Townsend launches all-new music store and exclusive vinyl series

Townsend has unveiled its all-new music store and Townsend Exclusive vinyl offering, after powering three UK number ones in 2025 and 26 top-10 album campaigns, with a 34% average week-one market share.

Townsend is a UK-based independent direct-to-consumer e-commerce retailer and distributor. According to the ERA report released in early March, the direct-to-consumer landscape is increasingly important in supporting artists’ global income. Townsend runs its own in-house platform for the new Townsend Music Store, combining multiple services in a single system and including a real-time data dashboard.

The Townsend Exclusive Vinyl series forms part of the company’s strategy to drive incremental physical sales within artist campaigns and support additive pre-order chart moments. The limited-edition vinyl is predominantly pressed by manufacturer Record Industry – also part of The Artone Group.

Initial releases include a 1,000-copy limited edition of Van Morrison’s album Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge (in partnership with Orangefield Records), pressed on 180-gram smokey black and gold double heavyweight vinyl, and a 500-copy pressing of Frank Turner’s Campfire Punkrock - 20th Anniversary Edition (in partnership with Xtra Mile Recordings) on 180-gram yellow flame colour heavyweight vinyl with six bonus live tracks as digital content to download or stream from Townsend's platform.

This builds on Townsend’s success in 2025, attracting 8.1 million visitors across over 1,000 artist and label direct-to-consumer stores, including Barry Can’t Swim, The Black Keys, Blossoms, D-Block Europe, Gary Numan, Jorja Smith, Leigh-Anne, Kylie, Noel Gallagher, The Prodigy and Shed Seven.

“We have worked with Townsend for 15 years, Bruce and the team are magic, as is their platform,” said John Fairs, manager of The Prodigy.

On average, the platform added around 1,000 new opted-in fans each day directly to artists’ own databases. Conversion rates were about 2.6 times higher than industry benchmarks across all stores, with roughly 1,200 customer orders fulfilled daily, reflecting consistent audience growth and scalability.

At the end of 2025, Townsend ran the official D2C store for the release of Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped). Coordinated physical releases alongside digital singles enabled the capture of peak fan demand, aligning format and timing with careful execution, leading Kylie Christmas to become a UK No.1 album and 2025’s Christmas No.1 single.

“We pride ourselves on being a secret weapon, acting as an extra team member on each artist campaign, always striving to provide best-in-market service for our clients,” said Lucas Barr, operations director for Townsend Music. “Bringing the next stage of Townsend Music’s evolution to our existing artist and label stores, and beyond, reinforces our commitment to being a trusted collaborator, helping our clients achieve many more cultural and chart milestones.”