Amid the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, getting those last-minute online orders in for gifts for some of the music fans in your life might be a little trickier: SCP Merchandising, a merch company used by the likes of Mitski, Carly Rae Jepsen and Father John Misty, has shut down, Billboard reports.
The Illinois-based company abruptly laid off its staff over the weekend, as per the LinkedIn accounts of multiple former employees. A source told Billboard that SCP will likely file for bankruptcy.
There is also no process for clients to retrieve their merchandise yet, and accounts with outstanding balances will not be able to do so before paying them off with the company (or a potential bankruptcy trustee). SCP will give priority to clients with no balance owing, as well as those arranging payment for outstanding bills.
Retrieving inventory will also get slower after tomorrow (December 21), as SCP apparently only has bank approval for payroll through Thursday — and not enough for the entire job, according to the source. "After that, a court-approved trustee will replace company employees and that's only one person and I'm not sure what their take on inventory will be," they continued. "There's a few different paths it could go. It's just all very speculative."
Artists' online stores that were run through the company have been taken down entirely, including those for Mitski and FJM (as of this writing, Jepsen's still appears to be live), as well as Alec Benjamin, Dashboard Confessional, Louis the Child and Chappell Roan.
Another source in artist management told Billboard that they had initially begun working with SCP because their rates were cheaper than their competitors, only taking around 15 percent of net sales compared to a reported industry standard of about 20 percent of gross.
The company was launched in 2013 by owner Stephen Hopkins, billing itself as a "full-service creative collaborator" for artists and brands. In a year with so much discourse around merch cuts, it's interesting to be reminded that the process ends at the venue — and there's a lot involved in getting it there, too.
The Illinois-based company abruptly laid off its staff over the weekend, as per the LinkedIn accounts of multiple former employees. A source told Billboard that SCP will likely file for bankruptcy.
There is also no process for clients to retrieve their merchandise yet, and accounts with outstanding balances will not be able to do so before paying them off with the company (or a potential bankruptcy trustee). SCP will give priority to clients with no balance owing, as well as those arranging payment for outstanding bills.
Retrieving inventory will also get slower after tomorrow (December 21), as SCP apparently only has bank approval for payroll through Thursday — and not enough for the entire job, according to the source. "After that, a court-approved trustee will replace company employees and that's only one person and I'm not sure what their take on inventory will be," they continued. "There's a few different paths it could go. It's just all very speculative."
Artists' online stores that were run through the company have been taken down entirely, including those for Mitski and FJM (as of this writing, Jepsen's still appears to be live), as well as Alec Benjamin, Dashboard Confessional, Louis the Child and Chappell Roan.
Another source in artist management told Billboard that they had initially begun working with SCP because their rates were cheaper than their competitors, only taking around 15 percent of net sales compared to a reported industry standard of about 20 percent of gross.
The company was launched in 2013 by owner Stephen Hopkins, billing itself as a "full-service creative collaborator" for artists and brands. In a year with so much discourse around merch cuts, it's interesting to be reminded that the process ends at the venue — and there's a lot involved in getting it there, too.
