There has been growing unrest from musicians in the UK over the cut taken by venues of the merchandise sales at their concerts. There has been progress: hundreds of venues signing up to the Featured Artists Coalition’s ‘100% Venues’ directory of venues that don’t take any cut at all of these sales. However, that’s far from the entirety of the UK’s live circuit, so some artists are having to find their own ways around the problem.
Rock group The Big Moon are the latest example, announcing yesterday that they would be selling merch for their Kentish Town Forum gig in London at the nearby Abbey Tavern pub, rather than within the venue. “The Kentish Town Forum, like many other o2 venues, take 25% plus VAT on every sale we make – this is basically all of our profit on merch,” the band explained. “This leaves us with the choice of either not making any profit, or increasing prices and charging you guys more – neither feels fair. Merch is one of the few ways we keep ourselves afloat at this level when touring profits are still minimal!”
The Big Moon praised fellow band Dry Cleaning, who came up with the pub-alternative idea earlier this year for a concert at the same venue.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools :: Wyng
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