This is something I have been thinking about lately and thought I would throw it out there for discussion. These days bands don’t make much if any money from recordings, so have to make the majority of their income from playing live and selling merchandise. When I go to a concert I will often buy a t-shirt to help support the band. I typically like having a “tour” shirt that either has the dates on the back or at least says something like 2022 tour, or something similar. Although the big bands usually have plenty of shirt options (often overpriced), many of the smaller bands, who probably really need the money more, seem to be lacking these days on their effort to sell merchandise. A few examples from this summer:
Thank You Scientist: I saw them about a month ago and was planning to buy a shirt. Not only did they not have any tour shirts, the few shirts they did have were pretty crappy generic band shirts (my opinion of course). They seemed to be selling very little of anything.
Drive By Truckers: Just saw them Sunday night. They did have a tour shirt for sale, but all they had available were small or XXX large, so nothing even close to my size. I was in line with a bunch of people, who all turned away when they found out what was available, and did not buy anything.
Umphrey’s McGee: I am seeing them in about a month and got an e-mail from their web site saying they were doing a sale on T-shirts. I went on the site and they had their 2022 summer tour shirt available, so I thought I would just go ahead and buy one from the web site instead of waiting for the show. I purchased the shirt, then yesterday got an e-mail saying “sorry, this shirt is sold out”. This is for a summer tour that has not even happened yet.
In all 3 of these cases, I think these bands could have made some significant money had they had items available for people to buy. I realize it is difficult to estimate how many shirts will be needed for a tour, but in all 3 of these cases it was not like the tour was near the end. It just seems like a lost revenue opportunity for bands who probably need it and I find it strange that they don't take more advantage of pushing these merch items.
Curious what others thoughts are on this?
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