About us
The back story:
Everyday we come across stunning merch created by fans inspired by their favorite music artists, sold online via social media and third party marketplaces.
However, as you may know, these unauthorized listings are considered "bootleg," as they are not sold with proper approvals or licensing in place. As a result, fan merch is typically ignored (or worse, pulled down for IP infringement).
Softside recognizes the unique talent of these well-intentioned creative communities. So, we're building a digital home where fan merch can exist legitimately: with simplified IP licensing, artist approvals, structured revenue sharing, and interactive collaboration tools.
Rather than combat the fan merch market, we choose to amplify the spirit behind it — and do it correctly.
Beta mode
After a year of successful fan merch campaigns with a handful of emerging artists, we decided to further develop our tech to evolve the Softside experience. We're thrilled to roll out this initial expansion with select artist partners while in beta.
Softside is a fully independent, genre-agnostic platform — our team is based in Brooklyn, NY and San Francisco, CA. We have run partnerships with both independent and major label artists. Creators looking to design merch can create an account today. Artists looking to join as early partners can sign up for our waitlist here and we'll be in touch soon.
Please check out our FAQ for more information on how Softside works.