As music tours and their related merchandise sales once again hit the road, the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that have roiled the business will also return.

For the most part, M&A within the merchandise business paused during the pandemic. But with tours resuming, so too has music companies’ quest to expand into new markets, regions, and categories. And the shortest route for that expansion has been acquisitions.

For example, earlier this year Sony Music Entertainment invested in the merchandising company Ceremony of Roses, which has signed licensing representation deals with the likes of Adele, Olivia Rodrigo, A$AP Rocky, and Baby Keem since its founding in 2016. Ceremony of Roses kept its name in merging with Sony’s Thread Shop Division (which represents artists like The Beatles, Lil Naz X, and Led Zeppelin) to create a global media, branding, design, and events company. This acquisition was in addition to previous deals Sony made with UK music merchandiser Kontrabrand and the music division of The Araca Group.

More recently, Universal Music Group’s music merchandise division Bravado completed the “centralization” of its merger with Epic Rights, closing a deal first announced in 2019. The agreement combines Epic’s roster, which includes New Kids on The Block and Aerosmith, with Bravado’s roster featuring Justin Bieber, The Weekend, and others. The current M&A cycle represents a reprise of sorts. The late Epic Rights CEO Dell Furano  formed Epic after the company he previously headed, Sony Signatures Network,  merged with Live Nation in 2008, and consolidation has been a watchword for the music industry for years.

“We have bought merchandising companies in every market in the world,” Rob Stringer, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment said. “We have bought management companies recently in Germany and Mexico. Our eyes are on the world… anywhere where we think there is a deal that enhances our ecosystem, we will be there.”

The representation deals being struck are increasingly “holistic,” with music companies seeking to handle not only artists’ recording and publishing business but also merchandising and other efforts, said Warner Music Group CEO Steve Cooper, whose company acquired European music merchandise company EMP in 2018. Universal is also seeking “multi-faceted” deals that expand its merchandise business, CEO Lucian Grainge said.

“I think the business is changing and it is spreading out geographically. There are a lot of transactions as companies try to get bigger,” said Jesper Poulsen, general manager at Bravado, who will lead a combined company that will also include Epic Rights’ Lisa Streff, heading up global licensing for both companies.

Indeed, expansion efforts include not only markets and regions, but also technology. Warner Music recently acquired Qanawat Music, a distributor in the Middle East and Northern Africa that has services in 20 countries, to build out Warner Music Middle East, which was established in 2018. At the same time, Warner “fostered partnerships” with Roblox, Fortnite, and The Sandbox as well as NFT developers Genies, Blockparty, and Dapper Labs, Cooper said.

And while t-shirts remain the mainstay of the concert and retail merchandise business, artists’ rise to fame is also taking a social media turn. For example, singer-songwriter and rapper Ashton Nicole Casey, better known as Ashnikko, rose to fame on TikTok when her 2019 single “Stupid” went viral. Casey’s popularity led to a merchandising deal with Global Merchandising Services and a t-shirt on display at last week’s Licensing Expo.

“So much of the music is social media-based now and that requires a totally different approach than traditional licensing deals,” a Global Merchandising spokesperson said. “TikTok is going to be the place to go for some of these deals.”