As you may have seen, the band ‘While She Sleeps’ posted about the disparity of compensation between Streaming and Merch sales noting that ~5000 streams = 1 T Shirt sale. Only 1 T Shirt! While that may illustrate the importance of merchandise all on its own, we were curious to see how this breaks down based on attendance groupings.

Using average merch sales by grouping, it’s eye-opening to see just how many streams are needed to generate the equivalent amount of revenue.

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Breakdown by Show

Breaking the data down reveals how many streams are required to equal the total average Merch sales for a single show.

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Breakdown by Capacity

We then broke it down by capacity.

Breakdown by Tour

And what does it look like for a 15 date tour? 48 MILLION streams to match total Merch Revenue!

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Merchandise hasn’t been the most glamorized aspect of touring, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a crucial part of touring revenue. Frequently overshadowed by the hype of streaming, Merch has quietly continued to grow as a significant revenue stream for touring artists.

Data shows strong growth over the years in sales for the most popular pieces of merchandise – T-shirts, hats, koozies, sweatshirts – while revenue from physical albums sales from touring is on a constant decline.  No surprise as physical albums are becoming more and more irrelevant with the growth of streaming.

Whether you’re playing small cap venues or headlining stadium shows the takeaway should be that merchandise must be a priority and is a crucial piece or your revenue.

Support your favorite artists and buy their merchandise!

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