As touring costs continue to climb across the live music industry, merchandise cuts (or merch rates) have once again become a major talking point among touring artists. The practice typically sees venues taking a pre-agreed percentage of all merchandise sold at shows, with the current industry standard often sitting around 15–20% of gross sales, though some venues charge more.
In recent weeks, the issue has intensified, with both Silent Planet and Cabal publicly protesting merch cuts by refusing to sell merchandise at select European shows in Milan, Italy and Budapest, Hungary, instead opting to throw free merch into the crowd from the stage.
As it so happened, The Browning were also performing at Analog Music Hall in Budapest on June 17th alongside Cabal, where the latter staged their protest. In a new video, The Browning vocalist/programmer Jonny McBee broke down the financial reality behind merch sales while explaining why similar decisions are being made by touring bands [transcribed]:
“Today we are going to be talking about merch cuts yesterday at our show in Budapest, we did not sell merch, and I’m going to break it down for you guys, so you can see why you keep seeing this happening with different bands. I’m just going to get straight into the cost of these things. We sell our t-shirts in Europe for 35 Euros. The cost of making t-shirts is rising. The average cost I’d say for just a standard t-shirt here in Europe is going to be about $11 for me to make. Then there’s a 27% VAT tax coming right off the top. So that’s $8 to the government. Then the venue wants to take 20% that’s $7. Then my European manager gets 10% that’s another three and a half dollars.”
“Just those costs right there take me down to making $4 per t-shirt, and that’s not including me shipping the merch to our facility, that’s not including me lugging the merch around the continent, that’s not including me paying my people, that’s not including me paying for the shirt design, or me paying for the $300 in advertisements I’d spent to get people to the concert.”
McBee continued, noting how the current structure often leaves artists earning less than expected:
“So, with all of that in mind, had I sold merch yesterday, the venue and the government would make two times more money than I would off of my merch to my fans. Now, the VAT tax is totally unavoidable. There’s nothing we can do about that, but the 20% to the venue is 100% unnecessary. If the venue did not take a 20% cut, then I would have made $11 per t-shirt, which that would have been a fine profit margin for me to sell yesterday.”
He went on to explain that while touring decisions are often financially difficult, skipping shows is not a realistic option:
“A bunch of people always ask, why don’t you just play venues that don’t take a merch cut? The reason is because sometimes you go to a city where the only suitable venue is a venue that is going to demand a merch cut, and it is more important to play our music in that town to our fans than it is to sell t-shirts in that town.”
McBee also suggested that alternative venue models could provide a fairer system:
“The only semi-fair thing I could see the venues maybe doing, instead of a percentage off of merch, maybe they could charge us a flat fee to rent the space… That I would deem as potentially fair.”
He added that merch remains the primary income source for many touring bands, and that venue cuts significantly impact sustainability:
“Merch is the majority of money that we make, and the venues know it, and that’s why they want a piece of it.”
The Browning are currently midway through their European tour, with the following remaining dates:
The Browning European Tour (Remaining Dates):
- 06/22 Poznan, POL – 2Progi
- 06/24 Copenhagen, DEN – Copenhell
- 06/26 Spalene Porci, CZE – Basinfirefest
- 06/27 Leipzig, GER – Impericon Festival
- 06/28 Helsinki, FIN – Tuska Open Air
- 07/01 Viveiro, SPA – Resurrection Fest
- 07/04 Collombier-Saugnieu, FRA – Planet Fest
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