Being on the road as a metal band – or any kind of band really – can be a tough life. Yes, you get to share your music with loads of people, but when it comes to trying to make money and sustain that career, that is a whole different story.
There are a plethora of issues impacting the touring industry at this time, and many issues that have severe impacts on bands.
One of those issues happens to involve merch cuts – the percentage of profits that a venue takes from what a band/artist makes from their merch sales.
More recently, artists are becoming more vocal about how pissed off they are with merch cuts; in fact, members of the band Architects are now calling for a strike against venues.
As reported by Metal Hammer, band drummer Dan Searle took to Twitter and put out a call for bands to go on strike against music venues (and to demand a cut of the venue’s bar profits). Here is exactly what he wrote:
“Hey @bands when are we gonna go on strike and get rid of these insane venue merch cuts? Or maybe we don’t play until we get a cut of the bar? Can we just get this done asap please?”
The band’s singer, Sam Carter, retweeted Searle’s tweet and added the following:
“Venue in Melbourne took 15% and it took four hours for them to get our merch girl a light”
Many artists have been commenting/retweeting their support of Searle’s initial tweet. Some of those artists are Shinedown‘s Zach Myers, You Me at Six’s Josh Franceschi, and Jeremy DePoyster of The Devil Wears Prada. You can find their comments below.
What do you make of venue merch cuts?
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Hey @bands when are we gonna go on strike and get rid of these insane venue merch cuts? Or maybe we don’t play until we get a cut of the bar? Can we just get this done asap please?
— Dan Searle (@danarchitects) February 19, 2023
Venue in Melbourne took 15% and it took four hours for them to get our merch girl a light 👍 https://t.co/QWsZmZLrs2
— sam carter (@samarchitects) February 20, 2023
— Zach Myers (@ZMyersOfficial) February 20, 2023
Ready and waiting https://t.co/RTwMM4s2x8
— Josh Franceschi (@joshmeatsix) February 20, 2023
Merch 🤝 bar cut seems only fair especially when our median fan ages are 30+ and when a corporate venue owns the bar as well
— Jeremy DePoyster (@jdepoyster) February 19, 2023