Hello,
My name is Sam Means. I'm one-half of the band The Format and founder of Hello Merch. I started Hello officially in April of 2008, in the early days of modern e-commerce. But really it began a few years earlier, inside the band.
Like most bands, The Format depended heavily on merch, on and off the road. Merch meant we could tour more. It meant we could grow and still pay our rent. For a long time, though, we struggled to find a company that could keep up with what we needed and treat us fairly. So eventually, we just did it ourselves. We built our own store and ran with it. We took all the photos, wrote funny (or at least interesting) product descriptions, and packed the orders by hand. For us, actually caring about a fan wearing our shirt, hanging our poster, or popping our CD in their car stereo seemed to go a long way.
When the band entered a long hiatus in 2008, I suddenly had time on my hands, so I started reaching out to friends to see if I could help them the same way. The pitch has always been a simple one: we sell your merch and we make sure you get paid. No contracts. You're free to leave at any time, which means we're the ones incentivized to do right by you.
Back then there were a lot of big name merch companies, and honestly, most of them ran the same playbook as the major labels: lure artists in with advances, and eventually the 360 deal, where releasing an album at all could mean signing over just about every part of your career. We all know the troubles of the music industry, so I won't rehash them here. But what inspired me instead was a small group of merch companies quietly thriving in communities of their own, out side that exploitative system.
Over the years I watched several more spring up. For a while, the independent space really felt like it was growing. During COVID I was genuinely hopeful about this community; I even started an organization called MerchFriends to try to band us all together and enable a spirt of cooperation.
That’s why what's happened over the last few years has been so alarming. One by one, we’ve seen many of our peers in the independent space either close down or sell off to bigger corporations—sometimes much, much bigger ones. It's the same story playing out across the whole industry: consolidation. Corporations with venture capital money swoop in and use their leverage to outperform the little guy, or they dangle a big enough check to tempt an aging operator into retirement.
A wise man once told me, "Everything is cyclical," and as I approach the end of my second decade with Hello, I feel it. I've come all the way around to where I started. Sure, I'm more established now. After many moves, we now own a large warehouse in Phoenix with a substantial fulfillment operation, our own screen printing shop, and have been having fun with a unique marketing approach. But I'm starting to feel like a small fish in a big pond all over again.
We're fortunate to have artists and labels who have stuck with us throughout the years, who see the value in our way of doing things and put their trust in us. I’m so thankful for them. But I've lost a lot of friends in this industry lately. I've lost a few bands I really love to large sums of money we have no way of competing with. But what we haven't lost is our values. We put the artist first, always. That's meant a lot to the hundreds of bands we've worked with over the years, and it's the real thing we offer, alongside affordable printing, fair rates, and a team that shows up day in and day out to handle our artists' merch with care.
So why am I writing all this? If you're still here with me, thank you. I mostly just needed to put it into the world, especially this week, as I watch Sony dismantle a great merch company I've personally bought shirts from for years, and watched as another I deeply respect heads for the exit too.
If you need a store for your band, or a screen printer, please consider working with one of the few independent operators still out there. Those of us who remain are thriving in our own way, but it means everything to know there's a purpose to it, and that someone's actually noticing what we do. Because watching so much of the industry turn its back can be hard.
Independent merch companies, labels, managers, record stores, publishers, venues, and booking agencies still exist. They are still fighting the good fight. Big business wants to consolidate us all into one mega corporation. But I don't think that’s what’s best for artists, or for our music culture, or for fans and customers. As you weigh your options, please consider partnering with an independent company, with people who truly care about your art. They need your support now more than ever.
Thank you,
Sam Means