Horto has constructed a music hub for a creative couple, Jim and Emma Quinn, in the garden of their York home. The couple manages the independent record label (or indie label) ‘Safe Suburban Home’. 
Indie’s operate without the funding of major record labels and take a more DIY approach, mainly by the use of music streaming, social media and digital content distribution. According to the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), indie’s increased their total market share in 2017 to almost 40% with their growth outpacing that of the major labels.
Indie labels have many plus sides and can take a chance on diverse and creative artists out there; also doing something you love is always empowering and exciting. However, Jim explains “then again it does take a huge amount of our time and effort to get everything done, and we still have our day jobs together with family commitments”.
Ellen Robinson from Horto adds “I think managing your own record label must be very much a lifestyle job, but setting it up in your home is less of a problem if your house is big enough to offer the extra space. If space becomes a concern, such as a home with hardly any room to spare, the ideal space, for example in this case, is one that can provide a multi-functional use together with the privacy and protection of the equipment”
Jim and Emma explained why they chose Horto. “We’ve had quite lot of work done internally to our home recently, but the rooms are slightly on the small side, particularly the bedrooms. So we considered an extension, but we finally concluded that we didn’t want the inconvenience of living on a building site, particularly with trades’ people coming and going. So we looked at extending the property with a garden room, which not only would create the extra space we wanted, but would also be a more practical and attractive solution”
Jim adds “although we wanted a local business to construct our garden room, we did contact quite a number of suppliers who all replied with just an email and a pdf attachment. However, Horto responded in completely the opposite way. Our initial enquiry to Horto was quickly followed up with a site survey, which was really appreciated and reassuring. The final quote was also personally delivered together with a pack of really informative and useful information, such as a explanatory guide through the stages of the build payments and also an extensive Q&A section”. Emma adds “what was also really important to us is that Horto offered the security and protection of the Consumer Protection Association (CPA) insurance, which in effect ensured that our money was completely safe right up to the completion of our garden room. This made us both feel so much more secure with our financial investment”.
Both Jim and Emma take a few moments to reflect on the whole experience with Horto “It’s been so easy and stress free dealing with Horto. We’ve had quite a number of problems with trades’ people in the past, it’s been so stressful, but Gary and his Horto team have been absolutely great, just amazing, we trusted them completely. The setting of our Horto garden room looks so natural, so wonderful. All our neighbours comment on how incredible it looks.