Breaking Through the Business with Nico Moreno
In today’s constantly evolving music industry, where artists have to rapidly adapt and keep a pulse on the latest trends and shifts, the role of Label Services has never been more essential. Vydia’s Senior Project Manager of Label Services, Nico Moreno, gave us a glance into navigating this intricate universe, discussing strategies, cultural impact, and all of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into global music success.
Q: What is your current title, and what are some of your responsibilities at Vydia?
A: I’m the Senior Project Manager of Label Services. My main responsibilities are to communicate with DSPs, allocate the best opportunities for our clients through different platforms and partners, help increase their visibility, and generate more streams by everything from playlist pitching, to activations and artist initiatives. In short, my job is to be a partner to our artists and label teams, and help maximize their careers.
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in the music industry?
A: My love for music, for live music, for anything that has to do with music – which I can pinpoint back to when I was 12 or 13. I am part of the MTV music generation, so it developed through music videos and everything that was happening in mainstream media at the time. The growth of hip hop in the US, the growth of grunge, the rock wave, and pop stardom like Michael Jackson. Just so many great moments.
Q: What is the role of Label Services, and how do you specifically support artists on their journey?
A: Label Services is driven by five guiding principles: communication, education, opportunity, optimization, and expertise.
Communication with clients and labels, with POC’s and the different departments here at Vydia internally, as well as with our vast number of DSP partners, plus numerous vendors and external parties who help support our artists. All communication with both internal and external parties is driven by the same goal, which is to help scale and grow our artists and clients.
Artists use our team as sounding boards to best guide them through the music ecosystem. We provide education on best practices when leaning into certain platforms and advice on certain strategies.
We are always looking out for opportunities to plug our artists, get them more visibility, again communicating with the DSPs, and taking advantage of all platforms that they use to accelerate their growth.
We are always making sure our artists are optimizing their accounts across profiles to ensure that they’re all very cohesive within the streaming world. We strive to meet the best practices set by partners so that our clients are meeting these requirements and making the best use of the tools provided to them by DSPs.
Our last guiding principle is expertise. All of us on the LS team bring a different angle and years of experience in the industry, which we provide to our clients. We’re all different experts in our fields, and we use that as leverage to get those wins for our clients and labels. Our team prides itself on being GLOCAL (global perspective with a local touch).
Q: Marketing artists encompasses many different aspects. What do you find to be the most impactful way you support artists? How can artists leverage this in their own growth strategies?
A: I like to use this analogy every time I speak to clients, when we’re approaching them to close deals. Our label services team, including me, is kind of like a sixth man on the bench for artists and labels. We really come into the game right when everything is packaged and ready to go. Artists have their creative process at the beginning, the mastering technical process afterwards, and then the strategy process. When the music is delivered and the ball is in our hands, there are 10-15 minutes left in the game, and we get called into the game to get everything past the goal line. We score those last points to secure the win.
Artists can leverage this by leaning in on us, being organized, having a clear vision, creating their universe, and being able to communicate it effectively. In turn, giving us the tools to go out and help sell their story.
Q: How has your cultural background influenced your taste and career in music?
A: I’m Latino by heart and birth (Bogotá, Colombia). Speaking Spanish due to my cultural background has opened up a whole universe to me in the Latin music realm, which I’m very proud of. My mother’s American, so I grew up with this duality between American culture and Latin culture. It has played a very important role in my life. Through my cultural heritage and my career in music, I specialize in Latin, and I’m also very aware of US mainstream culture.
Q: What are some of the ways you’ve seen the Latin music scene evolve over the course of your career, and what shifts do you hope to see continue?
A: I’m very privileged to sort of have lived through the explosion of Latin music. When I was growing up, Latin music was very insular. It was very much just a Latin thing. You only heard it in Latin America, and obviously the different variations of Latin music throughout Latin America. Little by little, Latin music started to mix within Latin cultures. Mexican stars started becoming bigger in the rest of Latin America, and then Colombian stars started to grow into other Latin cultures. This sort of happened toward the mid 90s – certain Latin artists started to become global superstars like Shakira, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias – so many -which paved the path for contemporary Latin artists to become even bigger like J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Karol G. Latin is no longer just a tag for a region of the world or a certain cultural heritage. It’s now a global thing that I’m super proud to have seen become massive.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give to developing artists in the early stages of their careers?
A: First and foremost, be educated. Learn as much as you can. If you want to pursue a career in the industry, learn about the industry. Get passionate about it. Refine your craft every day. Create a vision and create a universe. That is what’s going to make you stand apart from others. The better you know yourself, the more of a universe you can create and show to the world.
Q: Are there any Vydia artists on the rise that you think we should add to our playlists?
A: So many! Bbyboy 100k (Mexico / Reggaetón), Paulé (Mexico / Singer-Songwriter), KORDELYA (Mexico / Singer-Songwriter), Ginton (Netherlands / Afrohouse), Susobrino (Bolivia-Belgium / Latin Electronic), Malachiii (USA / Electronic), MAYLO (Peru / Indie Urbano) and lastly, one of my favorite more-established artists, A.CHAL (Peru / Alternative).
Q: What has been the most rewarding moment of your career?
A: I used to do radio for many years when I was living in Colombia. Sitting in a radio booth for hours on end just playing music, interacting with the audiences, and being able to speak to over 50,000 radio listeners day in and day out was very rewarding. Being able to work at a major agency in Los Angeles was kind of a major dream of mine as well. It was rewarding to be working at WME with artist teams like Rosalía, J Balvin, and Nicky Jam. Lastly, starting at Vydia has been super rewarding. The company entrusts me and has been super backing of my career, allowing me to grow professionally, not only internally but also externally.
Q: Lastly, if you had to choose one song to be the soundtrack to your journey, what would it be and why?
A: If I had to choose one song that really helped shape my identity early on when I was really getting into music, I’d say it was “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” by Nirvana. It’s tied in with that age of mine when I was starting to become rebellious and independent. Not a lot of people were listening to Nirvana when I was growing up in Colombia. It was very different from what my friends were listening to, so it helped me sort of construct an identity for myself. It’s like the first song on the CD of “Nico’s Soundtrack to Life”.
About Nico: Born and raised in Colombia and educated in the UK with over a decade of experience in music and media focused primarily on Latin and Electronic. Nico’s well rounded view of the industry includes marketing, live touring, promotions and booking as well as publishing, distribution and radio. A polyglot with a passion for innovation, Nico has been at Vydia for the past 4 years after stints at WME, Waxploitation Records and RCN Radio in Bogotá. Recently a father to his three month old Alma, he still safeguards a collection of vinyl he’s hoping she’ll inherit.
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