Make money from your merch

By this I mean that musicians are often so focused on music that they do not see the host of opportunities that exist around their activities as a performer. The idea is to look carefully at the situation and take every opportunity to earn money off the activity you undertake as an artist. One of these opportunities is merchandising.

 

What is merchandise? Well, loosely, merchandise, or “merch” as it is commonly known, is a collection of products that are associated with your musical endeavour that you can sell. This means that, strictly speaking, your recordings are merchandise. As are your music videos. But in particular here I am referring to other products that a band can easily generate and then use to both further its reputation and earn more money. The kinds of things that artists traditionally create as merchandise include the following: stickers, badges (buttons), tee shirts, caps, beanies, hoodies, belt buckles, socks, fabric patches, posters, wallets etc.

 

In short, anything that you can put your band logo on and then sell as a desirable object to your fan base becomes merchandise. The trick is to identify items of clothing or accessories that would appeal to the market you are catering for with your music and create merchandise that is in line with this.

 

Why merchandise

 

Obviously it takes money to create and that money needs to come from the band. Why would you spend your money on extra items that you then have to sell?

 

Well, there are several very good reasons for merchandising. The biggest one is that, as a musician in the 21st century, it is not as easy as it used to be to make money from your music recordings. Up until quite recently, physical music sales have often been seen as the main way that many artists have made their money. Now in South Africa our audience is much smaller and music buying is not a huge habit. Combine that with the fact that the market is changing both here and globally and you will begin to realise that in order to make a decent living out of the activity of making music, you DO need to make sure you can earn money in many different ways.

 

The second reason is that merchandise items with your name all over them are very good marketing tools for you. Every time a kid walks around town with your logo on her chest, people are seeing the name. Her friends and family are becoming acquainted with it. She becomes a walking billboard for you and your band. And what is more, she paid YOU for the privilege, not the other way round as you would expect. This is why it is wise to look at a range of different and exciting items to create. Every band has a tee shirt. If your stuff is different and more exciting, people will be more inclined to buy it and actually wear it in public.

 

 

Basically a band should be putting aside its money from its earnings to be able to start creating merchandise. This is so that you can earn more from each gig than just your door takings. You can sell a tee shirt for between R80 and R100. If you print a decent number at a time, they should cost you between R30 and R40 per shirt. You make R40 – R70 profit per shirt. Badges you can make for R2.50 and sell for R5 and so on. Yes there is a financial risk, but the profit margins involved, plus the marketing benefits, combine to make this a very necessary activity for you to undertake in order to support your music. If you are making R50 profit per shirt and you sell ten at a gig, you just made R500 extra on the night. If you can do that with all the other merchandise, and your CD sales AND your door takings every night, you will soon see that merch sales can easily turn an average take at the door into a good one.

 

Originally published in David Chislett's One, Two, One, Two: A Step By Step Guide To The South African Music Industry. Download a free copy of the book at www.davidchislett.co.za.