Nyon Records
Label Profile
New York based label, Nyon Records is the birthchild of Frederick Alonso, Josh Hubi, and Bert De Baere. With deep roots in House music, Disco, Jackin and Chicago House. It’s a label that produces exquisite limited edition releases too for the collectors out there. It’s a label I originally noticed mainly because they have a beautiful typographic logo and that appeals to me, but the music takes that to another level.
How did the label come to be - what’s the story of how and why you created it?
I remember together with Bert De Baere and myself FYI Frederick Alonso we where producing new music as duo Dos Banditos on a Friday while having a cold beer listening to our own vibe. Imagine a fresh Detroit Swindle track with a disco touch. I played with the idea for a long time to start a second label besides my older but solid Minimal & Tech House label Stab Recordings. Long story short we needed a mixture of Nu-Disco, Chicago and Funky influenced House Music with a new but timeless twist.
So I talked about it and presented the full idea including our logo to both Josh Hubi & Bert that are good friends that collaborated as well for a long time. They both wanted to have their own label so we finished that puzzle very fast. Josh registered Nyon Records in New York. Bert does all the PR, Josh does the Party and PR stuff in his hometown New York. I work behind the scenes to do all mastering, distribution, artwork and promotion.
The logo plays on the New York and On right?
Spot on! We can also use it in many ways, New York On Music, On Records, On Party..
What were the biggest challenges you had to get to release one?
None. We had our own tracks that got approved as first release in no time by the biggest stores.
What was the best piece of advice anyone gave you?
To be honest, when I started 14 years ago. Some people told me they cannot help me. Back in that time there where no people I know that had a label. But I am someone that keeps going like a diesel train. Before starting, make sure to see if your name is unique, have a strong logo, and keep going. Failure is basically a small mistake that is positive the next time if you learn from it.
What makes the label unique?
Our artists and style. We had Atjazz, Angelo Ferreri, Kenny Summit, HP Vince, Joey Chicago for example which are like heroes for us.
What’s your musical policy - what do you look for?
I speak for Bert and Josh now, but I think we are transparent in our final approvals. If a track get our feet moving and has a cool house vibe a contract is our answer.
How do you go through demos, how do you like people to send them, what’s your process?
Both Bert and Me get demos thru messenger on Facebook and in our website inbox.
All demo submissions can be send to demo@nyonmusic.com. After a demo we talk to each other if we will approve it or not.
How long do you plan between signing a track and release?
It depends if we have 1 or 8 tracks. But usually 5 weeks until the distribution is ready.
Means one week for us, distribution starts week two and they always want to have 4 weeks to send it over to more then 120 stores. So we give them time enough. Meanwhile we can push promotion and do a presale 14 days before the official release date in all other stores.
How do you go about creating the artwork?
I made 4 templates for Nyon Records and took my time for them to make them strong in many ways. Our VA001 CD for example took me 3 days to design. Sounds crazy but I printed a few things and did some trial and error to make sure the final print is spot on. If I don't feel it's right I keep twisting until I'm happy with the artwork.
A small tip here, I put weeks in artwork on my Stab Recordings label creating real artworks as covers. But there was a downside to this, I could not catch up the demo submissions for releases. So we work faster by using great templates we designed. I run a webdesign and brand agency as freelancer so the tools are available to use.
You produce some lovely limited edition releases - tell us about those?
Yes our VA001 CD is sold out more than half the quantity. Might be the 9$ is a good price setting. Shipment is cheaper and that's why we use eco but strong cardboard as the cd case. All tracks where remasterd from original 48khz 24bit to cd standards.
It's no secret vinyl pressing is very expensive and the risk of pressing and selling half is not smart in the end. So we had the idea to offer a Various Artists cd with our best tracks at that moment and got some good interest and positive feedbacks from it. To be honest we wanted a few more tracks on the CD but time was too limited.
“The CD does really sound like our label vibe! “
All income is at the time of this writing a small profit minus the creation costs, so we are happy for a first cd run and our ROI was a success. A second cd will follow this winter and if we sell enough of both we can run our first Vinyl pressing while keeping the financial structure from our label solid. The last thing we want is to kill the label this way.
So all help is welcome reaching our goals. https://nyonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ny001-various-artists-by-nyon-records
Do you work with artists to help them develop their brand/audience?
In some way it's all connected, so we try to keep our artists happy and help where we can.
What’s your view on artists albums?
Albums can offer a great personality to every artist, so I'm a big fan.
What’s been the most successful release to date and your personal favourite?
We have a few EP releases that have done very well, Angelo Ferreri – Elegant Rhodes, Le Babar feat Ladybird – Automatic Love (Kenny Summit Compassion Mix)
My personal favorite goes to “Automatic Love” by Le Babar (aka Bert De Baere). I was involved in this EP from stems to final EP. Also when we where at my old studio in Aalst working on the mixdown, listening to a solo of Ladybird for example. I was like in heaven to be part of this great release. It pushed everyone in a positive mindset much more.
What do you do around a release - promotion etc?
First we want to make sure the sound is really great and has a big imprint.
We did try many promo pools and lost some money, the best thing I learned from this is doing it yourself and be creative like with our cd. People notice this much more. I kind of remind myself many times before there was Facebook. How it was done back in the day. So I have a list of people supporting us many times, we trust them and are grateful for all those that tag us back with a full tracklist. Charts on the stores by dj's also help reaching us further.
Do you have merchandise?
Besides the CD we have nice t-shirts coming soon, not with a logo only but with cool inspiring artwork. Even a wallpaper with our logo could be a crazy idea once out. My girlfriend is doing birthday parties for kids where she presses cool and custom made artworks onto the t-shirts like the kids wanted it to be. So the tools are available, I did help her once so I know how to do all this now by myself and that way I can also make more profits while keeping transport from my GF orders lower than before. So yes, many merchandise will come soon to have more income for the labels.
Do you use any gear for the mastering?
Ow, a new interview. In short, I had a very analog studio, sold all I did not use that much.
Now we can do all mastering analog. I even built my own LA-2A and GSSL mastering compressors with custom output (transformer stages) that are cabled around a new Thermionic Phoenix Mastering Plus Compressor. Not that I push them hard, but the life and depth that they put in our music is so damn nice! Kicks sounds punchier, mono sounds like wider but it still is focused and tight. Magic to my ears, but I only use them on the final mastering stage.
All recorded over a very expensive Analog to Digital converter and final touches and extra inspection are done digitally. All this is done in 24 bit 48khz and downsampled for the distribution and other channels.
Besides the mastering I can say I have 2 favorite synths in my studio that I use to produce my music. But that is not the question :)
A few synths like SE-1X Studio Electronics and Roland SH-01 are my favorite toys to get my hands on. Over the years I collected many synths that I sold after making great samples from them.
Do you run events or label nights in support of the label?
Yes, we did a few in New York and smaller ones in Belgium at local bars.
I had my own radio show for 2 years and did support both our labels many times, even the radio played the tracks randomly many times. So special thanks to Tros FM
What’s the labels point of view on retail sales vs streaming revenue?
Both of them work great, at first I was not convinced about the streaming platforms but a few years back I remember a good return on Spotify when they payed much more on streaming for the artists.
What’s the hardest thing you find with getting cut-through for releases?
Well there is a lot great music out every day, but some of those charters are like pushed with fake buyers. They make it not easy and not fair for all the others that are doing their best.
How often do you have a release and which have you got lined up for the year ahead?
Every week we try to have a new one out.
We have at this moment 10 new releases lined up till halfway 2020. Joey Chicago- Don't Mind (April 20th) B&S Concept - Really Hot EP (April 24th) Le Smoove - Addicted EP (May 4th) Donluiz Musicüe - Gotta Go Deeper EP (May 8th) HP Vince - Don't You (May 15th) Miguel Scott ft. Lulama K - Wander (May 22th) Igor Gonya - I Need Ya I Want Ya (May 29th) Nnatn - Keep Grooving EP (June 5th) Phable - Tribal Tech EP (June 12th) Tawan - Funky (June 19th)
We are still looking for other demos to fill the year, the best ones will be included on our VA002 CD :)
Do you have a promo list?
Yes we have had over 30k subscribers to a list back in the day with Stab Recordings, but after doing promo before the official release we noticed some of those where spreading our promo tracks illegally. So we do send it only to people we know and that we can trust.
Can people apply to get on the list?
If they contact us on FB or in PM we will include them if they can prove they have a good fanbase.
Do you use a PR company or the services for that a distributor sometimes offers?
No they don't work for us. I think the right people for genre A or B is what you need. A radio plugger that is good costs 2k, if you know a track is worth going for it …
On the other hand I do believe that a good track will find its way, if not today maybe tomorrow.
How important to the release is airplay, DJ support, artist self- promotion?
Very important, we love it when we see a random dj playing our release while you see many people dancing on it in the background.
How much work do you put into social media promotion or paid advertising on social media?
You can see it both ways. Much work to compensate the costs for a good campaign, or do much work in a very creative way to engange the fans online. We did both and can be popular, the sales is what counts for us to survive the strong battle between other great labels and releases. It is also because we want our artists to earn something from their efforts.
With creative I can point to the cd for example. Many labels and artists believe vinyl is popular and they think from a dj standpoint but cds still outperform in terms of global interest. And we want to focus on both the dj scene and normal working people that love listening to house music.
If I tell you we sold half of our cds to normal people I think it is showing something important here.
Promotion is one thing but how can you reach people that never buy on Beatport, iTunes, Traxsource for example? The moment a track is played by a big dj on tour is a very positive thing to reach those people. But still I think we need to push much further in other domains. Dust to think about.
What do you think the big issues ahead are for labels?
Not doing a good Return On Investment calculation can kill a label. Let us be honest here, imagine putting 1k$ in a vinyl that is not selling. Will this motivate you as person? But what if you know a third is sold out beforehand and some sales will follow over time. Once you make profit it gives you more of that positive feeling that can make or brake a label over the long term of +10 Years.
Where would you most want people to buy the music?
For us Bandcamp is good return, we think people can buy where they want. Would be strange to push people to A or B to get the music.
Where can people follow the label?
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