Following the Artone acquisition, Townsend’s Bruce McKenzie reveals their e-commerce strategy for driving physical sales and fan engagement...
Townsend Music sales director Bruce McKenzie has told Music Week that new investment has created the “most technically advanced” D2C platform in the independent sector.
Founded originally as a record shop in 1978, the Lancashire company diversified into D2C solutions in 2012. With its proprietary in-house platform, Townsend now runs more than 1,000 e-commerce artist stores for music and merchandise.
Townsend was acquired in 2024 by Dutch firm Artone, whose network of European companies also includes Proper Music Distribution, Bertus Distribution, V2 and vinyl pressing plant Record Industry, which is now a key partner on campaigns.
“It was very much the right deal at the right time with the right people,” said McKenzie. “We wanted to establish Townsend as a global D2C company. The way we operate is very scalable because we see ourselves as being as much a tech company as a retailer. The platform we have built is in constant development, so we wanted to take it to a global basis.”
New investment has enabled Townsend to bring in an external design agency to enhance its service.
“The acquisition has brought further experienced industry executives and strengthened the design and aesthetic, so we really feel we can now compete on a global level,” said McKenzie.
Following the Artone deal, Townsend has ramped up its focus on expanding D2C campaigns beyond release week, including digital download drops of bonus material as part of a bundle offer.
“We want to keep that fan engagement going, so we’re looking at putting the physical and digital products together to run a campaign post-album release,” said McKenzie.
He suggested that D2C is now more important than ever as part of a campaign strategy. Last year, Townsend helped secure three UK No.1 results and 26 Top 10 album placings, with their D2C component averaging a 34% share of weekly sales.
“A lot of fans like the idea of buying from the [bespoke Townsend] store because of the feeling that they’re buying from the artist themselves – they know it’s the go-to place to get something exclusive and collectible,” McKenzie explained.
The way we operate is very scalable because we see ourselves as being as much a tech company as a retailer
Bruce McKenzie
He continued: “We feel that we are the most technically advanced D2C platform in the independent sector. We launched our platform over 20 years ago and we’ve got many new tools in development that will give artists and labels greater control over the campaigns.”
The acquisition of Townsend added a long-established e-commerce platform to Artone’s end-to-end offering for physical music, which operates across 14 offices. McKenzie described the team at the Dutch company as “passionate” as they work on growing the business across Europe.
“We thought it would be great synergy,” he told Music Week. “We’ve started to onboard a lot of D2C stores from the Artone label community, so we now have more of an online community to market D2C campaigns to and from which to gather more data.”
With Artone backing, Townsend e-commerce sales are now chart eligible in 19 countries.
“We just felt that the European charts had to be reflective of our sales,” said McKenzie.
As part of the Dutch group, Townsend will not be subject to the EU’s new €3 customs duty per item on e-commerce imports from outside the bloc, which is effective from July 1.
In the UK, Townsend has had a run of success this year for its D2C campaigns, including Top 3 albums by Blue (Cooking Vinyl), Lily Allen (BMG), Jack Savoretti (The Orchard) and Leigh-Anne (Virgin).
“Leigh-Anne’s team really embraced our D2C digital platform with our two deluxe download albums containing exclusive content,” said McKenzie. “Together with our store’s fashion-themed merchandise, these really drove our campaign’s bundle sales.”
The physical edition of Lily Allen’s West End Girl was released at the end of January following the digital-first campaign for the comeback LP last year. It matched the No.2 chart peak with opening physical sales of 11,798 units.
“By hearing the album first instead of standalone tracks, fans were encouraged, I believe, to invest in a stylish physical format with [West End Girl] merchandise to connect them further with the material,” said McKenzie.
Townsend has current and upcoming releases with Angine de Poitrine, Evanescence, Dexys Midnight Runners, Richard Ashcroft, and Kylie Minogue for her catalogue, following the successful Christmas No.1 album and single campaign.
The D2C specialist is now driving further physical catalogue sales with the launch of Townsend Exclusive Vinyl – a series of limited-edition releases predominantly pressed by fellow Artone Group company, Record Industry.
Initial releases have included special editions of albums by Van Morrison, Frank Turner and Natalie Imbruglia.
“They’re exclusive to our retail store,” said McKenzie. “We’re going to be doing more [titles], so we’re talking to lots of repertoire owners about investigating their [music] and current deleted vinyl catalogue. We see catalogue as a huge opportunity.”
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