Manual Music was started by Dutch DJ/producer Paul Hazendonk just after the summer of 2005 as a sublabel of the infamous Basic Beat company. The label quickly gained international fame with it's first release 'Robotfood' by Petter and has grown rapidly since then. In the years that followed artists such as Umek, Jeff Bennett, Jesse Somfay, Guy J, Avus, Chris Fortier, Patrice Baumel, Dub Taylor, Tigerskin, Jacek Sienkiewicz, DJ Yellow, Darko Esser, Fairmont, Sascha Barth, Nuno Dos Santos, Qbical, Giorgos Gatzigristos and many many others have appeared on Manual Music.

Top Notch DJ's such as Richie Hawtin, Laurent Garnier, Chris Liebing, Monika Kruse, Sasha, John Digweed, Umek and many others are known to support Manual Music releases on a regular basis.

In 2009, Paul Hazendonk left the Basic Beat company after more then 8,5 years and adapted the Manual brand name for his own company, simply calling it Manual Music. Nowdays Manual Music is a company taking care of bookings, management, publishing and ofcourse releasing music on several (sub)labels in various genres within the house music scene. Next to the main label Manual Music (progressive techno) there are also the Stolen Moments (minimal techno), Adult Records (hardgroove techno), Relatives (hardgroove techno), Work Hard Play Hard (funky/melodic techno), Savoir Records (deep/progressive house) and Lo-FiSoul (progressive techhouse) labels. On top of that the Manual Music company also owns the catalogue from now defunkt labels Technique Records and Fly Life Records.