Selling merch for musicians: best tips to double your sales
An essential component of the fan-artist interaction is branded band merchandise. When someone wears that band's logo, it forges a link that enables them to mentally hear music or physically hang on to a memory of a show.
For many musicians, selling band gear online has developed into a lucrative source of income over the past several years. Supporting their favorite artists by purchasing T-shirts, mugs, and other merch has become popular among listeners of independent musicians.
But selling band merchandise online is more complicated than just adding a few products to your website store. You should set yourself up for success by creating a strategy and carrying it out before you start selling merchandise. Follow our best tips on how to improve and grow your merchandise sales online.
Pick band merchandise that complements your music
Choosing what to sell will be the first stage in the online band merchandise selling process. You'll need to establish your own brand before conducting a study to choose the kinds of things to sell. Make sure the things you select represent your music and are desirable to your audience.
Before thinking about selling merch, it's important to build your artist brand. This will be your distinctive look that you keep throughout your career, despite the possibility that it may vary over time.
Your branding affects the color and font you select to express your personal taste as well as the possible look. When making your products, all of these elements are taken into account.
Try to establish a video music connection with a few of your fans in CaypsoRoom and demonstrate to them in real time whether what you considered to be a wonderful concept for your merchandise is also a great idea for your followers.
Create a schedule for selling merch
Make a schedule for what you'll sell and when once you've determined which things best suit you as an artist. Start with a few well-known products that are affordable and simple to create. Using the same product line or logo, you may increase sales or develop other possibilities once you know what works.
Additionally, you should allow plenty of time to create your personalized merchandise. If your item is unique or takes a bit longer to make, indicate when it will be created and shipped.
Think about utilizing a print-on-demand provider like Printful if you intend to offer scalable physical merchandise. As a result, you won't have any upfront expenses and can calculate your profit margin, which is a factor in your original budget.
Purchasing in bulk might be a more profitable alternative for your merch supply if you are organizing a tour or keeping to a small number of versions.
By restricting your designs and color schemes and taking advantage of quantity price cuts, you may cut costs associated with large purchases (e.g., if you want 100 shirts but ordering 120 reduces the cost per unit, it makes sense to order those extra 20 shirts).
Create a merch store online
Selling directly to fans via your own music website is the best way to make sure you have complete control over your online store. By doing this, you can manage a store page that serves as the official location for fans to buy your goods while also maintaining control over the design and branding.
You'll be putting your physical and digital goods on your website once you've built an online store. Spend some time including vivid visuals and a succinct, alluring description for each product. The font used for your content should be legible and stand out against the background color of the website.
Publicize your merchandise
Reach out to your following to begin generating sales, just like you would while promoting a new album. Supporters like having a physical way to show their support. This frequently results in them purchasing tangible goods to hold.
Give your mailing list, which most likely consists of eager fans, the opportunity to back you first with merch releases. Your email list members can be rewarded with a special discount, or you could even make some merchandise just for them.
Use CalypsoRoom to set up in-person meetings with your biggest fans while they enjoy some of your music. You may, for instance, give away some merchandise to every fan that connects with you directly on CalypsoRoom. This is a fantastic approach to promoting your merchandise to your devoted followers and generating more interest in your music.
Selling merch for musicians - Conclusion
Selling products is a growing source of income for many musicians. You don't have to add merch to your band's website right now, but you should consider it. It's a strategy that boosts income and strengthens bonds with your audience.
If you liked this post and would like to read more about the music industry and tips for your music career, please visit our blog section.
In CalypsoRoom we believe music is the most powerful tool to bring people together, and for this reason, we developed an online music social network where you can connect with friends or strangers while listening to music simultaneously, connected via webcam.
Are you a music artist or label and do you want to give your music a further dimension? Do you own or co-own the master and publishing rights to your music? If yes, consider to post it on CalypsoRoom: it’s free, you keep 100% of your copyright, you promote your music in a new way, and you get a new revenue stream! Check it out.
Thanks for reading,
CalypsoRoom Team
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Written by CalypsoRoom Editorial Team
The CalypsoRoom Editorial Team is a skilled and diverse group of writers, researchers, and industry specialists who have access to Calypso's data and information in order to give you broad knowledge about the music industry as well as helpful advice to help you manage your music and dancing career.
Updated January 2023
