Charges for merch
Nearly a year ago there was a lot of discussion around bands charging for meet and greets. I even vlogged about it at the time:
Recently the idea of how much bands charge for things has crept up again on a variety of social networking sites. The biggest issue seems to have been around the limited reprinting of Laurence Beveridge's (Fearless Vampire Killers) book, Ruple and Evelyn. There was some...discussion (we will say this for want of a better word) around the costing of the book which is up for sale for £9.99 (plus P&P) from their website. Comments were made that this was too expensive for people to buy and that the band were essentially ripping off their fans who would have little money themselves. Other comments were made about the band stemming from this thread, but I don't feel they have a place here and I don't want to open all of that up again!
The reality is that bands have to make money. They cannot afford to do anything for nothing. Yes, they will have gone into the music industry because they love what they do, but when reality hits they have to make the decision whether or not to run the band like a business almost. The fact is that most of a band's income has to come from merch sales and the reality there is that actually they make very little money from even this! There are several overheads that need to be taken into consideration when a band produces merch. If we take a relatively simple thing like a t-shirt you have the printing costs, distribution, paying various third parties involved with the creation and sale of the merch, storage space, VAT, domain costs for a website for online sales, other costs around online sales and a whole host of other things I probably know nothing about as well! When we look at the FVK Ruple & Evelyn thing they also have issues such as limiting the print run. It may be more cost effective to print more copies, but actually they can only print 100 at a time due to storage and other costs. The whole reason the book is being released again is to satisfy demand from fans. When you take all of this into consideration you realise that the cost is not that high and of course they have the right to make a little money from the sale (not that they will actually get much from it).
Many bands work really hard on their own merch. Some customise items for sale or design their own shirts/hoodies (like Barrone from FVK). They even send out their own merch sometimes and this is all to try and make it as affordable as possible, while at the same time making it viable for them. We cannot demand that bands work for free. I know this seems in contradiction to my vlog above, but I believe that paid meet and greets are a different beast to paying for merch. If a band is already at a show then paying to physically meet them seems a little odd in my view but I absolutely defend their rights to charge reasonably for merch in order to make it worthwhile. Some bands only make enough on tour to cover the costs of petrol (barely) or food (again...barely).
Another example of a hard working band is Ashes to Angels. I honestly don't think I have ever met anyone who works as hard as they do (and, it seems, in particular Crilly). They could charge more for their merch in my view. When you compare the costs of their merch to other bands it does seem a little on the low side. Then it is rare that they charge the right amount (if anything) for postage, so I am not sure how they afford to do anything sometimes. It feels like most of what they do, they do for the love of music, performing and for the fans.
Consumer choice is a big deal even in modern society. You can choose not to pay the prices set by the bands if you think they are too high. Someone else will always buy the product (or at least one hopes) if you don't pay for it. I do not believe it is up for the consumer to complain to the band about the costs though, especially when they do not know what goes into it.
I have the view that buying the merch is another way of supporting a band you love and ensuring they have a future of creating music that you can enjoy. Investing in a band is a huge deal and I understand that people do not want to buy merch for every band they listen to as it can become expensive to do this. However, finding those couple of bands that you do love and showing them support (especially smaller bands) is really important. You invest in them emotionally with regards to the music and you invest in them economically by buying the merch, music (not illegally downloading) and therefore keep them going. FVK gave up their jobs last year to focus on the band and to expand their profile and as such do not have much money from other sources. That is why they have a small subscription fee to their social networking site, Obsidian Bond. This is to pay for such things as server upgrades, consultants, the OB Team who keep it going, etc. Next time you want to complain about the costs of your favourite band's merch, think about why they are charging what they are and what they had to do to create it for you.
Recently the idea of how much bands charge for things has crept up again on a variety of social networking sites. The biggest issue seems to have been around the limited reprinting of Laurence Beveridge's (Fearless Vampire Killers) book, Ruple and Evelyn. There was some...discussion (we will say this for want of a better word) around the costing of the book which is up for sale for £9.99 (plus P&P) from their website. Comments were made that this was too expensive for people to buy and that the band were essentially ripping off their fans who would have little money themselves. Other comments were made about the band stemming from this thread, but I don't feel they have a place here and I don't want to open all of that up again!
The reality is that bands have to make money. They cannot afford to do anything for nothing. Yes, they will have gone into the music industry because they love what they do, but when reality hits they have to make the decision whether or not to run the band like a business almost. The fact is that most of a band's income has to come from merch sales and the reality there is that actually they make very little money from even this! There are several overheads that need to be taken into consideration when a band produces merch. If we take a relatively simple thing like a t-shirt you have the printing costs, distribution, paying various third parties involved with the creation and sale of the merch, storage space, VAT, domain costs for a website for online sales, other costs around online sales and a whole host of other things I probably know nothing about as well! When we look at the FVK Ruple & Evelyn thing they also have issues such as limiting the print run. It may be more cost effective to print more copies, but actually they can only print 100 at a time due to storage and other costs. The whole reason the book is being released again is to satisfy demand from fans. When you take all of this into consideration you realise that the cost is not that high and of course they have the right to make a little money from the sale (not that they will actually get much from it).
Many bands work really hard on their own merch. Some customise items for sale or design their own shirts/hoodies (like Barrone from FVK). They even send out their own merch sometimes and this is all to try and make it as affordable as possible, while at the same time making it viable for them. We cannot demand that bands work for free. I know this seems in contradiction to my vlog above, but I believe that paid meet and greets are a different beast to paying for merch. If a band is already at a show then paying to physically meet them seems a little odd in my view but I absolutely defend their rights to charge reasonably for merch in order to make it worthwhile. Some bands only make enough on tour to cover the costs of petrol (barely) or food (again...barely).
Another example of a hard working band is Ashes to Angels. I honestly don't think I have ever met anyone who works as hard as they do (and, it seems, in particular Crilly). They could charge more for their merch in my view. When you compare the costs of their merch to other bands it does seem a little on the low side. Then it is rare that they charge the right amount (if anything) for postage, so I am not sure how they afford to do anything sometimes. It feels like most of what they do, they do for the love of music, performing and for the fans.
Consumer choice is a big deal even in modern society. You can choose not to pay the prices set by the bands if you think they are too high. Someone else will always buy the product (or at least one hopes) if you don't pay for it. I do not believe it is up for the consumer to complain to the band about the costs though, especially when they do not know what goes into it.
I have the view that buying the merch is another way of supporting a band you love and ensuring they have a future of creating music that you can enjoy. Investing in a band is a huge deal and I understand that people do not want to buy merch for every band they listen to as it can become expensive to do this. However, finding those couple of bands that you do love and showing them support (especially smaller bands) is really important. You invest in them emotionally with regards to the music and you invest in them economically by buying the merch, music (not illegally downloading) and therefore keep them going. FVK gave up their jobs last year to focus on the band and to expand their profile and as such do not have much money from other sources. That is why they have a small subscription fee to their social networking site, Obsidian Bond. This is to pay for such things as server upgrades, consultants, the OB Team who keep it going, etc. Next time you want to complain about the costs of your favourite band's merch, think about why they are charging what they are and what they had to do to create it for you.
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