When was the last time you lent someone a CD or ordered your favourite band's new release on cassette from the back page of a music magazine?
Physical media sales are being replaced by streaming more and more. The soundscape has changed and bands are increasingly becoming dependent on giving their audience something new and tangible to buy to generate the income they otherwise could have made selling records.
UK Metalcore group While She Sleeps expressed their frustration about the changing face of artist revenue last year by having these shirts printed.
This T-Shirt is the equivalent to 5000 streams on Spotify. 76% of all music in 2019 is streamed and not bought physically or digitally. Band merchandise is the most direct way of supporting an artist.
While She Sleeps
With one stream on Spotify banking $0.0006 or less, it's a fair statement to make.
Using merch as a revenue stream is too good an opportunity to pass up - it's a damn near necessity these days. Far too many artists seem to overlook merch as a way of building their brand and connecting with their fans. Sure, it's a physical product that acts can profit from immediately, but it's so much more than that.
The truth is that your fans want to connect with you and your band. They will do your advertising for you if you let them. Brandishing your logo/face/killer drawing of a Valkyrie riding your pet dog far and wide. Proudly knowing they have an additional connection with you outside of just adding your song to their party mix playlist.
It's a sign of love when your fans wear your gear, and with the right design and merchandise, it can inspire those who are not yet fans to give you a spin.
The ripple effect goes like this: The more merch you sell, the more your brand gets promoted, the more money you make.
Also, let's face it...
Merch is awesome.
You need a custom apparel printing service that offers flexible options for designing and selling merch. For instance, us.
MerchWorx can print almost any kind of merch you can imagine, as well as providing pathways to place direct orders, or to help you set up a website to use as a storefront to promote all of your designs in one place.
