Been thinking for a while now that often I’ll get merch more because of wanting to chuck the band a bit of money rather than particularly wanting a t-shirt or record.
Bands just having a ‘buy us a pint’ £5 contactless option at the merch stand
Good idea
Bad idea
Already exists
0voters
Just asking a band to stick a fiver through the merch desk without wanting to buy anything
Feels like most merch is playing a very artificial game. Band are selling cause they want the money, I’m buying because I want to give them the money. Shit t shirt is a middleman we can both do without
still amazes me the number of bands that make creative original music, often do the same for their album artwork too … and then their merch is just the band name or an album cover stuck onto a black tee (looking at you Big Thief!)
definitely happy to pay a little more at a merch stand (feel like the deluxe Press Club was £3-5 more than I could have got it from a local shop) but there are limits too. No Kurt Vile, I will not pay £40 for your new album, even if it’s long and pressed on a very pretty green …
Would be nice if there was some way you could get stuff off their Bandcamp from the merch stand for those of us who don’t want more physical stuff cluttering up the place. Think David Thomas Broughton was selling these little sketched postcards with a bandcamp code on the back when I saw him, I liked that idea.
When I was on tour in America once a guy came out to the merch whilst the headliners were on and said he appreciates how tough it is for new bands and gave me $100. Didn’t even want a record or T shirt. Almost cried, was so generous. I think of that guy a lot, I hope he’s having the best life.
I’m all for tipping bands, I’d happily chuck a tenner or whatever to a great band I just enjoyed watching but wasn’t into their merch and already owned their records.
also the fact that the real indie circuit gigs don’t seem to have got any more expensive over the 10+ years I’ve been going to shows. Still multiple places around here that put on great bands with several albums under their belts for a tenner or less - which seems like a wildly reasonable (contradiction in terms?) price, when you see how the price of nearly everything else has shot up