Managing Your Merch

Expanding or supporting your bands brand is a fun and exciting step in a bands career.  It opens doors to new revenue streams, marketing, and a way to get great feedback from customers.  Having a merch table at a show allows you to collect contact information from fans, hear what they liked and didn't like about your show, and learn about other shows and venues in the area.

What Should a Band Have on the Merch Table?

Music! The worst thing a band can do is show up to a show without music. People are still buying physical copies of music, its just made a turn from big department stores to small tables in dark venues. Even if its a homemade three song demo, as long as it has decent recordings of your full songs, the band name on it and a link to some online presence, it will do. I can't count the number of shows I've gone to where I liked the bands music, but instead of putting money and time into CDs, they had home made junky tshirts instead or nothing at all. You are not a clothing line you are musicians, not everyone wants a tshirt, but if they are at your show, they probably have an interest in music.  Give your customers what they want.

Fall Out Boy T-Shirt

Tshirts are a great item to have in your product line but you really have to analyze your fans wants, think about how some one would perceive a tshirt with your bands name on it, and if you have a large enough following to sell them.  In a previous blog I suggested using a site like Zazzle.com to make some initial tshirts. You can purchase one or two at a higher price per item, but avoid buying in bulk which will be a very big investment. For solo artists it can be hard to sell a shirt, if you are going by your own name it can be hard to make that appealing to even the biggest fan without being conceited. Some tricks around this are to create a fan club name, one example Blake Whitworth, a solo acoustic artist went on tour as a college project organized by groups his professor called 'love pods'.  Although the end tshirt was poorly implemented they ended up saying "B.W. Love Pod".  With an appealing graphic this shirt could attract questions that leads to word of mouth marketing for the artist. It also has a sense of an inside joke that the fans get to take part in.  Fall Out Boy did a similar thing for die hard fans that paid attention to their online communications. They sold 50 tshirts at each show by request only that said something on the order of "Secret order of FOB" on the front and some long paragraph about the secret order on the back, never once saying the bands name in full.

What Other Products Work?


Look at your fan base, analyze what they are wearing, using, and do. If you are a punk or pop punk band, you may look into patches and buttons.  Possibly even moving up to high end products like skateboard decks, hoodies, and bags.  If you play a lot of bars and reach out to an older rugged audience, lighters, coasters, and matchbooks, are great items that move easily. Alternative rock and mainstream bands can generally do just about any item, keychains, bracelets, necklaces, buttons, hats and just about anything you can put your name on. Just make sure you are analyzing your fans first, don't make school folders if you normally play to a 21+ crowd, same goes for the opposite of that, no matches for a preteen audience.

Make sure to keep your product line cohesive, for instance if your band name can be written a few ways for example: Seventh Grade Underdog.  The band started as 7th Grade Underdog, then transitioned to the spelled out version but always kept up the abbreviated version of 7GU.  Just like in a paper, use the abbreviated version as long as you spell it out once.   You personally may of never heard of 7GU so we will translate this to Blink182.  What if they wrote it out, Blink One eighty two. If you are a fan you might not even recognize that as one of their products. Stick with a name, and stick with a theme, if you hate it after a while, it's just motivation to get another album out so you can change it.

There are a lot of studies on pricing, people instinctively like reach even numbers when checking out. If your CD is $7 have something on the table for $3.  80% of your customers are more than likely going to pay with a ten dollar bill, if you throw in a keychain it will leave them feeling like they got a deal.  And leaves you with less counting of change, and pushing more products.  In short stay away from even numbers if possible so you can bundle products.

Another essential thing at your merch table, is a great merch guy. Someone out going, a fan of the music, and great sales skills.  If no one in the band is up for it, find someone, even if you have to 'hire' someone it will pay off.

Other things to consider that will help at your merch table:

• Take Credit Cards (Square Up, attaches to just about any Smartphone)
• Unique items (buy your own button machine so you can make unique buttons for each show)
• Band has to plug the table during the show
• Make it an attraction (I've seen neon lights, pretzel machines, and tv's at merch tables)
• Lock box (add a sense of professionalism, get a box and play it safe)
• Mailing list

(Note to The Secret Order Kids or those wanting to be in it, if you found this, it's not a clue or any classified information)

Does my band need a manager?

Many bands question if they need a manager and the answer is, it varies.  Many factors go into deciding if you need one, if you are ready to have one actually want to represent you, and if you can afford to pay one. Even if you you have six members in your band, spent fifty bucks to get to a show and you are only being paid $300 for playing, a good 20% of that $300 (gross income) is going directly to your manager. Can you afford to share the profit? What if that gig only paid you $75 bucks? Your manager gets $15 of that, minus the cost of gas and you are left with $10 for an hour of work by six people...thats $1.67 a member per hour.  You better hope you sell a lot of CDs and tshirts and even that depending on the deal with your manager, would be shared.

Can you afford not to have a manager though?  If there is no one in your band who is good at booking gigs, marketing, contacting the press or figuring out all the details then maybe its crucial to get a business savvy person on your team. Many music industry hopefuls are eager to manage a band with talent, for pennies on the dollar that a professional manager would charge. In fact even a professional manager sometimes likes to do a trial period where he manages you but nothing is official and generally he covers any expenses just to get an understanding of how the band can do.  See how the members relate, who is the key man of the band, who is the weak link, essential he is putting you on a probation period till he decides if your band is a profitable endeavor for him.

More than likely though you are going to have a friend as your first manager, or a friend of a friend, who will do it for free just to feel like part of the band.

This is not the best idea, more than likely the new manager is better friends with one member of the band, automatically making him bias in any decision making.  He will probably have no actual knowledge of the music industry and no real contacts to propel you further.  Some people have a knack for band management though, and just need to be given that opportunity.  Analyze who you want to put in that position, this person could be the voice of the band and make decisions for you without consulting you.  If they are not on the same page as you then its going to strain the relationship.  You want someone you can be friends with because more than likely you will be spending a lot of time together. Trust is crucial, many times the band manager is the first one to touch the money coming in, and managing online accounts, if you don't trust this person, you are at risk of losing thousands of dollars without even knowing it.

Now that we have covered if you need a manager and what to avoid, lets talk about what you can expect out of a manager. Individual managers and management firms are you two basic options. For instance Thirty Tigers in Nashville is a management firm with an in house PR department, marketing, distribution, and a few others with artist managers.  Essentially most departments have their own projects but occasionally work together to further an individual artist through each departments specialties. Individual managers come in many shapes and sizes, some work out of their homes, others have offices and some even work at big record labels.  Generally the smaller the office, the more they do for a band.  A fresh new manager may specialize and do several things for a band, such as booking, marketing, advising, social media, merch sales, and public relations.  Where as some one with a little more experience might opt to pay someone else to do those services for them or obtain some interns to do the grunt work.  It is important to understand what exactly the manager will being doing for you, if he is going to bill you for a booking agent, marketing specialist, and an accountant, then maybe you should think about if you could get someone cheaper who does all this themselves and will truly work for the payout just as hard as  you do.  Connections are worth paying for but they have their limits when thats all you are getting.

It is important to have a well rounded team supporting your band once it reaches a point of making money. Adding someone to fill in the gaps the members  can't will make things less of a burden for the band and offer more time to do what the band does best, create music and perform.  Be smart about your choices, stay within your means, don't get suckered into gimmicky production companies or studio deals that will distribute your album and 'market' it for a few grand and large portion recoupable through sales. Most of these will pay you very little for a lot of work, or will be sending you a bill when the album doesn't sell.  Instead, invest in a manager or business partner who can guide you through the intricacies of the industry and get you legitimate deals that benefit you. Just remember to keep your goals obtainable, select a manager when necessary that is compatible with the members and understands your goals. Just as a manager will analyze your criteria, you need to do the same on his. Ask questions about their experience, what genres they have experience in, who their other clients are, what they plan to do for you, and most importantly ask if they love your bands music.  Passion is a huge element that leads to success, if they don't have passion for your music, they will only get you so far before the drive to make the world know who you are starts to diminish.

A final thought, do you know a successful band without a manager? Look up your favorite band online and find out who their manager is, and when in their career they obtained him. Did they have a team before that? A publisher or booking agent? You'll find that many had some specialist on their team well before their first record deal or big break. Even if it was just a friend, most bands reach out for help, just avoid the bad deals and read the small print.  I leave you with a video from a past professor and member of the band the Turtles, Mark Volman, who explains the downfalls of choosing the wrong manager several times.