The hotly-contested world of music merchandise just got a serious new player.
San Francisco-based independent label, distribution and publishing company EMPIRE has just acquired a majority stake in merchandising and e-commerce company Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family.
Top Drawer Merch provides product and services to some of the world’s biggest music festivals such as Coachella, Stagecoach, EDC, and Ultra, and artists such as ACDC, Kaskade, J Balvin, Illenium, and many more.
Although Top Drawer Merch will continue to operate as a standalone company, it will also now act as the merchandising and e-commerce arm of EMPIRE, which was founded in 2010 by Ghazi Shami and has helped launch the careers of artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B, DRAM and Anderson. Paak.
According to a press release, together, the two companies will “cross pollinate data to better serve artists merchandising needs and deliver premium services across a wide range of industries and music genres”.
Elsewhere in the top tier of the merch world, last August saw Sony Music’s merchandising division, The Thread Shop, ink a deal to acquire the music merch division of The Araca Group for an undisclosed fee. The following month, Sony then also swooped for UK-based merch company Kontraband.
January 2019 saw Universal Music Group’s merchandising arm Bravado fully acquire its Los Angeles-based competitor Epic Rights for an undisclosed sum.
And at the end of 2018, Warner Music Group completed a $180m deal to buy Germany-based music merch maker and e-tailer EMP Merchandising.
Putting the size of the prize into perspective: Universal Music Group turned over €489m ($549m) from merchandise last year, up 73.7% YoY on an organic basis, according to Vivendi filings.
“What Drew and the Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family team have accomplished in the merchandise and ecommerce industry, mirrors EMPIRE’s tech focused roots and growth over the past decade.”
Ghazi, EMPIRE
“EMPIRE was built on ingenuity – to deliver independent music to the world fast, efficiently and transparently,” said Ghazi, CEO and Founder of EMPIRE.
“What Drew and the Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family team have accomplished in the merchandise and ecommerce industry, mirrors EMPIRE’s tech focused roots and growth over the past decade.”
“Ghazi and his team at EMPIRE have built an incredible company and we look forward to learning from them as we continue into our next phase of growth.”
Drew Nilon, Top Drawer
Drew Nilon, CEO and Co-Founder of Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family, added: “Partnering with EMPIRE will give our team the opportunity to accomplish our goal of becoming the most tech-advanced merchandise company in the world, while also delivering the industries best services.
“Ghazi and his team at EMPIRE have built an incredible company and we look forward to learning from them as we continue into our next phase of growth.”
Music Business Worldwide
