General Consignment Guidelines
The Tender Loving Empire shop is primarily focused on selling handmade wares from local artists and crafters. If you are interested in consigning with us, please read ALL information below.

What we’re generally looking for:
Quality, handcrafted items made right here in Portland. We make exceptions to the Portland rule on occasion. Our customer base is a mix of young locals, downtown workers and residents, and visitors staying in nearby hotels. Some people are looking for everyday, functional items while others are looking for creative gifts or souvenirs. Whatever the type of work, it should have a uniqueness that reflects the creative energy and social ideals of Portland. We welcome original work as well as re-purposed and up-cycled items that have been given a second chance at life outside a landfill.

Important things to know:

• We only accept consignment submissions via email. No phone or over the counter inquiries please. (This does not apply to music).
• Items are chosen by a number of factors including, but not limited to: style, quality of craftsmanship, current sales trends, seasonal appropriateness, similarity to other items and space limitations. While we try our best to consider all work equally, we are not able to accommodate everyone. Tender Loving Empire reserves the right to decline to sell items for any reason without notification.
• If your items are selected for sale, we will contact you to set up an appointment to bring in the items, at which point we will initiate a standard 3-month consignment contract. The contract terms are that you agree to keep the items for sale in our store for at least the length of the contract; that any purchases of the items during that time must be made through our store; and that after 3 months the contract may be extended or expired by either party for any reason.
• The General Consignment split is 50/50. Artists may set prices for their own items, but we may have suggestions for ideal pricing based on what we know works in the store. We reserve the right to refuse to sell a product at a price point that will not fit in at our store.
• Consigners should check-in and re-stock frequently. If you are unable to produce work as fast as it is selling, consignment at TLE may not be right for you. Consigners are required to check in at least once every consignment period (3 months) in order to receive payment for sold items. All money due is voided after 1 year if consigner has not picked up payment. Monthly check-in is recommended to ensure the most profitable relationship possible. You may check-in with us via e-mail (Subject: Check-IN/Your Name), phone (503-243-5859), or in-person at the store.

Please be aware that we may not sell items from artists who live outside our region. We are not a re-sale shop and we do not sell vintage or used items that have not been repurposed or otherwise artistically altered in some way by the consigner.

How to Submit:
If all the above sounds good, please email us at retail@tenderlovingempire.com and include the following information:

–SUBJECT: Consignment Inquiry: Your Name
–A link to your work on a website, Etsy store, Flickr, or other photo site: or up to 5 attached images of all the work you wish to be considered. (If you send a link to a website, please be explicit about which items are to be considerd and ensure that it will be quick and easy for us to navigate to them on the site. If you have a site with a lot of work but only wish for certain items to be considered, please email us the images rather than sending a link.
–A clearly defined list of the retail prices for each item Your earrings per item will be half this amount. While you may offer different items at different price points, please try to limit the number of price groups to simplify our bookkeeping.
–Current contact info. Full name, business name (if applicable), your primary email address, phone number, and the city you currently reside in.

We will keep submission information on file and contact you if and when we can accommodate your work. If you don’t hear from us, please know that we wish you all the best in your creative endeavors! Often times there are items we personally like that are just not a good fit for the store.

Thanks for your interest in being a part of Tender Loving Empire!

The Sad Truth
We listen to about 75% of unsolicited band submissions. Of those submissions we respond to about 5%. However, we have never released music by a band based on an unsolicited demo. Generally, we find the musicians on Tender Loving Empire the same way most people find the music they love– through word of mouth (e.g. friends, social network, blogs, music industry folks, (but mostly friends)). If your band is amazing, certainly let us know, but keep in mind, we need to be hearing about you from other sources as well. Wouldn’t you be much more likely to become a fan of that band if three friends, a newspaper and a blog all told you to “buy this band’s record, they’re amazing,” than if just the band themselves contacted you out of the blue and said “buy our record, we’re amazing.”?

That said:
We do put out a yearly compilation of songs from bands around the world called Friends and Friends of Friends that often includes tracks by bands that we do not know, or have not corresponded with in the past (hence the title). As a result we have decided to streamline our “submissions process” (which makes it sound far more complex and pro than it actually is) by using the single track submission form below. Fill out all fields (otherwise it gets chucked) and upload your best song. We do listen to all submissions carefully on an ongoing basis for inclusion in the FAFOF compilation series. So upload below…

Upload a song to TLE

If you’d still like to send us something physical…
feel free to, but only if it fits the following criteria.
1. Only send us music in a similar or complimentary genre as our previous releases (you might have noticed there’s not a lot of Black Metal or Ambient Noise bands on TLE). Take the time to listen to our catalog before sending us something.
2. Take your time with the cover art. Send something awesome. (no sharpied CDRs in plastic sleeves, please)
3. Put together an informational sheet with your band name, photo of your band, contact info, and some insightful, provocative information about your project.
4. Leave out anything else that might be annoying or extraneous. (e.g. glitter, glossy band photos, multiple page cover letters, more than one CD).
5. Don’t send vinyl. (We love vinyl but not for submissions. Save your vinyl for your fans. That shit’s expensive. If we love your music and see that you have vinyl (which you should note in #4), we’ll send you money for it.)

Send it to: Tender Loving Empire, ATTN: MUSIC SUBMISSIONS, 412 SW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97205

Something else to think about:
Today’s music industry is becoming more and more artist friendly. Making a recording for free or nearly free is easy, and making a studio quality record for less than $1000 is totally feasible given the number of hungry engineers with decent equipment and bills to pay. No doubt, if you’ve made it this deep into a sub-tab on a website, you have accounts with many music sharing and social network sites. These are great communities to be part of and can lead to all sorts of amazing encounters. That said, if you are really serious about going down the road of the “professional” musician (and think about that one hard, because it’s not for everyone. Its not for many in fact. Do you really want to be away from home for 250 days a year?) there is one simple secret that you must know. Its one that gym teachers and basketball coaches everywhere have been screaming their guts out about for years. And, it may sound cliche, but its true: there really is indeed no I in T-E-A-M. It is absolutely 100% necessary for you to build a team around you that loves your music as much as you do. They don’t need to be industry professionals, or slick or cool or anything, they just need to be in love with your music and willing to work hard to spread the word about it. Many are the story of “managers” or “booking agents” or “record labels” who became lauded, successful professionals out of sheer exuberance for the bands they were working for, and who more times than not, were just friends of the band who were set on fire by the music being made.

So hit up that intense, hard working friend of yours who is dancing in the front at every show to be your manager, and that roommate of yours who is really organized (and in the front row at every show) to book a tour for you. And if there’s no one in the front row at your shows, practice a ton and play tons of shows and keep writing and recording songs until there are. It doesn’t really matter if you know anything about the music industry, it matters if you can work hard and stay organized and can persevere when difficulties (and success) arise. Learn to silkscreen and make your own cases and consign them at local record stores, give your entity a name that is not your band name. Trade a private show for a website. Kickstarter a van. There are many musicians out there who need to not take themselves so seriously, but there are many more musicians who should take themselves more seriously. No one likes a blatant careerist but no one likes a lazy whiner either. If you want to take what you’re doing creatively farther, you don’t need an outside entity to do it. Get organized, have a meeting, assign responsibilities, borrow money, make promises, believe in yourself. Then watch things change rapidly.

Some resources:
A great site with detailed info on DIY silkscreening – http://www.silkscreentutorials.com/
Lots of interesting resources for starting your own record label – http://musicians.about.com/od/musicindustrybasics/ss/howtostartalabel.htm
A great indie distributor who will take on single bands rather than just labels (like most distros) www.bdcdistribution.com