The cost of band merch is getting out of hand

Bands don't make money off of record sales anymore thanks to Spotify and other streaming services, so they have to recoup that loss at the merch table and cranked up ticket prices for tours. I think it's less of greed and more of an effort to stay afloat in an industry that is becoming less and less profitable.

Funny to think in the 80s there was that whole "home taping is killing music" push from the record industries, now said industries have gone and killed it themselves.

Now a day's bands hardly come by especially the small ones that I often go see instead of the big ones since they play only in the capital and Plovdiv from time to time a lot of bands here hardly make money from the stopotify listens even the big 4 of local beatdown in my city hardly make enough from gigs that's why a lot of the guys here have a one or two full time jobs or are kids doing it for fun either way it costs them more to produce 50 to 100 t shirts and 150 cds then they receive from an entire concret not to mention the concerts of those bands is around 10€ half of the time for like 4 to 6 bands per gig

Inflation is messing up the economy here in the USA. Food and gas are expensive now. Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation here either. I usually buy a shirt or at least a patch when I go to concerts. Once in a while I buy a bootleg shirt from the guys outside the venue.

Yeah prices for all merch is insane. I’ve seen pictures at Iron Maiden’s merch booth where they’re selling a flag for $50. Shirts range from $45-$60 which is fucking insane and a lot of bands just end up selling them online for the same price. A lot of bands also don’t have patches or pins so if you only have $10 to spend your fucked.

What makes me a lot saltier are these vintage clothes flipping “hype beasts” trying to sell obvious bootleg merch “pieces” for $300-400. At least we have sites like this to easily verify authenticity but it doesn’t seem to stop some of these fuckheads from trying

Idk. People that come out to the show will pay whatever it says to be honest. I've run merch booths on the road for years and the price, while increasing overtime, doesn't seem to be a deterrent for most people. A mid to low level band is only making their money on merch. Whatever they are getting paid to open/direct support a show probably doesn't cover what it cost for them to get wherever.

Think about the cost of getting the shirts printed by the band. Depending on what stock shirt you are using and what print you are running, it could be ~ $20-30 per shirt to get a design made. A mid to low size band can't afford sell those for a loss. A band I'm involved in had a long sleeve design printed ~ 2 years ago that was roughly in that price range to print for the band. The total cost for shirts in this real example, ordered+shipped was close to $1000. We still haven't recouped all of that money yet. If you want to offer multiple designs, it will add up.

Inflation affects everything...fuel costs more which raises the price of almost everything. I hear it's between $1200 to $1500 to fill a big rigs tank these days and for a major tour many trucks ar required. Bands were also kept from touring (their main source of income) for 2 years due to Covid a larger known group like Maiden could ride that out but the smaller bands are still in a finacial hole because of it, and the fact that the cost of everything has increased 30-40% is not helping either. We should never again give politicians the control to shut down everything it will take us all years to get back to some semblance of "normal". I don't mind paying more to support bands that make life bearable and bring some relief to life through their music...metal forever !

THE PRICES ARE ONLY THAT PRICE BECAUSE PEOPLE KEEP PAYING FOR IT AT THAT PRICE

that's how the market system works, ITS STAYING THAT HIGH PRICE BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL SELLING AT THAT PRICE, there's no reason why they would sell it cheaper if they can still sell it high

meanwhile, just shop independent https://bandcamp.com/discover/metal/tshirt

It depends for me. If the shirts are $40 then it needs to meet two of these three conditions

A. I really really like the band
B. The shirt has a really good quality design
C. Quality of T-shirt itself

Usually I end up passing, but I don't instantly write it off. I am aware how little money is being made. I want these bands to keep touring.

The one that annoys me is $80 for the cheapest 50/50 gildan hoodie with one simple design.

I am of the idiots thats not helping. The prices have gone up lot of tour shirts, which I understand.

I paid 70 AUD for a fucking Iron Maiden tshirt. Most I have ever paid. I was not happy about it, but wanted the tshirt and still ended up paying.

Local gigs in Australia are now selling band patchs for 20 AUD for standard size. I will not pay that. When they were 10 AUD they used to sell out, but now at the end of the show, they have a whole bunch left.

Local bands will still shirts for between 30 to 40 AUD (generally 1 colour silk screen printed tshirt.

The other problem is people trying to flip them. At a RHCP show, tshirts were 70 bucks, I did not want to pay that, so I did not. Next day I went on ebay looking and they were trying to sell them for 150 / 200. I will just wait a year and find something second hand. I have got heaps of tour shirts like that.

What I dont get is why a standard tshirt is the same price as a tour one. I feel they should be cheaper. The band can sell them online and world wide, with much lower risk of having left over stock in the long term

The other thing that I would love to see, and only 1 promoter in Australia is doing this, is being able to pre order tour shirts. As an old cunt, it suits me perfectly. I get teh size I want and I dont have to go to the show 4 hours before the fucking head liner. I wish more promoters did this, I also reckon they would have less left over stock.

I agree the prices are pretty high now - I paid $50 for my Maiden shirt a few weeks back. The last good price I paid for a tour shirt was in 2015 when I saw King Diamond during his Abigail in Concert tour - $20

But I also have to factor in the cost of these bands touring and especially if they’re coming overseas, I have no idea what that cost is but it has to be really expensive especially with todays inflation everywhere.

Also, when I saw Emperor last year in Chicago, the opener for them (Immortal Bird) was ranting on stage how they’re not their selling merch at the venue because Ticketmaster/live nation owns it and they take a 25% cut of all merch sales from all bands and they couldn’t afford that cut since they’re just the opening band - so I guess that’s something to factor in for the current merch prices too

I think we need to go on bying CDs and LPs, Merch and stuff and especially support all small venues for the "smaller" bands. When I know there's a really small metal venue in my area, I always try to go there. I never stream music and if I can, I buy LPs/CDs/Downloads directly from the bands, like on bandcamp. But the high prices for tickets and shirts really suck.

The absolute bare minimum that bands can do is stop putting out lousy Gildan and Fruit of the Loom if they're going to charge a premium. Get a Stanley Stella or No Sweat, which are better quality, better ethically, and more sustainable. Obviously we need to appreciate the role of inflation and the practical need for bands to not actively lose money on tours, but that isn't solved by people not buying your £30-40 t-shirt...

I guess international travel plays a part in some of the pricing too, as it's North American bands that typically have the highest merch prices in the UK. Meanwhile a UK band was selling two sided printed Stanley Stellas at UK shows for £12-16 and making a modest profit on all of them according to the band. This is a bit of an outlier, but it shows that it can be done in a local context, which is usually where a majority of a band's shows take place.

It’s really the only way the band makes any money so I don’t blame them. Bigger bands have more expenses so it makes sense they charge more. Just be more selective of the merch you buy or buy one less beer so you can budget a piece of merch.

Thought I might talk about this but if you're looking for cheap band merch and official merch I would always recommend a random metal facebook group For all Bulgarians that might view this and want to look for merch in the future Join (Метъл продавалник) not trying to promote it this group just has a lot of genuine and bootleg merch for cheap

Well, I think we are witnessing accumulation of all recent trends and factors: digitalization, streaming platforms, COVID results, inflation, production costs, increased taxes, market cycles and many other things we aren't aware of. Bands have to increase merch prices to make ends meet, people buy it and finaly in their stores they have more clothes and gadgets than music. However it is impossible to raise the prices all the time and the situation will first lead to kind of crisis where for so-called economical reasons some of the bands will be split-up or put on hold, but later innovations will occur and the business model will be redifined and reinvented.

Yeah i rarely by official band merch, i dont really give a fuck about supporting the band financially unless they are like starving... if they want to make money then make cool merch for your loyal fans, im not a loyal fan but most are and will buy your shit if it looks cool and is not obscenely overpriced.