Maykel Piron – Managing Director/Co-Owner Armada Music
Maykel Piron is one of the three founders and the driving force behind Armada Music. Involved in music industry for more than 15 years, of which the last 9 years as the Managing Director of Armada Music, Maykel is one of the masterminds of today’s electronic dance music scene.
Under his management, Armada Music has been voted ‘Best Global Record Label’ four years in a row. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, as a crown to all of his hard work, Maykel received the International Dance Music Award for ‘Best Record Label Promoter or Exec In-House’. In early 2012, Piron got awarded with a ‘Feather’, a prize for persons within the Dutch music industry that have made an extraordinary contribution for the Dutch music product. Maykel Piron is the youngest person to have ever received this prestigious award.
The Dutchman started his career working for a DJ promotion service, after which he joined Purple Eye Productions. For Purple Eye, he released records by the likes of Ferry Corsten, Marco V and Armin van Buuren. Warner Music Benelux asked Maykel to set up a dance division in 1999, making him the A&R manager of three Warner labels for 3,5 years. In 2003, it was time for a new challenge, so Maykel and his business partners David Lewis and Armin van Buuren set up Armada Music. A label that, within the 9 years of its existence, has grown into a realm for those into trance, house, techno, progressive and other dance genres. The day-to-day business of the label is handled by Piron, who also manages successful artists such as Armin van Buuren and Markus Schulz.
Cloud 9 Music was set up in 2004 with Raymond van Vliet as Managing Director and co-founding member. Maykel is co-founder and member of the board for this music company, specialized in Music Publishing, Compilations and Artist Development. The company represents a variety of music, ranging from dance to pop and children’s music to hip hop. Cloud 9 Music started a joint venture with Hot Streak Music, a company that operates in the areas of music publishing, copyright ownership, artist management and entertainment product distribution.
In 2009, with new media playing a bigger role than ever before, Armada Music and Cloud 9 Music started participating in Dancefoundation, the first multimedia development agency fully focusing on the dance industry.
Maykel Piron on the swift growth of Armada Music:
”It’s all very well thought-out, there has always been a strategy. In the beginning, when we didn’t have as many labels, it has always been a target to grow there. Maybe we’ll have 40 sub-labels next year. I’m never afraid to grow or think too big, cause you base the decision on the fact of ‘we can handle this’ or ‘we can’t handle this’. With the right people and team, you can.”
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