How some bands can make it big while barely breaking even

Found on the NPR website, here is yet another article that goes a little something like this:

The Dresden Dolls are a band on the verge of making it. Unless, of course, they don’t. They’ve been touring almost full time for years, playing to ever-larger crowds and opening for some big-name bands. They’ve toured with Nine Inch Nails. But even at that level, it’s very tough for a band to make enough money to survive.

Sitting at his drum set before a show, Viglione says that last year, the band went on tour in February and didn’t get back until November.

“I couldn’t even tell you how many cities we did,” he says. “We went to Europe three or four times, hit Japan, Australia, New Zealand twice.”

Palmer and Viglione might be budding rock stars, but they’re still pretty broke. They have to pay their road crew three to four times what they pay themselves — which is a modest $1,500 a month. Remember, this a band that has toured with Nine Inch Nails. (read more)

Great read. The article illustrates the main issues established bands must deal with when positioned at the fine line between making it or losing it. I thought one could expect a certain form of financial stability when having toured on all continents. Apparently that’s not always the case, even for very popular and talented artists.

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How some bands sell merchandise at shows

Merch sales are a must these days. Particularly if you can’t receive a guaranteed payment from the club. (ie percentage of the till and/or door)The merch sales can suppliment your payment from the club. And could very well be your ticket home.

First thing’s first. If you’re selling shirts, you need to do one of two things.

1) have one design that most people will want. Which can be tough.

2) have multiple designs.

We have one that says “F*ck I’m A God” and one that says “I Have Transformed From A Man To Machine”. Both are lines from our songs. Though the reason we did this is a marketing strategy.

As a person walks by your merch table, would you rather have them glance at your SHIRT and decide “do I want that?” or LOOK at your shirtS and decide “which one do I want?”

People like to make decisions. Give them options.

Also, a shirt with ‘F*UCK’ on it can go less places than a shirt with no vulgar language. So it’s definitely not a shirt for everyone.

Do we consider it a good investmen? Absolutely. First night we pulled out the merch – we made $xxx.xx in sales. That’s hundreds we wouldn’t have had otherwise…. And above all, it’s branding for the band that’s out on the streets and in the hands of fans – infecting others.

How many times do they say “head on” in that TV commercial? And now you know exactly what commercial I’m talking about. (if you’ve seen it once, you know…)

As for organizing the merch. For display, we’ve taken one of each shirt, and put them out for display. At the end of the night – those go into a bag marked DISPLAY. When we sell a shirt, we want that owner to take it home, smelling new. Not like the stench of stale cigarettes from the last 50 clubs we played before finally selling that particular shirt.

Make your merch pricing and options as visible as possible. Attach some to the wall whenever possible. This way your fans don’t have to walk right in front of your merch to see it. They can see it from a distance as they head to the bar to get their jag on.

And I can NOT stress that enough!!! Our last gig, they had us setup merch at the oppisite end of the building, in ANOTHER ROOM that wasn’t being used for ANYTHING but selling merch! If people didn’t go there for the sole purpose of buying merch, they NEVER saw it. And yes – our sales were down as expected.

Offer package deals. If someone buys a shirt and a CD, drop the price a few bucks. Make them feel good about the purchase because they “saved” money.

If you can afford to do so, give a CD or shirt away on stage. You hand something like that out to someone in the crowd, everybody looks. They take a peek at what you’re offering, even if they really didn’t want to. And they just might like what they see….

Dichotic www.sonicbids.com/dichotic

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What type of merchandise should bands sell at gigs?

Disclaimer:
Before we start off on this article, we’d just like to point out that gigdoggy is not as of yet playing gigs and selling tons of merchandise, so any knowledge we are passing on here comes directly from other bands who were gracious enough to share their insight with us (and from our experience as concert-goers who have dropped many-a-10$ on t-shirts and CDs in the past).
Also, we know that a lot of musicians don’t care about making money from their art, and more power to them.  As we see it, merchandising is something that bands that ARE trying to make living from their music should consider, and the following article offers a few ideas that we think would work.
We’d love any comments or feedback that would let us know if we’re on the right track!

In our last article we had fun thinking of ways to market your merchandise to your audience, now we’ll look at what you can sell them once you’ve got them to your merchandise booth.

What can bands sell at shows?

As a consumer and as a fan, I buy merchandise at a show for 2 reasons:

1. The item is original, useful and/or trendy.
2. I am feeling impulsive, and buy the item for it’s souvenir value, even though it may be overpriced.

Concentrate on the impulse buy and try marketing what your audience will relate to.

Let’s assume the band is good…
Merchandise is simple. Make designs (or products) that cater to the bands demographic. Also, if the band isn’t famous the design should be first, rather than the name. People will buy a cool cheap shirt, even if the band is average. Keep them under $15.
Kevin – www.myspace.com/kevinjardine

This applies not only to t-shirts but to everything your demographic might have an interest in. For example if you’re a reggae band you can sell hash pipes. If you’re a classic rock band, try selling zippos . If you’re a heavy metal band look into ash trays with little skulls. Anything your demographic likes having you can try selling.

Design is essential. The poster that you are selling should be able to sell in a store to someone even if they had never even heard of you – and if that means the name of your band isn’t even recognizable, then be it. As long as someone wants to hang it on their wall, that’s what counts. Same applies for shirts.

A problem with t-shirts is you really want people to wear them, and lots of times the gals got shirts for free. You’ve just got to hold the line and not give too much away.T-shirts can be made for around 6$, I think you could charge 20$ for a nice one, also that’s a nice round number for change. We did a outdoor festival and sold 50 of em one time, most gigs you could count on selling 5-10, so it could be an extra 60-200 dollars a show if handled right. We had a merchandise table just like the big shows and we usually hung a couple of shirts over the pa speakers and mentioned them all night long. Local shows cds sell for 10$.
We plan on using our first few gigs money to build some inventory of things to sell. I think the more things you have the better, anything from a dollar for a bumper sticker up to 50$ for some sort of tour jacket. You want something for everyone to buy. We have a sound guy who we may cut in on the profits to entice him to sell stuff and to leave the mix alone.
Like I said just watch the giveaways cause they will kill you on profits, and everyone is your biggest fan when they want merch.
Jw 123 www.bandmix/jw123

Since a lot of fans are musicians themselves, instrument-related merchandise is a sure bet. Knowing that half of the attending people will be guitarists, you could probably sell guitar-picks in addition to giving them away. I buy picks every time I get the chance, especially if they have a cool design (they make me play better a whole lot better). www.intunegp.com sells a bundle of 144 custom picks for only $40. That $0.27 per pick. Very cheap. Sell them at $1 and your making almost a %400 profit. Taking this guitarist idea a bit further, you could team up with an artist that does embroidery and sell guitar straps. Buy a strap and get a pick for free. Better yet, sell a songbook with the chords and lyrics to your songs. The process is time consuming but do it once and you’re set. I’m sure those guitarist fans would respond positively to such a product. I know I would.

Partnering with one or more local artists who create art that is pertinent to your audience (for example, graffiti-type prints if you’re a DJ, watercolor paintings for a more mature crowd etc) could be a good way to “mashup” art-forms and generate sales. See it as outsourcing your business and split the revenues. 

Let’s not forget the music

However you make ends meet, whats important is getting your music through to the people. Display the album of course, but don’t forget one or two sets of singles (considering they bought a ticket to see you play plus a couple of drinks, fans will prefer spending $4 on your 3 best songs then $12 for the whole album). Why not sell one or two songs with all separate tracks so your audio savvy fans can have fun remixing your tunes?

Merchandise links

By googling you can find everything you need (we went ahead and did that), and to save you some time here are a couple of links you can look into:

• weneedmerch.com: Custom t-shirts

• bandwear.com: t-shirts, posters, business cards, buttons

• curlyandspike.com. Good screen-printing prices here – check them out

• shirtsforbands.com: Custom merch with a cool editor.

• StickerGuy.com: Specialized in sticker printing. More or less $25 for 250 stickers (2.75″ x 2.75″)

• BusyBeaver.net: Great place to order buttons and pins. 100 colored pins for $100.

• Intunegp.com: As cited above, this online site specializes in production of guitar picks.

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How bands can market their merchandise at live shows

Selling merchandise: are bands barking up the wrong tree?

For bands that don’t have a steady fan-base, selling merchandise at gigs may seem presumptuous.”Who the hell wants to buy a t-shirt with the name of some random band that they’ve heard for the first time” is probably the reasoning that leads most bands to keep pushing off this activity. Add to that all the logistics (the cost of production, shipping and handling) and bands will wait until they “get bigger”. So are unestablished bands right to not jump head-first in the water? If they focus on portraying their name and logo above all they are. Fans are a picky (and often poor) crowd, but they WILL buy products that for some reason (either aesthetic or emotional) strike a chord in them – and that’s what indie bands should try to capitalize on. Focus on selling products that people will genuinely want, regardless of whether they are fans of your music or not.

Ways to present your merchandise

At the risk of sounding overly capitalistic, the goal here is to make money, and you shouldn’t be afraid to dissociate the products you are selling from your music – view the gig as an opportunity for you to make a sales-pitch to dozens of potential customers.

One way to do this without sounding desperate or like a salesperson is to present your merchandising efforts as a fund-raising activity, whether it be to record an album, go on tour, or pay for your doggie’s veterinary bill. People are more willing to spend money on a specific cause than on the band’s beer money, and will probably relate to your poor-musicians-that-need-to-make-some-extra-cash-to-pay-for-studio-time situation.

A good way to get people interested in your merchandise is to follow this band’s advice:

One of the best things we have done is to get one of our band mates hot girlfriends to work the merch table. Semi-buzzed guys can’t seem to say no to a babe asking him to buy a t-shirt. We also send that hottie out to get names on our mailing list…that stuff works great. If you don’t have a band mate with a killer looking girlfriend work it hard yourself. Be relentless and disciplined in working the mailing list. Make sure after every set either you or one of your band mates cruises around the club saying hi, talking to the patrons and asking them to sign the mailing list. While you are doing that, you tell the patrons to check out your merch table on the way out cause you have some really nice t-shirt designs and your CD is there as well. Make sure at least one of your band mates is parked at that Merch table. Merch is vital but that mailing list is key. I would say that 30 names on a mailing list is better than a $10 t-shirt because of the law of large numbers. Right now, we are averaging a consistent showing of about 5% of our mailing list at any given show. If I can make that a solid 5% of 20,000 names as opposed to 2,000 names, we win. We win because we can play in about any room we wish and it is there we get to sell more merch. So, sell your merch but more importantly sell yourself and your live show.
Cool Days End – www.myspace.com/CoolDaysEnd

Give them an incentive to visit the merchandise booth in the first place: have a hot charismatic bitch (calm down there, we’re doggies remember ?:) manning the booth, give out some guitar-picks with your logo on them, or set up a laptop and tell people with USB sticks to come and get MP3 versions of your songs for free. While they’re uploading your music they can check out the merch. Also, set up a few of the posters that you are selling around the venue, with an indication that they could be purchased at the merchandise booth – if they look cool, this will certainly attract people.

Sales at merchandise tables are an impulse buy, so the answer lies within this question:”What could make someone impulsive enough to buy merchandise at a show?“
A few factors come into play here:
1. Know your audience.
Does your audience spend money? Do they pay your cover charge and do they spend money at the bar?
This is important. If your guest list at each show contains more names than the phone book, you’re in trouble. By constantly guest-listing folks, they are going to expect freebies from you at every turn. Once you’ve established that your price is ZERO DOLLARS, you are never going to be able to raise your prices. Who would pay for something that they are getting for free?
2. Give your audience a reason to buy your merch.
To be blunt, be a good band. Write good songs. Play in tune. Sing in key. Have a drummer that plays for the song and not his own ego. This applies equally to guitar players, bassists, keyboard players….everyone in the band. Don’t be drunk or stoned when you play live. Practice, practice, practice and be tight when you play live. Make your audience want to buy your merchandise. Arcade Fire is a great example of this; hard work and good songs will sell your merch for you.
3. Be gracious with your fans. If they buy merch, they like you. Don’t disappoint them by acting like a douchebag rockstar simply because you’ve just played a show. Anybody can get a show. Thank them for their patronage and be genuine.Tim Van Den Ven – www.timvandeven.com

Of course none of this will bring in any money if the products you are selling are not hot.
Don’t forget that most items bought at shows are impulse purchases, and the more original, useful and/or trendy your item, the more fans will be willing to buy it and justify it through its souvenir value.
In our next post on merchandising we will suggest what to sell at shows.

Woof to the Mruff !

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Why it’s hard for bands to get fans to come back to their shows

“Because of a phenomenon in business called saturation of market. It happens the same way to the guy selling fish or oranges up and down the street. People in a small demographic area can only eat fish so often. The answer is multifaceted. Change or better still diversity must be instilled. Example: If you play country in the coffee shop, your fan base comes and becomes saturated. You rotate out of the demographic area by playing elsewhere or not playing at all and your friend who plays folk or rock plays that region / coffee shop. Street vendors have known since the dark ages to rotate goods or areas with other vendors. Seek out three or four other musicians of variety in your area whom are interested in doing a cooperative you might even use a magician or other form of entertainment. Work those small venues as a group. You may find you have more work than you can handle”.
(Noisy Kung-Fu – www.myspace.com/noisykungfu)

“Unless you have two or three hundred very close friends who are wild about you, you’re going to have these problems for a long time. Part of the problem is that the economy is bad, so people aren’t going out as much. ($3+/drink vs $3+/gal of gas…sheesh! While I only have a few drinks, I use a LOT of gas!) Add to that our current over-policing with an emphasis on “zero tolerance” for everything from DUI’s to people just trying to have a good time & gather together. Add to that the competition with karaoke & DJ’s.Top it off with bar owner apathy & refusal to advertise anywhere except their marquees (if they even HAVE a marquee).The end result is a huge problem for a band trying to get started. Stop playing bars. Go with venues where the audience is guaranteed, like town festivals, fairs, company picnics, weddings etc. You’ll sell more CD’s & T-shirts, & possibly get to the point that you DO have a loyal following who would like to see you in a bar sometime. You may have fewer gigs overall, but at least the people will be there. Or, you could find a really good manager &/or agent. Never tried that, myself, but I’ve heard it can give good results, with the right person/agency. Good luck. We’re all in the same boat on this issue”.
(Monkey Wench – www.bandmix.com/philbymon)

“I used to book our band for the door at clubs. I would then line up 2-3 other new bands to get on the bill with us and charge their fans and keep the money. Hopefully some of the bands fans will rub off and stay with you. It takes 2-3 years to build up a consistent fan base. Your group name has to get familiar. Our name did and we eventually were just payed to play to whoever showed up, which thankfully for a couple of years we did draw well. The only problem was that we started off original and then started adding our fans favorite cover songs to the sets, over time we became a cover band and thats all we were known for. If you cant keep people coming more than 1 or 2 times you might need to evaluate your material and maybe tweak it to suit the crowd. We used to come up with little contest to spice up the night, you know loudest (drunk) table, best(biggest hooters) looking gal, anything to get the audience involved in what you are doing. Somehow you have to make yourself an event that people just cant stand to miss. When we ran the door we would let unescorted women in free, this would in turn bring in more guys. Remember the customer is king and really doesn’t owe you anything, don’t piss them off in any way”.
(Jw123 – www.bandmix.com/jw123)

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What bands should know about playing in clubs (1)

“I’ve been in a number of bands in the Chicago area through the last 12 years, and I’ve played a lot of clubs and had both great and not so great experiences.

But from the small cafes to the Metro and Double Door, one thing will always be true: Venues are in it for the money. They are businesses. That’s what they do. Undoubtedly, there are places with people who run them who genuinely care about the music and the musicians, and who will treat you fair and treat you well. But the chances that you’ll run into a straight ahead business mindset are far greater.

The key to playing the bars and scene in Chicago is to make your expectations realistic. Any venue in the city is just that. A space. But it’s a space that is just as easy to use to your advantage as it is for them to use you.

Playing The Elbo Room on a Tuesday night at 11pm is not going to make you a star. It probably won’t even make you $50. But if you know that before you play, and you go in wanting to play a show and rock out anyway, you’re going to have a good time.

I’ve played the Elbo Room and The Wise Fool’s and Lilly’s and a host of other bars to audiences of 75+ and audiences of less than ten. And I’ve never had a bad experience, because I knew what I was getting myself into.

I wish I could make music for a living, and I admire anyone who can. But we’re not going to make money from these bars and clubs. And badmouthing them isn’t going to change much of anything – because we’ve been doing it for at least ten years. I wonder how many fewer posts there would be on this board if we all just realized that smaller clubs and bars in this city are pretty much just here to give us experience rather than money?

On any given night, I’ve likely made more money through merchandise and CD sales than through collecting a door cover that might or might not be accurate or even available, depending on how many people said they were there to see me.

So use these venues to your advantage. Have a great live rehearsal. Make a handful of new fans. Sell a t-shirt. Flirt with the bartenders. Just don’t expect that you’ll get paid what you think you’re worth. Because we never do“.

(Jeff Brown, www.myspace.com/jeffbrownrocks, www.reverbnation.com/jbxl3)

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