Time To Pivot: Creating, Selling and Distributing Merch

Austin Music Foundation and El Famoso are proud to present Time To Pivot: Creating, Selling and Distributing Merch. Join us for a panel discussion designed to help you make the most of your merchandise. Whether you are actively touring or staying connected with your fans online, selling music and merchandise is a great way to earn revenue for your band and strengthen your fanbase.

We’ll hear from artists and business owners about what works for them. Our speakers will share their tips and best practices on everything from sourcing and printing to marketing and e-commerce.

Moderator Adrienne Lake will facilitate the conversation between The Ghost Wolves’ Carley Wolf, El Famoso’s Alex Sirles and Graham Hillhouse, and Merch Gal Founder Raquel Peña.

Learn more about our speakers below, and tune in on September 21 for this one-hour workshop. RSVP on Eventbrite to submit your questions for the live Q&A. This workshop will be live-streamed to the AMF Facebook page. This event is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

About Our Speakers

Alex Sirles, El Famoso

Alex Sirles is the Customer Success Manager at El Famoso. She serves as the conduit between artist management teams and El Famoso’s suite of services. Alex has overseen the launch of hundreds of products and chart-topping releases, managing the merchandise lifecycle from design to production to delivery. If you have any questions regarding how to get started on producing merchandise for your brand, best online selling practices, or messaging for when things go wrong, she is your person.

Carley Wolf, The Ghost Wolves

Carley Wolf is the lead singer and multi-instrumentalist in Austin based duo The Ghost Wolves. Over the last decade, she has toured the world with the band, playing thousands of shows and releasing music on a slew of labels including Jack White’s Third Man Records. In addition to co-writing the band’s music and performing live, she designs the group’s prolific line of merchandise and has produced many of their music videos. Carley was born in Fredericksburg, Texas and holds a degree in music and sound recording technology from Texas State University.

Raquel Peña, Merch Gal

Merch Gal owner and operator Raquel Peña has worked in the music industry since 2000, beginning in radio. Merch Gal is a branding company specializing in band merchandise, festival merchandise, and indie film merchandise. Raquel continues to work in all facets of the industry, including event production management, tour merchandising, and tour management.

Graham Hillhouse, El Famoso

Graham Hillhouse is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at El Famoso. Since its inception in 2016, Graham has helped manage the ecommerce, distribution, and chart strategies for hundreds of artists, ranging from local stars to billboard chart-toppers and legacy acts. His work is quietly hidden in the shipping rates, return policies, product descriptions, packaging design, and merchandise of some of today’s (and yesterday’s) biggest performers.

Adrienne Lake, Moderator

Adrienne Lake is a music industry professional based in Austin who has worked in A&R, artist services, music journalism, talent buying and concert promotion in the Arizona, Los Angeles, and Texas markets. While in Los Angeles, she held positions at Capitol, Giant and DreamWorks Records, the latter of which created a Jr. A&R executive position for her, where she worked closely with Elliott Smith, Jimmy Eat World, AFI and Creeper Lagoon. As a Music Journalist for Arizona Daily Star, she traveled to cover festivals and conducted interviews with John Doe, Mike Davis of MC5, Peaches and more. Lake has been a talent buyer and promoter at multiple venues, including the world-famous Club Congress in Tucson and Spider House, Empire Control Room & Garage and The Parish in Austin and was a music festival programmer at SXSW. Currently, she is providing artist services independently, including publicity, booking, project management and general consulting. She is an advisory board member of The SIMS Foundation, EQ Austin and is a member of the Recording Academy.