Speak about a “merger.” Secretly Group, the indie label group whose firms embody Useless Oceans, Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar, has acquired a 50 p.c stake in fellow influential indie label Merge Data, the businesses introduced on Tuesday. Monetary particulars of the brand new deal weren’t disclosed.
Secretly’s co-founders Ben Swanson, Chris Swanson, Darius Van Arman and Phil Waldorf bought the stake, whereas Mac McCaughan, additionally a member of beloved indie band Superchunk, is anticipated to stay in his function as label president and head of A&R. Christina Rentz, Merge’s label director, will keep her present function, the businesses stated, together with Merge advertising director Jamie Beck and head of digital Wilson Fuller. Merge’s co-founder and co-president Laura Ballance, additionally bass participant in Superchunk, is leaving the music enterprise.
Ballance and McCaughan first based Merge Data in 1989, and the label turned the house of beloved indie classics like Impartial Milk Lodge’s Within the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Arcade Hearth’s Funeral and The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs.
“It was by no means my aim to start out a file label once I was 21 and run it for the remainder of my life,” Ballance stated in a press release of her exit. “I’ve been doing this for 36 years now. Life is brief. There are different issues I’ve all the time wished to do: make extra artwork, journey for enjoyable, volunteer extra, write a e book and many different issues that being so entrenched in operating a enterprise doesn’t permit me to do. Merge Data began as a literal bed room label, in my bed room, and lived there for a number of years earlier than we have been capable of give it some house of its personal. It has all the time been a labor of affection. I’m going to overlook it and all of the individuals and bands tremendously.”
As McCaughan stated: “I’ve identified most of the individuals within the Secretly world for many years, and I do know that they share Merge’s dedication to artists and getting their music into the arms of as many individuals as potential. We now have seen this in motion working with Secretly Distribution’s worldwide staff since 2012, and are enthusiastic about what the longer term appears to be like like with the energy and expertise of Secretly Distribution working for Merge artists all over the world, and now right here at house. I do know Laura has her personal thrilling future forward, and I’m excited to proceed and develop upon the label we’ve run for 36 years.”
Secretly has grow to be some of the influential unbiased music firms within the enterprise, with a roster throughout its labels that features Mitzki, Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers and Japanese Breakfast, amongst others. Merge had already been working with Secretly’s distribution arm for a decade previous to the merger. Merge will proceed to function as a standalone label within the Secretly Group, the labels stated.
“After we heard that Laura was seeking to transfer on from Merge, we instantly engaged in conversations with Mac and Laura about what a brand new partnership with Secretly might appear like,” Secretly co-founder Phil Waldorf stated in a press release. “We seemed as much as Merge as we began our labels. We aren’t simply followers of the music they’ve launched, however their unbiased ethos and dedication to being an artist-first firm. Changing into a companion in Merge is past a dream for me — I noticed Superchunk for the primary time once I was a teen, earlier than I even knew you can have a full-time job in unbiased music and attended Merge’s fifth Anniversary celebration on the Cat’s Cradle whereas I used to be a university pupil in Athens, GA, making this an actual ‘pinch me’ second three a long time later.”
In a press release, Swanson stated Secretly’s aim is to help Merge with the unbiased ecosystem we’ve constructed at Secretly, whereas preserving what’s actually particular about what Mac and Laura have constructed over the previous 36 years, such that we are able to help Merge’s progress within the a long time to return.”
