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Jack Antonoff Talks “Merch Tax”

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Nov 23, 2022.

  1. Melody Bot Nov 23, 2022
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Jack Antonoff, in a series of tweets, talks about how venues “tax” artists on merch and how this practice makes it extremely hard for younger bands to make any money. The tweets are below.

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  2. SpinelessYesBloke Nov 23, 2022
    SpinelessYesBloke

    Co-host of The Wasting Time Podcast

    The band I work with had this in most venues when they opened for Social Distortion this summer. It’s very much a thing.
     
  3. joenicorata Nov 23, 2022
    joenicorata

    Newbie Supporter

    I always hated this back in the day. The Metro, House of Blues, Congress Theater, etc. They would make us unpack 100 shirts out of bins, count each of them (variants and sizes sometimes), and then count them again at the end of the show.

    If we wanted to give merch away to our fans or whatever, they took the money for it unless we did it outside from a different bin. We got smart and started bringing in only 30-40% of our stock so we could give stuff away or sell it at the trailer

    It's funny because when I think back, I loved playing at those bigger clubs, but this post dragged up some negative memories of the "house" shenanigans.
     
    Chase Tremaine, artbynickferran, SEANoftheDEAD and 2 others like this.