MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have – so far – defined their journey and their existence. Pushing the buttons on the jukebox of the soul this time is Maykel Piron, CEO & Co-founder of Armada Music, one of the largest independent dance music labels in the world. The Key Songs In The Life Of… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
As Armada Music Group CEO & Co-founder Maykel Piron himself (only half) jokes, “I like collecting dance records, I always have. At the age of 10 I started buying vinyl, and I still do. But now I’m also buying the rights to them! It’s basically the same, but a little more expensive and I get to do it with a great group of people.”
These days, the transactions aren’t done with a handful of Euros in a local record shop, they’re done via an investment vehicle, BEAT Music Fund, which plans to invest over $500 million within the next five years.
The fund was established as recently as 2023, with backing from Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners. Since then it has made more than a dozen acquisitions, involving over 20,000 assets, including complete or part ownership in works from artists, labels and publishers such as KMS Records, ARTY, King Street Sounds, Chocolate Puma, Sola Records, VIVa MUSiC, Cloud 9 and Jax Jones.
Piron says: “We know and love the records involved in these deals – which makes them more than just deals to us. Because of that, a lot of artists and managers, they feel what kind of value we can add.
“Most of the selling artists are still touring, so they want us to work it, because that’s better for their career. And I must say, a lot of people we’ve done deals with are talking very positively about their experience, and that brings us more opportunities every day. There are many more deals in the pipeline.”
The rush of activity and diversification saw Armada restructure earlier this year, with a parent company, Armada Music Group, now sitting above the fund, recorded music (Armada bills itself as the largest independent dance label in the world, clocking up over one billion streams per month) and publishing division, with around 150 employees across offices in the Netherlands, US and UK.
It’s a huge leap from when Piron started the company 21 years ago, in partnership with Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren, and booking agent David Lewis. Its growth (before the acquisition-propelled turbo charge of the last 18 months) has come from working with some of the biggest names in dance, including Chicane, Paul Oakenfold, Lost Frequencies, Kevin Saunderson and, of course, van Buuren himself.
Reflecting on Armada’s progress, Piron says: “Where we stand right now was always my dream. There’s not too much I can wish for anymore. It’s more about certain songs, artists or catalogs that we would love to acquire, that’s the wish list.
“I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and I can’t think of doing anything else. It’s more than a hobby, but it definitely comes from a hobby, from doing something I loved and was obsessed with as a kid.”
Here are seven of those obsessions…
1) ALEXANDER O’NEAL, FAKE (1987)
My interest in dance music started when I was about 10 years old and how I was listening to music back then was a kind of study exercise for what I’m still doing now.
Back then, house music did not really exist yet, not in a mainstream way.
I was listening to mixes. And those mixes were basically disco records, hip-hop and rap records. I was listening to acts like Colonel Abrams (especially Trapped), Mantronix, Public Enemy – they all shaped my musical taste. I was also a big fan of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis productions.
But if I had to pick a track from that era which shaped my musical taste, and which is still super helpful for what I’m doing, it would be Fake by Alexander O’Neal. That was the most played song for me.
I also bought the album, Hearsay, and I would play that record, and especially that track, when I got back home from school, every day for months in a row. It was about the groove, the voice, everything.
It was also my first step towards house music, because it was probably about 113 bpm, so people could mix with it and I was intrigued by that, about how records were being mixed. That led me to buy my first turntables and start doing it myself.
2) PROMISED LAND, JOE SMOOTH (1987)
There was a club called Talk of the Town in my small home town of Tilburg and I was lucky because it played really good dance music. In fact I was sneaking into the club myself from the age of 13.
There was another, bigger club in Amsterdam that was playing house music at the time. One day, I walked in – I was pretty tall so I could get in underage – and they were playing Promised Land by Joe Smooth.
For me, house music had never seemed really soulful, but then I heard Promised Land and it was like, ‘Now, I get it, this is true house music for me’. I knew that if this was the direction house was going in then it would be here to stay – because it had soul.
The great thing is, 30 years after first hearing it, because I could sneak into a club aged 13, I got in touch with Joe Smooth and we now own the rights to this track in perpetuity. It makes me proud to now have a real connection to a record that changed my life.
3) SYSTEM F, OUT OF THE BLUE (1999)
I started working in the music industry at DMC (Disco Mix Club) in the Netherlands as a DJ promoter.
I wasn’t signing any music back then of course, but after two years I started working for a label, Purple Eye. I was lucky, I was able to sign music from Armin [van Buuren], Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, so I was getting connected to artists who would become some of the biggest DJs from the Netherlands.
And then when Ferry [the artist behind System F] sent me Out of the Blue. I actually first heard it when I was on holiday and he played it over the phone. For the rest of the holiday, the melody wouldn’t go away. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, this is a hit!’
So we pressed up some vinyls, and I asked Ferry to come down to the office to create a special promo version of the record. We sat on the ground and we scratched my mobile number in the vinyl to see what would happen. It took a real long time, and I remember saying to him, ‘In a year’s time, you’ll realise why we did this’.
In fact, within 10 days, I had basically the whole UK scene calling me and wanting to sign this track. In the end I signed it to Pete Tong at FFRR who came to see me in the Netherlands.
It was my first Top 15 hit in the UK, the first trance hit – and a blueprint for many other trance records which followed it. It also led to Ferry becoming a much bigger DJ, outgrowing the Netherlands and going to the UK and around the world.
I always wanted to create success outside of the Netherlands, and this was the start of that.
4) AS THE RUSH COMES, MOTORCYCLE (2004)
After working at an independent, I went to Warner Music. When I joined, I told them, ‘In a couple of years, I will start my own label’.
So, they knew from day one what my plan was, and I think they liked that honesty. Even during my time at Warner, I was already creating Armada in my head, and this was one of the first signings we made.
We signed it from Gabriel and Dresden, they were one of the hottest production teams back then. I listened to it over and over, I thought the bassline was fantastic, and thankfully I was able to make the deal.
This track really kickstarted Armada, because everybody was talking about it. We only had the rights for Benelux, but people saw it as a global signing for us, because we were the label who put it out first.
5) ARMIN VAN BUUREN, THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE (2013)
Armin is one of my partners in Armada, but he has always been part of my career in the music industry.
I released music by him at the independent label and at Warner – in fact I also signed him for publishing at Warner. But This Is What It Feels Like was my first super-hit together with Armin. That song has so many great memories – for both of us.
Memories like signing it to Jason Ellis at Positiva in the UK, where it went Top 5, and now Jason is with our company as an A&R. It also got Grammy-nominated, so it took us out to LA.
It’s an evergreen song now, but I still remember exactly where I was driving in Amsterdam when Armin sent me it. I knew it wasn’t just a hit, it was the hit.
That’s why we took a lot of time to build it up, then release it when people really wanted it – and the results were amazing.
Armin was and is one of the hardest-working guys in the industry. He knows exactly what he wants. That is what I saw in him 30 years ago, and he hasn’t changed
He is so passionate about music, and he wants to create and share music constantly, that’s who he is.
6) MIGUEL CAMPBELL, SOMETHING SPECIAL (2012)
I used to play this track every morning in my car, driving to the office. It’s the definition of a timeless house record.
Because of that, Miguel and I got in touch through Instagram, we started chatting and eventually we signed his publishing, including this song. It was an Instagram relationship that turned into a real relationship and an important deal.
It’s a very sexy house record, the song is amazing and the bass line, it just makes me smile, it’s so strong.
7) DUKE DUMONT, OCEAN DRIVE (2015)
Every year, when you get your list of most-played songs from Spotify, this is always on there. It’s probably my most-played song of the last decade.
What’s amazing is that when we bought the catalog from Jax Jones I found out that he was a co-writer and co-producer on it, so we now own a small part of my most played song ever!
What’s great is, it still seems to me like a new record, no matter how many times I play it. I have never gotten tired of it and it never fails to make me feel good, which is what the best music, especially the very best dance music, is supposed to do.
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