Ready, set, merch! Issue #36

New approaches to merchandising bring funds to fans and bands

By Laura Leebove
Published: June 1st, 2008 | 3:09pm

For those sick of standard concert tees and hoodies, bands and fans alike are profiting from spiced-up collections of artist merchandise.

On tour with her band the Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer has often seen fans make crafts — purses, music boxes, dolls etc. — emblazoned with the group’s logo. "Our fan base is fundamentally pretty arty," the singer-pianist says via e-mail, unable to speak after having vocal node surgery in March. After noticing that fans were trading their wares, Palmer wanted to provide a place for them to make art for other fans.

And so began Post-War Trade, an ongoing project that allows fans to submit merch designs, and then make and sell the chosen products on the Dresden Dolls' Web site and/or on tour. Palmer says the artists will produce everything, except in cases where they might need help with silkscreening in mass quantities. Once fans' work is ready to sell as early as May or June 2008, the artist will receive about half of the profits.

"People can take a lot more pride in wearing a shirt hand-sewn by a fellow fan than one mass-produced in a sweatshop," Palmer says. "It just means more."

More on the musician end, L7's Donita Sparks and Throwing Muses' Kristin Hersh founded CASHmusic.org, a "coalition of artists and stake holders." The site allows fans to sponsor artists, whether it be to buy a tank of gas for Donita Sparks and the Stellar Moments (in return for guest-list privileges at a show and their name listed as a "Satellite Sponsor" on donitasparks.com), or paying to watch Hersh in the recording studio.

"[The goal is] to sustain our art, sustain our careers, and also to offer up more products in a timely fashion," Sparks says. She also is allowing fans to purchase $100 shares in her song "He's Got the Honey," which she says no other artist has done before. With the share, fans could make profits from the song if it is used in a commercial, TV show, or movie.

As of late March, the project is up and running for Sparks, Hersh, and Xiu Xiu, but Sparks says by late 2008 it will be available to other acts. "It looks like very dedicated fans are going to be able to participate more with the artist of their choice," she says.