@eriktorenberg Today music merch is nearly untouched by technology and as we looked deeper realized this was an area that tech could not only help fans have a better experience but support artists, labels and merch companies.
#fistbumponpodcast
Hey Product Hunters!
I'm Ed Aten, the founder of Merchbar. We are launching our first product today - an iPhone app to help you discover and buy music from your favorite bands and artists.
We have a huge selection of official merchandise from over 3,000 bands like Led Zeppelin, Jay Z, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, The Misfits, 5SOS and The Beatles. Every day we create featured collections of cool merch (like playing cards, lithographs, hot new vinyl, hoodies, etc) and also have a chart and personalized recommendations.
Productwise tried to make the commerce side incredibly light weight - one thing you won't see until after your first purchase is Double Tap To Buy. Double tap any item and we will bring up a purchase card prefilled with your sizing, shipping and secure credit card information.
AMA! :)
Ed @Aten
Your website says "The best way to discover and buy merch from all your favorite bands" but I can't even shop online? It wasn't very clear that this was an app on your website. And then last - how is this any different than places like Insound.com who have been doing this since the late 90's?
@andyfortson Hey Andy. Lets just say... this is just the first product we are launching. Stay tuned!
Insound is a great company for sure. Merchbar is different in that we aren't focused on one genre or scene and are working very hard on unique experiences for discovery and browsing.
Are you an Insound customer? What have you bought?
@deekay We are working on a bunch of things in this area that I can't discuss publicly, BUT I can say that reception from artists has been great. They know how difficult the purchase experience can be - especially in venue.
Saw a similar product called Sidestep a few months back. They offer the option to pickup merch from an upcoming live show or get it delivered to your house. Are you thinking about offering similar functionality later on down the line? cc: @petiepizarro
Also, how have the major labels worked with you pre-launch? They are notoriously difficult to deal with and with 360 deals becoming a regular occurrence now, are they completely on board with MerchBar?
@lylemckeany we just shipped the first version of our app today so are focused on that for a while.
I can say that the majors have been great to deal with. Obviously there's the culture clash that happens when any group of motivated hackers tries to collaborate with a 20,000 person conglomerate but thats about it.
@FrankDenbow We are working with the fulfillment providers for each band (which for nearly everyone we work with is their merch company).
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Are you planning to build your own Merchbar audience or are you finding artists want to push their audiences to make purchases from your platform? Where does a platform like TopSpin and what they did with merch fit into your game plan? cc: @iancr
@dpolaske I think we've seen pretty consistently that people enjoy known, trusted, browsing experiences for products from multiple producers so we will work on both artist driven commerce and cross-selling between artists. At the end of the day doing both will help everyone.
Topspin gave artist great tools to engage directly with their fans (beyond just merch btw). We are impressed with what they did and are definitely (trying at least) to learn from it.
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