Phoebe Bridgers’ record label Saddest Factory Records merging after trademark dispute
Phoebe Bridgers‘ record label, Saddest Factory Records, has merged with its parent label, Dead Oceans, after a trademark dispute over its name.
The news was shared by way of a short, succinct Instagram post, which read, “Due to a trademark dispute around the label’s name, moving forward all SFR releases will come out via Dead Oceans, with our logo sitting alongside the Dead Oceans logo to signify our involvement.”
No further information about the particularities of the dispute was shared.
However, as per Pitchfork, a duo called Saddest Factory based in Michigan currently exists. The pair describe themselves as “the culmination of two intensely imaginative men and their need for self-expression.”
Saddest Factory Records was announced in October 2020. At the time, Claud became the first signing before the close of the year. Other signees include Charlie Hickey, Katie Gavin, Muna, and Sloppy Jane.
In 2024, the record label announced that singer-songwriter Jasmine.4.t was its first UK signee.
In 2025, Far Out gave Jasmine.4.t’s debut album, You Are The Morning, released through the Saddest Factory Imprint, a glowing four stars, sharing, “Autobiographical, accomplished and thematically substantial, You Are The Morning has already made a great case for itself ahead of the mass of albums that are to follow in 2025. It’s an essential body of work.”
This blow has come at a time when Bridgers has only recently poked her head above water, after hiding from the limelight for over half a decade.
The boygenius member played a no-phones show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, at which she unveiled her first solo dates since 2023. It is expected that Bridgers will follow this up with her first solo album since 2020’s Punisher.
Bridgers will tour across the US and Canada throughout September and October, before heading to the UK and Ireland in November for shows in Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, and London.
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