True Partnerships Elevate the Music Merchandise Industry

In today’s music landscape, merchandise has emerged as a vital artery of revenue and fan engagement for artists. According to atVenu's latest annual insights, a striking figure unfolds: one band tee symbolically stands for the equivalent of 11,320 streams. Moreover, the average nightly sales of merchandise have climbed to $5,294 in venues with more than 1,500 seats. This data underscores not just the financial boon that merch represents but also its role in deepening artist-fan connections. Despite this, while there has been innovation in terms of how merch is paid for (95% of sales are now credit card based), the evolution of merchandise itself has lagged, with a predominant focus on traditional styles and single graphics.  Artists, primarily focused on their craft and live performances, often view merchandise management as a secondary concern or, in some cases, a burden.

As the demand for merchandise has grown, so has the number of businesses dedicated to producing customized merchandise for artists. These companies have refined the process, taking on the heavy lifting of graphic design, ordering, and printing. Once produced, the goods are warehoused until they're dispatched to artists as they head out on tour. Beyond production, these firms extend their reach through e-commerce platforms, facilitating artist e-shops, or selling directly to fans while taking a cut from each sale. However, despite improvements in quality and variety within traditional merchandise forms like t-shirts and hoodies, real innovation in merchandise design and sales strategies remains minimal, with a few exceptions. This is partly because these companies are not directly involved in the sales process at shows, missing out on valuable interactions with fans and the opportunity to rethink what merchandise could represent.

Contracts with merchandise companies often cover only product development, leaving artists to handle warehousing, shipping, and onsite sales, among other tasks. This arrangement places minimal risk on the merchandise providers, who act more as vendors, or licensors, than partners. Consequently, artists and their teams, who typically lack marketing and retail expertise, miss out on the full potential of merchandise sales. This dynamic has led to a situation where merchandise sales succeed more by chance than through strategic planning, with artists feeling fortunate for any sales at all.

The landscape begins to shift dramatically when merchandise companies engage in true partnerships and ongoing collaboration with artists. By prioritizing a retail experience tailored to the fans' demographic and psychographic profiles, and aligning with the artists' sales goals, these partnerships can inspire merchandise that not only sells but enhances the overall fan experience. This approach involves shared risks and integrated support throughout the tour, ensuring that merchandise sales are a cohesive part of the concert-going experience, from pre-show to post-show interactions.

Practical examples of such partnerships include customizing merchandise offers based on the specific audience and venue size, creating venue-exclusive merchandise, and employing sales strategies that encourage fans to purchase multiple items by designing interconnected or assorted styles and price points. Moreover, continuous sales tracking enables on-the-fly adjustments to merchandise offerings to meet sales objectives, including introducing new items mid-tour. A holistic approach to sales channels, incorporating strategies like pre-concert merch purchases for show pick-up or post-show home delivery, seamlessly blends in-person and online sales, creating a unified retail experience.

Despite incremental improvements in quality, the music merchandising industry has seen little true innovation in design and retail strategy. The importance of fostering genuine partnerships between artists and merchandising companies cannot be overstated. Such collaborations, built on shared risk and comprehensive support, can revolutionize how merchandise is sold and experienced. By doing so, artists and their partners can unlock the full potential of merchandise, transforming it from a supplementary revenue stream into a consistent cornerstone of the fan experience, offering unique products and memorable experiences that resonate well beyond the final note of a concert.

At Musique Mode, our core service offer is built into a three monthly retainer levels. Not only does this minimize major up front costs related to design and production of merch, it also spreads out costs to facilitate better cash flow throughout a tour. Additionally, the retainer isn’t just focused on merch development, production and initial warehousing, it also includes full omni-channel retail support (on-site and online), marketing and collaborations, on-going logistics and inventory management. Essentially, this removes all of the pain points from the artist and their team, and ensures shared risk and reward by both parties. To learn more, please contact us to set up call.