Making Merch Work For You Now – Covid Edition

We are living in trying times for sure, friends. And while this IS temporary, it may be some time before you can take your show back on the road. With this harsh reality looming, the first instinct may be to panic. Try not to do that - don’t let uncertainty prevent you from moving forward. The best thing we can do for ourselves now is to keep going, find ways to pivot, and figure out how to weather this storm.  

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How To Sell Merch & Music At Shows Without Being Sales-y

When it comes to selling merch and music at live shows, it’s not uncommon for musicians to feel uncomfortable and out-of-their-element. This unsettling feeling usually causes musicians to avoid sales altogether.

After all, we musicians are creatives. Deep down, we believe that the quality of our creative products should speak for themselves.

And yes, it should…

But only if people know about it.

That’s where marketing comes in.

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Creative (And Unusual) Music Marketing Methods

There are more musicians than there have ever been before, and they all have a platform online to put their music out there for the world to hear. It isn’t enough to just put music up online and expect people to pay attention, and as the world of marketing changes people are looking for ways to stand out. Some of the classic, tried and tested marketing methods are still doing the business for bands and artists, but there are also some new ways people are trying in order to get more eyeballs to their project.

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4 Tips To Get The Most Out Of Your Next Local Concert

Getting to see one of your favorite bands live will be a memory that you can cherish forever. Unfortunately, many concerts are hectic, and it doesn’t take much to ruin the event. If you want to make the most out of your next concert, then take a look at these four tips that will help you have the time of your life.

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The Ultimate Guide To Selling Band Merch Online

Before you dive into ordering or creating your merch, there are a few steps to consider to ensure that your time and money spent on investing in merch is worth the effort.

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Frugality On DIY Tour: Some Simple Suggestions

A DIY tour is expensive. There are ways to be successful, but for a band just starting out, I would recommend trying to spend as little money as possible. Here are some suggestions on how you can do that.

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Concert Road Warriors - How To Show Your Affection For Your Favorite Bands

When you go to concerts, it’s more fun if you can find interesting and effective ways to support your favorite bands. It doesn’t matter if these are world famous musicians or simply friends of yours who have started a local band that you want to support. Either way, there are ways to show your loyalty and make the experience of attending concerts more fun for you and your friends.

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Band Merch: Breaking Away From T-Shirts And CDs

Recently, I jokingly tweeted that bands should capitalize on fingerboards as a form of merchandise. Surprisingly, some people from my fairly low amount of Twitter followers seemed to agree with the sentiment. Merchandise costs money of course, but it’s specifically how bands make money on the road. This is especially true in today’s internet age, but I’ve also learned that the more merch you have at your table, the more you’ll sell, as you appeal to different tastes. I’m not saying your DIY, independent band has to have six plus tee-shirt designs. I’m saying don’t be afraid to step outside of the box. Here’s some merch ideas I’ve seen artists - some platinum-selling, some who can’t sell more than 100 copies of their records - do before that struck me as particularly interesting.

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How To Pre-Plan & Manage Your Band's Tour Finances

When indie music duo Pomplamoose went on 28-day tour in fall 2014, they sold just under $100,000 in tickets. With merchandise sales and a sponsorship from Lenovo, they pulled in a total of $135,983. However, after paying for publicity, payroll, production, hotels, food, travel, commissions, merchandise manufacturing, and other costs, total tour expenses added up to $147,802. Pomplamoose ended up putting $11,819 on credit cards to cover the cost of their own tour.

Fortunately, Pomplamoose was expecting a loss

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The Ultimate Guide to Band Merchandise

These days, merchandise sales make up a pretty big portion of most touring acts’ income. The staples of CD’s, shirts, and stickers have become even more important as income from performing has gradually dropped. There are many tips out there of what bands should order and how they should sell their products, but there doesn’t seem to be much on how to get the best possible pricing from vendors, how to calculate prices, or how much product should be ordered before a tour.

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How Flexible Pricing Can Help You Sell More Merch

This article originally appeared on CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog.

Why the Value of Your Merch Changes Every Day

Let’s say you just started a hot-sauce business. The price of your product probably changes depending on the buyer; lower-end grocery stores, shi-shi markets, restaurants, and direct customers on your website will all pay a little something different for the same mouth-burning sensations— to say nothing of the folks who will try free samples at the store.

Musical products aren’t that different; the value of your merch changes from gig to gig, and should (or could) be priced accordingly. This is NOT “Name-Your-Price,” but an alternate system where the band and manager keep the context of the concert in mind when setting today’s “market price.” And unlike fish, your music won’t grow stale,… right?

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Band merch 101: What to make, how to make it, how to sell it

Music merchandise has always been important to bands, both as a source of revenue and to help raise awareness of your ‘brand’. Fans love buying merch too - the music we like is closely tied in with our identity, and wearing a band’s t-shirt is a way of showing off that identity to others. Now, merch is more important than ever as a way of making money. For many independent artists, the music itself is almost a ‘loss leader’ - given away to promote live shows and merchandise. But what should you sell, and what’s the best way to sell it?

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Buzz: Creative Merchandising at Warped Tour

More goes into impressive merchandise sales numbers than meets the eye. For one, there’s the marketing research that needs to be done beforehand so that you have product fans actually want to buy. After that comes the effectiveness of the person selling the merchandise; getting your band’s gear into fans’ hands is harder than sitting behind the table and letting them come to you.

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Merch Table Essentials: 15 Ways For Musicians To Increase Sales, Fans and Efficiency

As album sales are becoming a less meaningful component in the overall success of an artist or band, the live performance sector, including ticket sales and merchandise sales, is becoming increasingly important. While the live show itself must be unique in order to encourage repeat customers and ultimately drive ticket sales, the merchandise table has the opportunity to drive significant revenue and first hand, artist-fan engagement. But just having a merch table is not enough, as there are essential elements that must be accounted for in order to make the effort worth while.

Assuming that you have accounted for the typical ‘guts’, such as T-Shirts, CDs, Hats, Stickers, etc. there are essentials to any effective merch table that will do three very important thing:

- Increase your sales

- Increase your long-term engagement with new and existing fans

- Decrease wasteful overhead when investing in the merch for your next tour

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