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Getting the Most Out of Merch: Part 1
What you play on stage is not the full package. You're selling yourself short if you think about gigs as music alone. Here's the why, what, when and how of merchandise...
As featured in: Performing Songwriter Issue #59, January/February 2002. Visit performingsongwriter.com to order back issues or subscribe.
By Bill Parsons
Part 1 | 2 | 3
Back in the early ‘90’s, I was introduced to a music business seminar called “Doing Music and Nothing Else” offered by a veteran New England rock manager named Peter Knickles. I don’t think the course exists anymore, but I remember Knickles identifying four major income streams for working musicians: performance fees, record sales, royalties and merchandise. Knickles had suggestions for enhancing your door take, making and marketing cost-effective recordings and pursuing all manner of royalty payments. But of the four income-generating opportunities, Knickles was most adamant about performing songwriters not overlooking the potential value of merchandise.
For the purposes of this column, we’re going to define merchandise as products offered for sale to the public other than sound recordings: stuff like T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, posters, stickers, buttons, key chains, mouse pads, coffee mugs and similar swag. After interviewing a host of artists, merchandisers and record labels, it is clear that merchandising can be an expensive flop or a saving grace--depending on the quality of the product being offered and the intelligence with which it is marketed.
This column will focus on the why, what, when and how of successful merchandising. It will examine why merchandising can be such an important part of an artist’s overall career plan, what the ingredients are for successful merchandise, when artists should start thinking about merchandising and how artists are successfully marketing their merchandise today.
WHY MERCH?
The first and most obvious reason for selling merchandise is money. Contrary to some popular belief, it can be tough for artists to net a buck in the music business. Venues, booking agents, road crews, sound techs and ticket outlets all get their slice of artists’ ticket prices, door covers and performance fees. Record labels, managers and producers all see money from artists’ CD sales.Many labels force artists to take a 3⁄4 mechanical royalty, while performance royalties and synch fees can be hard to come by. But in many cases, merchandising remains largely the province of the artists themselves. This can make merchandising the artist’s least diluted income stream and, therefore, a significant piece of their total revenue pie.
“What I would say is if you’re an artist, you should have a T-shirt, “advises Mary Begley, label manager at Righteous Babe Records, “because you’re not gonna make money off your CD. Going from town to town, I have a lot of artist friends who make more money on T-shirts. Plus, they don’t cost as much to make, especially if you have to buy CDs from a record label. One of our baby bands, Drums and Tuba, they’re not just musicians; one’s a painter, and they always take T-shirts on the road with them. It really helps out with the gas money. And it has nothing to do with Righteous Babe. They do it all on their own.”
“I would say touring is the main income provider,” offers Dan Haseltine, lead singer for the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning Christian rock act Jars of Clay. “That’s where you make money--not so much from a record label, although it all depends on the deal you have. Don’t rely on a record deal to make money. Touring is the lifeblood. For the average touring band who goes out with a minimum level of production, enough to put on a good show but not break the bank, T-shirts are going to be the big thing driving income, especially since the money goes right into your pocket. Once you cover your overhead, the rest is yours. The management gets its fee. A record company wouldn’t make royalties off T-shirts. They’re one of the purest forms of income for artists, especially in major label deals, because there are fewer people taking their piece.”
“For most artists, it’s their main source of making ends meet economically,” observes Patty Romanoff, whose Bulletproofstore.com handles merchandise for acts like Dar Williams, The Nields and Eddie From Ohio. “Especially when an artist hits a higher level, it can be the bread and butter of how they’re paying the bills. If you’ve got a very young indie artist, then maybe they’re not selling enough merch. But on a decent theater tour, where you’re selling 30-40 T-shirts a night, do the numbers. If you’ve got a tour bus, a techie and a tour manager, and you’re getting basic performance fees with no tour support, you will lose money, period. If an artist is not getting tour support, their merchandise is the only way to profit after expenses. It’s a really important way to make money and sometimes the only way for an artist to survive.”
The second reason to invest in merch goes way beyond the moneymaking opportunity it represents--literally. Wherever your fans live, and wherever they go, if they’re wearing your T-shirt, they are walking, talking billboards for your act. Which makes merchandising a golden opportunity to expand the band’s image beyond its existing fan base out into the general culture. Moreover, in contrast to other forms of advertising you pay for, the beauty of merchandising is that it is a form of advertising other people actually pay you for.
“One of the reasons I like to keep the price of T-shirts low is that it’s really good for an artist’s career to have people wear their shirts,” explains Bulletproofstore.com’s Romanoff. “People will comment on the shirt. Like, ‘Hey, cool Nields shirt’ or ‘cool Dar shirt.’ Whoever’s standing around hears their name. At the last Nields show, I saw somebody wearing an Eddie From Ohio T-shirt and people were like “Who’s that band?’ It’s good for artists when fans wear their shirt to other concerts.”
“I would say that merchandise is a really important part of making Jim’s Big Ego a brand--a known entity not only to the fans, but also to the general public who don’t even know who we are,” agrees Jason Schneider, manager for Boston-based Jim’s Big Ego. “It’s a great way to take it to the next level. It shows your seriousness about being a long-term part of the music scene.”
“I’d like to think it’s a combination of the things we’ve been able to do that’s kept the energy going forward,” muses Scot Evans, bass player for the veteran Nashville outfit The Floating Men. It’s not just the live show. It’s not just the recordings. It’s not just the T-shirts. It’s the full package. Maybe if we didn’t have the full package, we wouldn’t have lasted as long. If we weren’t thinking about merchandise, we wouldn’t have built the name recognition with lots of people all over the country. People see that catchy logo and say, ‘Hey, what’s that?’ ‘The Floating Men, go see ‘em.’ It’s packaging it all together. But without the merch, maybe we wouldn’t have the full effect of the performance.”
“As an artist, you are the aesthetic,” concludes Katie Nye, associate director of client services for Musictoday Inc., which handles merchandise for acts like Dave Matthews, Santana and Cheap Trick. “From a sales standpoint, merch can make money. From a branding standpoint, it gets your name out there. There can definitely be a herd mentality. Like suddenly all your friends are wearing Blink 182 T-shirts, or riding Blink 182 boards. You can build an image of how you want to be seen. Not everybody can make it to a live show, but merchandise can help spread whatever you’re trying to get across. It’s all about what you’re trying to portray--just on a bigger scale.”
Part 1 | 2 | 3
Bill Parsons is a performing songwriter who lives in the Washington D.C. area, and is a Contributing Editor for Performing Songwriter magazine.
Copyright Performing Songwriter Enterprises LLC.
Written By: whiskeychick
Date Posted: 3/22/2006
Number of Views: 239
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