u/ActivatePlanZ

Genuine question. I work with musicians on making payments while touring easier, and one thing I’ve been surprised by is just how important merch seems to be financially.

Before getting into this world, I assumed merch was a nice extra. What I keep hearing instead is: the shows pay for the tour, the merch pays the artist.

Obviously that’s a huge simplification, so I’m curious how true it actually is.

For those of you touring regularly, how much does merch matter to the economics of the tour? Could you realistically tour without it?