Venues taking a percentage of band's merchandising revenue every night isn't helpful when touring is already stupid expensive (possibly even worse soon), and bands are sick of it.
Dark Funeral guitarist Lord Ahriman has said that "venues will slowly kill the live scene with their outragious merch cut," while Bad Omens has stated they "don't want to give you 20% of the merchandise we design, pay for, manage, set up, carry, and sell ourselves because you gave us 24sq ft of floor space in your venue we sold out."
Now Architects drummer Dan Searle is joining in on the conversation and he, like every other musician trying to make a living in 2023, is pissed. In a tweet, Searle said he'd be down for either a strike to protest merch cuts or down to get a cut of the venue's bar sales.
"Hey bands when are we gonna go on strike and get rid of these insane venue merch cuts?" said Searle. "Or maybe we don’t play until we get a cut of the bar? Can we just get this done ASAP please?"
Searle got a few responses from fellow musicians, all of who are equally irritated that their bottom line is being cut into. Because really, if there are no bands then how else would venues exist?
The Devil Wears Prada guitarist Jeremy DePoyster: "Merch ???? bar cut seems only fair especially when our median fan ages are 30+ and when a corporate venue owns the bar as well"
Silent Planet drummer Alex Camarena: "There has been nights where our merch cut has been double our guarantee."
Architects frontman Sam Carter: "Venue in Melbourne took 15% and it took four hours for them to get our merch girl a light."
Stray From The Path drummer Craig Reynolds: "It's almost like one company bought up all the venues during the pandemic so they could do this more often."
Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares dove a little deeper into why touring is so expensive during a recent interview, citing everything from pre-pandemic contracts still being in play to the rising cost of fuel. Check that out here and then maybe go buy your favorite band's vinyl or a shirt. They probably need the support.
