Sometimes, when you interview people, you can feel a knowledge, experience and skill that only comes from working hands-on in your chosen field. Mattias Lövkvist has that quality. In 2004, he migrated from journalism to found Hybris, a record label that would go on to push the boundaries of the new digital music distribution format in Sweden, including a brace of Swedish Grammy-winning artists in its roster.

Today, Lövkvist uses his decades of experience as the founder of Aloaded. Part record label, part music distribution, management, PR… it’s a model that defies description. And it’s got artists from all genres and locations tapping into its services.

John Gadnert and Mattias Lövkvist from Aloaded.

“At the core, we’re digital distributors. We distribute labels and their artists so their fans can find their music on the big streaming services. But we refer to ourselves as a full-service distributor – you’d to come us to save yourselves having to source countless other individual entities. We do everything an artist or label could ever want,” explains Lövkvist.

During the Hybris years, Lövkvist and Hybris co-founder, John Gadnert pretty much did it all, in the spirit of passionate DIY. From pitching their artists into the emerging digital platforms to PR, making vinyl, flyposting… When 2015 rolled around, Lövkvist and Gadnert, had an idea to use all their knowledge and offer it to artists and labels that need help with these kinds of activities. In 2018, Aloaded was launched in earnest.

“If you need, say, a music video, we hook you up with some of our contacts, if you want your band’s gig postered up in a big city, we fix that. You need someone to master a track, we got that. Maybe you want a publishing deal, we can help with the contracts. We either do it all ourselves, or we hit our contacts book,” says Lövkvist.

It’s probable that, reading this, you might get the feeling that what Aloaded does flies in the face of the digital-everything way of thinking that defines our music landscape today. And it does.

Lövkvist puts Aloaded in context, noting that most distributors today copy a system in which a distributor is just that in the truest sense of the word. But rather than a truck delivering LPs to a record store, a distributor today is essentially a ‘server’, storing music and pushing it out to a streaming service.

“At Aloaded we’re humans. We’re hands-on. The way we work is very scalable. We offer regular distribution for artists who get the rest done themselves and have almost 4000 artists with over 100,000 tracks out there. But most people come to us because we can really help make their artistry easier with our full service,” he notes.

What the Aloaded team has found is that by giving its clients a personalised human point of access, they support an artist or label in a way that the big players simply can’t hope to attain. Because, as Lövkvist stresses, the digital music revolution has a romantic vision of the artist being in control, but the reality is that they still need help with so many things. And, unless you’re successful enough to have a team around you, it can be a lonely industry. Aloaded brings professionalism, passion, and a willingness to get stuff done. Or, as Lövkvist says; “We give people the chance to eliminate the simple mistakes that can kill the success of an artist or track.”

As the conversation turns towards merch and how Aloaded is working with Creator Studio, we chat about the role of merch in music today. Lövkvist views it as a huge opportunity to turn it into a very potent revenue stream.

“Merch is a strong channel for sure. It makes so much sense to use it as an artist, especially if you’re at the stage when you’re touring or have a committed fanbase – especially if your fans can’t get to a gig. If you sell 100 hoodies on our website, depending on the price, that can be the same revenue as 1 million Spotify streams! And getting that is way more work. Sure, selling merch is a big job but, comparably, it’s a lot easier than making a piece of music.”

Having explored merch on demand before, Creator Studio felt like a good proposition for Aloaded. Better logistics, quality backed by the H&M Group and fulfilment working in harmony to give Aloaded a new service to offer to its roster, who are already embracing the solution.

“We’re seeing an increase in the number of artists using the connectivity between Shopify and Spotify to bridge the gap between the merch and their fans. And it’s something we’d encourage because it’s working. There’s one artist I know who sells 25k Euros a month on merch alone. If 1 million streams bring you 3 or 4,000, you do the maths as to the power of merch for an artist,” Lövkvist adds.

The opening weeks of 2023 have seen Artificial Intelligence dominate conversations in tech land. Tools powerful enough to replicate human language or visual imagery that some suggest may be the end of more sectors of human creativity. Our brief time with Aloaded shows that it’s often quite the opposite effect – the more tech evolves, the place and context for real human contact and skill becomes crystal clear. Disruption from the soul still rocks.

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH

Disruption from within 

Impact Gym in Stockholm is a community for its members. Specialising in Muay Thai and Taekwon-do, it's one of many sports communities that use merch to deepen the sense of belonging that runs far beyond the walls of its dojo. With the help of a well-crafted blank and jab of print on demand, the bonds formed within the ring grow stronger when the gloves come off. This is a story of finding your place, the feeling of belonging and the ties that are reinforced by the simple act of proudly wearing a shared message.

“I think it’s important for people to feel a connection to a community, wherever you are. To feel that you belong somewhere.” 

We grabbed some cameras and headed to meet Impact Gym’s Emma Stonegård. Check out the film and grab some merch to join ‘The Pack’

a merch collection punching well above its weight

Emma Stonegård from Impact Gym sits in the dressing room, ready to begin her training session.

Deeper Community Connections

“Should we hit the merch stand before or after the gig?” is a question countless live music fans have had to face. Swedish brothers, Henrik and Tom Ljungqvist, or Jung as they’re known to fans, are a band that’s taken the wise decision and hooked up with Creator Studio to give their fans merch on demand instead. A smart move that gives fans the chance to buy the merch weeks before the gig and show up wearing it already! We caught up with Jung as they dropped into our photo studio, to shoot their new merch, to talk about marrying music and visuals into one harmonious vision.

Jung was exploring music from an early age, today sharing songwriting duties, with Tom on keyboard and Henrik on the guitar. “It wasn’t until four years ago that we actually started writing songs for a common purpose. And, in one way, our goals are of the highest sort, but the main thing is that we just love to be able to make music for a living. It’s amazing to be able to work with something creative, a dream come true in many ways,” explains Henrik, adorned in Jung’s new merch.

The duo has been described as a band anchored in the traditions of classic melodic songwriting, twisting in elements of folk, dance and R&B. A fact that’s not surprising considering an upbringing that saw Henrik and Tom exposed from an early age to a wide variety of music.

“Our parents gave us the best from the past; Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrisson, the Stones, and the list goes on. Growing up our Dad used to sing ‘I swear by All-4-One in the car. A defining moment for sure,” says Henrik, with a wry glint in his eye.

With such musically strong blood ties, we ask whether their sibling relationship makes the band and the pairing’s songwriting easier. “We can’t comment on other siblings in bands, but we think it’s easier,” Tom remarks. “We have a deep understanding of each other and the same kind of musical preferences and shared background – as Henrik said earlier.”

With three albums under their belt and a host of collaborations, including Let Him Go (released in 2020 with fellow Swede, Clara Mae and streamed around 40 million times on Spotify alone) Jung has a purposeful work ethic that runs beyond music and into the visual aspects of artistry. And the band’s creativity seeps into its music videos, working closely with a blend of creatives to see its tracks visualised.

“We are very involved in creating our visuals, designs and looks, from the idea to the actual making of the layout. Usually, we create our artwork ourselves and sometimes we work closely with designers. For our latest album we got a lot of help from Lisa Borg, who is a creative genius and who’s been involved in our project a lot over the years,” says Henrik, grabbing a sweatshirt for the next shot.

There are clear themes running through the merch that links to the band’s record covers and song titles. Pressing on this, we asked about the ideas behind the merch and where inspiration stems for Jung. The response was instant and heartfelt.

“We have always strived to produce and create things we can stand for, starting from the music and then moving on visually, live performance and of course, merch comes in as an important part of this. We have been testing around a bit through the years and now with this collab with Creator Studios, it finally feels like we have landed in what we have always been striving for, just where we are supposed to be. In terms of inspiration, there’s not really one specific place. It comes from different corners all the time and we are always open to new ideas – everywhere. From other brands we like to art, music, film, paintings…” notes Tom.

Our eagle-eyed shoot team points out a part of the design that’s caught his eye. A swirling painterly ‘moon’ with a central divide covered in glyphs. “It’s like a yin yang, right?” he asks. “You are absolutely spot on there,” laughs Henrik.

“Quite early in the process of creating Jung we wanted to have a sort of symbol that we could work around and the idea of making a yin/yang came up, although we call it our jung/jung symbol. At the start of the process, the line in the middle of the circle was actually our faces’ profiles that we then modulated.”

With time in the studio drawing to a close, the duo still appears fresh and alert – ready for more. Before leaving, we felt obliged to ask what lies ahead for Henrik and Tom?

“The beginning of Jung felt more like a test. Asking ourselves; ‘what can we do? Now it feels like we are truer to us and are asking, ‘what do we like?’ says Tom.

Casting an eye over the merch lining the stylist’s rack one last time, you get the feeling that these two driven creators are only beginning to focus their creative minds towards the sonic, visual and artistic shape of the Jung to come. 

the band using visuals to bond with its fans

Jung at Heart

It’s no secret that we think print on demand (PoD) is the best thing to happen to merch since Ace Frehley drew the first KISS logo over a rival band’s fly poster. It lets designs live in the cloud until they’re needed – costing a creator absolutely nothing. And with zero minimum orders and countless types of blank garments to explore, you could argue that every piece of PoD merch is one-of-a-kind.

At the recent opening of the new Monki Flagship Store in Stockholm, a queue of feverish merch fans were waiting to grab a set of AR goggles and enter a new merch dimension. By turbocharging the power of PoD using Augmented Reality (AR), Monki’s community was brought within touching distance of creator Vanja Ivarsson’s recent work for the brand’s From King to Queen campaign.

“The AR project was the first project for our new community area in the Drottninggatan store and our first collaboration with Creator Studio. It's an activity and experience that really tied into our world. The Augmented Reality integrated perfectly with our From King to Queen concept that we’re working with and also Vanja’s own creative world. The tech ties the physical campaign to a digital sphere – one in which Ivarsson’s digital and 3D focussed artwork is the perfect creative vehicle,” explains Monki’s B&M director Simone van Starkenburg.

At the opening, each visitor was hooked up and immersed in a specially-coded platform where they could manipulate the graphical elements of the From King to Queen pieces and create their own unique T’s and sweatshirts. From beginning to end, the process took a handful of days to bring Monki’s community their new garments, printed on demand on our own True Blanks merch apparel.

“These kinds of initiatives are super interesting – both in terms of the sustainability of printing on demand, and giving people the chance to make something unique and personal,” notes van Starkenburg.

Is it the future of merch? Augmented Reality is certainly a concept creeping into our society more and more as retail evolves into experience-driven spaces that nurture community interaction, and our lives become more integrated with the metaverse. Future digital native generations are already customising avatar skins as easily as Generation X would scribble a post-it. For the Gen Zs and Alphas, individual expression is almost a prerequisite of all facets of life. So, perhaps it’s more a question of when the merch future will be our merch present.

As with all tech, today’s early stages of AR merch do come at a cost that not all brands can justify yet, and the ambition at the Creator Studio experience is to continue to explore its potential while also making it more accessible.

“Right now, Create:AR supports one of the most powerful AR head-mounted displays on the market: Magic Leap 2. The software is built by us from scratch, and we’ve options to roll it out in other ways too. For example, if AR setup is not possible, a brand can have a touchscreen kiosk (Create:Kiosk) or make it available on mobile phones (Create:Web), which would require less maintenance and man-power,” explains Emma Raventos, part of the team behind Creator Studio’s new experiences group.

If you want to connect your brand with the future of merch and engage your fans in a new way, get in touch.

The future (of merch) is in your hands

“Ignore the books behind me, I’ve just moved into a new place and haven’t really sorted anything out yet,” begins Vanja Ivarsson with an easy enthusiasm. The 25-year-old has already chalked up an impressive portfolio of work that spans multiple genres and fields, with a style that’s bright, expressive and feels like a slice into the heart of today’s zeitgeist. Her recent collaboration with Monki, entitled From King to Queen, has opened up fashion, merch and augmented reality as new artistic platforms to explore.

Although still very much in the early stages of her career, Ivarsson’s path is already dotted with accomplishments that established artists would be hard-pressed to list. “I make a comic zine that is published once a year with ten different artists who all interpret the same theme. We print it on a Japanese Riso print press, which only prints one colour at a time,” she says. We discuss that this, combined with her love of 3D design, could be one of the reasons why her work translates so easily to merch, a medium in which layers of a design are separated for print and slowly resolved as a singular design.

“During the prep for my graduation, I was contacted on Instagram by Monki. They knew about my art and were fans themselves – really nice people and it immediately felt like we were a good match. I felt safe and secure;” explains Ivarsson. “They asked me to make a pitch for its feminist campaign, From King to Queen, and they said not to be afraid to be bold and provocative, which was great.”

Ivarsson began the work as she often does, with pencil or pen sketches that she later brings into digital 2D format but, on the suggestion of Monki’s team, she began to extend the initial designs into the third dimension.

“Vanja shares our values of female empowerment and that’s important for us. As a brand we want to support the creative community where we are present, and for this project we wanted to work with a local illustrator – someone we feel is a queen in their own right. We encouraged Vanja to go bold and she did, and we are very happy with the result, explains Simone van Starkenburg, B&M director at Monki.

Looking back, Ivarsson states without hesitation that the whole process and collaboration “Felt really free.” Casting one’s eye over the bold prints and motifs, with layers of pastels and glossy bold characters, the collection feels very unrestricted. And the results shine bright.

As a project, From King to Queen is uncharted territory for Vanja – a new medium and audience to engage with. Was this something she considered before putting pencil to paper? “I was thinking that it would be fun if my friends would wear it. Monki as a brand has a pretty young demographic, but still, it would be cool if other creative people would want to wear the pieces,” notes Vanja, adding that there are lots of elements of her comic influences that crept into the capsule collection. From flowers with sharpened teeth to demonic-eyed demons and contorted monsters, there’s an aesthetic softness that reveals a harder stronger edge. A strength within every ‘Queen’.

For Monki’s opening of its newest flagship in Stockholm, it was Ivarsson’s work that played an integral part in the store’s customer experience. Facilitated by CREATOR STUDIO’s print on demand and Augmented Reality tech, customers manipulated layers of her artwork to create their own one-off merch. As pairings go, it was a no-brainer – the future of merch meets a progressive artist and empowers its fans in the process.

With our time with Vanja drawing to a close, and the arrival of her buddy to install her bathtub, we finish by asking what advice she’d give to emerging artists. She pauses and explains that, during her education, one of her lecturers was keen for students to try to draw artworks by creators they admired. “So you’d take an illustration from someone you like and copy it to understand their techniques, shapes and processes. What you realise is that you’re not actually copying but developing your own style. You begin to understand that you should also rely on your intuition and not be caged in. You have to be free within the systems.”

Dream Big

A powerhouse of a creative, Sámi rights and real social issues are just a few of the themes that Maxida Märak champions in her work.

Multi-talented Swedish-Sámi joik singer, hip hop artist, actress and activist, Maxida Märak is one of Sweden’s most fluid creators. With a charismatic stage presence and outspoken informed attitude, she’s paving the way for Sámi creators and lifting Sámi rights.

As a recording artist, Märak has a string of albums and EPs to her name, predominantly hip hop but drawing influences from many genres. Critics and fans often refer to her stage presence, whether performing or in tv appearances – in which she can often be passionately and brutally to the point. A refreshing standpoint in a sea of homogenised, groomed, PC pop acts. And it’s not just the struggles of the Sámi people that Märak touches on in her music and commentary but also the problems of general society and its daily grind.

Style-wise too, Märak exudes honesty and authenticity. She is who she is; a proud mother, a member of a unique community and it’s from her roots and daily life that she draws her power.

Maxida’s CREATOR STUDIO merch brings bold graphic motifs and stylised Nordic wilderness scenes.

Powerful Outspoken Words

Couriers are a subculture that exists in pretty much every metropolis; their daily rides and rituals are almost immune to changes in technology and trends that come and go. When you need something to get from A to B, there’s no quicker way to get it done.

Josef Lindqvist is a cycle courier and founder of the independent Stockholm-based courier collective, Joyride. He spends his days' rain or shine on the streets of the city he feels he ‘owns’, with a relationship to its roads, paths and passageways other residents could never lay claim to.

“I own the whole city. In this job you ride among a population dressed in their fine clothes but to be a courier and do what I do means to own your entire city,” he explains, pausing with one of his fellow couriers in the centre of town to grab a much-needed bite to eat.

“I that I’m among the people but have the freedom to move how I want to. It feels like I’m flying, riding on this wave, with these small interactions with people that last just a few seconds and then I’m back flying again,” he smiles, watching cars stream around the iconic Sergels Torg roundabout.

While he does feel that his lifestyle has isolated him from developing close, intimate relationships, he’s quick to point out that being a part of the courier culture gives him a community that forges strong bonds with its members.

“Sometimes I feel a little alone because there’s nobody who gets to truly know me because I have this freedom to roam how and where I want to. I’ve always felt that I’m different but the togetherness that I feel from the cycle courier world makes a connection between me and the other ‘courier freaks’,” he smiles again, flashing his gold tooth from under his moustache, before pulling up the sleeve on tie dye hoodie and fastening his helmet.

And then, he’s gone, weaving his way back into the traffic, flying on his wave for another brief interaction with Stockholm and its people.

take a joyride and see the world a different way

Take a Joyride

The work of the AWAL record label stands in stark opposition to ageing structures with a platform that empowers its artists.

An alternative to conventional record labels, AWAL is a distributor with a unique offering created to empower independent artists. An acronym of Artists Without A Label, it was founded in the UK in 2011 to support and distribute the work of artists and producers without them relinquishing ownership or control of their music.

With a structure that pays out as much as 80% of streaming revenue to artists, AWAL has an impressive roster of talent and signings including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, You Me at Six, Banks and deadmau5’s own label, mau5trap.

As well as the support it provides for its artists, AWAL is also active on a community and social activism level, using merch as a key player in raising awareness as well as funds for its causes.

AWAL’s merch isn’t just great to look at, proceeds go towards the causes it supports.

Bringing Freedom of Expression to Independent Artists

Stockholm-based Anna Gavanas has been DJing since the 90s. Away from the decks, she’s also a multi-faceted producer, author and researcher.

During the pandemic and its lockdowns, communities like the dance music world were stripped of their platforms for expression and social togetherness. Gavanas used her lockdown as an opportunity to isolate herself in the studio and create new music.

During this time, she discovered an old cassette tape of her brother – who passed away more than 20 years. Sampling his voice, Ganavas used these echoes of her past as a form of collaboration for one of the new tracks.

”When my brother was alive, he truly lived for the music. It has been such an interesting experience collaborating with him on this new track, 20 years after his passing. He still makes me laugh, just like when we were growing up.”

uplifting inspiration from beyond the grave

Communicating Beyond Life and Death

Dejan Cekanovic has worked as a stylist and hairdresser for more than thirty years. He has traveled the world with his work and been featured on Italian Vouge, worked with Linda Evangelista, Madonna and Beyonce. Dejan himself say; ”Sure that was a cool thing to experience, but for me it’s always been about the dolls.”


“With humans I’ve already pushed my creative limits to a potential that I am content with. But with the dolls, no, I’m not even close to done yet.”


Stylist Dejan Cekanovic said that working with dolls helps him make sense of the world we live in. “With humans I’ve already pushed my creative limits to a potential that I am content with. But with the dolls, no, I’m not even close to done yet.” Dejan, of Stockholm, has worked as a stylist and hairdresser for more than thirty years. He has traveled the world with his work and been featured on Italian Vouge, worked with Linda Evangelista, Madonna and Beyonce. Dejan himself says that ‘sure that was a cool thing to experience, but for me it’s always been about the dolls.’ 

Me and My Dolls

Gaia Gozzi’s music mixes Italian, Brazilian and Portuguese and draws from a vast foundation of influences. Often driven by simple acoustic melodies and stripped back beats, it’s a sunset, enjoyed barefoot on warm sand, captured to reel. Listed in Forbes as one of the 100 Italians under the age of 30 who will leave their mark, she’s already recorded two full length albums all which bring a diverse set of influences from Diana Ross to Stevie Wonder and Caetano Veloso.

Her CREATOR STUDIO merch has an easy bohemian edge and, as show, feels great worn oversized.

Creator studio

READY TO CREATE?

creator studio spotlight

Disruption from within

Deeper Community Connections

Jung at Heart

The future (of merch) is in your hands

Dream Big

Powerful Outspoken Words

Take a Joyride

Bringing Freedom of Expression to Independent Artists

Communicating Beyond Life and Death

Me and My Dolls

Redefining the Italian Sound

CREATOR STUDIO

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FAQ

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