Merch money breakdowns have been a source of controversy in the live music industry as of late, and TesseracT drummer Jay Postones has an entirely different angle on the matter: Merch sellers are making more money on tour than the band members themselves earn.
Just weeks after Live Nation launched an initiative promising to no longer collect merch fees at club-sized venues (at least for the time being), Postones offered up the hot take in an Instagram post. The drummer feels that the merch tips should be divided up among the band and its crew. Moreover, he emphasized that fans believe they are tipping the band at the merch table when they are not.
While merch tips don’t apply to all sectors of live music, if you’ve ever been to a major metal show for a band like TesseracT, then you know that the merch lines can be long and involved (choosing from a wall of shirts takes time). Often, there is a tip jar near the cashiers and/or a tip option via digital point-of-sale payment, i.e. Square on an iPad. On a busy night, that cash can add up.
Postpone’s Instagram post read, in part:
“When you purchase merch from a band at a US show and leave a tip – as is customary – you’re not tipping the band. This tip goes to the merch seller.
From speaking with fans, we know some of you thought you were tipping the band. Firstly – thank you. Secondly, we apologise that your tip hasn’t reached us – we didn’t have vision of this system/ culture until now.
From speaking to peers, we have discovered that some merch sellers are generating in excess of $30k in tips over the course of a 5-6-week tour – which is insane. No one else on a tour at our level makes anything close to this. The band members certainly do not. The other crew members are on agreed fees, nowhere close to this.
We understand that in the US service industry, tipping culture is normal. It brings low-paid jobs up to a, hopefully, liveable level. The job we’re hiring though is not a low-paid job.
While it goes against the grain, our suggestion is that all tips taken at the merch desk should be shared across the entourage – band, and crew. We’re all here, working hard all day to bring the show to you. It seems unfair for one person to own the monopoly on tips for the entire package.”
It appears TesseracT and its touring party have worked out an in-house solution to keep everyone satisfied. For the remainder of the band’s ongoing tour, concertgoers can scan a “Tip the Band” QR code at the merch table “if you’d like your tip to reach all of us,” wrote Postones.
His post sparked reticence from others in the industry, some who’ve worked at merch tables.
A user on X (formerly Twitter) with the handle @thaddybear, who appears to have worked as a merch seller with numerous metal acts, posted the following: “Shout out Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Oceano, Whitechapel, Despised Icon, Monsters, Veil Of Maya, Monsters, Winds Of Plague, Periphery, Crown The Empire, Suffocation, Senses Fail, Emmure, Chelsea Grin & etc I’ve worked for for understanding that WITH VALUE COMES A PRICE.”
Another user and tour merch manager, Jaide Alicia, shared the following: “If a seller is truly able to pull in 30K in 5 or 6 weeks, they are moving a pretty significant amount of merchandise. at least 150K minimum in gross sales,” implying that the band is shifting a serious amount of merch, which supports the entire band and crew, in theory.
The question remains: Will other bands adopt a similar shared-tip model as merch-money breakdowns undergo a revolution of sorts? Read Postones’ full Instagram post below.