Loading ...Hey guys and girls! Some of you who follow us on social sites know we’ve been on a merch kick recently. Of course, as mastering studio engineers, we don’t claim to be experts in apparel, but, we do know a few people who are 
And, because your merchandise has the potential to make you the most money as an artist, we think it is the most important thing to address apart from the actual creation, capture, and release of your music. So, to stay with our theme, we wanted to share something special with you.
Keep in mind, it has almost nothing to do with our work in the SoundOps mastering studio, so we aren’t trying to sell anything here. We are posting this for your benefit, if not for your education. With that being said, the following is part of a super-secret interview with one of our favorite dudes from Storenvy.com, Steve Taylor. However, before you skip ahead, we need to give you some background first, and “set the stage” …
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First of all, this was no ordinary interview; it was raining outside… {pause for effect}, it was dark. But, inside a small room with an old dingy thin window, it was even darker. There was a stale tension hiding in the air, and no one noticed the last song had finished playing. An old fashioned clock kept time while the his and pop from a muffled speaker was all that was left of a tune, as a tired turntable spun a lonely syncopated rhythm around on the dusty smooth center of a B side. The door was locked. The ceiling felt close, and a solid wooden table stood very still. It was there, beside the cold brick of a long-emptied fireplace, the two men sat across from each other. They were whispering…
Will: Pssst - hey, Steve; what the hell is this? I thought we were gonna be doing an interview.
Steve: Shhhhh - we have to make sure everyone is paying attention first.
Will: Ok.
Steve: …
Will: Hey, Steve; are we BOTH wearing glow-in-the-dark pajamas?
Steve: …
THE OBVIOUS QUESTION
Will: Let’s cut to the chase - everybody is trying to sell to musicians. I’m not sure why; I never had any money as a guitarist. Anyway, I see ads all the time about merchandising, and I know artists are all thinking the same thing…”a t-shirt is a t-shirt, right?” Let’s face it Steve; there are at least a hundred other companies they could buy their shirts from… really, no BS - what do you think bands should know about you guys? What makes Storenvy better?
Steve: Thanks for the question, Will - I’ll start off by agreeing with you and saying that from my many years of experience being in and managing touring bands, it is true that we rarely have much money. This is all the more reason to use what little we have to make more. This is best done by buying merchandise with our names on it and then offering that to fans or supporters (who want something with our name on it) and charging them more for it than we bought it for.
Will: Indeed. Business at it’s best.
DOLLARS AND (COMMON) SENSE
Steve: If you buy shirts for 5 dollars each and sell them for 10 you have just doubled your money; right? On a small scale, this might just mean that the band can now afford to eat at Taco Bell instead of the dollar menu at McDonalds.
But, on a much bigger scale - the single avenue through which most larger bands and artists make the most money is the sale of their merchandise.
Will: Let’s say a band knows that’s the goal already - what’s the next part for them? I mean, having the merch for sale is one thing, but getting people to actually buy it is another. If I’m not famous yet, why else would someone pay too much for a shirt with my band’s name on it?
QUALITY MATTERS
Steve: Right - well, that’s where Storenvy comes in. You always want to make sure that you are having your merch produced through a company that is not just “the cheapest around” but much more importantly can give you an amazing quality product to sell. Seriously, saving 50 cents on a t-shirt doesn’t do you any good if it ends up not selling because it’s poor quality. Especially, when you could have spent that extra 50 cents and sold 10 of them by now.
It helps to find a company with great prices of course, but try not to let that be the deciding factor. With that said, and to answer your first question, Will -
Storenvy does have some of the better pricing in the industry, and has the best quality that I’ve ever seen.
And, that is coming from my 15 years of experience both on the band side where I tried company after company, and also from working with different companies on the production side as well. Storenvy is by far the best when it comes to customer service as well. You want to make sure you’re working with a group of people that is going to stand behind their work and make sure that if they tell you that they’re going to do something - they do it. This is all true of Storenvy.
Will: That’s the kind of stuff I like to hear - especially from people in an organization who aren’t at the top.
STORE FRONTS WITH WAREHOUSES ATTACHED
Steve: And, we do something that I sure wish someone did back when I was in a band - they offer 100% FREE online stores that look amazing and are completely customizable and operate very smoothly.
Will: I’ve heard about that - the DIY stores; right?
Steve: Yes sir - the DIY stores are free, and we also offer what we call PRO stores where we handle absolutely everything for you from the warehousing of your product to the fulfillment and shipping out of your orders to even the customer service to your buyers. The cost for this is 15% of every order.
Will: I’ve always liked that concept, and the indie artist market seems to appreciate the hands-off approach as well.
Steve: I usually see smaller bands start out with a DIY store and as they grow they eventually switch to a PRO store. But either way you decide to go, it’s an absolute necessity for every serious band.
SOCIAL SHOPPING BONUS
Also, it doesn’t hurt that when you open a store with Storenvy, you are exposed to an entire social shopping marketplace full of potential buyers and traffic to your store - it’s like opening up a new shop inside of a mall.
Anyway, sorry for the long answers. But, I hope that your friends who play music, their band mates, and anyone else they know needing apparel will get in touch with me soon. I get excited, because I want them all to learn more about how the production specialists who have been doing this for nearly 20 years here at Storenvy can help them.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER
We want our customers to have apparel and merch that looks and feels so good that everyone wants to buy it - even if they’re not a fan of that band.
Steve: My history in the music industry does give me an edge. But, more importantly, it gives my customers an edge. Because, I have been in their shoes and made a lot of their mistakes before. So now, I can help them not make the mistakes I made when running merch for my bands. And I can point them in a direction to sell more, and be more profitable.
HOODIES, ANYONE?
Steve: As for some advice on a particular product, with the winter season in mind, I would have to suggest zip up hoodies or even pull over fleece right now to all of my customers. People are on the lookout for awesome looking warm clothes right now, and even though a hoodie or fleece of some sort may cost a bit more to produce, you can sell them for quite a bit more (which means you’re making a lot more profit per unit than you would on a t-shirt).
Here at Storenvy, over-the-zipper prints are our specialty. It makes a massive difference when a company really knows how to do prints that go “over the zipper” and still lookreally good.
BONUS FEATURES
Thank you Will for the questions. I look forward to continuing to help out musicians and bands in this industry as I see SoundOps doing the same! And to reward all of you who are reading or listening to us, and for making it this far - you can use the promo code: ST25OFF when you contact me, and I’ll give you 25 cents off per shirt!
CONTACT STEVE
You can contact me now at Steve@Storenvy.com or (404) 402 7001 or SteveTaylorAAM on AIM.
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Thanks for stopping by. Next time, we’ll actually talk about audio mastering (we’ve been working on some more videos too), but it’s good to have a change of pace every now and then :) Take care, and good luck with your music!
