (from left to right): Michael Gorny (Thorens), Norbert Lehmann (Lehmannaudio), Helmut Erler, Gunter Kürten (Thorens), Sven Deutschmann (Sonopress), Frank Wonneberg and Tom Nieuweboer (!K7 Music).
