Opening Bands Are Actually FORCED To Do This On Tour
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- Опубліковано 29 тра 2024
- While on tour with Meshuggah and In Flames, Whitechapel was criticized for how expensive their merchandise was as the opening band. But there is actually a reason for why that is, and it's pretty much out of their control.
00:00 Intro / Story Background
00:56 Whitechapel Called Out
02:36 Raising Prices In Canada
04:05 Price Matching The Headliner
06:08 My First Encounter With Price Matching
07:38 Trying To Make Another Band Price Match
09:38 Headliners Not Letting Other Bands Sell Merch
10:22 Buying Merch Because It's Cheaper
10:45 Final Thoughts
11:30 Outro
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Honestly as a canadian, I find the price of merch absolutely outrageous and therefore I almost never buy merch
Are the Canadian bands merch reasonably priced? Is it the other way around then, that their merch is expensive in the US?
@@eldsprutandedrake Not sure how it is now, but when I actually worked for a Canadian band that was based near Toronto, their prices were still higher than when touring in the US.
@@TankTheTech what if a band were to have the merch made in Canada and they don’t actually take it over the boarder? Could that be a possible work around?
Also, I could already see the logistical nightmares this would create.
Hell, I gave up when ticket prices got outta hand…
Im from Stoon and havnt bought merch since Pantera in 2000 ! My ticket was $29 and my hoodie was 39$ !
This here is EXACTLY why I’m not able to purchase merch at shows anymore. I would really love to support them, but the price of everything is unfortunately just insane now. With tickets, driving and food, it all adds up to a lot of money for one night.
Wait a few months & go to the band's web store, get tour shit real cheap. That's what i do. There's times I Bought 2, 3, 4 Tour Shirts For The Same Price They Were Selling 1 At The Show.
They don't take cash either. They literally won't take my money. That is on them IMO.
@@Arigator2Same, if they don't take cash forget it.
get into indie rock. you pay very little. merch is the life blood of indie rock bands. i always buy stuff and most of the time i end up giving it to good will b/c i have so much.
@@miked4309The music is ghey though
When Band-Maid opened for Guns N Roses in Japan they were forced to price match. They decided to throw in a gift bag with the bands logo (which was normally sold separately) to each purchase. I remember reading a statement from Band-Maid about this on their social media.
What's funny about that is I would go for Band Maid and leave before G'n'R. :D
Most of the people in Japan probably did that lol @@motherfudger6664
I saw Band-Maid in Seattle. They were fantastic. Merch was bad. That was their own event.
Band-Maid is lit. I just found out about them like a month ago, so I'm way late to the party.
The other weird one is when you get hit with the “you can only have X number of unique designs” clause. Like an opener is basically told “you can only bring 2 shirt designs.”
Yeah, that's something I didn't even touch on and also could have. That's another contractual thing, usually. Headliners normally don't want openers to have a bigger product line than they do.
@@TankTheTechheadliners should 100% be able to bring more designs for cheaper that are better quality because they'll have a much bigger order volume to get the price down. They just don't want to
In the UK it's really common to see stacked pricing, £5 cheaper on the tees the lower down the bill. So this is mad to me. Often see headliner £30, main support £25, opener £20.
I'm a Brit too and was trying to think if I've ever seen price matching and I don't think I have. It probably does exist especially when US bands tour the UK but from what I recall it usually does stack depending on where the band is on the set.
I've never seen price matched merch in the UK.
I think it’s a legal thing, we have laws in the UK preventing price fixing and cartels as they’re anti competitive
I understand just having to accept the "that's just how it is" thing, but i cannot accurately describe how much that response pisses me off. I want to know exactly WHY I'm going to be made to do something, and if you can't give that explanation to me, then I don't think I should be doing that thing, especially if I'm putting myself at a disadvantage
Totally get it. There's a lot of stuff in the music industry that ends up being "that's just how it is", and I always find myself wondering WHY that is the case. A lot of these things have been such standard practices for so long that I think they're just accepted, or people assume they can't be changed.
As far as I can tell it's so that headliners aren't getting undercut at the merch table. It doesn't look good when charging 60 for a hoodie and an opener is charging 40, for example. It's just the headliners protecting their financial turf, much as it blows for the fans.
@@derektully7607......that is a strange situation in reality though. An opening act's merch has less demand, and artificially raising the price creates market imbalances.
Furthermore, if I go see a headline act, I have no interest in opening act merch anyway, so even at the cheaper price, I don't want it.
The ideology here doesn't hold water in reality
@@azmoe99It doesn't hold water SO MUCH that I'd say it's actually the headliners ripping off the opening act, and not anything else. It's artificially reducing the demand for the opener whose merch already has much less demand, to protect...What, MAYBE one percent of your profits from that show, likely even less?
@@azmoe99I typically don't buy opener merch, but about 5
years ago, I saw August burns red with fit for a king, miss may i, and crystal lake as the opener. Lemme tell you. Crystal lake stole the show, and I ended up buying their merch, and they were not forced to price match. I ended up with more crystal lake merch, than I did ABR, or FFaK, both of whom I went for. Sometimes openers steal the show.
I recently worked a smaller festival and was helping a band set up their merch and while we hanging up the display, I got the two parter "Hey, what's the festival price for our merch and what's the cut?"
He was floored when I got to pass along "No cuts and you charge what you want." And maybe it's because it's a smaller fest that still remembers the days of a 300 person attendance being seen as your biggest show of the year, but for what it's worth, there was no undercutting. In fact the smaller bands sold out most of their merch and the headliners reported similar numbers to shows of that size.
And this is exactly why most of my energy/time/fandom in music has been in that side of the music industry. As soon as you get into the bigger shows/tours/festivals everything just gets incredibly stupid.
Years ago I used to be involved with one of those hippie 3 day campout festivals that started with 300 people, two portapotties and one water spigot everyone shared. It eventually grew to 7000 per event. Initially vending was totally free, there was a vending area but you could set up wherever you wanted and no cut for the festival. As the festival grew in size and popularity the finance people looked at the bigger festivals and saw a giant opportunity, that's when all the sign up fees and rented spots to a limited few vendors started happening. Because they "wanted to look professional and do what all the other big festivals do." Nothing to the with greed, certainly.
I follow a band called Wargasm (uk) and they recently refused to sell merch at a venue in the UK, so they were going to do a "pop up" merch sale to avoid merch fees
I see them blowing wayy up in the next few years. Their punk rock diy attitude hasnt been seen in a loong time.
Oh, WargasmUK are way beyond other bands in their league. Finally catch them live with Babymetal tour and oh my they are amazing.
@@ThePhoenixw68there terrible
@@bmark7951 Opinions are like assholes.
Also they"re*
I filled in on drums for a band on a package tour (US) back in October and the headliner asked us to do this exact thing. The band I filled in with normally sell shirts around $20-30 depending on quality/prints etc. And Hoodies for $60, but on that tour, the headliner asked us to price match them which was $40 for T's, and $100 for hoodies. CD's and stickers and other small stuff were at our discrepancy. I thought that was kind of insane but I kind of figured the venues had merch cuts, so I was like "alright I guess that makes sense, unfortunately.”
Turns out - nope, only one venue that whole tour had a merch cut(at least the leg we were on, around 28 dates), and it was only 15% at that. But no, we had to price match for the whole tour. So I'm not sure if it was greed, inflation, or what.
I'm sure if you asked, the answer would have been "that's just how it is". Because that's the answer I get no matter who I ask.
Oh the TM said that verbatim when asking us to do that lol. We were in the same exact situation of being a smaller/newer band, playing for mostly new fans every night so it definitely seemed weird to me since that was one of the first times I’d ever seen that.
If smaller acts match their merch prices to the headliners, then the fans are more likely to overpay for headliner merch instead of being content with just having anything to remember the show by. So it directly hurts openers and exploits fans.
Hey Tank and everyone else. My wife and I are merch managers for an annual festival. I was at the Fillmore that night. I can confirm that White chapel and I.F. prices were all priced matched with meshuggah as far as t-shirts and zip ups. Patches, stickers, hats etc may vary. I did buy a meshuggah and In flames zip up. Both $70 US. However I will point out that meshuggah's zip up sweat is BY FAR the highest quality compared to any band we've seen or had the privilege to sell for.
Isn’t that quality not also part of the issue? Not all T-shirts or hoodies are created equal, so why force them to be priced equally?
@@AndreSomers I agree. In the grand scheme of things I'm going to guess 75% of people don't care about quality. They want the logo or memento and support the band. Which is great. But I'll tell you from experience when someone asks to see a merch item, if you have a heavier, nice, soft shirt or hoodie with good printing and you hand it over to the customer... Dude I tell ya if they have friends around them they say " Wow! Feel this, look at this!" And all their friends want one too. It does make a difference. So, yeah you're right. It's not fair pricing especially when they're great value t-shirts with printing that start cracking with one wash.
I am from germany and we were on several concerts this year. That special tour shirts are about 40-45€ ok...i get it. But regular shirt which you can buy online for years (for 22-25 €..) are also about 40-45€...no sorry. These prices are crazy. :/
I would never pay $60 for an $8-$10 wholesale shirt. The markups are crazy but I get it, revenue streams are limited for artists these days.
Yeah but have you seen his video about merch costs? The artist's cut in the end is ridiculous
It's more like a 3 to 4 dollar shirt, haha. Crappy Gildan shirts for 60 is insane.
I’ve had headliners tell me that we can’t sell merch quite a few times. As well as headliners taking merch fees from local openers and tour package openers.
That's fucking insane.
@@TankTheTech that’s the way it works… right? Lol
Their names should be printed, I would never knowingly support a band that does that.
I've heard from many different people that Otep will not allow any other bands to sell merch at the venue.
Merch prices have definitely got out of control. Paid more for a shirt than I did for the concert ticket for Slaughter to Prevail. We've been paying 50-60$ for a t shirt for years in Canada.
Yea I bet Slaughter To Prevail dont force their support acts to sell at their prices......... oh wait no theyre too arrogant to even have support acts xD
Granted, the odds of my band ever being on a big tour are slim to none, but I'm glad to have learned about this. We try not to price our merch too high specifically because of merch being so expensive at shows we go to as fans.
Merch is an income stream AND an advertisement. Price it too high and you not only miss out on the sales revenue, you don’t get the advertisement. Which is arguably just as important.
Last bit of merch I bought was a Devin Townsend t shirt, and I ordered it off of his website. I’ll pay extra if I know the artist is actually getting the money. But sixty bucks for a tour t shirt is just stupid.
@@DemoDick1 Completely agreed, which is why we've pretty much just given merch to all of our friends who come to our shows. We're mostly unknown even in our regional scene so having people just wear our shirt out and about because it's a cool shirt that they paid maximum $15 for is important. Also, Devin Townsend rules, thanks for reminding me that I still haven't heard his most recent few albums, I may remedy that later!
@@GonzoCiosain Dude, Devin is a force of nature. Empath is an excellent piece of work.
Yes to giving your merch away, BTW. Smart move.
I really miss working in bands. Mid-life crisis time. 😝
@@DemoDick1 I saw the last third of Strapping Young Lad's set at Ozzfest 2006, the first big metal festival I ever went to. I was 14 and mainly there to see System Of A Down, but I checked out SYL shortly after that and still listen to them. Do you want a link to my band's music? We just got physical copies of our first album earlier this week.
In 2003, Sworn Enemy was opening for Otep. They had limited merch at the table and were outright telling people to just buy them off their website rather than there to avoid the price matching
Wow, this goes back that far? smh. I saw Otep @ Ozzfest 2002. Great times!
You see the whole fiasco of Otep herself calling out a band for selling merch during their set? Its one of those you seperate the artist from the music because they're shitty ppl.
I'm not letting anyone intimidate money out of me like that.
I stopped buying merch back in the late 80s. Even today, no one uses a high quality shirts. I worked for the largest silk screen companies in the country. If I really liked the design, I'd bring in my own shirts, usually Carhartts.
As an indy wrestler, I know what it's like to be selling merch, price matching, and working shows with big names. It's hard out there. So when I go to a concert, I do my best to support all the bands on the card. I have TONS of band merch that I never wear! 😂 I honestly just buy it to show my support because I know every little bit helps. ☺️
A FOH engineer friend toured with an opener to a big headlining band. He was told he wasn’t allowed to use the PA system subs. The singer of the headlining bands wife is their manager and apparently it was her decision. Probably the most egregious thing I’ve heard a headliner do.
My band opened for HedPE back in 2018 and their crew made us move our merch from the merch area to the opposite corner of the venue. Right by the bar which at first we thought would be okay because the bar was obviously going to get busy but we basically had to take a small table that was usually for sitting at the back and set up our merch in a area no one knew was there in the dark... Needless to say we didn't sell anything
Hed pe sucks
That's dirty
There should be a petition to remove price matching for all opening bands on tours. That's shady af and needs to end.
It’s not like a law or anything so that wouldn’t make sense, this is the headliners saying “you have to do this to play shows with us”, more of a contractual thing. Thanks for the like Tank!
@@Tetarkall More like a power or bullying tactic.
@@chaosreaper9255 Yeah totally messed up.
In New York City, Nanowar of Steel shirts were $25 and DragonForce shirts were $40.
When I went to one of these shows I wasn’t surprised by the prices, and Whitechapel moved as much merch as Meshuggah. But I agree it sucks.
In this specific instance, I wouldn't be surprised that Whitechapel, In Flames, and Meshuggah were moving the same amount of merch. But all of the bands on a tour having that same draw is super rare.
Huge Whitechapel fan, anytime I’ve bought merch on a tour they headline the prices are always pretty reasonable IMO. People nowadays just don’t understand how the economy works and expect their favorite bands to throw them a bone when it’s getting harder and harder for bands to turn a profit on tours nowadays.
Just for context, in 1987 I went to see Bon Jovi on the "Slippery When Wet" tour in Salt Lake (14 years old, my first concert), the tickets were $17.50 and the shirts were $15 to $25 depending on the style (regular T vs raglan), programs were $10. Yes, I know I'm old AF. 😖
You are not old, you are an OG🤘
Meshuggah is my number 1. I got to see them in Canada on this tour! Hoodies were $110. I would have actually bought one if I was really into the design purely because I love this band. I wasn't, so I passed.
But, they put on the best concert experience I've ever had and I got to enjoy it with the people I care about. Best show ever.
Re:headliners not allowing openers to sell merch
When i saw Avatar and NYD open for Ice Nine Kills and In This Moment, neither of them had merch on sale. I wonder if this was a case of such an occasion
I was on an early date for that tour and both bands had merch. They even had the dates on them. Maybe they ran out?
@therockrepository damn that's a shame. That's definitely more likely then what was said in the vid. Would've loved an avatar shirt
I miss the days of $15-$20 shirts and $40 hoodies, could buy merch from 2 to 3 bands, the 3rd being the opener, whatever i had left could get a $10 shirt $5 CD, maybe a patch or wristband. Was cool when bands had their little bundles(shirt,cd,poster). Nowadays, just get one shirt from 1 band, usually the headliner. Crazy.
My band has played at the Machine Shop in Flint MI dozens of times over the years as direct support, or even just local opener, and we've never price matched. That was a regular thing at Harpo's in Detroit. We'd sell $300- $500 in merch, and it was important back in the CD days just to get as many sold as possible, because at a sold out show, we are not being paid from the door. Our CDs were our business card. A lot of times they were free if someone didn't have cash. A lot of them only had an extra $10 after buying the national's merch. We gladly took $10 for our most generic cheap shirts, and even $5 on CDs. It pissed a few tour managers off.
Canadian here, I paid 50$ for Orbit Culture shirt in October. It was pricey, but as you said, it's tour merch. If I saw 60 though, I think that would tip it into "I'm not paying that" territory.
To play devil's advocate: the opener severely undercutting the merch prices of the headliner can lead to the merch of the headliner to be seen as too expensive and make people not buy any merch at all. However, a partial price matching (don't know max 30% lower price or something) would probably be enough to fix that problem.
Thats a good idea tbh that would work as a perfect compromise.
Is there any proof of that happening? I have yet to see it be the case.
Tough shit, don't sell $100 hoodies.
What metalhead in 2023 thinks the opening act generates the same level of money as the headliner?
Well, supposedly we live by this philosophy that competition drives down prices. So are we doing that or are we not.
This is another reason I don't really buy merch anymore. Also not willing to pay like £60+ for a poor quality hoodie.
Back in the late 180's and 1990's I bought merch from all the bands that were at the venue for that concert to show support even if I didn't like the opening bands. Once the price of the TICKETS to get in and the price of the food and beverages basically got turned into buy a 12 ounce cup for the cost of buying a 24 pack at the store I stopped buying everything but soda at concerts. The only reason I buy the soda is because the throat needs to be wet after all the yelling and singing along with the songs. Now I do not even go to any concerts at all because of the PRICE GOUGING done by Live Nation and other ticket agents. Nothing like having a $50 seat jacked up to $200 because of the ticket agents and their fees and surcharges. 2009 was the last time I went to a concert and the last time I bought any CD or merch or anything else related to bands. The greed is just not worth it to me.
On top of all of that there are not many bands today that I like and the older bands that I do like are all either dying off or just rehashing the stuff that made them famous and kept them on the radios.
Even online merch is getting too much, went to order a single long sleeve T shirt and before shipping it was $55. Just to order online. I’m so thankful i went crazy buying merch years ago for the bands I like because there’s no way I’m ever buying anything again.
I think I paid 10-15 on a Whitechapel shirt... about 15 years ago. I'm feeling old.
I saw a picture I have from Warped Tour 2015 and the shirts were $15 even back then 🙃
@@stanbrouillard2292 I think I last talked to them in like 2012, I'm still feeling old.
yeah the price matching is wild to me. my band opened for a larger band pricing our shirts as we normally did (this was never stated to us prior that we couldnt) and had a massive line/sold more than we could have ever expected. then was told moving forward we have to price match and we never came close to selling as much any other night.
it makes sense from the business side like you said i agree but i also completely agree allowing bands to be priced differently just makes more sense. if someone came for the headliner but was blown away by the opener, not many wanna drop 40 on a band they had never heard of previously and i dont blame them
I’ve definitely heard of headliners asking for a merch fee from (local) openers. It wasn’t agreed to ahead of time, so nobody gave the headliner anything.
Love this dudes channel!! Its very informative for what goes on behind the scenes of every show of a huge band!! Keep up the great work Tank!!!
I went to this tour in vamcouver great show! I wish they had a longer set!
When I saw dropkick Murphys in London's Wembley arena. Pennywise were 2nd on the bill and their merch wasn't for sale at all. There were 4 supporting bands with no merch for sale. The Only merch available was Dropkick murpheys. I thought that was very mean and not in the spirit of helping bands fund tours.
totally on your side with the "why they should not be price matching". I started buying merch from opening bands instead of the headlining bands (if i liked them of course), because mostly you can not buy that merch somewhere else. So i might not even get merch from the headliner at all.
Old school here. I remember when t-shirts / jerseys were $25. I don't don't even think sweat shirts or hoodies were even a thing
This is definitely where contracts come in. If the contract says to price match, unfortunately then there's no choice. If it's not in the contract, then even if the merch dude was The Undertaker, he can still piss off, I'm setting my prices at what I believe is fair!
I no longer buy merch at any shows! The prices are ridiculous!!
I was at the show in Cincy. Shirts for all the bands were $40. Crazy.
Slovakia here - 30,-€ per shirt is my pain point - unfortunately 40+,-€ per T-Shirt or 60+,-€ per hoddie is ... just awfull :( I'm buying merch from the bands shops online - only merch I'm buying AT site are LPs or CDs
I’m in retail and it’s cool to watch your videos on this subject.
Great info again from a great channel!
I actually whent and saw that show, it was amazing! All 3 bands charged $40 for a shirt. Except some of the specialty stuff. Example: in flames had a hockey jersey
As a performing musician and a merch guy I couldn't agree more on all your points. Pretty much nailed it Bro!
One an almost related note, it's so great to see Meshuggah finally being appreciated to a level more close to what they deserve. Up until pretty recectly they were dwarfed by In flames in popularity. Still a pretty cool tour though, but the bill Meshuggah had here on the Swedish leg with Halo Effect, Orbit Culture and Scary Symmetry opening is pretty hard to beat.
I do remember thinking after the show I saw that Meshuggah definitely made In Flames look like an opener.
And IF was great. I am a big fan. Meshuggah was rightfully at the top of that bill tho in every regard. The crowd reaction said it all.
I had no idea Chris Broderick joined In Flames, so my applause was half for IF, and half for Nevermore ;)
That's literally prices we pay down here in Australia, 50-60 for a shirt and 100-110 for a jumper :/ its pricey and sucks
Yep, I remember price matching when doing merch for bands. Some bands would fire sale shirts before hitting Canada.
Not the same topic but it reminds me a little of Download 2010 when AC/DC didn’t allow their logo on the official Download Merch. They had their own stage and merch. However you could get their logo on the unofficial merch 😅
Remember when people bought albums and this wasn't a problem? Grandpa 90s remembers.
I fully agree with your thoughts on price matching. As you know, I am newer in the game and when someone explained price matching, I made the same point you made. 😂
100% think if openers don't price match the headliner its a win/win sitation for the tour as a whole.
Another fantastic and informative video Mr Military Vehicle! 👌.
Same thing happens with food and drink at most festivals.
Saw shadow of intent open for born of osiris. Enjoyed the set...wasn't going to buy a shirt and found one on the ground..... so keep an eye on the floor lol
Hahahahaha
The only time it’s good to hear “That’s Just the Way it Is” is the Bruce Hornsby song.
The cost to go to live shows has gotten out of hand
Also with the "that's how it is" mindset nothing will ever change for the better
And it’s about to get worse since Spotify is about to start keeping basically all royalties from artists starting next year…
Inflation effects everything. The grocery is bad enough now days. I am very limited as to what I can do for entertainment period anymore. A live show is a very rare thing for me anymore.
As an Aussie who saw Electric Callboy at their Brisbane show I was more than happy to pay $55 for a shirt KNOWING how it all works, thanks to your videos Tank.
Also, $55 for a Quality Tshirt is fairly standard here in Oz too.
Ive paid WAY more for shirts shipped from the US due to the Exchange rates plus the shipping so $55 is more than reasonable to me
Cant wait to see them again Next Year, even without Kevin they were still AMAZING
The way it worked on a tour when I was drumming for an artist in 2018 was the festivals we were playing he was welcome to sell his merch but, had to give said festival a percentage. Basically leaving him making nothing!
I remember shirts were 18.00 at store 25 at shows.
Then man WTF IS GOING ON NOW
I saw this tour/show in Boston at the MGM and I bought an In Flames T for 40, a White Chapel patch for 10 and a Meshuggah banner for 40 and patch for my son another 10. Between the tickets and bar tab I didn't spend 100 bucks! I do think it's a bit high but I know that a lot of venues screw bands taking a percentage of the merch sales. One show cost me a little under $200.00. Luckily I got a parking spot right out side the venue because parking can cost between 20 and 40 bucks and if the show is the same time as a Red Sox game forget it the parking is $90.00. It amazes me that bands still tour with the costs going up and up ticket prices going up to meet the costs it wouldn't surprise me if attendance doesn't start sufferering.
I hear ya! Quick question: Would pay half of that price to attend an exclusive livestream performance screened at a music venue with a projector screen, light-show, and great sound? Meaning the band is remotely performing from their rehearsal space - and a venue near you is screening it. What would you be comfortable paying for that experience? It will obviously be more affordable than seeing them in person. Or for you, does it have to be ALL in-person or nothing (meaning you will only pay for them to be there in person).
Call it what it is. It's not price matching. It's price FIXING.
@Tank the Tech. I can give a personal account of an opening band being denied setting up merch at a disply. In 2011 ish. My old band performed with "Winds of Plague/Dispised Icon/Stray From The Path" we drove 4 hrs away from our home area to open, sold tickets, rented a van and a limo to haul people. And traveled with about 50-60 people in a massive convy. And as our friends who were crewing for us started setting up merch. The Merch manager for the tour came up to us and said "Touring package bands only get to set up merch" and they were nasty about it. Like it was totally a power move. The whole show was a nightmare honestly. The production team dropped the ball And I feel like the tour was taking it out on us. But yeah we didnt get to sell mech at all.
I know this was a while ago at this video slipped by me, but a few things come to mind seeing these prices.
#1. what is the company they are getting the shirts and graphic designs from. The graphic design company is paying someone something for those shirts and then put the designs on them. So that is two separate transactions right there.
#2 some of these bands need to buy the equipment and shirt themselves because it would be cheaper in the long run for them to do this themselves. If bands did this in house the prices of merch could go down by a lot since the LLC of the bands could buy all the materials on wholesale, the issue would be the learning curve of making sure to do the shirts correctly and what materials can be used. depending on if say the shirt is Cotton or Satin, the design would have to be either a match or at least a material that is capable of sticking to Cotton or Satin and those happen to varying degrees.
#3 depending on the #1 the cost for getting the shirts ready in this way is going to be higher than #2 for certain. #1 is already likely going to cost upward of 15 to 22$ USD. if not more to make the shirts especially if designs are separated and, on the front, and back instead of liking you will notice a lot of band shirts are likely done in one go instead of several. Now thinking on that imagine any clothing of higher quality.
Now, this also about find a good design company that won't overcharge by too much and will only really charge you enough to make a profit, but it usually shouldn't much more per shirt than for the shirt and materials, which at wholesale, a fully designed shirt should honestly only be 12$ at max and that is mostly because of larger sizes.
We recently opened for jinjer and when setting up our merch (which we have quite a bit of) their merch person approached us and asked what we sold shirts for. Typically we sold them for 25 and 35. Their shirts were 35 and 45 and asked if we could charge more. We were eternally greatful that they approached us and they way they did and we, as a local opening act, made so much more thanks to them having us match their prices more closely.
I absolutely understand the logic of not wanting the headliner to be undercut, that was my first instinct when I heard what it was. But I feel like there's three criteria when buying merch for people:
1. Do I like the band?
2. Can I afford this?
3. Do I like the merch?
And I feel like for most people the checklist is in that order. On rare occasions you'll see an amazing t-shirt for an opener and be like you know what, I love that t-shirt so much I want that even though I don't really know the band. But I think for most people, you'll look at the merch for the band you like first, and then follow the other criteria *for that band*. You generally don't look at all merch together and just choose the best one, most people would buy a 7/10 t-shirt from a band they like before a 9/10 t-shirt from a band they don't know.
So I think you're absolutely right that if an opener got to price their merch at say £10 less than the headline, it might make a small dent for the headliner but in most cases I feel like people would just be able to get 2 things rather than just 1.
Yeah Canadian prices are expensive. I went to Iron Maiden last year and purchased 3 shirts. Almost $200.
Kye Kye opening for Jars of Clay. I remember that day in Little Rock 2013 (I think) very well. Crazy that feels way longer than 10 years ago, haha. When I saw the title to this video it made me think of that incident, very nostalgic to hear you recount it.
laughing cause i bought the in flames shirts at $60 each at the toronto show last friday(favorite band of all time) in flames also had a hockey jersey for $150 cdn, which was exclusive for the canadian shows (2)
whitechapel had the longest line out of the 3 bands
i've seen headliners have merch and openers not, but i'm going to say "border issues"
i've seen a band not make it to a toronto date, but they still had a merch person and the band members that did make it sell merch even though they didnt play, only one time and i can't remember the band/tour/etc
and finally, LOL at the letterkenny to be fair
A T-shirt is 35 euros here and a hoody 60 euros here in the Netherlands
I just went to the Rock Resurrection tour (a 3 band show). My friends and I had never heard of the opener but they rocked. I got a shirt from all 3 bands. But my friends weren't able to. All prices were matched.
I believe BAND-MAID was forced to do this when they opened for Guns N Roses in Japan in November of last year. They wound up giving away personalized BAND-MAID merch bags to offset things a little bit.
That's really cool that you ran merch for Red. Been a fan of them since I was a kid, ha.
Down here in Australia, shirts and hoodies are anywhere from $45-100 AUD, depending on what the item is (singlets cheaper compared to hoodies for example)
Saw Havok and In Flames back in November and wondered why Havok's merch was the same price. Thanks for the explanation.
As an Australian, the last time I saw the support get more attention than the headliner was when Fantomas were supporting Serj Tankian - and Fantomas merch was absolutely hoovered up.
Average shirt prices in Aus seem to be $50-55 AUD for tours, hoodies obviously significantly more.
interesting topic thank you Tank! \m/
Here’s a thing that needs to be mentioned. An opening band also needs to pay the headline act just to play. I was playing in a band called Killer Bee in the mid late 90s. We wanted to get on the bill of a big show with Bon Jovi. They wanted $10,000 US from us just to let us play. We said screw you!
I can name the times an opening band blew me away making me want to buy their merch. One was The Bangles who were tremendous opening for Cindi Lauper. Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson opened for Heart and knocked it out of the park. Very few times has an opener knocked my sox off over the years.
Absolutely and worse. Toured for 15yrs and were even asked to pay the headlining band for the privilege of being there.
Thank you! I have the exact same thoughts on price matching, the opening band is usually paid peanuts (if not buy-on), not getting nice accommodation, etc. They could play amazing and recoup some of the expenses by selling well designed merch at a price that makes sense and many people would probably buy it if they were really good. But usually almost every single person who goes to a show plans to buy the headliner's merch and won't spend the same amount once again on the opener even if they are really good.
The most expensive merch I've seen so far is from Ghost, 85eu for a zip up. And 50 for a flag.
Over in 1MW our first show just so happened to also be our rare opportunity to headline. We were the only ones that had merch (we set up an online concert at the school rehearsal space and we took up two rehearsal slots as our show). We never prohibited or allowed any merch selling for the other bands. If we were to be able to headline again though, we would definitely stop all bands from having any merch tables (INCLUDING OURSELVES!!!!) just to avoid merch fee headaches.
Interesting. I didn't know about the price matching. I wonder if it's the same in Europe. If I had known I would've checked out the prices at the merch tables at the last gig I was at, because there were 3 acts there. I only visited one of the merch tables to drop off a Xmas gift for the singer (a bunch of snus, believe it or not). 🤣
This makes me rethink my position on venues taking a percentage. If your a band playing games of price matching a smaller opening bands. I now have no sympathy of a venue taking a cut of your merchandise sales.
Thank you for speaking on this 👍🏼
This was very interesting! Never thought about it before..
I love being a DIY band and getting to set OUR OWN PRICES fuck venues
Your fans saying hello to us guys on youtube is awesome man :D
Hoodies at the merch stand for Electric Callboy were $110 here in Australia
I did at one point buy someone's merch just to buy it, at a Jukebox the Ghost show of all things, because it was my first show after the pandemic (the local alt station did a free concert with last season's pop rock bands) and I wanted to remember that.
Really enjoyed this video! My friend's son was on the road with Breaking Ben and Bush last year. I'm curious if they had to do this. I'm sure with bands at that level they did!
I'm just glad that locals aren't held to the same standard. have often times supported local bands opening for national bands who were selling shirts for $15-$20 whereas the headliner and other bands on the tour were charging $20-$40. And that's not to say I didn't also buy a tour shirt from one of the other national bands, but it's certainly nice to be able to support the headliners AND the openers without completely breaking your bank.
I went to see the Meshuggah concert last saturday in Montreal and the prices were insane yeah.
One band I can speak on. Otep doesn’t allow openers to sell merch during her set. But then again everyone knows how she is.
Yes, she's a thundersnatch.
Tank my man, you are a saint and a genius. I pray if my band gets big enough to tour, we’re blessed with someone half as competent as you