We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the year in review, with the highest visibility being our section around merch items brought on tour. Putting data behind what has been believed true for so long, especially around the number of items brought on tour, is our goal with these posts and articles.

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Taking a deeper look

In our year in review we show the average number of items counted in by show, we decided to do the same graph but break it out on a tour level and share with you the best selling band merchandise.

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With so much interest in the number of merch items an artist bring on tour, we decided to share even more detail on what those items are, and how they contribute to your total gross sales.

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As a refresher, we found that the average number of items brought on tour in 2019 was 17

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Out of those 17 items, 3 items made up 50% of Merch Gross Sales

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and 4 items made up 75% of gross sales

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Although there are dozens of different items that artists can choose to bring on tour, we wanted to share with you the most common merch lineup of 2019, consisting of those 17 items we keep talking about.

Knowing that each item doesn't evenly contribute to the total Gross Sales, we added the % of Gross Sales each item, on average, contributes to an artist's Gross Sales per tour.

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10 of an artist's items make up only 15% of their total Gross Sales, 4% being 4 items that we categorized as 'Other' and don't contribute more than 1% each.

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What works for one genre, may not work for another

While we all know black T-Shirts are your top sellers, the rest of the product line can vary based on genre and the venues you play. If you are playing in a small-cap venue, you aren’t bringing 17 items with you, so what do you bring? And if you are a Country artist, you may have a varying set of merch items compared to a Rock artist.

Let’s look at an example of what the data shows is the average product line for a Rock band playing in a 1500 – 3000 cap venue.

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Not every band fits one mold, and there’s not a one size fits all product line. To help bands maximize their tour merch revenue, we’re building something to help! Check back soon for our Merch Line Generator!  You’ll be able to enter your genre and the size venues you play and we’ll show you the optimal product line for your tour. Of course, all based on data and assuming your fans want to buy your merch! ; )

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