This week we’re joined for our Meet Our Associates’ conversation by Andy Allen, CEO at BSI Merch.

Firstly, could you please tell us a bit about BSI Merch, what you do and how you work with music managers and artists?

We at BSI are a music merch company that offers a suite of 360* services to our clients, with in-house teams to take care of every step in the merchandise journey. We see ourselves as partners when it comes to design, production, manufacturing; before moving forward to using our expertise to run e-commerce & touring.

Please share a bit more about your background specifically, how did you get into your role and the work you do with managers and artists?

I was a manager myself for many years; working with Reef (Sony Records) and Swervedriver (Creation and A & M Records), before sitting on the committee of the MMF for ten years so the MMF is something that means a lot to me. As a club promoter, amongst other ventures, most notably, I started the UK’s first every Indie Club (Syndrome) as well as Club Silver (The Underworld) which operated an alternative music policy.

I think this has put me into a position of having a good understanding of what the manager and the artists needs are.

As an organisation with decades of experience in the music merch business, tell us a bit more about your services and the importance you play in the music industry?

We pride ourselves on being creative in our approach to all aspects of the world of merchandise. Artists today are so much more than just t-shirts and we very much take innovative approaches to product ranges.

As a company, one of our core ethos’ is to be very conscious in our commitment to reducing carbon emissions alongside being environmentally conscious across all of our business areas.

By offering all of our services in house, we can go on journeys with our clients & ensure we inform and collaborate as standard.

What has BSI Merch been working on recently?

We opened a facility in the EU in 2021 which has led to a serious increase in the number of artists we are privileged to work with. Such as the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, Amyl & The Sniffers, Sea Girls, Palace, 2HR SET, The Damned, Lime Cordiale, Teskey Brothers, Meekz Manny, Central Cee, Bad Nurse, Belladrum Festival, Gerry Cinnamon, Billy NoMates, Clinton Kane, Dizzee Rascal, Duckwrth, Duncan Laurence, Craig David, Eaves Wilder, Fizzy Blood, English Teacher, Flamingods, MNRK Heavy, Jessie Ware, Swim Deep, French The Kid, Table Manners, Laundromat, Rolo Tomassi, Peach Pt, Temples, Ashe, Natalie Imbruglia, Faithless, Neil Gaiman, Football Manager, Piri & Tommy, Andrea Bocelli and many more.

What are your plans for the rest of 2023?

Expand further into the EU and develop our E-commerce marketing services

When is the right time for an artist or manager to start working with a BSI Merch?

Good question. The right time to talk to a merch company beyond having their merch supplied to them would be when handling it internally interferes with their core business of music.

What new music releases are you currently enjoying?

Black Honey, Young Fathers, Boygenius and Slowthai

What was the last gig you went to?

Whitney at The Columbia Theatre in Berlin last week.

Is there anything you would like to say to managers who are interested in finding out more about BSI Merch?

We’d love to chat to find out more about what you need, so please call anytime. We’re here for any advice. –MMF@bsimerch.com