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Merch - what's working for you?

#23
CD's always sell well with new audiences, but when we're playing locally and everyone knows us and has our CD, there's usually no takers. We have a second EP coming out soon, so that'll sell fast. We're asking $10 for the old CD and $15 for the new one.

We haven't tried any other merch, but I'm thinking stickers would be great. People put them on their car, gear, schoolbag, whatever, and the band's name becomes familiar. People remember to search on iTunes or Facebook, and you get more listeners and fans.

Stubby holders would be great too and can be done cheaply. Everyone always goes straight to t-shirts, but I'm thinking it can be a lot harder to a) finance a decent number of t-shirts of professional quality, and b) make your money back without asking a stupidly high price for our fanbase.
 
#24
Our vocallist/guitarist owns a badge press so he can make badges/pins, and our drummer has all the equipment to screenprint his own shirts.

So all the expenses get reduced by a fair bit, and quality doesn't drop off either. Everything made is just as good as getting a professional company to do them.

...except nobody buys our merch.
 
#25
Ben Wilkie said:
CD's always sell well with new audiences, but when we're playing locally and everyone knows us and has our CD, there's usually no takers. We have a second EP coming out soon, so that'll sell fast. We're asking $10 for the old CD and $15 for the new one.

We haven't tried any other merch, but I'm thinking stickers would be great. People put them on their car, gear, schoolbag, whatever, and the band's name becomes familiar. People remember to search on iTunes or Facebook, and you get more listeners and fans.

Stubby holders would be great too and can be done cheaply. Everyone always goes straight to t-shirts, but I'm thinking it can be a lot harder to a) finance a decent number of t-shirts of professional quality, and b) make your money back without asking a stupidly high price for our fanbase.
Click to expand...


I'm specifically thinking of things other than CDs here, as CDs are the obvious thing a band should be selling.

I've looked into t-shirts, and the profit margin on them is great. To have them made, you're talking less than 5 bucks. Even if you're only selling at $10, you're making your money back in a hurry.
 
#26
Pacman said:
I'm specifically thinking of things other than CDs here, as CDs are the obvious thing a band should be selling.

I've looked into t-shirts, and the profit margin on them is great. To have them made, you're talking less than 5 bucks. Even if you're only selling at $10, you're making your money back in a hurry.
Click to expand...

We do T-Shirts, Spaghetti Tanks and the aforementioned thongs, and ALL of them go for $20.00

We don't do that many shows, and we really aren't "all that popular," as local bands go, but I can always sell plenty of them. As my link shows, I sell them on eBay too, and plenty of people buy them that have never even heard us.

It helps to have a good design.
 
#27
Various T-shirts and stickers. We have a cool logo which my wife designed and we can't keep stickers or shirts in stock. We make decent scratch on the shirts and pretty much break even on the bumper stickers. It's cool as hell to see people you don't know sporting your merch.
 
#29
My band took the approach to sell the most ridiculous merch that we could devise. We had army helmets, beer koozies, hammers, bags of dice with a hilarious picture and gambling instructions on the back, shot glasses, a bible, wallets and of course shirts hats and cds. We sold out of everything except the shirts and cds. Everything we have is a great topic of conversation and we don't inflate our prices so people actually buy the things we have for sale. All the logo's we print ourselves. We're working on fitting lighters in to empty shotgun shells to sell with our logo on as well. The more ridiculous the better.
 
#30
I love this thread. We've sold shirts, stickers, posters, and buttons in the past. Everything for a dollar except the shirts. We just got our first run of CDs so we'll see how that goes. The women's underwear thing is pure genius.
 
#33
Shirts of course.
Also have a combo CD/Shirt deal.
Sticker as giveaways usually but will sell depending on event.
We also have cards printed which have our band website code (for code reader). The card will give the holder a free ITunes download with purchase of an album. This is a new thing and we will be using at festivals to promote our new CD and will pass out to whoever we can. Not sure how it will work but it's cheap.
 

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