Print On-Demand™

Maximise Your Merch Sales…

Anyone in a band will know the CD sales are falling and it's now imperative to maximise merch sales MP3 and now vinyls are they way to go. The Big record labels now do what is called a 360 deal where they now make artist share merch sale profits with them. It's kind of like you can't have your cake and eat it too, expect they are. Taking the time to really get and create good merch is important, it reflects on artist if they don't have good merch, Especially if you are selling a white Gildan t-shirt with a simple black logo for $25, come on man, they shirt cost you about $6 to buy and print it. When bands release a new albums and a t-shirt that matches the album you want to buy it and support your favorite band, but now they have to share that hard earned money with the record label, which sucks! Hopefully this post will help you better understand how your band can make more money for your merch and make better decision on merch.





• Limited-edition merch I mean who out there doesn't love limited edition merch when it comes to your favorite band. Number some of your albums , print up some exclusive posters or even a short run of t-shirts specific for a tour/release will go a long way for your band.

• Sticking with limited edition merch, making limited edition merch bundle packages is another great deal to offer. Say you have a new album coming out, you make a bundle pack that includes the album, a shirt, and some stickers for X amount of dollars, but make those stickers and shirts an exclusive bundle pack only.

• Innovative and strange merch. Make yourself stand out from the pack! There's loads of extreme examples in this Buzzfeed article. From action figures to snuggies to cycling jerseys - maybe your band can't go that extreme just yet but even the influx of Christmas jumpers (EG: Slayer, Descendents, Blink 182) could easily be mimicked by a band of any size. The Green Day brain-shaped CD is the first CD that I remember as standing out as a unique piece of merch.

• Know who you are selling to! Make a connection with your fans and make sure people know you have merch for sale online as well as at shows. Promote yourself! So many artist don't even promote themselves for their online store, they forget to mention it at their show or don't even think about mentioning it on their social media pages. So do yourself a favor and promote your online store!

• Hang out at your merch booth, so many artist don't do this. If you hang out there fans see you as a real person and you make connections with them and they feel more inclined to buy merch from you there.

• Trade your merch with other bands and artist, give shirts to more famous people (if you meet some) because when people see their favorite band wearing your shirt, they want to know who you are and then they to become a fan of your music cause it's awesome!

• Have someone who is good with meeting and talking to people they don't know work your merch table, don't put your bass player who hates people work your merch table, cause that dude is dick and no one wants to deal with a dick.

• Artwork! I think this is one of the most important things. Please make sure your artwork is good! The better it is, the more likely it is that you're gonna sell things. If you've got some money, pay an artist to create you something or think of a good idea and get drawing! But really you should pay a good artist to do it, you don't want pixelated art work on anything. Ask for Vector artwork.

• Similar to the one above but if you get a good artist to design you a gig poster, why not sell the poster on as merch? Maybe even screen print some posters... we all know how big the poster scene is at the moment.

• Don't just go for the cheapest merch about. If your merch falls apart after a few washs or a few weeks you have a problem. Don't be cheap you can find quality merch from quality places for good prices. You want your fans rockin your stuff 5-6 years from now saying "Yeah I got this when they were first starting out, I'm a old school fan."

• Build fan loyalty! Offer loyalty programs and promo codes to fans. You have a fan that has bought $100 worth of merch then that fan deserves some kind of discount on their next order or maybe some special little things like a signed poster by the band or something. You have to think for a band that isn't as well known $100 is lot for a fan to spend.

• Maximise your online merch sales. Make sure you spread the word via your social platforms. How do your fans know about your new badass shirt or hoodie if you haven't sent a picture of it out on twitter or Instagram, they won't that's how! So send it out, offer up free stuff to the first X amount of people to get it to spread quickly.

So what are you doing still sitting there, get out there and get some merch!