Bravado is a global music merchandise company, and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
Bravado represents artists in more than 40 countries and provides services including sales, licensing, branding, marketing and e-commerce.
Bravado has managed merch for artists including Taylor Swift, Eminem, The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, and many more.
The company runs offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney.
It was originally founded in 1997 by brothers Keith and Barry Drinkwater.
Financials and leadership change
Global merchandise sales at Universal Music Group across the first nine months of 2020 were down 42.6% YoY, hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
UMG’s ‘merchandise and other’ sales stood at €338 million ($381 million) in the first nine months of 2019, according to Vivendi fiscal filings.
In 2020, this nine-month figure fell to €195 million ($217 million).
That represented a decline of $164m year-on-year in the Jan-Sept period (from $381m in 2019 to $217m in 2020).
In October 2020, Mat Vlasic, the CEO of Bravado, exited the company four years after he joined from rival Sony Music.
Acquisition of Epic Rights
In January 2019, Bravado announced that it had acquired its Los Angeles-based rival, Epic Rights, for an undisclosed fee.
Epic Rights works with artists/brands including Aerosmith, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Kevin Hart, 21 Savage, Madonna, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Sting, David Bowie, Lionel Richie, and Britney Spears, among others
As part of the agreement, Epic Rights’ CEO and founder Dell Furano, along with his team, continued to build merchandising opportunities for their roster of artists.Music Business Worldwide