Secretly Group Acquires 50% Stake in Merge Records

Secretly Group has acquired a 50% stake in Merge, the independent record label founded by Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance in 1989.

The main players:

• Merge was launched in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, initially to release Superchunk’s music.

• It’s grown into one of the world’s most respected independent labels, releasing music by artists such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Lambchop, The Magnetic Fields, Waxahatchee and more.

• Secretly Group was founded in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1996.

• Its roster includes Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, Mitski and more, as well as labels Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, Saddest Factory Records and Secretly Canadian.

Shared history:

• For more than a decade Merge has been working with Secretly Group’s sister company Secretly Distribution for marketing and distribution services outside North America.

The deal:

• Secretly Co-Founders Ben Swanson, Chris Swanson, Darius Van Arman and Phil Waldorf will take a 50% stake in Merge.

• McCaughan will continue in his role of Label President and Head of A&R, while Co-Founder and Co-President Laura Ballance will leave the business.

• Longtime Merge Label Director Christina Rentz will continue in the role, overseeing day-to-day operations alongside Marketing Director Jamie Beck and Head of Digital Wilson Fuller.

• Merge will continue to run as a standalone label out of Durham, North Carolina.

• It will utilize Secretly Distribution’s worldwide distribution arm and elements of Secretly’s infrastructure around accounting, artist royalties, business affairs, licensing, IT and HR.

What they said:

• Ben Swanson, Secretly Co-Founder: “Our aim is to support Merge with the independent ecosystem we’ve built at Secretly, while preserving what’s truly special about what Mac and Laura have built over the past 36 years, such that we can support Merge’s growth in the decades to come.”