EMPIRE, a San Francisco-based independent record label and music publisher/distributor, has acquired a majority stake in Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family, a Los Angeles-headquartered company that specializes in branded merchandise for the music industry.

“The hotly contested world of music merchandise just got a serious new player,” Music Business Worldwide wrote.

According to the terms, Top Drawer Merch will remain a standalone company, but will also serve as the merchandise division for EMPIRE. Top Drawer’s client list includes artists like Khalid, ACDC and J.Balvin, while the company has also provided solutions for huge music festivals like Coachella, Stagecoach, EDC and Ultra.

“The acquisition bolsters (EMPIRE’s) in-house merchandising division with an established player in the field,” Billboard reported.

Top Drawer believes the partnership will help power its growth ambitions.

“Partnering with EMPIRE will give our team the opportunity to accomplish our goal of becoming the most tech-advanced merchandise company in the world, while also delivering the industry’s best services,” said Top Drawer/Electric Family Co-Founder/CEO Drew Nilon in a statement.

EMPIRE CEO Ghazi Shami, who founded the company in 2010, appeared on Billboard’s 2020 Power List in January. Of the acquisition, Shami said: “EMPIRE was built on ingenuity – to deliver independent music to the world fast, efficiently and transparently. What Drew and the Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family team have accomplished in the merchandise and e-commerce industry, mirrors EMPIRE’s tech-focused roots and growth over the past decade.”

In recent years, sales of branded merchandise promoting musical artists have been on the rise. As such, competition in the music merch world has been heating up, as evidenced by acquisitive activity like EMPIRE’s move with Top Drawer Merch and, in summer 2019, Sony Music’s merchandising division The Thread Shop buying the music merch division of New York City-based The Araca Group.