People Like Us: The Merge Model
Posted by Erin Brown in independent publishing on October 14, 2009
Back in July Merge Records celebrated its 20th anniversary as an independent record label. Harper Studio noted the occasion and suggested that book publishers might learn something from Merge’s success. Here’s the background on this remarkable indie project, as given by NPR.
Merge was founded in 1989 in Chapell Hill, North Carolina, by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance (of the band Superchunk) with the purpose of documenting and making more broadly available the fruits of their own vibrant local music scene.
Rather than wedding itself to a single sound, or searching for musical star power, the label has built a catalog around its own eclectic, but somehow coherent, aesthetic. As a result of their careful, curatorial approach, Merge has earned the trust of likeminded music fans, radio DJs, and critics, who are likely to take notice of a new record simply because it is put out by Merge.
Merge markets frugally and counsels their artists about maintaining realistic expectations. “It doesn’t always make bands happy to be told, ‘We expect your record to sell 2,000 copies, and that’s the way we’re going to market it,’” Ballance admits. But the upside of this realism, it seems, is greater creative freedom for the artists. Recalling his beginnings with Merge, Britt Daniel, the lead singer for Spoon (which has become one of Merge’s most successful bands), explained, “They were OK with us putting out records that didn’t have the expectation or requirement to be anything other than a good record . . . it wasn’t necessary that we sold 100,000 records for them to turn a profit.”
What interests me is how Merge seems to be challenging the common wisdom that, for a record label (or a book publisher), brand identity is not important. Also, in their core philosophy—that they are simply music fans putting out records for other music fans—Merge seems to offer an early prototype of the kind of niche community that many are hailing as the future of book publishing. As McCaughan put it, “We started a label, and we run a label counting on there being people like us.”
Categories: independent, publishing | 2 Comments »
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 am
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
October 30th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Yes, feel free to do so. Thanks for asking – and for the link back!