This Merch Company Has Paid Artists $30+ Million

This week on the New Music Business podcast, Ari sits down with Seamus Menihane, CEO and Co-Founder of the merch company, Downright Merch (now known as Armada). This merch company has paid out over $30 million to clients and they currently manage over 250 merch stores for artists including Thrice, Tom Morello and Death Row Records, as well as clients such as Grillo’s Pickles, Every Day Astronaut and Matty Matheson. In this episode, Ari and Seamus dig into all things merch. They discuss online versus touring merch sales, fanclubs, pre-sale campaigns, and large-scale transparency issues that come up between venues and promoters. Seamus and Ari also discuss which merch platforms work best for musicians, how to ‘merchandize’ your audience, and the importance of superfans. You’ll also get the inside scoop on Downright’s recent merger with Overcast to create their new brand Armada, and the exciting new ways they plan to operate. 04:14 – Intro 05:29 – Indie Merch Merger 09:44 – Impact of Merger 15:59 – Brand Management 19:14 – Case Examples 24:44 – Online vs. In-Person 29:14 – Online Strategies 35:59 – Tech in Merch 39:14 – Future of D2C 44:14 – Closing Edited and mixed by Peter Schrupp Music by Brassroots District Produced by the team at Ari’s Take Order the THIRD EDITION of How to Make It in the New Music Business: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This Merch Company Has Paid Artists $30+ Million is an episode from The New Music Business with Ari Herstand by .

This episode is 1:01:56 long.

This episode was published on Sep 24, 2025.

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