Music Ecommerce on Shopify: Softlimit's Ben Lord on Label D2C

<p>Ben Lord, Founder and CEO of Softlimit, has been in and around the music industry for over 30 years and in ecommerce for the last sixteen. A touring drummer (Falling Forward / Elliott / Sharon Van Etten / Mascott / Bird of Youth / Phantom Family Halo / Kilowatthours), he's also released records through independent labels (Initial, Revelation, Temporary Residence Ltd., Jagjaguwar), and worked in Atlantic Records' New Media Division during the launch of the first digital music store.</p><p>He later led campaigns at Bond Strategy and Influence across entertainment verticals before spending the last decade building Softlimit, a Shopify Premier Partner Agency helping brands like Sacred Bones, Temporary Residence Ltd., Polyvinyl, Moon Juice, Misen, and The Perfect Jean grow their ecommerce revenue.</p><p>Music still sits at the center of his life, and he works closely with label heads, agents, and artists.</p><b><strong>In This Conversation We Discuss:</strong></b><p><i><em>This conversation draws on Softlimit's January 2026 whitepaper, "Built-In Demand, Broken Infrastructure: The Music Industry's Revenue Gap," co-authored by Ben Lord and Martina England, which explores how independent labels can close the gap between fan demand and captured revenue by adopting DTC ecommerce practices.</em></i></p><ul><li>[00:00] Introduction</li><li>[01:17] Helping the music industry master D2C</li><li>[01:54] From touring drummer to agency founder</li><li>[02:53] Why agencies walk away from music clients</li><li>[04:03] Why label stores are glorified merch shops</li><li>[05:59] When clients show up with the prescription</li><li>[06:56] Conversion and AOV wins for music clients</li><li>[07:24] Fixing broken filters and legacy platforms</li><li>[09:23] The cost of selling through third parties</li><li>[10:33] Why music isn't like other big catalogs</li><li>[11:51] How labels lift conversion rate and AOV</li><li>[12:31] Cross-sells built on product relationships</li><li>[13:55] Label-curated "you'll like this too" picks</li><li>[14:55] The Shopify tech stack behind the wins</li><li>[15:33] Cleaning up messy product data</li><li>[15:50] Migrating legacy CMS data and using Rebuy</li><li>[17:14] Why indie labels hesitate on email and SMS</li><li>[18:51] Turning fan data into more tour sales</li><li>[20:48] Fan clubs and new streaming rules</li><li>[21:28] The indie music industry is growing up</li><li>[22:32] First steps to think like a D2C brand</li><li>[23:39] Capturing first-p