About
A Nashville software studio for Shopify merchants
Music City Labs builds focused Shopify apps for the operational problems that cost merchants time and money: getting found in search, reporting packaging under new state laws, getting orders delivered on time, and running a shop floor.
What we do
We design, build, host and support our own Shopify apps from end to end. Support comes straight from the studio that builds the product, so questions reach people who can actually fix the problem.
Each app is built around one job and goes deep on it. That means fewer features than an all-in-one suite, but the ones that are there are finished, explained in plain English and tested on real orders.
Why these apps
Every app started as a problem we had to solve ourselves.
- Whittle came from cleaning up a store blog that had grown full of thin, AI-written posts, and from watching shoppers start to find products through AI answers instead of search results.
- Packtally came from new state packaging laws that ask brands for numbers most Shopify stores have never tracked: pounds of each material shipped into each state.
- Roadcase comes straight from a logistics background: watching carrier performance, catching late packages early, and finding where shipping costs leak.
- Keyholder comes from running a retail floor on Shopify POS, where layaway, alterations, the time clock and commissions still end up on paper.
How we work
- Least access. Each app asks only for the Shopify permissions its features use.
- Reversible changes. Anything an app changes in your store is recorded and can be undone.
- Data kept to a minimum. We store only what a feature needs, encrypt sensitive fields, and delete store data after uninstall. Details are on our security page.
- Tested on a real store. Every app runs on our own Shopify store before release.
- Honest claims. Our compliance tools prepare reports and explain the rules; they don't give legal advice or promise outcomes they can't control.
Leadership
Blake Smith, Founder. Blake leads product and engineering at Music City Labs. He brings experience in software development, enterprise logistics and retail operations, and owns a Nashville retail business that runs on Shopify and Shopify POS. That mix of building software and running stores shapes every app the studio ships.