With live concerts and tours existing in a netherworld somewhere between a fond memory and a seemingly distant future, musicians —  particularly smaller independent acts — and events are looking to merchandise sales to replace at least a bit of the lost revenue.

It’s not so easy. As the authors of  Making Money With Music recently wrote: “It’s one thing to sell when you’re performing live, it’s a lot harder to do so when you’re performing live online.”

Virtual festival
The iconic  Monterey Jazz Festival (Sept. 25-27 on YouTube) had an online store that featured print-on-demand products tied to the 63-year-old event’s history, including a new co-branded “Dizzy Gillespie for President” sweatshirt that recalled the musician’s semi-serious announcement at the 1963 festival that he was launching a presidential bid.

With a social media and email push, ecommerce revenue rose tripled from a year ago when there was a much smaller effort behind the business, says Bruce Fetcher, Director at CLC’s Licensing Partners International, which represents the Festival. Sales of the Gillespie sweatshirt were extended through Election Day, Nov. 3.

On-site sales
“You are never going to replace the on-site sales [with virtual ones], but now it’s a question of how to expand the festival globally and extend merchandise sales beyond the event itself,” Fletcher said.” Before it was all about on-site merchandise. Now it has flipped and they [promoters] are saying they want to learn, survive and try to make some money. Years ago we had conversations about how [to] extend the tail of the event in merchandise; the pandemic has forced a lot of these live events and festivals to see this (online merchandise) as a key piece.”

And while the most high-profile of the virtual concerts – a 10-minute event on April 23 during which Travis Scott’s avatar inside the Fortnite game attracted 12 million players — didn’t include merchandise sales, it demonstrated potential demand, licensing industry executives. It also raised the question of whether virtual concerts can generate sales of the same high-priced in-the-moment merchandise (think $40 tour t-shirts) that a live version typically generates.

Musician ecommerce business
Many musicians are seeking to sell directly to their fans through ecommerce platforms managed by the likes of Music Glue,  Merch Cat, DIY Media and Bandzoogle. That marks a change for these performers, whose product sales take place mostly at concerts and festivals managed by promoters.

There’s both the immediate financial reward and a longer-term benefit. As one member of the German DJ duo Pan Pot – which recently established a direct-to-consumer merch business — noted: “It’s always good if you see people running around with your shirts, your logo and your name on it. And with all the media, it multiplies itself” in terms of brand exposure.

Merch Cat Founder Vanessa Ferrer tells musicians that the times call for a strategic approach: “Now is a great time to visit your analytics on streaming platforms and socials and see who listens to your music. From here you can learn their age, gender and location. Why should you look at these? Because these are the people who will likely buy your merch. Once you have that data, you can strategize your merch line to better suit your audience.”