SFX GETS INTO THE MERCHANDISE GAME
Realizing there was at least one aspect of the live music experience it hadn't gotten its hooks into yet, concert promoter SFX announced it was getting into the merchandise business. SFX's Interactive division purchased a minority stake in musictoday.com, an online merchandise company headed by Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw. The remainder of musictoday is held by private investors, which include the Dave Matthews Band.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The joint venture between SFX and musictoday will carry the catchy, memorable and easy to spell Clikpakship.com. Investors are urged to say it, not spray it.
Musictoday began as the merchandise outlet for the Dave Matthews Band in 1993. The company now provides services for 45 acts, including Santana, Cheap Trick, Insane Clown Posse and Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Clikpakship will operate from musictoday's 100,000-square-foot facility in Charlottesville, VA, and will retain its current management, including Capshaw. The joint venture's first order of business will be to establish Web stores for SFX touring acts, and to be integrated into SFX.com.
The next order of business will be to make sure "clikpakship" doesn't mean anything dirty in any Eastern European tongue.
