Manufacturas Sonoras

Manufacturas Sonoras started as a small recording studio in 2014, offering an artisanal kind of approach for small bands. With time, the business grew, featuring more clients and bigger names. By 2017, they needed larger premises and found a new home in an ex-industrial site in a central location in Madrid, setting up three recording studios. As Nacho Caballero, Executive Studio Manager, explains: “Although Madrid is home to many of the greatest Spanish artists, the studio offer was not great. Our new premises are a state-of-the-art addition to central Madrid. We now cater for the likes of C. Tangana and Javier Andreu.”

But despite the growth, Nacho maintains the link to the studio’s core clientele: “we will continue to accommodate smaller brands that usually wouldn’t be able to access these kinds of services, making slots available to them and linking them up to interns to keep it affordable, but also to allow the interns to get some hands-on experience.”

This expansion also involved introducing better equipment, and in particular one of the best mixing consoles available on the market. “It was the missing piece in our studio. Now no project is too big. External producers also want to use it, so it’s a source of new business” Nacho adds.

To fund this purchase, Manufacturas Sonoras secured a loan through CREA SGR and CERSA, with backing from EIF under the EU’s programme for the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS). “It’s already hard enough for new companies here in Spain to get support because of bureaucracy, taxes and regulations” says Nacho. “We knew the banks were just going to say no. We needed a partner that understands the industry.”

Looking ahead, the company is planning to hire an assistant producer to work with the new console, and will continue expanding the facilities. They aim to create a real artistic hub, to offer exhibition space for other industries like sculpture and photography, and even to set up an educational programme to train new producers and audio-visual technicians.

But what about the next-big-band that everyone will be talking about in ten years’ time? Nacho laughs and gives us a couple of names “We’re currently recording for Dead Buffalos and Afilador.” You know where you heard it first.

Company: Manufacturas Sonoras, S.L. (Spain)

Type of business: recording/arts studio

EIF financing: Cultural & Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS)

Financial intermediary: CREA SGR (CERSA)

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Spain, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/es