Entertainment For Lively Minds
Merch commissions - the latest scam to rip off the honest hard-working artist?
Posted by stimpy on 14 June 2010 - 9:15am.
There's an interesting discussion over on The Lefsetz Letter about the latest venue scam in the US. Venues are now taking a 30% (or thereabouts) 'commission' on artist merch sales.
In my days on the road, merch was the cream for the artist - a sack of cash every night that covered the per diem and incidentals ('fruit & flowers' ;-)).
It seems that, over the pond, this little bonus is now being regarded as part of the deal and rolled up into the contract and settlement. The choice for the artist is to either stick 30% on the merch prices, take a loss, or don't sell merchandise.
We've all known for sometime that the record companies are panicking, now it seems the venues are as well.
- More from stimpy.
- Login or register to post comments
-
I believe it's the same here
At least at the bigger venues - I remember Marillion's manager campaigning against the practice a while back, and I can think of two major London venues who charged such a percentage back in the early 90s.
S'funny
In my time attending National Arenas Association meetings there was nothing to separate the wording on each venues merchanding contracts. Of course there was no collusion, that would be cheating. 25% + VAT was the norm then, apart from the odd deal done by a London venue which was losing business to other similar venues.
Last time I mentioned this topic and Marillion in the same sentence it was pointed out that this would not trouble such a fine band. Well many areans are able to scale down their facilities for smaller bands without reducing the ticket prices, commissions, beer prices to comparable theatre-style venues. Also many of the new arenas being planned should have smaller capacities compared to the O2 & MEN Arenas but tend to be run by the same management companies.
Well, *everybody's* trying to get more money
And the artists have not been conspicuous in their resistance to constantly increasing ticket prices. Haven't noticed many of them coming out about that.
A lot of big comedians (naming no names)
now take a share of the car parking and cloakroom money to pay for their garlic bread. So comedy really is the new rock n roll
And yet
I simply can't bring myself to care.
*shrug*
The record industry is falling apart, more artists are relying on making money from the road. If they find that avenue is no longer profitable then how does a musician make a living?
The ones who are any good
and really want to will always make a living. Some will find a way to make music without it needing to be their main source of income and others mind use their musical skills, if indeed they have any, in other ways. Mozart used to teach.