Fear Factory is among the many bands impacted by the rising costs of touring.
Several musicians have voiced how difficult it is to tour at this time; from the costs of renting busses to even hotel rooms, catering, and more, touring is becoming more expensive for musicians, and in turn, making it difficult to see much of a profit.
Along with issues pertaining to inflation, there are also issues involving venue merch cuts – specifically, venues requesting a share of the profits made from merch a band sells at a given show.
Over on Twitter, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares quote re-tweeted a story from Metal Injection involving Dark Funeral member Lord Ahriman speaking to such woes. Per his quote re-tweet Dino wrote the following:
“That’s why this tour we are doing coming up we’ll be in a van, the cost of touring is making it impossible to make any money.”
In response to this quote re-tweet, a fan wrote to Dino and shared how they are not a fan of venues taking a cut from the band’s merch sales. Per that fan:
“Ridiculous for venues to take a merch cut. I try to buy merch directly from the bands outside the venue if possible to avoid the venue’s theft. Calls to stop this seem to have gained a bit more traction lately. What do you think can we truly do to stop this? #StopVenueMerchCuts”
Dino then replied to this fan and wrote the following: “u may need a resellers license to sell outside and the venue owner may still try and tax u cause your selling on his property, he may also call the police cause he knows u probably don’t have a license to sell, so to avoid all that u would have to go down the block to sell”
What is your opinion on venue merch cuts? Are you against them?
That’s why this tour we are doing coming up we’ll be in a van, the cost of touring is making it impossible to make any money. https://t.co/F9wVVUP36V
— Dino Cazares (@DinoCazares) December 12, 2022
u may need a resellers license to sell outside and the venue owner may still try and tax u cause your selling on his property, he may also call the police cause he knows u probably don’t have a license to sell, so to avoid all that u would have to go down the block to sell https://t.co/HsfRjaFYLk
— Dino Cazares (@DinoCazares) December 12, 2022